[Attention] Project: The Top 500 VGM Releases of All Time

Okay, we all have our favorite albums and anyone can make a list of them. But what happens when the VGM community as a whole gives their favorites? Directly inspired by Martin Popoff’s “Top 500 Heavy Metal Albums of All-Time” book, for the first time ever, I’d like to try to compile a list of the top 500 VGM releases of all time, based on the VGM community’s picks.

How this is going to work: Everyone nominates their top 30 VGM releases of all-time, ranked from 1 to 30 in order of preference. I compile a list of everyone’s nominations, telling where they rank and how many points they get, based on the rankings. Simple as that.

Things to keep in mind:

-I will be making threads for this project at the following boards: Soundtrackcentral, Gamingforce, Chudahs Corner, Slightly Dark and Squareenixmusic. Please nominate at ONLY one of these.

-Nominations will be open until 11:59PM on August 31, 2008. This should be enough time for people to notice this thread and make their list. You may edit your list up until this time as much as you want. IF I SEE YOU EDIT YOUR LIST ON A DATE AFTER August 31, 2008, YOUR ENTIRE LIST WILL BE DISQUALIFIED!

-You must nominate at least 10 releases, but no more than 30. Lists with fewer than 10 releases will be booted.

-The following counts as a VGM album: An official original soundtrack (or sound version), an official arranged album, a gamerip, a soundtrack that has been given a digital release online, an emulated set of files (.SPC, .NSF, etc), the redbook audio from a game, a doujin or fan-arranged album, a recognized project from fan arrangers, whether it was released on CD or not (such as Voices of the Lifestream). If you so desire, you may nominate drama albums. If there’s something I’m leaving out, feel free to ask, but it’s probably eligible.

-You may not nominate solo albums by VGM artists. You must nominate either soundtracks or arranged albums for games.

-For soundtrack compilations, you can only nominate the music within a compilation. For example, you could nominate the soundtrack for Rockman 2 from the Rockman 1-6 Boxset, but you couldn’t put down the whole boxset as your nomination. I’ve decided that it would be unfair to give compilations an unfair advantage by simply having music from more than a single game.

For releases that contain both an OST (or multiple OST’s) and an arrange, such as Phantasy Star Sound Collection 1 or Falcom Special Box 91, you must specify what you are nominating from it. You can’t nominate the whole thing in one slot, only the arrangement or one of the soundtracks from it.

For arrangement compilations, such as Falcom Special Box 89, you can just nominate the whole thing and not the individual discs (I picked FSB 89 as a complex example because it was originally released as one collection, THEN it was divided into individual CD’s). There simply aren’t enough multi-disc arrange albums in existence to make this too relevant.

-If a soundtrack contains more than 10% licensed music, it is ineligible. So Dead or Alive 3 is fine (it had an Aerosmith song added for the opening), but the Guitar Hero and DDR games are a no-no, despite them having some original content.

-Music-making games are ineligible for nomination. So no Mario Paint or Electroplankton, despite them having original music of their own.

-You may nominate multiple versions of a score, such as Guilty Gear X (the arcade version) and Guilty Gear X Heavy Rock Tracks (the console version). They will be tallied and ranked separately.

-I’m not stressing variety here. If your Top 20 picks all are Final Fantasy albums, so be it. I’d like to get an accurate count, not necessarily one that reflects one trying to be more varied than they actually are.

- I’d much rather have the lists public and not via PM or email. However, I will not present my method of calculating points until the final list is released. This is to try to keep the lists fairly honest. Bear in mind: Stacking your list based on someone else’s picks will not necessarily mean a higher placement for the release.

-I have the right to disqualify lists that don’t meet the above rules or are clearly gag nominations. If I see the soundtrack for Duck Hunt or a bunch of Legend of Heroes Drama albums on your list, there’s a good chance I’m going to boot the entire thing. If you care enough to register a dupe account at one or more boards in order to nominate more stuff, all of your lists will be disqualified.

-Feel free to drop a one-line comment about a release or even each release on your list, especially if you’re likely to be the only one nominating a particular one. When I compile the list for the final project, I’ll try to include some of them.

-If people think of additional rules or needed clarifications, I will edit the rule list accordingly.

So have fun and start nominating! There’s a ton of releases I can’t wait to see where they end up.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Just a note: I've changed the number of nominations from 20 to 30. Hopefully this will make it easier on folks to pick.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Sorry, they need to be ranked in order from 1-30. I'll be assigning points based on the rankings. Thank you for putting down a list though.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Notice: I'm extending the deadline for the nominations until August 31, 2008. You may alter your lists accordingly and new nominations will be accepted up until this time.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by DRAKO

well...no in particular orden...

If you get a chance, please order your list or I won't be able to accept it. I need them ordered for the scoring system to work.

Newbie: Thank you for submitting. For Grandia 2, it was released in 2 OST volumes (Deus and Povo). I need those submitted seperately if you get a chance. Thanks!

I was speaking idiomatically.

Note: Extending the deadline until 12:59 September 30th. Please doublecheck your lists and make sure:

1. They're ordered from 1-30 in order of preferance (or however many you have)
2. Volumized soundtracks are counted seperately.

These are the most common issues I've seen with the lists. Non-ordered ones will not be counted towards the total, while ones that have multiple volumes released will be dropped from your list if they aren't adjusted (I'll move everything else up though, to make up for the dead spot).

Thank you for everyone that has participated so far.

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That's actually not the reason I'm extending the deadline, asshole. Feel free to nominate if you're that concerned about it, though.

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