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Some people might be surprised that I actually use a lot of presets in my music. I'm very capable at designing my own sounds and know my way around most kinds of synthesizers, but there's almost nothing more inspiring to me than picking up a beautiful analog patch from Omnisphere, or a gorgeous guitar instrument and just playing away. Sometimes, getting mired in programming kills my creativity, or I just spend hours on a patch that doesn't sound all that amazing to begin with.

Good games, Hawk! Would have played more, but I was making dinner. Hulk smash.

I agree with that, but only about the very most popular categories like "Album of the Year". The majority of categories, like the ones in the OP, are just voted on by the Grammy membership as a whole - most of whom are indie artists. For certain categories, like those Chris Tin won in last year, there are special craft committees (like a judges panel) that are composed of experts. NOT major label people, NOT major artists, but individuals in various cities across the country who are nominated by fellow members to the task. In the committees, the panelists listen to EVERY entry very methodically. So, it's very fair. On the other hand, with "Best Album", there are like 1000 entries and nobody listens to all of them, so people just vote on whatever they liked anyway. That's why that category is meaningless imo.

Haha. Well, I only brought that up because some people hate on Java and say it's not good for game development. I have more experience with Java (well, that and C#, which is like Microsoft Java) than anything else; it's cross-platform, powerful and there are a lot of libraries & tools built for it already.

As an update, I've now begun development on this as a personal project. I'm taking a very careful approach as I want to do things right, so I've tried to write out game designs and gameplay logic as descriptively as possible, along with UI sketches etc., so there's a clear picture of the roadmap for development. I've chosen Java with the LWJGL and Slick libraries to create the game (Java w/ LWJGL was used to create Minecraft, FYI!) and I'm working on setting up all the basic gameplay states and systems now. So far, I have a basic menu system, a tiled map and movable player sprite. It's something I'd like to develop the game further on my own before I bring it to Space Whale officially (though I'm keeping them updated on my progress), but if there's anyone familiar with Java (or especially LWJGL/Slick) and/or anyone interested in contributing art, please let me know. I'm willing to put forth some of my own money to create this game, or at least get it to the point where we can 'officially' develop it further

Feel free to elaborate. Any feedback is fine. But the main reason I'm posting is to ask who WOULD be interested - who likes this kind of thing, besides me. I know a lot of people would NOT be interested

Torquemada, you don't play World of Warcraft on Gorefiend, do you? There was a player by that name when I used to play.

At the same time, all-text IS definitely less accessible. It's so much easier to click on an inventory item or dialog option than to literally type in everything you want to do. That being said, text RPGs were my thing back in the day. It's just a matter of accessibility. So just to talk a little bit about the kind of depth to expect, I've been planning out how you can interact with NPCs. Every NPC will have an intelligence level (mindless, primal, sentient) as well as a host of personality attributes, like "aggressive", "cold", "dominating", "paranoid", etc. These attributes will influence how they behave toward the player. The player will be able to do just about anything with the NPC, from basic conversation, to threatening them, stealing or planting items stealthily, donating items or money, healing/curing (or attacking!), bribing, requesting (or commanding) them to follow, attack, give money, etc... and NPCs will have most of these options as well. It's entirely feasible that you could enter a town, bluff about your weaponry or abilities and convince the guard to give you his money, then give a hobo all the money you've earned and have HIM plant an item on someone else (removing any suspicion from you.) Stuff like that.

OK, so based on this (and Twitter), simple graphics would be better. Think old-school PC game like Ultima, or the aforementioned Castle of the Winds, or even the graphical version of Nethack. Absolutely nothing fancy. Any other thoughts?

Simple as that. I've been discussing this with people in Space Whale and we're not sure if anyone would really care for such a game. Personally, I think it would be a lot of fun, and it hasn't really been done before. Doing it using text & ASCII (or VERY simple graphics) ensures that there can be a very large scope without being impossible to make. Part of the appeal of games like Fallout 1 and 2, as well as the older Elder Scrolls games, is the ability to basically do what you want. Build your character how you want, explore an unbelievably massive world, impact events, etc. I would be interested in making a game like this again, focusing on insane depth (should the player choose to explore it) and multiple non-combat options and proficiencies, as opposed to games like Nethack which are pure dungeon crawlers with a largely combat focus. Think about all we've learned from decades of awesome RPGs, and all the things we yearn to see in modern RPGs that many consider watered down (lack of choice, linear/cheesy plot, small worlds, not enough to do.) Would you sacrifice fancy graphics in exchange for all that stuff again in a NEW game?

My first real influences as a new remixer were McVaffe and Disco Dan, along with various Japanese arrangers. Other artists on the site that influenced me as time went on included AE, Digimatic, tefnek (in a big way, particularly my original music), Tyler Heath/unknown, Beatdrop, Joshua Morse, Starblast and djp. Old school. As for non-OCR influences, too many to really enumerate, but a quick list would be Weather Report (fusion jazz stuff), Crystal Method, Prodigy, Chemical Brothers and Pendulum (electronic) and Danny Elfman (orchestral).

Yeah, I get the importance of push blocking for the rushdown, but when they can just teleport to either side, it's SO easy to get crossed up unless you have almost perfect reaction time. I just don't know how to go on the offense.

How do you deal with pressure from characters like Dante or Wesker? Their ability to teleport behind them is pretty powerful, especially vs. keepaway characters like Dormammu. I have no idea what to do against them except for hope that they mess up a combo.

Oddly enough, I haven't been able to play Ranked or Player matches in days. Every time I try to join, I get a "Failed to join game session" error message. But playing people on my friends list? No problem. It's weird.

Yeah, I'm up for playing more as well. Still trying to find more characters that I really like to play... I was liking Chun at first, but it's too easy to trigger her lightning legs and mess up combos. Hsien-Ko is interesting too. For now though, my top characters are Magneto, Sentinel, Hulk, Haggar and Dormmamu, and I'm somewhat proficient with Morrigan, Storm, Iron Man, Wolverine and Ryu.

Those tips don't really have anything to do with guitar sequencing though. You're talking more about synthesizing a guitar sound, which is a waste of time when there are good samples out there. Things like string physics and harmonics aren't really relevant at all. Here are the things that are most important, and which people most commonly get wrong: 1. Release noises. When playing guitar, there is a lot of fret noise and squeaking going on. Furthermore, when a note is stopped manually, there's a little bit of noise from that, too. 2. Related to #1, unless you're FULLY sustaining a note, don't use a release envelope. The note should basically stop suddenly since, as I said, real players will mute notes before they ring out fully. 3. Palm mute playing. Many people ignore the use of muted notes (palm mutes) entirely, so their sequenced guitar sounds awful. 99% of the time, your guitar riff is going to use some kind of muting, not just open strings. So watch for that. 4. Realistic rhythms. Listen to classic rock and metal riffs. So many people write these plain quarter-note guitar parts that no real guitarist would play simply because they lack any rhythmic interest whatsoever. That's a major giveaway of sequenced guitar, beyond the samples and other production values. Write good parts!

Give me a YouTube/mp3 example of what you mean; we have full neck slides and pick scrapes, so I think that's what you're talkign about.

Yeah, we've had requests for a library capable of lead playing too. It's a consideration ("Shreddage 2") but for now, I think the next thing in the family of Shreddage libraries would be a metal bass. Thanks for the kind words!

Nope, all the guitars in those demos are 100% Shreddage X only (with external drums etc of course.)

New guitar library expansion pack feat. Sixto! The wait is over! After 6+ months of development, many broken strings and blistered fingers, we bring you... SHREDDAGE X: Electric Guitar Samples Reloaded Shreddage X is an expansion to the megahit DI electric guitar library Shreddage, which we released in early 2010. As we pored over countless emails, forum posts and Facebook comments about what people wanted to see in future versions, we decided that a simple patch would not be enough. We needed to go deeper. And I think we might have gotten a little carried away. With 1,000 24-bit WAV samples, Shreddage X is actually bigger than the original library, though it's available for only $20 to owners of the original, and $69 as a complete bundle. Features: * New articulation: vibrato (previously, only included as pinch squealed vibrato) * New articulation: harmonics (traditional, not pinch harmonics) * New articulation: tremolo picking (a metal must-have) * New articulation: hard sustain picks (very aggressive, great for staccatos) * Single note release stop samples (again, great for staccatos) * True recorded slides up to and down from each note, single notes AND powerchords * Hammered legato * Script controls to tweak legato timing to your taste * Drop tuning down to Ab (the "A" is for "Armageddon") * New mapping to incorporate all this great new stuff - and yet, still no need for any keyswitches or complex CC mapping * Kontakt 4 native (full version of K4 required) As you can see, we didn't play around with this one. The combination of Shreddage and Shreddage X makes for a complete rock and metal riff arsenal. Just check out the library page and listen for yourself to the demos: http://impactsoundworks.com/products/instrumental/shreddage/shreddage-x "Rock the Dragon" - Classic 90s American import anime theme, Shreddage-style. Shows off a number of new articulations. "The Fire and the Fury" - Seriously fast and brutal metal riffing here (original song by Firewind.) "Self vs. Self" - Mockup of a Pendulum feat. In Flames track. Showcases higher harmony playing with multiple amps and new articulations! "Descent Into Darkness" - Composed by Robert Santolupo, a VERY dark + heavy track with quad-tracked amp work. Of course, all this would be useless if it were hard to use. We're releasing multiple video tutorials showcasing tips and techniques for the library, starting with a 15-minute overview that demonstrates the new articulations and how to use them. So check it out, enjoy, and as always, let us know what you think! (Want to learn more about the original library? Check out the original post below:)

What is a triangle jump? Forward jump, airdash down at a diagonal? And then what's the infinite?

So I'm curious, what's the most effective way to use Magneto? He's got a great beam and a great throw, sure, but his normals seem to have really bad range.

Ha, I knew it. I KNEW they were going to do MMX as DLC.

I'm surprised some people here have been having trouble online. I'm really not that good, but I have about 70-80% win rate (admittedly, I've only played about 15-20 ranked matches.) It's been a ton of fun.

Awesome project, and of course, for a great cause. Even though I only spent 16 days in Japan on my first trip there 2 months ago, I feel like I could go back anytime and feel, at least in part, at home. So many good memories. Jill and I were both just shocked at the damage wrought by these natural disasters, so I'm glad I'm able to help out in even a small way.