Feeling nervous

It doesn't help that I barely slept last night, so brace yourself if I'm not sounding optimistic. Today, I learned that along with having to continue doing the navigation I must also add sound to the game, and a little annimation. That would be fine except for the fact that we have a week and...I'm not really sure how to do that! I'm definitely going to try my best and put in the extra time when I can, it's going to be tough because I have a lot of other things to finish. I am willing to try, but I'm nervous that it's not going to come together. Monica says that if I study the template and model my navigation from it, things should go well. Unfortunately, I feel a lot of this stuff is a foreign language to me, but I'm willing to give it a shot. Although I'm really cranky today, I'm going to suck it up and try!

Wal-Mart sells Christian based video games?

Around 100 different Wal-Mart Supercenters in Texas have been selling Christian-based video games by developer, Left Behind Video Games. The success of sales encouraged the corporation to expand the sales in various Wal-Mart stores throughout the country.
Typically, I write about games that are violent and graphic, so why would I write about christian-based games? Well, I find them to be equally as controversial as the "bad" ones. I feel like if there are going to be religious video games to be sold at retailers, all religions should be covered, i.e. jewish games, ilsamic games, buddist games, etc. If we are allowed the right to freedom of religion, national chains should not back a specific one. It shows bias and discrimination to a certain level. Therefore, I have no problem with the development of religion-based video games, however I do have a problem with Wal-Mart supporting the sales of Christian games specifically.

Continuing the game

As the end is nearing, some changes and compromises have been made in order to make food forecast a reality. First of all, there will only be one year instead of four to win the game. and Secondly,there may or may not be a "did you know?" screen that pops up after the season. I am currently working on the transitions to the different seasons and creating the potential "did you know" screens, so we'll have to see how it goes. I think we need to have a few more meetings to see where we stand but I think each of us understands our roles and what needs to be done by the 27th. Wish us luck!

Game Developer Speaks Out Against Game Critics

Karsten Lund, the director of the upcoming game, Kane and Lynch: Dog Days, spoke to computer and videogames.com about parents and political figures who wish to speak out against violence in the gaming industry. Lund says, "I'm not an expert in psychology, but I do think that some of these opinions come from an outside crowd that's not really used to dealing with games, they just watch it and think, 'Oh it's got to be affecting people.'" Lund believes that video gamers, "know the difference between real life and games." he goes on to say, "Even Chess is a violent game about war you could say, right? Games are a chance to try stuff that you're not trying in real life and without having to face the consequences."
Although Lund makes a few valid points, I definitely feel that he is downplaying the effect that violent video games has on certain audiences. I also feel like using chess as a comparative example is unrealistic. Although the concept of chess is based around basic warfare, the player does not see a graphic depiction of people killing each other anywhere in the game.

New Week: New Task!

I FINALLY have the instructions and title screens linking to each other. Now I need to connect the start buttons with the opening scene. I have done the majority of the coding and now I am planning on ironing out the kinks. I feel that now that I have successfully completed one area of this task, it will be easier to understand how to do the coding for the rest of the game. I plan on finishing this task by the end of the week and begin linking the seasons together within the game. Last week, I was a little nervous, but I am starting to see that if each of us continues to do our part, we have a fighting chance of completing food forecast by our April 27th deadline!

Japanese Video game sparks outrage!

A Japanese game entitled "Rapelay" has been banned and pulled from stores, however it can still be downloaded on the internet. The object of the game is to have the main character rape women and young girls on a train, impregnate them, and then convince them to have an abortion! Out of all the controversial games that I have been blogging about, this is one of the most appalling. The idea that anyone would want to make a sport out of something as serious as rape is absolutely disgusting. The above scene is a clip from the game, where you can see a hand groping this random train rider and a script describing the set-up. I am absolutely disgusted by the game designers and anyone involved in this. I feel like there is a boundary line, and "Rapelay" successfully crosses it. Although the above scene is not a graphic depiction of rape, it is still encouraging something that is absolutely immoral in my eyes and the eyes of civilized society. I agree that the game should be banned, however I don't understand why it was even created in the first place. At one point is something created for "shock" value vs. creating something that is so ethically wrong that it is criminal. BOOO RAPEPLAY!