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GeekNights 20110728 - Horror

edited July 2011 in GeekNights

Tonight on GeekNights, we discuss horror and what we enjoy in that genre of media. In other news, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is a powerful argument for both the expansion and embracing of a fair-use culture, and Nintendo unprecedentedly cuts the price on the faltering DSI. Also, Scott has never seen Mazes and Monsters, and he lost his fancy water bottle (which he really, really needed to share).

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  • lost his fancy water bottle (which he really, really needed to share).
    In the amazon discription, it says
    Insulated water bottle with a revolutionary Jet Valve that lets you sip or squirt water at will
    Which while you might imagine ease-of-use, I can only imagine that it imparts upon you limited hydrokenisis.
  • Never heard of the DnD-Tom Hanks thing.
  • and he lost his fancy water bottle (which he really, really needed to share).
    Man, I had one of those bottles before. That is a fucking good bottle. And Scott was 100% right, water bottles mother fucking leak. But this one didn't.

    Great bottle.
  • Never heard of the DnD-Tom Hanks thing.
    Possibly one of the worst, ham-fisted tv movies about the bed effect Dungeons and Dragons has on a person's fragile psyche. After I watched it with my parents, my mom burned all my D&D; material. Thankfully she didn't touch the books I had by Sun Tzu and Musashi. Would come back though when she chewed me out for becoming a Zen Buddhist about 10 years ago.
  • Never heard of the DnD-Tom Hanks thing.
    Possibly one of the worst, ham-fisted tv movies about the bed effect Dungeons and Dragons has on a person's fragile psyche. After I watched it with my parents, my mom burned all my D&D; material.
    I saw it when it came out. It was right around the time that there were stories and rumors of D&D; causing kids to go insane. It's a popular type of rumor for parents to get upset about - a little like the rumors that video games and heavy metal will cause you kids to go insane.

    I agree that the movie itself was bad, but Tom Hanks, even though he had little to work with, did an excellent job in his role. All the other actors sucked, of course. I think it's a movie worth seeing for that reason alone, i.e. to see how a good actor can do a good job with a crappy role in a crappy movie. Don't watch it for the story. Just watch it for Tom Hanks.
  • a little like the rumors that video games and heavy metal will cause you kids to go insane.
    Rumors?
  • a little like the rumors that video games and heavy metal will cause you kids to go insane.
    Rumors?
    Incidents and accidents. Hints and allegations.
  • Two things:
    1) The reason business's don't embrace the fair use culture the way Hasbro has is likely, because they don't see the amount of money they could potentially make from that additional market exposure as off setting or over taking the amount of money they see they could lose from it. So the invisible hand of Adam Smith is there, it's just that right now there isn't enough information showing them that they will make more money embracing fair use, once we start to see more examples of MLP fair use sorts of things the market will shift to embrace fair use.

    2) Video games (in terms of console manufacturers,) already subsist on the razor/razorblade model. Generally consoles are sold at less then the cost of production, and then the console manufacturers make their money from licensing (such that if you want to release a game on the console you have to pay them a small amount of money for each game that sells.) The only real exception to this has been the Wii and possibly the 3DS (I'm not entirely sure, but the large price drop seems to indicate that this may have been the case.) The Wii was the first console that was sold at a profit at launch, and has always sold at a profit. Which is why Nintendo didn't ever actually need to release games for it, since they were making more money selling the console then they were from licensing or selling their own games.

    Additionally you won't see the Xbox become a PC because of the above model. Why would I release a game for PC and pay Microsoft money for the ability to say it's "up to Xbox standard," when I can just release a game for PC without that. Microsoft has already been trying to do this with Games for Windows Live, which has always been a half assed failure. There is far more potential revenue for Microsoft to make a new console, and make money as the bouncer then try to act as a bouncer to a club where there is a big hole in the wall. Of course the same applies for Sony, which is perhaps seemingly very far behind the 360 in the US in terms of console sales, but the two are a lot closer when you take into account world wide sales data (I would say that there is definitely one more console generation at the current model, probably 2, before things start to change or there is consolidation.)
  • a little like the rumors that video games and heavy metal will cause you kids to go insane.
    Rumors?
    Incidents and accidents. Hints and allegations.
    If you'll be my bodyguard, I can be your long-lost pal.
  • Event Horizon was possibly the last movie to really scare me. My childhood s a blur of 80's and such horrors, Jason, Freddy etc.

    Then I stopped getting scared.

    Then, much much later, I watched Event Horizon at the movies. Still remember contemplating if I should walk out or not!

    God, I miss that feeling.
  • If this is accurate then Nintendo is still making a profit. It is not really that surprising as I would not expect them to release a console at a loss.
  • Until the PS2 era, nobody did the console at a loss. Nintendo never has, as far as I know. That was basically an invention of Microsoft and Sony to attempt to keep the prices for their then-super-expensive consoles at a price people would pay.
  • There have been debates on the subject of consuming horror media and being scared by it among my friends and I off and on for years, and I have been involved in similar debates on other forums and imageboards. It seems to me that there are two camps when it comes to horror. The first can allow themselves to suspend their disbelief such that they can more easily immerse themselves in the narrative, atmosphere, and/or gameplay, and so allow themselves to be scared by it. The second cannot or do not allow themselves to suspend their disbelief in that way, and so cannot or do not allow themselves to be scared. A friend of mine always says whenever she plays a "scary" game, or any game for that matter, she never "forgets" so to speak, that she is playing a game. I on the other hand, can on some level forget that I am playing a game and allow a part of me to put myself in the shoes of the character, and be frightened by the world I am '"in."
  • As far as being scared goes, I'm a lot more scared of things in life like cancer, heart attacks, auto accidents, and the IRS than ghosties and ghoulies. Also, I'm rarely if ever scared by horror movies, books, or games. That's not to say I don't enjoy them. However, I get a lot more enjoyment out of the survival aspect of the story. Throughout the story, I always try to figure if I can scam my way out of what I know is coming next. What I enjoy is the "Don't go in there! Oh, so you went in there. I would have known better and would have avoided that unpleasantness." type of feeling.

    Oh, I guess, I like the little chill here and there as well, but it's a rare story that raises more than a little gooseflesh with me unless it involves an auto accident, or spiders, or heights, or some real world thing that I find scary.
  • I agree, those things are scary, but in a much different sense than a ghosties and ghoulies. The things you are talking about are rational, real, human, mundane things, that can be dealt with in rational, real, human, mundane ways. Modern medicine can deal with cancer and heart attacks and car crashes, unless you die right off, in which case you won't matter if you're scared of it or not because you're dead. And the IRS is not going to kill you for owing taxes. The fear factor of ghosts and monsters and the like is that they are not mundane things, but things that bring out our irrational, subconscious, instinctual suspicion and fear of things unnatural and unexplained.
  • Until the PS2 era, nobody did the console at a loss. Nintendo never has, as far as I know. That was basically an invention of Microsoft and Sony to attempt to keep the prices for their then-super-expensive consoles at a price people would pay.
    Apparently no one read my post. The console has, since the Atari days, been sold at a loss. The way console manufacturers make money is through licensing that developers pay to release a game on their console. This has always been the case until the Wii, which was the first major console sold at a profit.
    If this is accurate then Nintendo is still making a profit. It is not really that surprising as I would not expect them to release a console at a loss.
    The parts might cost about $100, but then you have to add in the cost of putting those parts together, printing all the packaging, shipping all the units to stores, marketing, etc. Once you add in all those additional costs it's probably at about $160-$170 per unit. So it's certainly selling at a slight profit now, if not at cost.
  • It seems to me that there are two camps when it comes to horror. The first can allow themselves to suspend their disbelief such that they can more easily immerse themselves in the narrative, atmosphere, and/or gameplay, and so allow themselves to be scared by it. The second cannot or do not allow themselves to suspend their disbelief in that way, and so cannot or do not allow themselves to be scared. A friend of mine always says whenever she plays a "scary" game, or any game for that matter, she never "forgets" so to speak, that she is playing a game. I on the other hand, can on some level forget that I am playing a game and allow a part of me to put myself in the shoes of the character, and be frightened by the world I am '"in."
    I had this discussion with Rym about why I don't like to watch violent horror movies. It's not that I believe that any of the scary violence that is happening is real or that there are real people being hurt. It's more that it brings up the general idea of violence or torture, and leads me to think about the times that violent things actually happened to people. The mad scientist in the movie might not be real, but what about Nazi doctors? That monster ate that guy's arm. Well, maybe there aren't monsters, but what if someone got caught in a machine that severed their limb? People are torn apart by land mines and tortured in prisons. There are awful things out there, and fictional violence just reminds me of the existence of real pain, and being an empathetic person, that makes me upset.
  • On that note, on the day Randy Savage saved us from the rapture, while I doubted a rapture was coming, I was often reminded of how we could achieve the same effect through nuclear war.
  • edited August 2011
    I met the Garfield Minus Garfield guy at the first "World Fair Use Day", and the only time he gets money from this new book being sold is when you buy it through the Amazon Affiliates link he puts under every comic nowadays.

    He said that Davis et al. told him how it was going to be, and he was just happy to see them not pursue legal action against him. He was also really pleased that Davis loved the comics (enough to re-package and sell them).
    Post edited by NickNovitski on
  • I met the Garfield Minus Garfield guy at the first "World Fair Use Day", and the only time he gets money from this new book being sold is when you buy it through the Amazon Affiliates link he puts under every comic nowadays.

    He said that Davis et al. told him how it was going to be, and he was just happy to see them not pursue legal action against him. He was also really pleased that Davis loved the comics (enough to re-package and sell them).
    Bullshit. Dude should get at least 25%.
  • Bullshit. Dude should get at least 50%.
  • Why is it that Japan makes horror live action movies (The Grudge, Ring, Uzumaki, etc) but not any horror anime? The only anime coming close to horror I can think of is Higurashi.
  • No way dude, there is a ton of horror anime.
  • Examples?
  • edited August 2011
    Mermaid's Scar and Laughing Target, Hell Girl, High School of the Dead, Ghost Hound, Ayakashi, Shiki, Boogiepop, and old stuff like Wicked City. Those are a few that come to mind.
    Post edited by gomidog on
  • Mermaid's Scar and Laughing Target, Hell Girl, High School of the Dead, Ghost Hound, Ayakashi, Shiki, Boogiepop, and old stuff like Wicked City. Those are a few that come to mind.
    Out of those, I've seen high school of the dead and wicked city. The others seem interesting and I'll check them out but I don't consider HSotD and wicked city horror at all (especially not HSotD), not in the same way that their live action movies are. I suppose Horror is subjective.
  • Violence Jack?
  • edited August 2011
    Best Horror Anime in Recent Memory: Ghost Stories, aka Dub Actors Gone Wild.
    Post edited by NickNovitski on
  • Ayakashi
    And a spin-off based on one of the stories in it, Mononoke. (Not Princess Mononoke, the Miyazaki film. Just Mononoke)
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