Chris L

Great article. I typically don’t use this flash style when writing – I’ve done it a few times out of necessity – but it’s still an invaluable tool for all writers. As an exercise, it forces one to distill an experience or thought into its basest form. It’s both surprisingly simple yet difficult, particularly when it comes to execution. Often my short works don’t always end up feeling like they’ve held any actual meaning rather than simply relating a series of events.

Thanks for the tips!

Well I think it’s a little unfair to assume that challenge alone is what should define a game. By definition, games are meant simply as a pastime or activity designed to provide amusement, typically following a set of rules or regulations to abide by.

I love the Souls series, and am usually a masochist when it comes to a lot of games, but in the end it should be about having fun. The fact that people like us find the challenging aspect of such games fun is only just an extension of our own personalities. As popular as the franchise is though, there’s a reason why it pales in comparison to other game franchises on the market. And I think most people would be lying if they said they didn’t find themselves becoming frustrated at least a few times during their journeys through the Souls series.

For some people, the idea of becoming frustrated in their off time – typically when they’d rather be relaxing – probably isn’t their idea of a good time. I’m STILL trying to get through Master Ninja in NG2, beat the mode in Dead Space 2 where you can only save 3 times, etc. etc. And that’s great, because that’s what I’m in to. But to say that games need to be hard as nails and follow the old models of retro console games is probably not the answer. There’s definitely a market for those games, but I also think it’s fair to say that many or most of those old NES games were difficult but unrewarding, arbitrarily prohibitive and extremely poorly balanced.

But good article nonetheless. I love the Souls series mainly because it’s difficult but never truly feels completely unfair. (The games all have a few balancing issues, and they can be highly unforgivable in certain aspects, but hey.)

I mostly agree with this, although it’s interesting when looking at the context of sex as a metaphor through the modern horror lens. John Carpenter has publicly stated that for the first Halloween movie, the notion of sexual activity as a catalyst for murder was never a theme he had consciously employed; it just so happened that those characters who had engaged in the act were also killed.

Similarly, Victor Miller and Cunningham, (writers for the first Friday The 13th film,) were told by studio heads that they wanted a successful copy of Halloween, and in trying to capture those tropes, made sex the launching point for the murders in that movie. In effect, they created a horror trope where one hadn’t even intentionally existed in Halloween.

Of course, that’s not entirely relevant overall, but it’s interesting to note when looking at modern horror. It Follows definitely tackles this theme, though I’d be hard-pressed to say that I think sex is used solely as a defense mechanism within the film. A valid argument, (and one which has been made already, I think,) is simply that if Jay’s character had never had intercourse in the first place, she would have never been cursed. Nor does it glorify the act; by the end these characters are looking at the act as a release, but little more. Though it’s only alluded to, there is a scene in which Jay is swimming towards a boat filled with a group of random teens, presumably to fornicate with them. (We’re never privy to these details as the viewer.)

Ultimately, I look at It Follows as more of a metaphor for growing up in general. It’s true that for many teens, sexual intercourse marks that passage into adulthood, (as far as they’re concerned,) so it would naturally become a focal point. On the other hand, it’s interesting that within the context of the film there is a complete lack of parental supervision, and more so any real adult characters. There are only a handful of lines delivered by adult characters in the film, and these are regulated to the very opening of the film, a small scene where Jay is in school, (her professor or teacher is reciting lines from some text,) and once where we see her neighbour Greg talking briefly to his mother.

Overall, I don’t think the film particularly glamourizes sex so much as it simply uses it as a catalyst for the rest of the film. At no point do we actually see any of the characters ‘enjoy’ the act, and more often than not are simply using it as a vehicle for their own release. It’s a means to an end, and much like adulthood, rarely satisfies for long when used this way.