CC Ricers Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 This is something I've been pondering about for a while. Maybe only since I've been visiting this place for 10 years now. If you look at the Internet Archives for the Mission Statement page in 2005, first if you're relatively new here you first might be surprised that this website didn't look too different back then. But to get to the important matter at hand, let's look at what it says on the page. The first two bullet points say: honor and appreciate the often-overlooked men and women who write quality music for a medium that is too frequently considered to be "disposable"revive older game music that is every bit as 'musical' (if not moreso) than today's more complex redbook audio scores - to open the ears and eyes of generations that missed the days of 8 and 16-bit and grew up on polygons and DA. (note: this does not mean all ReMixes will be of older titles, only that older titles form a core aspect of the site's purpose) I take the first point to mean: "let's show non-gamers that game music isn't all soul-less fluff". I'm sure non-gamers are still in the minority of visitors, and now that OCR has spread to YouTube and other social media it seems like it's dropped the notion and just focuses on promoting to fellow gamers. I don't think it's a bad move at all but just an observation I made in regards to the original mission statement. The second point seems now more irrelevant to gamers today since retro gaming has made somewhat of a comeback, and I hear it also in more ReMixes integrating chiptune elements. And in relation to the first point there are more video gamers than ever before, so it's not really a bad thing anyways. So is this simply a coming of age for the site? I feel the focus did change since these points have been dropped from the mission statement altogether and are probably even going out of date, as video games are an even bigger part of culture for newer generations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 I take the first point to mean: "let's show non-gamers that game music isn't all soul-less fluff". djp can clarify, but your conclusion there wasn't my takeaway, at least the only/primary takeaway. IMO, it's partly about getting non-gamers to try VGM, yes. But a bigger piece of it is getting gamers themselves to more closely think about and appreciate VGM. There are a lot of people in my generation (formative years being 8- & 16-bit) I could talk with about games we both played, but some just don't think about the music that much or remember it well. On that level, the music was disposable for them. So OCR's there to reframe their perspective through a low barrier to entry: free MP3s sorted by game title, no account needed to get 'em, maybe you'll check out something you remember and feel some nostalgia and/or appreciate the interpretation. TL;DR - In proving VGM isn't disposable, I'd wager OCR has more users who were gamers that didn't specifically care about VGM as kids compared to total non-gamers who discovered OCR and became VGM fans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beatdrop Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 djp can clarify, but your conclusion there wasn't my takeaway, at least the only/primary takeaway. IMO, it's partly about getting non-gamers to try VGM, yes. But a bigger piece of it is getting gamers themselves to more closely think about and appreciate VGM. That's my interpretation, as well. I first came to this site a few years before that snapshot, and unfortunately I don't remember if there even was a "mission statement" that long ago, but I don't think the aim of the site has changed at all. It may seem that way because it's grown so dramatically, but yeah, this has always been about paying tribute to the music in games, which has long been considered a slight part of the game itself. It may be secondary to gameplay, but the music in a game can completely change the feel, and I think OCR's always been about trying to draw attention to the feeling the music in a game has helped to convey. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon Strader Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 (edited) Man could you imagine if "Revive old game music" was still part of the mission statement I'd be all like noooooo I wanna remix Bloodborne I'm glad that MODERN GAME REMIXES are a part of the site's core focus now! Right? Right? Edited February 17, 2015 by Brandon Strader Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rexy Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 To be fair, there's still a few people that would focus on elder / retro-sounding music simply because it reminds them of their youth. Nothing wrong with more recent soundtracks, but you gotta expect a lot of people to go way, way back. Even then, there are games from the 5th and 6th console generations (aka around 1995-2005ish) that had scores that aged badly over time on a production standpoint, so being able to see stylistic arranges for these is also a great plus. Tl,dr: that past mission statement seems to ring true for today's arrangers, except we got a couple more gaming generations to account for now o.O Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkeSword Posted February 17, 2015 Share Posted February 17, 2015 Man could you imagine if "Revive old game music" was still part of the mission statement I'd be all like noooooo I wanna remix BloodborneI'm glad that MODERN GAME REMIXES are a part of the site's core focus now! Right? Right? Absolutely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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