General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forumswhat is it with DU's collective reluctance to criticize Quentin Tarantino?
or Stephen King---or---Edgar Allen Poe--- or Jack Clancy--- or Elmore Leonard---or Vince Gilligan--or Ann Rice-----
I could go on and on and on....
JustAnotherGen
(31,937 posts)Not sure if I understand what this is coming from. . . but I don't 'get' Tarantino if it makes you feel better. Scorsese's violence always makes sense - Tarantino's not so much.
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)JustAnotherGen
(31,937 posts)I wouldn't have clicked on it - because we aren't video game people. My husband bought one of those things the year before I met him (2008 - an xbox?) played with it for a month - and got bored. He'd rather be in his studio sculpting. But - I think I would love a Wii(sp?) for the boxing, tennis, etc. etc.
fujiyama
(15,185 posts)I bought an X-Box 360, played it for a while when I had a fancy home theater setup. It lost its novelty within a few months and has mostly collected dust since.
I realized, I'd rather waste my time on this website and with all the reading I am into, I have little time for video games.
sharp_stick
(14,400 posts)if it makes you feel better.
kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)his RW nutjob counterpart, Dean Koontz.
sharp_stick
(14,400 posts)his books does it?
HappyMe
(20,277 posts)Dash87
(3,220 posts)He does what old, obscure movies did, but not as well. His movies only look good because the rest of Hollywood is so bland.
joeybee12
(56,177 posts)demwing
(16,916 posts)You steal from someone who came before you..
As TS Elliot wrote:
"The immature poet steals, the mature poet plagiarizes."
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)Love that quote
WCGreen
(45,558 posts)He was, to me at least, a hack with a pension for uber violence...
sarisataka
(18,821 posts)and could say a thing or two about any Steven King work less than 25 years old
But I'd much rather criticize the noticeable lack of anvils falling on animal's heads in modern cartoons.
onehandle
(51,122 posts)And Grand Theft Presidency I was a classic!
NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)A story about a half robot/half jackass who runs around shooting people in the face and generally being a shitstain on America's underpants. It writes itself.
demwing
(16,916 posts)pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)If pressed, I just hold my breath...and stamp my feet.
cali
(114,904 posts)stevenleser
(32,886 posts)Distraction/straw man tactic. "I don't like what you're saying, so I'll create a new post that's a sarcastic version of the OP that I didn't like." Wish crap like this would be locked.
el_bryanto
(11,804 posts)As a way of underlining the central complaint.
Bryant
Tien1985
(920 posts)Making a new thread on a topic is bad, if the new poster has something important to say, particularly if it would just run the original thread completely off topic.
But this kind of post doesn't add to the debate at all. It's immature and makes the the poster look like they can't come up with any better argument.
I'm actually pretty interested in hearing the other side of this debate, as a gamer, a parent and as somebody who does service work involving domestic violence and drug use.
I don't believe video games "cause" violence, and, in fact science supports my belief. I do think *some* games normalize violence and stereotypes--I strongly support game ratings because of that.
I think discussion about the violence in games (and other forms of entertainment) could be a good and fruitful one. But not when someone drops the level of conversation like this.
kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)grantcart
(53,061 posts)my opinion of the OP is so important and the original OP is so devoid of content that it doesn't warrant my precious time to actually engage the subject matter so I intend to dismiss it by an irrelevant and sarcastic copy cat instead.
Humanist_Activist
(7,670 posts)Its like criticizing literature because of the Twilight series.
johnp3907
(3,733 posts)spanone
(135,900 posts)stevenleser
(32,886 posts)I wonder what kinds of fantasies people will try to live out in those things when we get there.
DFW
(54,448 posts)Although Tarentino once tried like crazy to hit on a friend of ours. They met in an airport once, and she gave him her email (seemed like an interesting acquaintance to have, after all), but then he was emailing her like mad that he couldn't stop thinking of her etc. etc. She said it was almost like an obsession, but it finally subsided after a few months.
TheKentuckian
(25,029 posts)the sound track to "Inglorious Bastards".
Other than that, I'm usually good.
Rex
(65,616 posts)criticizing can be construed as outrage and that is the fuel that drives the bus! Vroooommm!!!! Vroooooom!!
PowerToThePeople
(9,610 posts)11 Bravo
(23,928 posts)(Those of them who aren't already here.)
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)leftstreet
(36,117 posts)I read some excerpts and the wiki entry, and I have to wonder...
Would the female protagonist submit herself to that shit if the dude was an unemployed impoverished guy?
No, I didn't think so
There's a bizarre wealth/power dynamic there that has NOTHING to do with the sexuality
Creepy, creepy
djean111
(14,255 posts)I flipped through one of them and read something about someone's brain having a conversation with them or something like that. Snickered, and then read a bit further - 50 Shades is sort of like a Harlequin book with a bigger vocabulary and maniacally detailed wardrobe descriptions.
Gave the books back. I prefer nuance, and my imagination filling in the blanks.
Stephen King - early stuff better, too much telescoping in some - I don't want to know every damn time that a character will be dead by the end of the chapter - and ending things with giant spiders or alien children from outer space really does deflate a whole book's worth of reading for me. The JFK one pretty good, except maddeningly sparse detail on what happened in the alternative time period.
lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)Conflict, either caused by or culminating in violence is the most common literary device in all of literature.
cemaphonic
(4,138 posts)Tarantino - Built a 20 year career on exactly 3 good movies. Uses the Coen Bros trick of cobbling his movies together out of bits and pieces of older movies, except instead of Night of the Hunter, and The Big Sleep, it's all stupid 70s blaxploitation and kung fu movies.
King - (former) Raging drug fiend, doesn't say a word about the many crappy movie adaptations of his work, yet constantly disses Kubrick's The Shining.
Poe - Raging drug fiend, married his underaged cousin.
Initech
(100,108 posts)Boom Sound 416
(4,185 posts)Throd
(7,208 posts)demwing
(16,916 posts)Boom Sound 416
(4,185 posts)Markets to children
cemaphonic
(4,138 posts)And I loved the crap out of both Poe and King when I was about 12 or so.
And games like the GTA series are primarily marketed to adults. Median age for gamers is in the 30s.
Boom Sound 416
(4,185 posts)stevenleser
(32,886 posts)Game Player Data
Today's Gamers
30
The average age of todays gamer.
13
The average number of years gamers have been playing.
68%
of gamers are age 18 or older.
45%
of gamers are female.
62%
of gamers play games with others, either in-person or online.
36%
of gamers play games on their smartphones.
25%
of gamers play on their wireless device.
Parents of Gamers
89%
of parents are present when games are purchased or rented.
88%
of parents feel that the Entertainment Software Rating Board rating system is helpful in choosing games for their children.
86%
of parents believe that the parental controls available in all new video game consoles are useful.
71%
of parents believe game play provides mental stimulation or education.
59%
of parents believe games encourage their family to spend to time together.
Data from http://www.theesa.com/facts/pdfs/ESA_EF_2013.pdf
Boom Sound 416
(4,185 posts)Humanist_Activist
(7,670 posts)Mostly because they market to the general population, just like many R rated movies, etc.
If you are implying video games are only for kids, that argument died in the 1990s.
Boom Sound 416
(4,185 posts)It's that the kids in the 90's never stopped playing them
Humanist_Activist
(7,670 posts)enjoying video games?
Boom Sound 416
(4,185 posts)I enjoy the occasional game
I worked for rockstar for a while and even wrote video game reviews for a small magazine.
I think I know a little something about their strategy.
Humanist_Activist
(7,670 posts)but I would say that's why parents should take an active role in their kids lives and interests, and find ways to steer them clear of things the parents find inappropriate. This includes all mediums, I find it just as disingenuous that parents were upset at taking their kids to the "wholesome" xmas movie that was called "Gremlins" as I do about parents shocked that the game they bought for little Jimmy with the "M" rating sticker on it has sex or violence in it.
Dpm12
(512 posts)Pulp fiction is one of my favorite films.
BootinUp
(47,201 posts)True Romance. Then Inglorious Bastards, then Pulp Fiction.
Aerows
(39,961 posts)back in her glory days of the Vampire Chronicles and the Halloween parties she threw ... uh, it's kind of hard to bash her.
seveneyes
(4,631 posts)But the writers of Breaking Bad seem to have watched some of his work.
SidDithers
(44,228 posts)Sid
BootinUp
(47,201 posts)lol.
Boom Sound 416
(4,185 posts)Something you watch across a couple hours vs an interactive simulation that might be played over 5 hours per day?
Liberal_Stalwart71
(20,450 posts)baldguy
(36,649 posts)And Anthony Hopkins didn't eat all those people, either.
BootinUp
(47,201 posts)The truth is I am caring less about what DU collectively criticizes lately.
And I was trying to make a point that there are a lot more influences in life than stupid video games.