BardicKnowledge

Check your Steam friend invitations, everyone

Almost nobody on any side of this argument thinks that removing anything from the shelf is a viable end-goal. Critique such as Anita's that points out sexism in media (aside: please table specific citations from her -- I agree with some of her critique and I don't see sexism when she does in other specific instances) might encourage people to not buy sexist material, but nobody is forcing anyone to not make things. With specific regard to DoA Xtreme 3, Tecmo Koei can say whatever it wants about not wanting to bring over the game because of fear of backlash; whatever they say, negative news to a low-profile game is still making it in the news, which ultimately raises copies sold. It is simply that the previous games did not sell enough copies in the US to justify the release, period.

And despite what Addie will tell you, I promise that after you figure out the controls it doesn't feel anything like playing Goat Simulator.

Who has it, and who is interested in playing on a semi-regular basis? I got the game with my Steam controller a week or so ago and the game is fantastic. I'm slowly learning to hit aerials but usually end up just a hair short -- working on that. For anyone who played a lot of Unreal '99, the music and general aesthetic of the game makes me think the developers played even more than I did, despite that the game itself is obviously a whole different beast.

I'm in again -- I've loved every year I do it. Details to be filled out on Wes' form shortly! Basic detail list in case someone who needs help draws me -- know that I'm open to getting pretty much anything though: I own a gaming-grade PC, PS Vita, 3DS, and a Wii U. Anything is great!

In case anyone has missed the link, here it is! http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/music/scoring/conference The conference this year is focused on music editing, which at first might seem fairly removed from ludomusicology given how a sizeable percentage of game audio is sequenced, not scored (that is, written on sheet music). I'd love to see somebody involved with Video Games Live discuss the difficulties in arranging music originally written in three or five voices for full orchestra, and how both expanding existing harmony parts and extrapolating new ones works. As an aside, if you have any reason to be at this conference and can get there at all, it comes highly recommended from me. I have had nothing less than the time of my life every year I have attended. I'd put it on par with MAGFest for quality of experience -- if you think you can fit in at an academic conference (e.g. you like talking about musical details, and love films/games) you will have a blast. Composers: this is the one to attend if you only ever go to one academic conference.

WoR is definitely non-linear. However, the game forces you to do at least this much in order: 1) Celes' opening scenes 2) Get Sabin as you walk north* 3) Sabin directs you to Terra, who refuses to join* 4) The sequence with Gerad/Edgar happens at the north end of the Serpent Trench and is unavoidable 5) Setzer *not required but extremely likely for non-speedrunners Technically that's all you have to do before Kefka. The game then encourages you to do these things, again in order: 6) Celes sees the pigeon when you first take off in the Falcon, who leads you to Cyan 7) Cyan recalls having seen Gau on the Veldt 8. Visiting the Cave in the Veldt leads to Shadow (// Relm) After that it's kind of a crapshoot what happens next -- my outline merely proposes an order for the remainder of WoR. What's important there is that there are 16 major events in WoR, just like 16 events in WoB. Even if the scenes happen in completely random order, I argue that it's difficult to come to an understanding of WoR as a whole that isn't a "third act" scenario that leads to the end.

Just wanted to chime in to say that I have also worked as a professional copyist (though certainly not full-time -- that's fun!) to support my academic work, and would be happy to help. DM and/or e-mail me anytime. Full disclosure: I'm a Finale person, haha. I think that both programs are equally capable -- it's just a matter of which one you learned first. In any case, if you need help doing work with fancy formatting, I'm good at it -- down to getting the beautiful cross-staff strokes in Debussy manuscripts to render in formal printed notation, though I don't think most VGM work will require anything quite so complex. Hit me up anytime! And while I'm posting, anyone who can read through this thread and feel confident in responding should swing by the new History and Study of Game Music forum.

If you're looking for a killer analysis (though not Schenkerian -- given the jazz elements in the score I'm not convinced Schenker is super useful for it anyway) of Mario 1-1 check out Andrew Schartmann's book. It's only $12 for a very nice, pocket-sized edition that neatly looks at the entire score to the original game.

I'm going to maintain this list of resources for game audio for everyone's use. In order to prevent the thread from becoming de-railed over time, please don't respond here. Instead, if you know of a resource that I should add, please PM me and I will add it to this post. Qualifications for being listed here: -Books (including edited collections) must be dedicated to game audio specifically (generic game studies don't qualify, as there are so many that we would lose focus on our specialty). They should be written by either a scholar with a degree in some field of music or an industry professional with credits on multiple video games. -Conferences must have a reasonable percentage of papers dedicated to game audio. Just because there happens to be a game audio panel at AMS this year doesn't mean that the AMS writ large is focused on game audio, for example. On the flip side, NYU's Music and the Moving Image features a significant number of game papers every year -- certainly enough that attending would be worth your while if all you care about is games. With that aside, here's the list! Again, PM me to have something added. Books (In order of publication) The Complete Guide to Game Audio by Aaron Marks, published 2001. The Fat Man on Game Audio: Tasty Morsels of Sonic Goodness by George Alistair Sanger, published 2004. Game Sound by Karen Collins, published 2008. From Pac-Man to Pop Music: Interactive Audio in Games and New Media. Edited by Karen Collins, published 2008. Playing Along: Digital Games, YouTube, and Virtual Performance by Kiri Miller, published 2012. Playing With Sound: A Theory of Interacting with Sound and Music in Video Games by Karen Collins, published 2013. Sound Play by William Cheng, published 2014. Music in Video Games: Studying Play. Edited by K.J. Donnelly, William Gibbons, and Neil Lerner, published 2014. A Composer's Guide to Game Music by Winifred Phillips, published 2014. Composing Music for Games: The Art, Technology and Business of Video Game Scoring by Chance Thomas, published 2015. Koji Kondo's Super Mario Bros. Soundtrack (33 1/3) by Andrew Schartmann, published 2015. Ludomusicology: Approaches to Video Game Music. Edited by Michiel Kemp, Tim Summers, and Mark Sweeney, published 2016 Understanding Video Game Music. Tim Summers, published 2016. Conferences Ludomusicology, held annually at a travelling location in Europe. North American Conference on Video Game Music, held annually at a travelling location in the United States. Music and the Moving Image, held annually at New York University.

This past weekend, Dana Plank-Blasko organized an awesome panel of people, including Will Gibbons, Steven Reale, and myself to speak on music and games. Really quick summaries of the presentations follow: Steven Reale spoke about music as notation, covering games ranging from Bit Trip Runner (he had some _killer_ transcriptions of the game level lined up with the sheet music that results from a perfect playthrough of one of the stages) to LA Noire (which plays specific themes if you are right or wrong during interrogation). Will Gibbons spoke on the hyperreality of game soundtracks, with a special eye towards Street Fighter II. Consider E. Honda's stage, which takes place in a Japanese bath house with a giant sunburst painted on the wall and a random Kabuki-esque figure on the right side. The music there is also almost exclusively made up of Japanese instruments and scales (pay particular attention to the opening, which is similar to how a sumo match begins). The point is that it becomes "more Japanese" than actual Japanese locations or music, a concept known as "hyperrealism." There's nothing wrong about this until a group (read: Americans who only experience foreign culture through games and films) become so used to the hyper-real presentations of a place that authentic representations of a culture just fail to resonate because we expect the hyper-real instead of what actually exists. I spoke on the relationship between combo notation systems and musical notation. Both represent only what happens when the moves/notes are executed corectly, not the required inputs to make that happen. For instance, Ryu's crouching MK into Super in SF2 is _always_ listed as cr. MK xx 2x QCF HP but is actually performed as 2X QCF MK HP (that is, you must roll the joystick before hitting MP even though it's a part of the fireball input) and similarly, sheet music doesn't usually tell you which fingers to use to play a given set of notes). Performing these inputs (and I'm using "perform" intentionally) feels good, not unlike playing Guitar Hero, which I draw numerous comparisons. The inputs are so important that they form the core of the character. It's for this reason that Smash includes the options to use SF2 inputs when playing as Ryu -- if you can't do QCF P to throw a fireball, it just wouldn't be Ryu. Dana Plank-Blasko spoke on physical reactions to sounds, different types of arousal (e.g. fight or flight response, heightened senses, etc), and how we experience compound sounds as individual sounds until we are made aware of the parts -- for instance, Hisako (of the new Killer Instinct) makes "undead, bone" sounds when she moves around. Once you're told that those sounds are actually made by posting groups of taco shells against a wall and cracking them, all you hear is tacos. I am told that the videos of all four presentations will be made available sometime soon, and will post links as soon as I have them. Unrelated but awesome: I played Super Turbo against Seasons Beatings organizer Chris Hatala and didn't make a fool of myself. Hooray!

http://clevelandgamingexpo.com/ Anyone else going? Who do we have from Ohio? It should be a pretty good time -- especially if you're a Street Fighter player. I am speaking as part of a four-person academic panel on fighting games and music, and will post a summary of what everyone says over at the new History and Study of Game Music forum when I get back next week. My own talk is centered around how combo notation and the way we read, practice, and create it is not unlike reading sheet music -- both detailed, rhythmic, performances, and the way we experience the performing itself is important (e.g. Ryu has the SF2 motions in Smash because without them, he doesn't feel enough like Ryu).

Prontera is the first town and central hub, yeah

I absolutely love my Vita. In addition to the PS+ content, you will want the following (that other people haven't listed -- pay attention to djp's list especially!) Muramasa Rebirth Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward Velocity 2X* FFIV: Complete Collection** OlliOlli 2* Sound Shapes* Flower* *Also on either PS3 or PS4, but best on Vita. **a PSP game, but a must-have on Vita as well -- the best remake of any of the FF games by a longshot. Generally speaking, if there is a Vita edition, it's usually the best version of whatever game it is -- I particularly enjoyed Hotline Miami and Rogue Legacy much more on Vita than I did PC.

Is there an easy way to force the fly-swatting minigame to trigger?

I definitely agree that there are a very limited number of contexts for these pieces -- it's not really a question of "what does this evoke" as much as "which of the following potential categories: title screen, town, castle, field, battle, dungeon" does it fit into? As such, of course you're right that we combine "home" and "town" into the same category, because with rare exception (Earthbound, Robotrek offhand) they're the same as far as a jRPG is concerned.

Some notes from there I couldn't share with just the audio: First off, William Cheng's book is fantastic -- he is really helping to expand what the umbrella of ludomusicology covers. There are chapters dedicated to FFVI, Fallout, and Team Fortress 2 among others. Second, linked here (because they are large images otherwise) is the handout I passed out when I gave the full version of this talk at New York University's "Music and the Moving Image" conference a couple years ago. I have that scene breakdown done even further, with a list of every piece you're required to listen to in order to beat the game for each scene...but that is 10 pages long, haha. http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll40/Bardic_Knowledge/FFVI%20page%20one_zpsmnigzrxg.png http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll40/Bardic_Knowledge/FFVI%20page%20two_zpsxxcwlp0u.png

I love that the music for the SMM stage changes when the graphics do. Well worth the pickup as a casual player, IMO. As I understand it, the Pirate Ship stage has been retouched to make it work better as a competitive stage, by the way. Cannonballs and catapult can no longer kill you, and you won't clip into the rock on the rare occasion it happens.

I've used this as an example of game music studies often as a speaker and organizer of panels, and I want to kick off this forum's discussion by putting this question to everyone. First, listen to what in my opinion is the most "towny" theme of any piece of game music: Ragnarok Online's "Theme to Prontera." I have suggested to music scholars and friends alike that I could play this piece of music for just about anyone with any amount of gaming experience and they'd know it's a town theme from some kind of Japanese RPG. My questions to you all: Why is this the case? Is there something quintessential about this particular piece of music, or would it work with, say, the Lufia II town theme just as easily? There's a lot of tonic going on, but imo there's more to it than that, and I'd love to pin some specific characteristics onto various jRPG town themes to help connect them. You could replace "town" with "battle," "field," etc. and it still mostly works -- the rest of the Ragnarok Online soundtrack continues to conform to this notion of musical location quite nicely. Other related questions to consider: Can we identify a piece of game music as "from a jRPG" more generally, and if so, what elements do those tracks share? Is it important to consider that first word in the jRPG acronym -- Japanese -- more strongly than the rest of this post has done? I'd love to hear some thoughts!

First of all, welcome to the game music studies forum! This is a short sticky to help differentiate the purpose of this forum from other places on the site where we all discuss music. First, this is not a replacement for talking about game music in the Community forum. If you think the music to game X is awesome/horrible/hilarious, that's great! Taking that element out of the Community forum isn't anyone's goal, nor should it be. Instead, this subforum exists for us to help describe why and how we have certain reactions to music, and to ask questions when we don't yet have that understanding. Sometimes it might be what the music is doing in the context of something else -- gameplay, art direction, etc. Sometimes it might be something neat about how the music is constructed or orchestrated. Sometimes it might be how the music relates to other pieces of game, film, or art music. Occasionally, answering these open-ended questions to your satisfaction requires the use of some specific terminology. Feel free to throw around whatever jargon you see fit, but do keep in mind that not everyone is going to have the same background that you do -- this is especially true of game music, where some crowd of folks will know game terms and won't know music terminology and vice versa. Language helps us be precise, but it also isolates us into niche communities that are all part of the same larger world of games, so keep that in mind when you post. In short, be accepting and respectful of those who don't share the same body of knowledge that you do -- you likely have a lot to learn from them.

I'm now living in Lafayette, IN where Addie has a post-doctoral research appointment. Finishing my Ph.D is becoming more and more difficult as both of the kids continue to place demands on my time, but I'm hoping to finish a draft by Christmas and graduate by the end of summer 2016.

The free new content for Shovel Knight is fantastic so far. They completely reworked the campaign and didn't just make a character playable, but made a _context_ for why that character is playable. As a result, the game feels fresh and fantastic in a way I wasn't expecting. What are everyone else's impressions thus far? And my record is four bomb jumps in a single leap

Who is excited about the Super Mario Maker stage on 9/30? Also, if you haven't done the math on the amiibo announcement and realized that Shovel Knight is very likely an incoming DLC character, there's that to process as well. My guess is that we will get him sooner rather than later since the Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows expansion campaign just launched today.

Have you thought about using RoRG to put Madstone on with that complete set, making SSS both apply and detonate the Exploding palm....14 times per click?