Souliarc

I do see your points. I wouldn't say, though, that worrying about market overcrowding due to the film composers coming in is anything to brush off. I understand that music in general is a crowded field, but I'm only worried about the integration into video games. After all, video games are a completely different medium and is quite a paradigm shift for film composers, yet they have the resources to work from the TOP down into many games. It will affect the game music scene greatly. For good or bad, well... we will see.

Melody... sweet intoxicating melody. Awesome video pinpointing game music's evolution and integration. BardicKnowledge does bring up some great topics to be discussed and digested as well. I do have one topic of concern though. Is Harry Gregson-Williams and Hans Zimmer composing music for video games really that great? Like Rich (a game composer himself) states in his blog, these big shots are coming in and making the already mega-competitive game composer scene even more overcrowded. It seems to be pushing out those who have a niche specifically for video game music. I mean sure, the pieces are good (Metal Gear's Main Theme is one of my FAVS) and the entitlement that comes along with the credits sure gets the game attention, but in the long run, will we lose the originality and integration that is video game music to massive Hollywood scores?

I'm kind of confused about Zerg's accepted "natural expansion". I see why they do it, of course, being they need more larva to sustain their economy so they might as well put another hatch at their natural. Understandable. Not to mention, that 350 mineral hatch is a lot more efficient being that it also produces units and Zerg isn't required to build other buildings to make units from. What I don't get is how easy it is for them to get an edge in their economy because of how much it makes sense to put their next hatch at a natural. What advantage does a Protoss or Terran player have to make up for this? Basically, how do I deal with this? I'm a Protoss player.

If someone who's been playing StarCraft for years is playing in the practice league, then they're just douches I guess their craving for besting newbies beats out the frustration of the destructible rocks and slower speed, which is pretty lame on their part. I'd love to help with practice too but I've got a hell of a weekend...

http://kotaku.com/5638353/an-open-letter-from-the-company-of-heroes-developers-widow Brian Wood, lead designer of Company of Heroes online, was killed on Sept. 3rd when a driver (supposedly under the influence of drugs) swerved into their lane. In a split second, Brian swerved the car to where his side took the full impact, and cost him his life. Two other rear seat passengers were killed, but the act spared his wife and unborn child. The gaming community has came together to show their support for the family. The wife, Erin, commented how Brian always thought the video game community to be a "tight-knit" one, and I couldn't agree more. I just thought that this man deserved recognition for his feat of heroism. My thoughts and deepest sympathies are with the family.

You can't deny the stigma around the term "gamer", but that's because of one monumental difference between games and other mediums (i.e. books, movies). Human to human interaction. When you bring human interaction into something, you are also bringing all of our pitfalls and all of our redeeming qualities. Especially with FPS', a genre where ego is a huge factor, due to that fact that other people can't literally stop DEAD your interacting experience. People don't interact with each other in other mediums in a way that effects the movie or book's journey and outcome. It will always be the same. Granted, discussion may merit different points of view, but generally one set of conclusions will be met for the movie, and this can't be done with games simply because of the the act of direct human interaction and choice. Our interactive level in gaming has the potential (if not already) to go way beyond what experiences we get from movies and books. It's all about experience, no pun intended

I wanted to say this too but didn't, for fear of derailing the thread 0_0

Hmmm... it seems like this is a good step but ultimately, won't getting new job abilities become the new leveling up? People wanting to join a party will display their list of jobs and how many abilities they've gotten with them, and people wanting people to join their party will display what jobs and abilities they are looking for. Playing the devil's advocate here, so I know it looks like I'm being critical, but I just don't want to be stuck with a beautiful game that plays crappy.

That seems like kind of a slap in the face to PC users... I don't understand. Why would they not want to test their full build to ensure complete compatibility with debugging and functionality? Testing an already bugged version seems kind of counterproductive.

Even though for the life of me I could NOT get the beta to work, you've at least provided great information here Zeal and confirmed my suspicions. In that there are gorgeous graphics, but at the expense of many other elements throughout. Thanks for the heads up. I'm still not sure if I'll play or not. I just wish they had a trial available. That would answer all my questions (can my computer even run the game? do I like it? blah blah blah...).

I approve of this statement.

Just checked out the OST. Excellent. That discovery alone is a testament to the productivity and depth of this thread for me

Right there with ya TDD. Portnoy's element in the music was a big part of my attentiveness towards their songs... :*(

So happy to look forward to this show every week. The ideals presented have basically taken my own pondering thoughts, that I haven't been able to really put a conclusion on, and made them verbalized and concrete. I love how this new episode distinctly emphasized that video games INVOLVE the person experiencing them. There's no sitting on the bench watching the decisions being made for you, like movies or books. I love movies and books, no doubt, but video games have taken it to the next level in holding you accountable for your actions. Granted, we have only recently (in the whole time spectrum of video games) really invested time into "choice" and done it well, but the potential is so massively there. It seems the only counters movies and books have is there lower, required time invested. I've always said I wish there were 8 more hours in a day just so I could play video games. 8 hours for work, 8 hours for sleep, 8 hours for what we will, 8 hours for video games!

While noting the hyperbolic context of your statement, I do agree. I've agreed with this for many, many years. Sometimes I forget (like in this past SC2 match instance), but thanks for reminding me. As simple of a statement as it is, it's real.

I hear ya. I was playing the other day and the other team would not give up until the last building, and even then, they kept pausing the game (to where I would unpause). Of course they are just raging ragers and mad cause they lost, but don't BM... just learn from it. And what is up with almost everybody that beats me gg'ing before I do? I usually am about to gg them and then they gotta go be fags. I'd imagine most of these people are Americans.

Oh... oh yes indeed, I did lmao

I was laughing so hard I was crying. My boss probably thought I was crazy. Seems to be a testament to the skill level of players using that cheese. No doubt, if you work on your metagame and you know who you're facing, it's skillful in deciding to implement it based on their game play style. Otherwise... yeah. Good info though Bard. Spot on to how I counter those cheeses.

I think this series alone may have defined my career path through college. While I may not have my (and many others) coveted golden job of composing music for video games, I believe I at least want to be involved in them. Thank you, team "Extra Credits", for reviving my pride for something I have cherished for so long. It's so hard to keep a steady foot in the fight for video game arts when so many around me (where I live at least) see it as a child's toy. It's comradery like this that keeps me going.

I love fending off the cannon rush :D It has happened so much. It was mainly on 2v2 and my partner usually had a rough time spotting it, but I just hoped they'd try that shit on me. Easy win.

This is great. Thank you sir/mame! I've messed around with it a little bit and I think it will help me a lot.

Not gonna lie, I've been beaten recently by not building up my ground attack forces and having a lot corruptors haha Too be honest though... it was a 3v3 and one of our guys dropped out (connection problem) way early and we had taken one guy but didn't completely destroy him (forgot to) and HE came back with ground forces. Otherwise we would have had them. It was real stressful. It's always about balance. Using corruptors when it is necessary, but they definitely do provide quite the counter to BC's. Definitely not THE best decision every time (just like with other units). The ability to go anti-ground with your corruptors into brood lord's provides a lot of flexibility though.

That was seriously sweet man. Edit: Virt link as well. Definitely feeling the stallion.

Corruptors rip BC's to shreds.

So just realized Terran's music reminds me of "Firefly". This makes me happy.