A note on violence in videogames:
Any competitive activity will, in the short term, rewire the brain to become more aggressive. It's human nature, has been proven, and is not limited to video games. I would expect as many people have kicked over a monopoly board than have hurled a nintendo controller in disgust.What's more, it's extremely insulting to say that video games cause undue levels of violence when time and again sporting events are plagued by riots, beatings, stabbings, and onfield shenanigans.So fuck you, and fuck your studies regardless of what they say. We all know it's narrow, opportunistic and media-driven politics.Now that that's out of the way, Savage Sun has had an update - more weapons and enemies, better wave progression, lives (good luck) and a bunch of other changes. It's been really refreshing jumping back into Game Maker and doing a nice simple project. I think I've spent far too long designing complex games, and lost sight of the easier, faster and fun games that could be made.I think, in fact, that I might devote one night a week to the creation of a new game, from start to finish. Small games that are refreshing and fun, made for no other purpose than to make fun games. No limits on originality or quality.Anyone who feels like joining me feel free (and I'd love to see some results).I think a project like this willl need a few things to work though, primarily graphical assets and reusable code. So perhaps for the first few weeks I will work on these things. Having things like menus completed and ready to go will certainly save time!Well, thoughts and ideas of course always welcome.
I figure that given it's a blog, it would be assumed to be my opinion. Hyperbolic writing is a big part of opinion pieces, and documented evidence is not. I'm just throwing thoughts out there to be discussed.
If I were writing a proper article for the Age I'd back myself up, but I just felt like spewing out a couple paragraphs of semi-formed drivel, and that's what blogs are for.Of course, I got 20 comments, so I'm happy either way :D And Flashback got to set me straight, so we all win!It has survived me attacking its concepts and done so through conversation and clarification. It may stay.
Also, if you wanted a good thing to back up your point, This Study is handy.