Song of the Week - WEEK 73 Voting/WEEK 74 Nominating

Was this week really that terrible? I haven't been here for long, but I liked this week much more than Week 72. An aftereffect of last week's thoroughly enjoyable battle, perhaps? Or maybe I'm just biased because I get to see my own nomination in action for the first time.

Arcanum - Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura Soundtrack - Tulla - Doesn't have enough substance to it for me to really like or dislike it. There isn't anything that stands out as impressive... maybe with more complexity this one would have received some points from me.

Armored Core 3 Silent Line Original Soundtrack - Artificial Line - As a few other people mentioned, the strings need to be brought out to the foreground. However, the overall effect was enjoyable, maybe even something I'll keep around to listen to for a while.

Gyakuten Saiban Orchestra Album ~GYAKUTEN MEETS ORCHESTRA~ - Gyakuten Saiban 3 Courtroom Suite - Has an interesting style that pulled me in on the first listen, although I wish the section with the maracas around 2:20 lasted longer... I guess I'm just a sucker for maracas, though. All portions of the song were fairly likable.

Jet Force Gemini (Game Rip) - Water Ruins - I'm in agreement with orion_mk3 about the random metal clangs. They should have at least been aligned with the rhythm: that way they could count them as attempt at percussion rather than random noise. The rest of the track, however was better than average. Not the strongest song from JFG, by any means, but stronger than the average.

Psychonauts Original Soundtrack - Stay Out of the Moonlight - Ironically, this is the song I least liked this week. It looks like it's in line for victory, so far, but meh, I don't see anything in it. Everything except the little bursts of harmonica was boring, and the harmonica wasn't spectacular, anyway.

Street Fighter III 3rd Strike 'Fight for the Future' Original Soundtrack (JPN) - Alex & Ken Stage -JAZZY NYC '99- - If the remix a few posts up had been submitted rather than this version, I would have voted for it over my own nomination. As it stands, I like it, but the remix is a lot less redundant. Also, I wish a cleaner sounding sax synth (or what I assume is a sax synth) had been used.

The Addams Family Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt (SNES Game Rip) - Bathroom ~ Ending - Again somewhat ironically (I think this song is in second place at the moment), this was my second to least favorite track. The melody was kinda neat in a few patches, but I found the constant bubbling noises extremely irritating. And the song is far too long for what it has to offer.

beatmania IIDX 11 IIDX RED Original Soundtrack - Fake Time - Short and lacking in complexity: not the best beatmania has to offer. After the first listen through, I considered giving it a point, but it failed to hold up to further examination.

*~Point Distribution~*

3 Points - Courtroom Suite
2 Points - Artificial Line
1 Point - Alex & Ken Stage

Runner Up: Water Ruins

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by orion_mk3

It seems like our obscurity mantra has pretty much been reduced to:

-No hyper-popular Squeenix (Final Fantasy, Chrono, Kingdom Hearts)
-No hyper popular Nintendo (Mario, Zelda, Metroid)
-No series that have been extensively whored throughout the site (Ace Combat)

Pretty much everything else seems like a go.

Originally Posted by Crash Landon

Though there are other games/series that I'd personally consider taboo for nomination besides the ones you mentioned. Castlevania, Kirby, Guilty Gear, Sonic the Hedgehog (Game Gear tracks are curiously exempt), and Mega Man (classic and X titles anyhow).

Why not just add all of that to the rules in the nominating section? As it stands, a discussion on what is "too popular" is bound to occur every time there is an influx of new members... Giving examples like those helped make things much clearer for me, at least.

For example, almost no one is going to consider Final Fantasy, Zelda, or Mario "reasonably obscure", but not so much with Guilty Gear or Ace Combat. Unless you've been on gff for a while, you have no way of knowing that songs from those games have been overused.

I think the "If you aren't sure, ask." idea is good as it stands, but it might save some redundant discussion if those examples are listed on the wiki.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Drakken

Btw, for this eligibility thing. I know sometimes we try to judge based on how well known we estimate them to be. But, really, we should just all state whether we personally know them.

Personally know the game, or personally know the music? Just using this week as an example, I've heard of every single one of those games, yet I think all of them can be considered "reasonably obscure".

If we switched to your idea, we'd have an extremely difficult time getting any nominations at all, especially considering that almost everyone who votes in SoTW has pretty extensive experience with video games. Not to mention the added time wasted for everyone to vote "Yay" or "Nay" for every nomination that comes up... and the possible biases that could be introduced in using such a system.

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

Ah, yes, I understand what you're saying, now. I haven't been around long, but if there are disagreements as to the eligibility of a song as often as you say, then yes, I agree that you should speak from experience rather what you assume the most common experience is.

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