3 points: LINEAR COMPi 2007 - Sleets from Stratus
2 points: pop'n music 12 Iroha AC and CS pop'n music 10 - MAGICAL VOICE SHOWER
1 point: 11eyes Original Sound Track and Arrange Sound Track - Reduced Occult Moon
got points in alternate universes: Rainbow Song (Extend Version), Warblade In-Game Music (MOD)

Oh my god the pitch bends in the synth melody halfway through Reduced Occult Moon made me spit out my water, so awesome. Gotta be my highlight of the week besides the entirety of Sleets from Stratus.

It was actually pretty hard this week to decide how to distribute the other three points, to be honest. The Warblade track was hella cool, but I didn't really like how the main melody was all over the place; it just seemed kind of random and sloppy to me. :(

A couple points before I get onto the voting:

1. How many regular nominators do we have? In the current queue it says 17. Is that a fair estimate of the number of people putting up tracks on a regular basis?

2. I think downgrading to six tracks is a fair way to fix things. What about loosening the eligibility requirement for what is considered "popular" and known? Can we decide to be a little more lax in nominating tracks from more well-known games? The trap, of course, is that it turns into the BSC contest, where people put up their favorite tracks to gauge community reaction. I'm not saying Final Fantasy VII, but (to use just an example), what about Dew Prism? Okami would be a similar type of game in the popularity spectrum.

I acknowledge we're talking in relative terms here, but the same relative terms the contest was built on in the first place.

Now for the voting. No particularly bad tracks, per se, but the middle sure is clogged:

(2 points) Magna Carta - Tears of Blood (Game Rip) - The Town of Notia: I love the Magna Carta sound from its sequel, and this is a welcome blend of orchestral elements with more traditional town theme sounds. Good work.

(2 points) pop'n music 12 Iroha AC and CS pop'n music 10 - MAGICAL VOICE SHOWER: I agree -- this straddles the line between intriguing and insufferable, but falls just enough on the right side of things. Damn catchy. Are these remixes of any favorite VGM themes? I can't tell, nor am I familiar with the Bemani series.

(1 point) JET de GO! - Rainbow Song (Extend Version): I love me some Sax in the morning.

(1 point) Atelier Iris ETERNAL MANA 2 Arranged Tracks RED LUCIFER RISING - The Legacy: Does what Reduced Occult Moon fails to do.

3 points - pop'n music 12 Iroha AC and CS pop'n music 10 - MAGICAL VOICE SHOWER
2 points - Warblade (Game Rip) - Warblade In-Game Music (MOD)
1 point - LINEAR COMPi 2007 - Sleets from Stratus

3 points: Sleets from Stratus
2 points: Warblade In-Game Music
1 point: MAGICAL VOICE SHOWER
Just missed: Rainbow Song (Extend Version)

I enjoyed this week, but man those top 3 tunes are in another class altogehter. Especially Sleets from Stratus; I was actually disappointed when I saw it was by Namiki (even though it was blatantly obvious) because I know if I give it 3 points people would think I'm a fanboy or something. I mean, I totally am, but still.


About recent issues: Maybe it's because I'm a stickler that can't accept change, or maybe it's because 8 is the perfect single digit number, but I am completely and honestly against permanently reducing the nom count per week. Unfortunately I can't think of any logical reasoning that suggests that 8 noms is better than 6, aside from there obviously being more music to listen to, so if it has to happen, I won't argue. I will, however, shake my fist at the monitor adamantly.


Anyway, next nom:

Game: Armed Police Unit Gallop (Cosmic Cop in US)
Composer: HIYA! (I think)
Track: Zone B (Stage 2)
Track #: 10 (on rip)
Year: 1991
Source: gallop - armed police unit video game, irem corp. (1991), VICL-8077: R-TYPE SPECIAL - VGMdb (only composition credit I could find)
Additional Info: Will upload to FTP shortly.

Voting is closed and nominations are restricted!

1). [22] pop'n music 12 Iroha AC ♥ CS pop'n music 10 - MAGICAL VOICE SHOWER
2). [15] LINEAR COMPi 2007 - Sleets from Stratus
3). [14] Warblade (Game Rip) - Warblade In-Game Music (MOD)
4). [12] 11eyes Original Sound Track and Arrange Sound Track - Reduced Occult Moon
5). [9] Magna Carta: Tears of Blood (Game Rip) - The Town of Notia
6). [8] JET de GO! - Rainbow Song (Extend Version)
7). [7] Atelier Iris ETERNAL MANA 2 Arranged Tracks RED LUCIFER RISING - The Legacy
8). [3] KANON original arrange album 'anemoscope' - Sunny Street

By the way, dudes, next week we are going to have a trial run with six tracks so that we can see what people think about this.

Thereabouts, yeah, with a deviation of a couple on either side.

orion was the only person to actually explicitly talk about being temporarily looser with nom requirements, but no one's seemingly batted an eyelash at Okami or Kirby 64, so...

(we had a Dew Prism nom in Week 20, not that it affects your point)

I was gonna say something about the Kirby nom, but I didn't want to start sounding like Drakken. XD

Is Okami really that popular, I know the game by concept nothing else otherwise. Well I pretty much disappeared on the gaming scene anyway, waiting for D3 to hit it really hard again.

Being looser to nominations in times of harshness seems cool by me, but I'm rather afraid it's a permanent state that is just going to go down further, I don't think we will gain anymore contributors for this event. If it's like that maybe one should review the purpose of SOTW after all these years.

Tearing down the entry numbers to 6 has the effect that the results will be fairer but the overall relative quality still decreases. If you have 240 tracks then 90 of them is going to make it on the page while with 6 entries you're gonna get 120 up there. Not that it is something grave, but should be mentioned since SoTW is about quality.

Indeed, in my experience the songs found here have the highest relative quality.
Anyway, in my opinion SOTW has long been gone to a social activity class with lots technical restrictions that makes it presentable as the original else whenever needed. And it really is well preserved. What are the access numbers on the main site saying? I know I use it whenever I miss a week, but otherwise?

Frankly, I think we've been gradually loosening admission requirements as we've gone along. People are protesting less often, and there seems to be a general understanding of what's beyond the pale (i.e. FFVII) and what's acceptable (i.e. Chocobo Racing). So all we'd really be doing is making this gradual shift in attitude official, at least temporarily.

And no, I'm not just saying that so I can get my rejected Lost Odyssey nom in. It was in the BSC, so that ship has sailed :).