In the gaming world, the piano accompanist equivalent is the guy who made music for Super Mario Land, say, or 1943, little loops of FM synthesized sound that changed on a dime, broke off, reconfigured and blended with the sound effects triggered by player actions.
Now, musicians are in on the deal, and the same process of copying occurs- only now it's a copy of a copy: From late 19th century romantic scores, to film scores, to game scores. What's missing is a composer that would take the form of interactive action and modular progression, and run with it. To make music that is wholly modular - bits that fit together any which way and make musical sense, short segments of music that operate well in the beginning, middle, and end of sections, and still sound beautiful. The potential is endless and could inform the music world at large.
I guess this is my main source of frustration: I believe computer games present the form of the now, and their music doesn't follow.
- TrickllE
In response to "Reward Card" from The Escapist Daily: I enjoy the competitive side of Gamerscores amongst friends. Where a few of us have all downloaded Contra, for example, we are all trying to get an achievement that none of the others have for bragging rights. If I log on and see that one of them has just one-credited the first level, for example, competitive nature kicks in and I have to equal them.
- rjwtaylor
In response to "Reward Card" from The Escapist Daily: I can offer one reason why I don't play a lot of games all the way through: at some level, they're all the same. I stopped playing Oblivion because, after I got past the cool graphics and amazing world, it was just another finish-the-quest RPG. I could list other similar games that I stopped playing when I could no longer ignore the fact it was just another stock game, dressed up in cool graphics, storyline, game quirks, or whatever else it had.
To say it differently, my issue is not that there are not enough carrots, but that many of the carrots are as old as D&D: save the world, rescue the princess, live happily ever after, or whatever. Real carrots that are 25 years old are impossible to find: they've decomposed. Somehow, however, some people in the gaming industry believe that 25 year-old virtual carrots are still fresh. Those people, as far as I am concerned, are dead wrong.
I don't want to save the world, or destroy it: I want to change it in small ways I can feel. I don't want to rescue the princess: I want to see what she does to the kingdom after I save her. And sorry, but true heroes don't live happily ever after: name any great hero that does, real or fictional. I can't. All the ones I can name either die when they're done, or they go on to do something else heroic.
- ZacQuickSilver
