Oh woah. Didn't even notice it... didn't even read the program yet =S

I WANT REFUND! GR!

Well, seems it's been a while since anyone cared to post about PLAY!, but I just thought I'd share the news that Machinae Supremacy will be part of the act performing FFVI's Dancing Mad at the 2 Play! concerts coming up in Sweden.

www.machinaesupremacy.com

And for all my Australian/Asian compatriots, Play! concert is coming to Australia/New Zealand in a couple months fron now.

http://www.ausgamers.com/?news=2383748

- Spike

Hmph, given the bad press from Play!, I wonder what it will take me to go to their concert... Not guests appearance cause they CHARGE you for meeting them.

Whoever wrote this must be living under a rock, what about Eminence?! Support your locals dammit, not lying foreign producers! The concert this year was just as good as VGL's, and way better than Play!'s subpar arrangments.

I think the only way for me to go is if someone pays for my ticket... But we'll see, maybe the program will improve.

Man, why every time something exciting happens in Australia it always has to be @ the east coast >_<

Perth never had any attention... *sigh*

I want to see the lineups before deciding whether to go or not XD

CC, you're from Perth? Adelaide here, same deal for me as far as no concerts :)


Kairi, I agree 100%. Charging for meeting is silly, and I guess typifies Sydney in my mind- user pays for everything.

I also noticed the 'first time something of this scale' comment. <shrugs> Guess it depends who's in who's pockets (or if you're ignorant which is probably the case here).

- Spike

Hey, we don't charge to meet 7 guests from Japan... >.>

The upcoming Sweden concerts look excellent. I was at the last one and the atmosphere was incredible. What a venue too! If this is the same, it'll be surely a hit, particularly with all the nifty bonus additions. Pity I can't make it, but I have exams. However, I'm going to Leipzig. :D

Akira Yamaoka will travel around the world with Play next month! First stop: Stockholm June 2nd, then to Sydney for four concerts there. Great news indeed, especially for me living in Sweden!

Additional Spam:
Oh, and do not forget about this year's Play premiere, in San Jose tomorrow!

I demand this to be recorded by someone attending the concert.

....Akira is coming to Sydney?

GODDAMIT! Play! just HAD to give me a reason to wanna go to their concert! But its gonna cost me 100 bucks JUST to see him!

Argh Dilemma dilemma....

Then again... My Silent Hill CDs are back in Hong Kong so there's nothing for him to sign...

I am just totally screwed either way....

I totally agree.

And Kairi Li: why not have someone send your Silent Hill CDs to you?

Additional Spam:
Now that the San Jose concert is history: please tell us all about ;)

Even if they did bring the CDs over for me, it will cost alot of money just to see Akira. Play! charges people for meet and greets.

Now THAT I didn't know o___o

That's one thing I love about Eminence's concerts...all you do is have to wait in the insanely long line XD
But it's damn well worth it in the end XD

I'm thinking of going to Play, but I dunno.
It's still too damn expensive, as are almost all events at the Opera House.
If THEY paid me to go, or if I could get free tickets, THEN I'd go XD

Have they ever released any of the Play concerts as a CD yet?

Nope, no CDs or DVDs. Yet.

The concert in Sweden totally ruled! I loved it!

So, impressions?
How was "Dancing Mad"? Better than the Leipzig version?

I loved the show in Sweden yesterday, but the best thing about it is that I got to shake Akira Yamaoka's hand. He also signed my ticket.

PLAY! SJ Coverage / JMP Interview
 

Hey everyone,

I was able to do a writeup of the PLAY! concert in San Jose last week, and also interviewed Jason Michael Paul and found out why there isn't a CD/DVD and why Uematsu won't be working with Koichi Sugiyama any time soon!

http://www.music4games.net/Features_Index.aspx

I'm also waiting for a comprehensive Jeremy Soule interview to be posted, so watch for that!

Overall, it was a good show, but they didn't debut Lost Odyssey as promised and instead there was a 14 minute suite from Lair. That was disappointing.

Seems like they tend to not keep their promises from what I've heard, so this doesn't surprise me at all. Cancelling concerts, switching programs despite annoucements... Its one thing to make mistakes or things didn't go through occasionally, but Play! seems to always have some sort of sloppy organizing or just plain fibbing for the past couple of concerts. They should learn to NOT announce something untill its fully ready to happen, otherwise you're causing dissapointment to fans who may have already pre order tickets.

And god forbid if anyone here is gonna post they didn't even refund the pre order. Though again, that would not surprise me.

Its crap like this that is swaying me to the "not going" crowd despite Akira's appearance.

Hey now, I dunno if I'd go that far. Keep in mind that Jason Michael Paul organizes all of this himself, and he works really hard. The single concert cacnellation that ocurred was due to low ticket sales. As JMP is the sole backer of this project, he can't afford to put on a show for 100 people in the audience. That's business, and that's nothing on the scale of what happened with VGL in 2005.

Aside from that, yeah, Lost Odyssey was a problem, but they simply ran out of time with the orchestra. I wish they had cut out Lair and put in Lost Odyssey, Actraiser, and Castelvania, but the Lair suite itself was pretty cool, even if it was too long.

It's a great show, and the unique arrangements of Mario, Zelda, Oblivion, and Chrono Cross/Trigger are worth going to the show to see. While there were some disappointments, I was satisfied, and highly recommend seeing the show.

It's not really about cancelling shows and what is business.

VGM shouldn't be a business.
It really isn't.

There is no way for young people to enjoy Symphonic VGM and still make a business out of it.

JMP is a businessman and I respect that. As a business owner, I respect his action on doing this but as a Symphonic VGM Evangelist, he has my absolute disrespect. Obviously, his prices were outrageously high so people couldn't come.

I just hope, one day, people who work in the VGM field would NOT think about the profit they make, but actually making a real contribution to a genre of music which would benifit a lot of people by being spread around the world. I only hope...

I don't know how a business owner could come to that conclusion. Of course VGM is a business, and of course it should be. All the CDs are out there because the company wants to make a profit on their investment. Talented composers are selected to score games based on the value they'll add to the game, not for the sake of art.

The ticket prices are reasonable for such a niche show. I can't see how people complain about a $40 ticket when tickets to go see ANY mainstream artist range between $20 and $100 a pop. Obviously JMP needs to at least break even of these things, and as it's his livelihood, I don't think we can expect him to put on events out of "love" for game music; he has to put food on the table. Even more, the orchestra has to be paid, the venue, promotion, etc., so that's just ridiculous. =)

With VGM I'm pretty sure this is only true for Square-Enix's CD releases, others likely struggle to get even.
Edit: I guess I could include Falcom as well...