Gario

I don't think it was, in all honesty. We just don't see as much of you as we'd all like, and we miss you.

This is blissful. I love this guy!

So far no one else claimed Jewel Man. I think I'm safe.

Certainly, if you want to have the music posted as apart of the flood - just be sure to specify that it's a part of the album in the e-mail.

I think I'll be able to join in this time around - I'll start getting really rusty if I don't join in a compo like this soon, lol. 1) Jewel Man 2) Napalm Man 3) Top Man 4) Flash Man 5) Flame Man I think SuperiorX and Amphibious want me to join them, so I'll be tagging along with those nubs for this compo. EDIT: Changed my top pick to Jewel Man. Never was able to play 9 or 10, but goddamn that song is bitchin'.

Designing a console that wrecks havoc on your primary business model would seem to be a very good reason for me. I've been to a few other more local retailers and they're all claiming that they'll refuse to sell XBox One games, as well, for the same reason. There's virtually no money in it for them, as it stands, so there's no reason to support the system.

Haa, Coop finally gave me an official Nice Guy Birthday. I am officially a member of this community, now. Also thanks everyone - it's always awesome to see a birthday thread on here for me Happy birthday to you too, Cheranbogue!

Close. If PS4 teabagged XB1 at the end of the video it would've been perfect.

Mario Kart meets New Gen meets Diddy Kong Racing. I can't say I can complain about this game, at all.

Oh, so you can download the games digitally, and limited access to the account is possible for friends? The system might have some prospects yet, but the burn it suffered through on the reveal might have caused it irreversable damage already. We'll see, I suppose.

You know? Xbox One could probably get a great audience and succeed if it went balls out and just went 100% digital download. I know some people don't have internet speeds to justify it, but it's actually reasonable to market to that group, considering it needs to be online to work, anyway (at least once a day). Digital only would give enough convenience and justification to closing the used market (considering it would be impossible to trade, anyway). Forcing a disk download AND requiring internet verification, downloading the game to the system, etc, it just doesn't make sense - go one way or the other, but not in between.

My handle? Depends on who you ask. If you ask Archaon... If you ask me, though, it's a name my oldest brother gave an avatar that represents me in a game he's made (or making - it's an eternal labor of love). It's a good ol' play on the name 'Greg' and 'Mario'. Simple enough. Bonus points for those that remember those PM's from Archaon way back when.

MOD REVIEW Ah, workin' on breaking my personal record of most source references in a single track, eh? I like that. You've got the right idea arrangement-wise, too - make something that sounds like a song in it's own right, and not something that is laying out sources like as if to say "Hey, I've got a bunch of sources in this!!". I like. The soundscape is sexy, and it really does work, arrangement-wise. I feel, though, that the high end gets pretty crowded in this track. I mean, it's full, but it just sounds like overall the high spectrum of the song has too many sounds crowding it (the snare + tons of background instruments). You may want to look into getting some low passes on a lot of the instruments + the snare. That's really my only gripe here, though - this song would have no issue for being a medley. I'd say clean up that high end and you'd be good to go on this one. Nice work!

How easy is it, exactly, to use my webcam from another location? I would like to get startled, or at least learn the secrets of using other people's webcams against them.

12/16, 4/4, 12/16, 4/4, 6/16 (gotta be consistent with the last number, there - that's how the beats work), 4/4. It then proceeds to repeat that pattern throughout. Due to the accents of the song it makes more sense to think of it as a series of simpler time signatures than it does to combine them into larger time signatures. 6/8 doesn't work, since that would mean you'd literally be doubling the tempo of the music once you got to the 4/4 portions - a 16th subdivision makes more sense. Even in the more complicated sections it still works as combinations of 12/16 + 4/4; it just sounds more complicated because of the lead above the drums.

Yeah, I got that point. It's even mentioned in the quote that you noted - I was simply saying it had no bearing on the point I was making. Oh no, I wouldn't argue that making such a decision will devastate Microsoft (and rightly so). I'm arguing against Darkesword's point that abolishing used games would lower the new games market price. Taking out used games then knocking a little bit off of the new game price isn't going to soften the blow at all for customers, You can't claim new games would ever come anywhere near used game pricing - producing, marketing, publishing, licensing, shipping, retail... these costs need to be covered profitably, because of which I suspect people looking for games to be sold new at the 19.99 - 29.99$ mark will be sorely disappointed. The people that would've already have bought the game will be happier, while the used gamers will feel ripped off - it's honestly a likely lose/lose situation for Microsoft to reduce their prices. EDIT AGAIN BECAUSE I CAN'T SLEEP RIGHT NOW: You know what? Mirby's link points something else out that kind of strikes hard at the heart of it. Used sales affect no other business than the games industry, it seems. Don't people think that it's more that the game industry is the only one who could exploit opportunities to remove this market, so they're demonizing it before they remove it completely? Piracy, I understand - that's a unique problem that digital media has to deal with. A used market is something virtually all markets need to deal with, yet the only one that it making it out to be evil is the market that can uniquely implement measures to prevent it from happening anymore. Makes me think people are not only getting the shaft, but that they're also being led to believe that it's going to be a good thing in the end without realizing that it was never a bad thing.

I honestly do not know how this means that Microsoft or the publishers get any profit from used game sales. Yes, the game had to be purchased initially, and I understand that there is a pricing system that most items normally experience once they're in the 'used' category, but unless I'm mistaken Microsoft and the publishers do not get a cent of the used game transaction, considering it's considered the property of the person who bought it. In the case of residual value, to my understanding that only applies either when an item has an expiration date (like a perishable) or when the item has been taken off the lot (like, say, a game). If a game was created two years ago but was stocked in storage by the publisher then they would still very likely sell it at full price. Whether a retailer would like to see that game hanging on their shelf for a long period of time is a whole different story, but the retailer selling the game at a loss at that point has little to no affect on Microsoft or publisher (save for the fact that retailers may not hold the game anymore...). My point was that abolishing used game sales will only deter people who were buying the game used in the first place, which doesn't affect Microsoft's bottom line negatively at all. If people were comfortable buying games new already there's no reason they would be affected by the price point of a game remaining the same once used games are off the market. Hell, because there would be no options left (e.g. the market would be more or less monopolized), the used game purchasers will likely purchase a game or two new (probably not too many of them would, being used to purchasing games at low prices), so this action could even mean strict profit for Microsoft. CLOSING NINJA NOTE: For people still thinking that closing out the used games front will affect new game prices, why were games before used games always ~40-60$ anyway? Accounting for inflation, that's considerably more than games are being charged for today, and prices stayed relatively fixed (or even arguably decreased) during the reign of Gamestop and Walmart.

Um, actually because of the fact that used games don't go into the developer's pockets at all, merely shutting down the operation would lead to a significant increase of profits due to the monopolization of the market, even if they kept their prices the same. At worst, they'd be breaking even (I'd be banking on the first option, though), but there would be absolutely no loss, as you're implying. I understand why they might (might) lower prices (if that brought in a larger profit than normal - which it might not, if the prices don't recoup production costs with the increased sales), but to assume less people would buy a new game because the used game market went under doesn't make too much logical sense.

Pretzel, you sound like the kind of person who'd enjoy something like the g-factor in human intelligence (by Spearman) - go look it up, it's very fascinating (if completely irrelevant to this discussion here), and it would be nice to be able to have a civil discourse on it sometime. BACK ON TOPIC, THOUGH: To my understanding (and to Anika's credit), the videos seem less to be about the evils of these things in video games, per se, and more about asking the question of why these things are prevalent in gaming, in general. To people getting upset that she's either attacking gaming in general, or that she's not giving suggestions on how to fix the problem in gaming I believe are missing the point of her videos, which is to show concrete examples of how sexism in a broad sense has influenced gaming. In that context I still think she refuses to consider any fact that could provide an alternative to her feminist position (of which there are a few, including how the market stagnation prevents people from branching out), but quite a few arguments on here seem to be attacking a position that she isn't presenting, in the first place.

That SFX is fire? Yeah, it's actually fine to use it, but it needs to be clear that it's fire (moment of silence dedicated to establishing the SFX, mixing the volume so it balances with the music, etc.). You could also remove it, if you don't feel it adds all that much to the track. When it comes to being conservative, your track is very much a borderline case - I was having a hard time giving it a 'yay' or 'nay' response. What tipped that scale for me, though, is the fact that the actual arrangement plays out almost measure-by-measure, from what I was hearing, with an intro and ending. Like I mentioned before, there are some parts in it that break up the arrangement (like that moment at 1:00) that make it stand out (which helps a lot), so it isn't like it's a cover, or anything. That, in combination of the instrumentation being very similar really does make this sound more like an enhancement of the original (which the site is more or less against). Since the instrument combination is very clean on your track, changing the arrangement up a touch is what I'm suggesting for the sake of submission - don't be afraid to not only add parts, but move parts around and perhaps even omit small sections to give the track some variety against the source. I'd like to emphasize that this is a very close call, though - don't think for a second that you have to do something extreme, like rearrange the entire track. Just make it so it doesn't synch up with it as much as it does now and I'd give it my 'O.K.' to be submitted to the site.

I found this video on the first topic presentation - sorry if it was presented before, but I actually think it vocalizes a lot of what I'm thinking about the series, so far.

There's also the issue that for PC games, Darkesword, there is virtually no more physical distribution, so I don't think that it's the lack of used games that drop the prices down, but more that there is virtually no retail expenses that need to be covered (and, in turn, being able to set your own prices to cover only your game and licencing costs). While I agree that prices will go down a little across the board (a little), I doubt you're going to get anything close to the steam/gog/PC dl'ing prices that you're referencing by merely abolishing the used game market.

MOD REVIEW I like the combination of sounds in this one - piano with pads + drums + bass - it just sounds so... right. Overall I find no production issues with this one, either, other than a consistent clicking in the background that occurs throughout the song (listen for it with headphones at the beginning or end of the track, you'll be able to hear it better). I think it'd be great to get rid of that artifact. Overall, while you bump the harmonies down to it's relative minor (while holding on to the melody's original key), I don't think the arrangement takes enough liberty with the source. I thought the variation that you made was great, and does add interest to the track overall, but otherwise as far as I can tell you follow the source pretty close. The instrumentation is very similar, and the structure is almost identical (if a little extended with the instrumentation). There is potential to stray from the source a little bit more than you have, here. While very nice, and this does have some great ideas I feel it's a little too conservative. It's very close, though - there are some items at the end that do help this stand out, as well as a short section at 1:00 that give this track some real flavor. Be willing to pull away from the source a little more in this track and clean the artifact that I mentioned up and I'd give this one the okay. Keep it up, and best of luck!

Actually, I do believe she says it's because it satisfies our male power fantasy a few times (Specifically at 2:58, if you want to hear it yourself in that context), which I personally think ignores the economic complications involved with taking risks. It's like I agree on most of the examples she brings up, as well as the fact that society as a whole has an affect on it, but the conclusions she draws ignores so many other factors that I can't take it seriously. I would need to see a presentation that's better documented, as well as the studies that show her statements to be true in order to take her conclusion on that seriously. Never have I agreed with you more.