Darangen

Does sound good. Could I get a decent sound out of ewqlso silver? My current budget is about $250 so the gold or platinum is out of reach at the moment.

I'm getting in to a lot of symphonic rock type stuff, but I'm not a huge fan of my current samples. Can anyone familiar with the style recommend a good/decent library that fits symphonic rock well? The library doesn't have to be super-realistic, but the more realistic the better obviously.

You got my hopes up by bumping this thread. No bueno!

It's sounding pretty good. I usually don't worry about mixing and mastering until my arrangement is flushed out and I'm recording my final takes, but each person does that differently. I recently watched zircon do some stuff on his stream and he does his production as he goes. Just make sure you add more arrangement if you plan on submitting it here. Sure you know that already though.

It's good to see Battletoads getting some love! Especially from Mazedude!

She mentioned that she wanted to be able to print it and have someone play it, so there wouldn't be needless hours spent fine tuning velocities and timings to make it sound like a human is playing it.

Moseph hit all the major points pretty well. The most important thing to keep in mind is making sure the notes are reachable with just two hands. I'd suggest watching some youtube videos of people playing some similar styles to what you're trying to write so you have an idea of hand placements and phrasing. Listening to track you linked it looks like you're on the right path.

And that's why I left before, and why I'll leave again.

To clarify, the point of asking the girls in the restaurant was not to OK the obvious sexualization of women in video games, but rather to verify my theory that said sexualization is not what keeps most women from playing video games. Of the 9, 3 said they play regularly and the other 6 said they don't play or haven't played in a very long time so they probably fit into your guarantee of not picking up a game since age 10. I do understand, or at least I think I do, where you're coming from. Being around age 30 myself, my little sister who's a year younger went through a similar childhood that you described. She liked video games, only rpg's really, but was always pressured by mom to pick up a barbie or play with hair or talk on the phone or whatever. It's not right, and hopefully current and future generations can fix those issues. Thanks for posting, this topic needs real female input. I didn't see Irish post, but I'll go back and read it over.

Sexism, also known as gender discrimination or sex discrimination, is defined as prejudice or discrimination based on sex; or behavior, conditions, or attitudes that foster stereotypes of social roles based on sex. Sexism is a form of discrimination or devaluation based on a person's sex, with such attitudes being based on beliefs in traditional stereotypes of gender roles. The term sexism is most often used in relation to discrimination against women, in the context of patriarchy. Sexism involves hatred of or prejudice towards a gender as a whole or the application of gender stereotypes. Sexism is often associated with gender-supremacy arguments. The only thing in that definition of sexism that refers to society is social roles. I'd hardly relate playing video games to being a role, it's a hobby. A role is more of a duty or obligation. I don't see video game developers discriminating against females when they're making their games, they're just usually developed with a male audience in mind - not against women, just towards men. The way girls are treated by PEOPLE in certain communities is not a reflection of the video games themselves. The people making and marketing the games are not the people treating female gamers poorly. That's a community problem, not a development/marketing problem. I'm going to go ahead and bow out of this discussion for now and just spectate. It's become evident to me that evidence isn't really accepted here and when you exile evidence you can't have an honest and open debate. As a result it's become a circular argument that's based on ideas instead of facts. If the tone changes and evidence is accepted into the discussion I may return.

I don't think anyone here has argued that society doesn't have a role in regards to girls and video games. I've never denied that myself at least. What I have argued is that sexism (read: the portrayal of women in video games) is not a significant contribution to the reason girls don't play games.

You're completely right, just like I stated in this post in this thread about how I assume that society has no influence whatsoever.

I didn't say they will never say it's because of sexism, I said none of them have said it. See the difference there? Finding one girl who's bothered by something doesn't mean that every girl is bothered by it. With my real life test results it shows that those who are repelled by it are in the vast minority. And like Darke just said, the girls who are bothered by it probably already play video games, so it's not what's keeping them away. What I'm saying and have been saying all along is it's because games are usually marketed towards males. Just like make-up is marketed towards females, you don't see many guys rushing to the store to pick up some eye-liner. Which brings me to Zircons point that the most likely solution to the "problem" is to get more females involved in the creation of games so that they're made with an appeal for women as well. You also need to start taking my posts into context when quoting them as well. When I said they're definitely not because of sexism I was referring to the 10 girls I asked at chili's. Read the whole post.

I guess that anecdotes about how this one feminist blog post thinks that women in video games bothers them isn't valid evidence either then, right?

Except that every time I ask a real live woman the question, they never say it's because of sexism. Never. Ever. Go ask some yourself! Go to the supermarket, there's lots of women there. Hit up your waitress next time you're out. Ask your female cashiers, bank tellers etc. If you don't know how to open the conversation just tell them you're doing a survey about women and video games. 99% of women will be glad to participate. And be specific, mention sexism and ask them directly if that effects their choice to play or not to play video games. You can sit behind your computer and theorize all you want, but until you actually go out and get real results then you're just blowing smoke out of your rear.

There's no doubt in my mind that if they made games geared toward women that more women would start playing games. As Darkesword already pointed out, games like Dragon Age are doing just that. What I don't believe (and is supported every time I ask a girl the question) is that they don't play games because of the way they portray women. They types of games out there just don't interest many women, or the women who don't play games just aren't aware of some of the games like Dragon Age that they might enjoy if they took the time to give it a shot. It's like a food preference really. I hate olives. Why? Because at a younger age I tried them and disliked the taste. Do I still dislike olives today? Yes. But is that because I already decided years ago that I didn't like them or is it because I haven't had enough dishes with olives in them to realize that there might be a situation where I do like olives? I'm pretty sure if I gave each dish a fair shot I'd eventually find one that I wouldn't mind having olives in. Hasn't happened yet though.

Did you not read the rest of the post? It's definitely NOT because of sexism.

I went to chili's last night with my sister and saw a table of 9 girls. Because of this discussion, I decided to go up and ask them some questions about video games and sexism. - I asked them if they do or have ever played video games. 3 of them said they either have played or do play video games. - I asked the 3 what kinds of games they played/play, they were mostly rpg's, but one of the three plays call of duty online regularly. I asked why the one plays call of duty, she said because her boyfriend got her into it. - I then asked the remaining 7 why the didn't play video games and got a buffet of responses which include but are not limited to: They're boring, I don't have time to play games, I have better things to do, I don't understand them, They're a waste of time, I don't have a playstation/xbox/wii/gaming pc, it just doesn't interest me, and so on. Not one of them said they did not play video games because they're sexist. Since none of them brought up sexism, I decided to bring it up myself by blatantly asking if they thought video games were sexist. None of them thought they were. I asked the two who played rpg's if the female characters in the games bothered them or made them uncomfortable. One said only a little, the other was fine with it. To take it a step further, I asked the 7 who didn't play games if female characters with oversized breasts and unrealistic body shapes would deter them from playing games in the future. They all said no. Now, I realize this is just 9 girls in a random town, 10 including my sister who games regularly and doesn't think games are sexist, but every time I bring this up with women I usually always get the same responses. Sexism isn't what's driving/keeping girls away from gaming. A lot of them just aren't into it.

When they do that I intentionally start expecting them to always open the door for me, vocally if they forget.

A little reverb here and there helps glue the guitars together a bit. That goes for bass too, even the kick. Not drowning it or anything, but you do want to create some space and atmosphere.

I'll respond to that because I'm one of the people who made the insinuation in a round-about way. Even though I didn't really say there weren't a lot of gamer girls. There are definitely lots of girls who play games, and that number grows daily, but taking the amount of guys that play games and doing a comparison - relatively speaking there aren't as many girls playing games. I think it's largely a generational thing as well, where girls who are now in there 30's or so grew up when Nintendo was just starting their video game lines. It wasn't as popular then and as a result there aren't many gamer chicks around that age group or older. Then fast forward to today where you have iphones and androids everywhere and technology is really boomed, this generation is growing up with an already saturated market and it's a bit more socially acceptable for girls to play video games. And now some of those older girls are jumping in to the gaming world as well because of games that you mentioned like Dragon Age and whatnot. Not that it was ever socially unacceptable for girls to game. Just wasn't as common.

Are you allowed to be offended? Sure. Being offended doesn't automatically justify the demonization of what offended you though. I could be offended by people wearing their hats backwards. Does that mean I should get weirded out when people are dismissive about it? Or should I accept that my views aren't, and shouldn't be required to be everyone elses view as well?

This. Unless you're attracted to males (which is fine) you can't really say what is attractive and isn't attractive when it comes to the male physiology. And unless you want to say that girls who have breast implants and/or show off their cleavage and/or stand with their hips stuck out are sexist, I don't see your point.

That doesn't explain why companies should put less attractive females in their games. Close your eyes and picture a girl. Was she attractive? If so, you're a sexist. Yes, that's a ridiculous argument that isn't true. However, that's what I'm seeing from the arguments in this thread.

You do know that women who are strong don't necessarily have huge arms, right? Sure, some do, but not all or many from my knowledge. Is it realistic to see a lady with twig arms slinging around a great sword? Probably not. But again, this is a fantasy world we're talking about where wearing a necklace gives you +10 strength. A fantasy world where you can get shot with 20 arrows and still be alive and drinking a potion restores you to perfect health in a matter of nanoseconds. A fantasy world where you can jump a distance usually equal, if not greater, to your personal height. Let's face it, there's a huge difference of what is called for in a fantasy world compared to what it would actually require in reality. Kratos has an ugly mug, sure. He's also ripped, chiseled, and a bad-ass. Would the story be different if he was a pretty-boy? Probably not. I agree with you there. Look at Queen Brahne from FF9, she's pretty hideous.