Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

If I had 20 minutes left before the submission deadline, I'd fade out too. Like a good UnModder.

OH SHOOT, Audix got Treasure Master! Dear God, Greg, please lock that one in, I know you'd do a good job.

I've done the best I can with some games, extrapolating quasi-official titles based on stage names, thanks to game manuals and speedruns. Almost anything that's not filled in is because the game had no official soundtrack release, and thus no official names for the songs in the soundtrack. We'll do something with unofficial titles in the future to fill in the gaps, and also designate between official and unofficial titles, even if it's only something I can see.

I approve this message.

It was for reason of I had jazzed it up, hardman style.

Aye. Yeah, when I noticed they were gone, I was decidedly against it. To me, those are our bread and butter. If torrent DLs drop off, it certainly hurts the spread of the music. To be fair, so far torrent DLs don't seem to have slowed down, but I'm a big proponent of people being able to find the torrents with minimal effort. djp'll give his point of view, I'm sure.

Pretty often. Then again, most of them aren't OC ReMixes until they're posted, so I'll change my answer to almost never.

I currently work at a bookstore, but I'm trying to move into radio, music production or any other sort of audio development role due to my love of music and knowing so many artists. Nothing would be better to me than being in a position where I could lift up great musicians in the game arrangement community. For me, OCR is a hobby, but that's only because it doesn't pay anything. Besides djpretzel, I likely spend the most time working on the site. It's Protricity's fault. Dunno how he feels about it nowadays, but he quickly regretted it. Well, Israfel (lack of interest) and Harmony (lack of time) already explained their situations. Shnabubula's removal from the panel, I don't mind talking about at all, but it would take way too long to explain. That's a good idea for an extremely lengthy blog post though. His theory-centric judgments were a very small part of it. In short though, there's definitely no hard feelings though; Sam and I definitely get along great now, and it was great meeting him at MAGFest and shooting the shit, including his take on what went wrong with his time on the panel, which was all very interesting. Anyway, I'll blog about it someday. If a vote is not unanimous, the vote is extended. Not that it's written down as a law, but generally any disputed vote with a gap of 3 if favor of one side is resolved (e.g. NO will result from 1Y/4N, 2Y/5N, 3Y/6N; YES from 4Y/1N, 5Y/2N, 6Y/3N). The Judges Decisions forum shows the decisions publicly. We have a private Queue forum where we vote and discuss the tracks in their respective thread. Anything resolved is later moved to Judges Decisions. DragonAvenger is not a judge, so clearly she doesn't get it. But nah, she's got the gist of it, and BGC explained it as well. If something is ever placed on the judges panel and it turns out to be a clear submissions standards violation (e.g. MIDI ripped), then a judge can give a NO Override. That ends the vote without requiring every judge to weigh in, which would be redundant. If you're scoping out this personal as a potential significant other, then ask them out on a date. Dates are the proper way of getting to know someone better; anyone who says otherwise doesn't know what they're talking about. Propose a date (tips and rationale on getting a date are here). Then let the person dominate the conversation. That's how you learn more about someone; give them the floor and let them talk about themself. I don't recall trying to BS that I quit. I just liked the comic, so I added it to the Judging Process updates thread. If the site's still around and I still have the energy and interest in judging, I'll be around. Even if I was no longer a judge or staff member, I'd still check out the music. I'd be different in that any music career wouldn't be as a musician, but I'd try to make time for the site; it's been lots of fun, so I'd rather not give it up. That being said, getting a solid career-oriented job in the games/music industry is tough to balance with OC ReMix. The Wingless was always kind of low in terms of voting frequency, but when he joined Midway, he definitely didn't have time any longer to do the job even if he wanted to. For ReMixers, I usually know their names and faces and a little bit of background on them already. So for me I can meet someone in person for the first time at MAGFest like OA and just naturally have conversation. For me, it's slightly more difficult to meet people who aren't ReMixers, and learn about some of them from scratch. But meetups make it so easy to get to know non-ReMixers in the community on a more personal level than the internet, so I always like meeting people like Jiggles McPuff (Don), Moguta (Chris), q-pa (Jon), Arrowned (Jarel), Vilecat (Val), etc. For me, any internet drama at the forums is basically non sequitur to a meetup. People tend not to act the same way in person. So, no, encountering the best/worst of some people beforehand doesn't affect wanting to meet someone for a meetup. I always love the meetups. Being on staff doesn't change how I feel about attending. I'm always just glad to shoot the shit with people who love game music. No worries, you definitely listed everything I remember, and I also forgot that Noir got a guest vote. That mix by Rexy that was definitely another track where I didn't understand why it wasn't resubbed, because it was definitely near the line. We should definitely bring the guest judging thing back every once in a while. I always enjoyed the opinions brought out by those. Being technical, the number of subs isn't steadily increasing. It was about 1.5 subs per day, but as of 2008, it, for whatever reason, jumped to about 3 subs per day. So far, the overall proportion of at least decent material has also increased, so the panel is getting more work. To answer the questions: 1. The panel simply needs to get back in the groove of voting. 2. No. 3. No. There's no reason to limit submissions. Though it might sound like I want fewer subs due to the workload, I would always be happy if we got more. That's always a cool thing for OCR. 4. zircon had a great WIP critique checklist of sorts that he drafted for the Works board, but we haven't put that out yet. I'm not sure why we didn't; I thought it was great, personally. It was for reason of I had jazzed it up, hardman style.

Just my opinion, but... If Ben Croshaw made the game, he's notable enough to me, thereby it's notable enough to me. That it was released a couple of months ago is fine. The music being arranged HAS to be music originally created for the game. If it's not, then it's not a viable source tune for an OC ReMix.

If you ever need some interviews regarding OC ReMix, lemme know. I lovez me some radio.

Nobuo Uematsu's gonna get Andy's copy. Naturally.

I really thought the 3rd place finisher, "Lost Odyssey Medley - 1000 Years" by Ting Si Hao was gonna take it. Congrats to Andy and Kenley on their strong finishes! Andy, you better figure out a way to get to Chicago, foo! Beg for $.

Chiming in that I like the 4 image limit.

It's been at http://duck.thasauce.net/ for a while.

Wow, I never commented on this? Shit, I really thought I did. This was such a big favorite of mine in my olden days in '02. monkofevil's comment that this arrangement actually works better in a C&C environment than the original was something I realized as soon as I first listened to it. Really solid, chill material from Scott, it's a classic.

Well, I pretty much am the secretary. I don't really see anyone else stepping up to handle the need. I'd love for somebody to, but due to maintaining the inbox, it's basically most convenient in the big picture that I handle it. Interesting question. In short, yes. People are gonna point at that and be like "YOU SEE, they want people to make the arrangement unrecognizable and shit!" It's not really that cut-and-dry. The more creative/unique/interpretive the arrangement is, while not losing site of the original, the more I probably like it as a judge. I've never looked at one aspect of arrangement like "Oh shit, he went from 4/4 to 13/8"; it doesn't trigger like that. Besides changing things, you have to actually pull off the changes well. But I will admit, I really do like the eclectic ReMixers we have, like Shnabubula, ktriton, and AeroZ. Slap their name on it, and I've gotta hear it. We've had a lot worse than a n00b like you. Don't worry, you're nothing to me, so my decision wouldn't be affected. Only Shnabubula used font colors regularly when judging. There's no max limit of judges, though I don't see us ever going higher than 12. There's no requirement for an odd number of Js; djp can break a tie (e.g. 6Y/6N) or virtual tie (e.g. 6Y/5N) regardless of the number of judges. Not a musician, but in terms of working with n00bs, lack of time generally means we don't have time to do loads of 1-on-1 help with people.

Yeah, I'm thinking more along the lines something that generally explains the next step in the waiting game for YESs, and very basic things about the reasoning for NOs, with links to read re: the standards, and also the ReMixing and Works forums. Then the only thing for the NO ones would be pasting in the Decision link. But there would have to be an general explanation of the judging process in the mail, it could just be "Hey, we finished your decision; the link is here." Differentiating a letter between NOs and NO-resubmits might be a little dicey, but we'll mull it over.

I would love to do that, and I've definitely thought about that, but have so much on my plate and have been content enough with our current system that I haven't taken the time to move an idea like this forward. Keeping mixers in the loop is one aspect where our system really has no plan other than "they should follow the site", which is definitely not conducive to getting new people to become community regulars. Admittedly, it has worked for us so far, and honestly, it would continue to as is, because enough people become regulars. But contacting people regarding acceptances and rejections would be great. That would also be yet another thing I'd have to be personally responsible for, since I maintain the inbox. IF we developed a form letter for notifying artists about acceptances and rejections, I would love to start doing that. I feel that kind of contact/updating is something that would only benefit the site, even though we'd have our share of complainers who would resent bad news.

I did have a list that the judges could view, but they don't really care too much about the DPs, or at least no one has told me, so I don't maintain it anymore. That being said, anything I flag for DP is on the judges FTP, so they can check out anything any time. Yeah I suppose de facto, I'm now single-handedly responsible for DPs. So really when it says "Evaluated by: djpretzel", it should be saying "Evaluated by: Liontamer". I've never had djp or the judges complain about what gets DPed. The judges, that could be an issue of them simply not listening to the DPs when they're posted, because maybe someone would have an issue, but I've never heard of one yet. Dave clearly hears everything, at least before doing the writeups, and I've never had him complain either. I'd argue that my DP bar is higher than djp's, but I don't think he would take offense, because he's said before on VGF #50 that he feels the site's gotten better since the panel got more influence on song selection, because they have higher collective standards. When I flag something for DP, I pretty much make sure, to the best that I can, that it's cut-and-dry YES quality.

Just following up on the original post, the identity/whereabouts of GrayLightning are the only conspiracy theory I can think of in the community. I'm not sure what other topics are out there that, without merely ROFLing and making stuff up, are actually mysterious.

Scores are due tomorrow, so sometime VERY sooner after the 16th, I gather. I've still got 10 more to score, and am working diligently. I took Valentine's Day off.

Yeah, definitely. This is for all the judges. Former judges too, whenever relevant. Yeah, following up on that, I'd quit before we posted a track with no source tune to compare. At the end of the day, I need the proof that the arrangement is interpretive enough. The video game music fan community is resourceful though. Nowadays, there's a very low likelihood that we'd get stuck with something where we definitely couldn't find the source.

Kind of a copout, but it all depends on the track. If it's hard to articulate the issues, it's also hard to articulate WHY we can't articulate the issues. Usually though, it's not too difficult to be able to say what's working and what's not. For me, a non-musician, I just stick to what I know (or purport to know). For example, with instruments, I can't tell the difference between various groups of brass, mallet percussion, woodwinds or synth techniques. Instead of trying to bullshit that, I just generalize those things when referring to the instruments. I wish I could be able to look back and just point to XYZ method as what made me improve at music critique, but I don't know of one. After listening to all the ReMixes and having a good idea of the standards in 2002-2003, I just understood where the bar generally was and what kind of creativity and production quality was being looked for here. The best thing I can say is to be detail-oriented. Have some decent headphones (I'll never judge on anything but headphones.) They don't have to be overly expensive, but some generic earbuds can't help you pick out details. GrayLightning recommended me the Sennheiser HD497s a few years ago, and while a little bit trebbly, they're nonetheless excellent. I think they were $60. But I judged for maybe 1 year and some change on some $30 ones and got by. Writing down thoughts in a stream of consciousness always helps me, especially when I'm finding it difficult to articulate issues/problems. Even if what you wrote down isn't very organized, you'll have your thoughts out in front of you. Part of the benefits of having colleagues on the panel are that they can look at what you're thinking and possibly corroborate your POV. Definitely couldn't give a percentage on that, but often enough. Many YESs, they're objectively good, but I wouldn't put them on my iPod vs. other songs out there. That's not a slight against those tracks, but not everything can be a personal favorite just because it's well made. Then again, I don't actively dislike those tracks. I don't think I've ever encountered tracks I've hated that I've YESed, but rather I'm personally indifferent to them, even though I'm impressed as a judge. That being said, I liked maybe 1/3rd of the OCR's back in the 700s. Nowadays, the proportion is higher because the consistency from mix to mix is higher. I keep about 5% of the rejections I've encountered in a folder. I like 'em, I still listen to 'em. It's definitely a perk. There are a lot of decent NOs. Ha, that's funny. Good question. Nowadays, there are a lot fewer peeves, now that we've revised the submission standards. There used to be so many MIDI rips and files that would 404 because they were hosted on Putfile or whatever and expired in 7 days, before we could get to them. MIDI rips and uncreative covers have definitely gone down since the Standards were cleaned up a couple of months ago. Maybe the only one is when submitters who have forum accounts go "I have no idea what my forum ID # is". It's not hard to get the ID #. I'm #1211. Doesn't really matter, since I handle those details for the database anyway. If I think of something else, offhand, I'll let you know.

Glad you like the topic. I know Vigilante doesn't pay attention to names much, but it's specifically an effort to make himself more impartial. I'd be foolish to say that in the 6 years of the panel that not a single vote by a judge has gone one way or the other based on name. When you say "subconsciously" though, by definition, that's something we wouldn't pick up on. At the same time though, I don't feel like I've seen it in my 3 1/2 years on board. Honestly, if I could think of one where I really felt someone was biased, I'd point it out to you right now and link it. For me, I always look at the author. To me, it doesn't have any affect on my voting. At the end of the day, I pride myself on my objectivity. I've been in plenty of cases where I'm sure I've lost goodwill with people because I've NOed their material. Not that every group I'm gonna mention has had someone complain, but I've NOed past judges, future judges, current judges, old-school legends, music majors, and artists with professional music, film and game credits. You've just gotta go with your honest take on everything, I think that's much easier at the end of the day. I dunno how others feel, and can't speak for them, but I feel great knowing that I've been around so long and never been close to compromising my standards. It's also good to have colleagues where, if we disagree, they want to change your convictions, instead of wanting you to vote against your convictions. I've definitely felt conflicted before, certainly on name. I think NOing Mazedude and Mustin were some of the more difficult ones for me, in the sense that I'd hope they wouldn't get angry and not want to be involved in OCR, submitting, the community, etc. But I've never actually had it come down to actually going "well, I don't truly think it's a YES, but should I YES it?" I'm thankful I don't have those kind of moral dilemmas. When it comes to integrity vs. Hands Across America, I'd rather keep my integrity. Nah. If anything, NOing new/unposted artists that are close to passing should feel more difficult, in the sense that maybe they'll get frustrated and not stay involved in the community. But for me, it's not difficult. Much like dealing with established ReMixers, you just gotta vote even-handed and hope for the best in terms of the person's attitude. To get judged? Right now, it would vary from 2 weeks to 3 months. Just like in the Judge FAQ, it depends on a myriad of reasons. As soon as we hit Christmas last year, we all basically went on hiatus, and we're back to where were at before in terms of judging wait time. Even now, I haven't had the time to get back into it as much. That being said, I think we can pick it back up. When we have momentum, we start going through a lot of submissions at once. Wait time after acceptance? It's all on djp's schedule. It's a packed schedule. 2-3 months at least, AFAIK. We've got a pretty big posting queue of stuff ready and waiting to go up. Number of mixes waiting? Currently 24 that definitely could be posted any time right now, around 12 that are part of unreleased album projects and about 12 that need to be tweaked a bit before they're ready to be posted. Life. There's always going to be an excuse/reason why. Nowadays, djp's got so many irons in the fire, with the planning of the Street Fighter II HD Remix soundtrack, conventions, contests, interviews and real life with a girlfriend and job. So djp's gotta fit the posting of mixes into all that. That's really the only reason. Like Rama mentioned, song writeups aren't as easy as it looks, and stuff needs to get the proper spotlight time on the front page. But yeah, life. I would really love a streamlined enough system where we had stuff from the inbox to the frontpage in 2-3 weeks.

That's an interesting one, in that we really don't catalog what rejections get a more positive response or seem really close to passing. I've got no idea of a solid percentage where we have a consensus that things are pretty good, even though it's not a YES yet. Conservatively, I'd say maybe 5-7% of rejections, you either get a mix of YESs and the rest are positive NOs, or all of the NOs react encouragingly towards the track. Way fewer than I would like to see. In terms of resubs that pass, I'm fairly sure those make up less than 5% of all submissions. If anything, I'd love to know how many submitting artists actually read their decision threads. Out of 1800+ subs that I've voted on, I'm again just taking a stab, but I'm sure I've heard maybe 50 where IMO the artist only had to do pretty minor stuff, could have tweaked it, and it would have made it to the front page. I think the best example I can think of is way back when I started, we got a mix from Kailem: Tetris Attack "Poochy Meets Froggy DX". Kind of an unwieldy title, but the arrangement was excellent. Assuming you've now had a chance to read that decision, when we get situations like that, as much as some people like to claim we're production whores, we've been pretty lenient on stuff. (Zoltan Vegvari's Mega Man 3 "Intro Jazz" is the best example on that level.) But the mixing/balance was so terrible on "Poochy" that it got rejected. I really thought Kailem would work on it some more and send it back, but it never happened. A good example of someone actually following through would be Navij11's Kirby & The Amazing Mirror "Kirby's Mystical Mirror", the resub of which has yet to go up. Personally, I have 0 idea whether Jacob was mad at the initial rejection or whatever, but he did a great job of running with the criticisms and revising the arrangement to give it more substance while not needlessly overhauling it. We've had plenty of close ones where the artist, instead of just tweaking a couple of things, majorly changed what was there, and ended up moving backwards. Anyway, for me, I tend to say "resubmit" when a concept is promising but could use further development, even if I don't think the artist could easily get it to pass; there could certainly be a lot of issues. I'd rather see how much they can improve an already solid concept. "refine/resubmit", I'll use for stuff that I feel doesn't need too much more work to pass. The real gold to me though, I'll use "borderline". Any time I use that in any context, that's a pretty close one, and I would hope the artist didn't choose to call it a day.