Shoot the banker is a website where, among one other thing, you shoot a banker. The other thing is calling up the banker and complaining to him about the economic mess he’s gotten us into. But this banker doesn’t take live ammunition to the chest, opting instead for pink paintballs in lieu of 9mm rounds. An herein lies the best part of the whole thing, you control the gun. A live stream from a webcam is broadcast of the target (the banker), while those in line wait their turn for 10 seconds and 2 paintballs. The banker must swerve and dodge the never ending onslaught of angry peasant-folk’s paintballs, all the while dishing out insults to hapless callers that are either in over their head, or underage.
Here’s a perfect example:
I’m sure things like this have been created before somewhere out there on the vast tubes of the internet, but this is fairly creative, given the premise of the project. The only trouble is that irony exists, and the people at shoot the banker can’t afford to keep it running. Turns out the very machine they rage against, in the end, got them too. This is only their third week in operation, and they claim they are $10,000 “in the hole” from the resources devoted to keeping something like this running. So by the banker’s estimates, this will also be their last week in business. So if you’ve got an axe to grind with any of the world’s bankers that swindled you out of your retirement all in one fell swoop, you’ve got just a few days left to take that aggression out on an honest to goodness (sort of) banker.
All in all, it’s a pretty impressive feat for a few hobbyists. Creating both the gun rig, and the program to control the interface from scratch. But sadly, like they say, all good things must come to an end. So kudos to they guys behind this little gem, the internet would be a better place if its inhabitants were as creative as you guys.
They’ve even got their own fan site(s)!
Check it out, the banker is in from 9 – 5 Mountain time (he really does this for eight hours straight), and sometimes the janitors are in afterward, followed by late night with Taran and Brig (the creators of the show).
