Arrow

THE DAMNED KNOWS WHAT'S UP, YO
(super stoked to get this, and straight from a Japanese seller even; thanks man!)

Just as a heads-up, DJP wants issues with the new forum upgrade to be reported in the Community thread specifically for it, over at http://ocremix.org/community/topic/42360-notice-forums-upgraded-to-ips-41x-report-issues/.  Makes it easier to tackle all the resultant issues in one spot.

So basically, the same voice cast they've used for everything FFVII-related that had voices since then.  Can't hate that; said cast has been pretty solid over the years.  Wonder if that will hold true for the English cash as well?  It sounded like Steve Burton again as Cloud, but I couldn't tell if that was still Beau Billingslea as Barret or not.  Definitely looking forward to a few more tidbits of Rick Gomez, though.  His stuff in Crisis Core was a joy to listen to.

Just some thoughts about FFVII being multi-part.
A couple of years ago, Square Enix released the MMO Final Fantasy XIV. The game tanked hard because of a myriad of technical and game design flaws. It was so bad that Square Enix pulled the game offline and reworked the entire thing. They eventually released FFXIV: A Realm Reborn, which has been a very successful game for them.
A lot of the post-mortem talks about this game focused on the staff at Square Enix learning that they needed to shift the culture surrounding Final Fantasy games at the company to something that was more in tune with the player-base. SQEX has long been known as a studio that makes beautiful looking games, and that art culture was part of the reason the original FFXIV did so poorly. One example was flower pots in the game having just as many polygons as a player characters; this kind of hyper-detailed rendering of environment objects led the developers to limiting the number of visible player characters in-game, which made the game look pretty but empty, which is not what you want in an MMO. The failure of FFXIV caused the company to reevaluate their priorities, and they're much more interested in listening to the player base. The director of Final Fantasy XIV is still apologizing to players all these years later because he realized how important it was to make a player-centric game.
A great example of this culture-shift is Final Fantasy XV's Episode Duscae "demo." The game isn't coming out for a while, but Square Enix has this sample game that they've released that players are playing and reacting to. The developers are using this as a kind of beta for the game in order to influence design decisions. They want to get an idea of what players want, need, and like so they can calibrate the experience of the final game accordingly.
I think that this culture-shift is part of the reason they're taking a multi-part approach to Final Fantasy VII. I think they're going to release the first part, look at the feedback and player reactions, and take that on board in order to improve each new entry in the series. See what things players like, see what they don't. I think that the gameplay throughout the series of releases is going to evolve based on what players say.

Funny story.

I asked Beth a while ago who her Secret Santa was and she didn't tell me who. Wonderful thing after a long day... I found a package in front of my door. I was so excited to see who it was from. Seconds later I could not stop laughing.

Trying to find the gift was an adventure. I honestly believed she trolled me until I ripped the damn thing apart. haha

I found this:




Not going to lie. This made me cry like a baby...but that's not surprising, right? I've always been the emotional one. Getting the gift made it harder not to go to MAGFest. Unfortunately I had to cancel it. Thank you for this, Beth. I had no idea you could make such a beautiful thing. I'll definitely wear it to MAG 2017. I promise. In the meantime I'll take care of these. I love them. I can't wait for gift #2.

Post-MAG Edit

----------------------
It's a week and a half away from MAGClassic, but that won't stop me from making a thread for...
MAGFEST 2016
As usual, this is the most awesome gaming event on the east coast, and if you're in the area come February, you'd better not miss it.
Gaylord National Hotel and Convention Center 201 Waterfront Street National Harbor, MD 20745 Feb 18 - 21, 2016  
http://magfest.org - Learn about the awesomeness! https://prime.uber.magfest.org/uber/preregistration/ - Get your ticket to the awesomeness! http://magfest.org/bookhotel - Reserve your hotel room for the awesomeness!  The Gaylord sold out of MAG hotel rooms super quick (less than 48 hours, really), but there's several backup hotels in the immediate area. http://schedule.magfest.org/ - Your schedule of what awesomeness is going on when! https://groupme.com/join_group/3317072/y8RJP0 - GroupMe chat for general awesomeness discussion! https://groupme.com/join_group/19335832/Vpnh2h - GroupMe chat for when you want to find someone to eat awesome meals with!  
If you're coming, reply in the thread so I can add you to the giant list below.
OCR-Relevant Panels and Concerts
OC ReMix: We Know Video Game Music is Awesome - Panels 3: Sat 1-2:30pm HOW I CAN MAKE VIDEO GAME MUSIC REMIXES?!? (presented by OC ReMix) - Panels 3: Sat 7-8:30pm Attendees
Arrow Bahamut Beatdrop DarkeSword DetectiveTuesday Diodes + Jeremy DragonAvenger Dralzna DrumUltimA Esperado FenixDown Geoffrey Taucer Jenner kitty Kizyr LuIzA Neblix nOkbient Nonamer OA Pipez q-pa RealFolkBlues Sagnewshreds sephfire SirChadlyOC TeraCMusic theshaggyfreak VinnyMac wildfire XPRTNovice YoshiBlade zykO  
Planning on Attending
n/a  
Looking for a Room
kitty q-pa  
Offering a Room
n/a

Now that you've gotten part 1 of your gift, please reply to my Steam friend request so I can give you part 3!

I have no idea when you'll get part 2 in the mail, other than "before Christmas". 

I got my sister and her husband both an oppai t-shirt for Christmas, if they don't ask what oppai means I'm not even gonna say

I forgot to mention that Rexy gave me several games on Steam from my wishlist!
Super Time Force Ultra, Guacamelee! Gold Edition, and Half Minute Hero: The Second Coming
Unfortunately I have been in a crazy time crunch & am currently in DC for the week (and in Orlando the next two), but I will carve out some time in January to play these games . Thanks Rexy, looking forward to the second half of the bonanza!

I received my gift from Koriantor!
I got my first and only Amiibo, of the best SSB character, Zero Suit Samus! I'm levelling her up to be an unstoppable smash machine. My son James has an amiibo too, so we will have them battle it out, starting at level 1, and see who's will be the ultimate champion.
Thank you Koriantor!

zircon made me start watching this anime, and after I'd finished just one episode, I couldn't stop; had to watch all the rest to date ASAP.

Apparently the show will only last 12 episodes? (with some OVAs)  Which makes me really sad, but I'm assuming it's an Attack on Titan-type situation, and a second season will eventually be made once the manga's made enough source material for it.  Which... will probably take another year or two at the least.  

If you missed the first episode of Season 13 of the new podcast (which aired right before MAGClassic) converted from my similarly styled FM radio show, as part of my continued support of Video Game Music and OverClocked ReMix I will be sending Beatdrop to ‪MAGFest 2016‬!!

Finally throwing my hat into the ring on the making side rather than the playing one.
 
Eversion: FD0B-0000-005B-0E90
 
If you've played the indie platformer by the same name, you have some idea of what to expect, though obviously this Mario-based take on it is far less terrifying in the upper numbers.

Shout-out to Jarel Jones aka Arrow for creating midis for a ton old games years ago:
 

Introduction
You've just completed your archaeology degree. You're about to take your experience into the field, where your daily life will include whipping living mummies, breaking ancient pottery, jumping out of airplanes, dodging spikes, and stealing priceless golden artifacts from Nazis before they can use them to take over the world. It's a dangerous job, but you live for thrills, fame, and riches (and, to a lesser extent, the study of past human civilization). Regardless, you're going to need some background music.
 
Sources
Definitely approved: La-Mulana, Tomb Raider, 1001 Spikes, Uncharted, Indiana Jones (no tunes from the movies).
If you have a different idea, we’re open to other sources. The protagonist of the game needs to be an archaeologist or archaeology-related adventurer primarily; if the character often fills various other roles, their games are not currently eligible (i.e. Mario, who only occasionally appears as an archaeologist). If you’re wondering whether a certain game will be an appropriate choice, listen to the soundtracks listed above and see how well your idea fits in thematically. Check the tracklist or ask one of us for specific recommendations.
 
Style
Mysterious temples, heart-pounding action, and everything in between. World instruments and/or influences are highly recommended, but not required. You can be totally serious, you can be a little silly, just keep it in the theme of adventure, exploration, danger, wonder, etc...
 
Deadlines
On an individual basis, we'd like to hear from people once a month until they're done. That could mean an extra minute of arrangement, a tweaked snare, or an occasional "my whole family fell to the mummy's curse and I didn't get a chance to work on it." If you don't show any progress or cannot be contacted for three months in a row, we'll remove you from the claims list, though you can come back if your source is still open. We'll work out final deadlines once the project is well on its way; it's possible you'll never have to worry about it.
 
Claims
To claim a source, send Hylian Lemon or Mr. Bottle Rocket a private message describing how you plan to approach the arrangement. If you aren't a posted remixer, we'll need some recent examples of your work first. Make sure you're ready to get started on your track at the time of your claim.
 
Goal
Official OCR status
 
Other Notes
This project is headed by myself and Hylian Lemon, don't hesitate to contact us about any doubts or updates you may have!
 
Tracklist
View it through our Google Document.

Was honestly disappointed this wasn't a topic about https://soundcloud.com/zeb-ro/hashtag

Was honestly disappointed this wasn't a topic about https://soundcloud.com/zeb-ro/hashtag

I'm kind of peeved at the date requirement, but I thought about it, and going with the default junk on each available day does give me time to flex my level design muscles and try to slowly teach myself how to make good levels, rather than atrociously hard levels (or just outright bad ones), without overwhelming myself with options.  So I think I'll take it slow and follow the limits.

Laura Shigihara tweeted yesterday that she's gonna be on this album.  I was already super excited, but that just clinches it even more.

You're only saying that cause you can take your shirt off and make everyone in the waterpark, man and woman both, immediately swoon.

A fantastic mix!

...which went uncontested through the compo because they were up against me that week, and my hard drive just completely died, so I couldn't even work on a mix, let alone turn one in.  DQ'd instantly, and so they moved on.
 
But if I had submitted something, I don't think I would've had a chance to beat them.  This mix is just way too good.

Just a heads-up, but yes, we really are getting Cloud in a dress in HD.

Clear, irrefutable evidence that this is a real thing!
 

It's unfortunately an either/or thing, and I personally prefer the auto-embedding. In fact, I want to enable SoundCloud embedding as well - I think folks will get a lot of use out of it.
 
Ideally this would be a user preference, and users could choose to disable auto-embedding based on their personal preferences. Hopefully such functionality will eventually be available to us, but until then, my inclination is to leave auto-embedding enabled.
 
 
Unfortunately, this does not appear to be an option.
 
 
There's still a limit - we've bumped it up to 300.
 
It also seems that IPB just does private messages a bit differently, and that the conversion script may have had to make some guess/compromises based on differences between how vBulletin did things and how IPB does things.
 
 
Working on this as it is rather critical/core functionality. Shouldn't take too long!
 
 
That's been fixed as of today, though certain areas within vBulletin are still accessible. We won't be removing it completely until we see which areas are still getting hit by users/search engines/etc. and decide where best to redirect that traffic.
 
Thanks to all for chiming in with feedback & issues - please continue to do so!
 
And yes, I know change is rough for some of you. Takes me awhile to adapt as well. 2015 is going to bring still more change to the site, so it's not over. Hopefully, by the time the year is out, we'll be fully modernized & stable and you can then safely get used to things with the expectation of longer-term consistency. Until then, it's going to be a relatively bumpy ride, and your patience & tolerance for change is appreciated. We'll do everything we can to make sure issues are addressed, and (staff can vouch for me), this migration was something that chewed up a lot of my personal time and that I prepared for extensively.