Video Games Live Concert Report
Last night, my wife and I went to the Video Games Live concert in Salt Lake City. The event began on a great note, as we ran into a bunch of people I knew from previous jobs, including Kirk Baum, who is now working at Disney. My wife jokes that I couldn't even cross the lobby. It got even worse later...

To get to our seats, we had to go past an older couple on the end who were obviously season ticket holders for the Utah Symphony, and had no clue what they were in for. This was true of many couples in the orchestra seats. Once we were seated, we were treated to a little pre-show video of a Ms. Pac-Man skit performed by actors in costumes.

There was a technical glitch at the beginning of the concert, but after a couple of minutes it resolved, and the Symphony began with an extensive medley of music from older games, accompanied by a video. I say music "from" other games, but the medley began with some games for which there was no music. Like... Pong. They music was composed loosely guided by the sounds and themes from the game - from the irregular beep-boop-beep noises of Pong, to the more four-tone heartbeat rhythm of descending aliens in Space Invaders, to the heart-racing thrumming of Space Invaders, on through Missile Command (the next video shown in the medley). Then the medley switched to a variation on Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries, an always-popular theme for video games in the 1980's. The video showed Defender, Tempest, Centipede, Robotron, Joust, and finally Satan's Hollow (which actually used Ride of the Valkyries as its theme music, for those few who might recall it from the arcades).

Then the medley shifted to actual theme music, and blew through segments from Commando, Donkey Kong (which got plenty of cheers), Frogger, Elevator Action, Dragon's Lair, Space Ace, Duck Hunt, Punch Out, Ghosts 'n Goblins, Gauntlet, Rastan (my favorite of the last half), Outrun, and finally Tetris. (UPDATE: You can watch & listen the medley here.)

After the extensive medley, Tommy Tallarico came out and introduced the director, Jack Wall, and the VGL concert. He explained that the goal of VGL was to prove how culturally significant and artistic games could be. He also told everyone that unlike most symphonies, we should feel free to clap, cheer, and yell out if we feel like it. Particularly later in the event, it was clear he was really trying to feel and act like a rock star, which was amusing, but we all had a good time.

The rest of the first half had the orchestra and choir doing themes from Metal Gear Solid, Medal of Honor (done with a montage of footage from World War II, rather than game footage), Civilization IV, a Final Fantasy medley performed by Martin Leung on piano, Advent Rising, and Zelda. The Advent Rising piece was particularly interesting because Tommy Tallarico was the composer, and had decided to create music reminiscent of Italian opera, but also because the game itself was created here in Utah.

During the Metal Gear sequence, they had someone come out in black special forces gear. He had a device on his back that had an exclamation mark pop up over his head and light up. Everyone seemed to get a kick out of that. Well, almost everyone. I saw one older couple leave during the first act. Apparently, they were season ticket holders who did not approve.

Directly after the Metal Gear sequence, they had a volunteer come up from the audience and play a "Live" game of Space Invaders, with the orchestra playing some music for the game as he played. He wore a T-shirt with a ship on the back, which I guess tracked his movements. And he had a button to press to shoot the gun. While the game would have been really tricky for ANYBODY to play like that, he had apparently never played Space Invaders and had no clue how to play. Tallarico gave him the suggestion to shoot the ships on the end first, but this guy didn't get it. So he lost the game, but everyone seemed to have fun with it.

During the intermission, I once again proved I couldn't cross the lobby. As my wife and I were hunting for bathrooms, I ran into a couple of friends from work, and also ran into Mike Nielsen, who's doing the music for Frayed Knights. We ended up having a short meeting there in the lobby to work out his next versions of the music, and for me to mention a couple of things happening on the Frayed Knights front. I got back to my seat just before the second half began, but got to ask the older couple on the end how they were enjoying the concert. The man didn't reply, and the woman wiggled her hand in a "so-so"

The second act started with another "Live action" game - a competitive game of Frogger with the Orchestra playing a very souped-up version of the music from the game. Two kids were chosen to compete against each other on the big screen - with more traditional controls this time - and the younger kid nearly cleared the board.

Besides that, the second act had music from Kingdom Hearts, Warcraft (I watched another older couple leave after the footage of the Night Elf running half-naked through the forest), and the Mario themes. Then Martin Leung performed some piano solos again - this time doing his famous blindfolded Mario performance, followed by high-speed Mario music. The second half "concluded" with Tommy Tallarico on electric guitar with the orchestra and choir performing the music from Halo and Halo 3.

Tallarico and Jack Wall left the stage at that point, but the choir and orchestra hadn't moved, which made it pretty obvious we were in for a rock concert style encore. The older couple on the end of the row either didn't know this, or didn't care, because they beat a hasty exit. I guess all the sci-fi combat footage wore them out.

Jack and Tommy came back out, and Tommy asked "How about some music from Final Fantasy?" Everyone shouted their approval. "Which one?" he asked. Everyone shouted their favorite. I was shouting "Seven!" along with - I think - the majority. He said "How about Final Fantasy Seven?" Then he had everyone shout together the name of the song - it was obvious to every gamer in the audience (at least those who know the names of the musical themes from Final Fantasy). The entire concert hall shouted "ONE WINGED ANGEL!" With Tommy strutting around like a rock star adding electric guitar to the piece (hey, that was used in the variant theme from Advent Children so I rolled with it).

After that, Tommy said that it would be just too easy to end with One Winged Angel, since everyone was expecting it, so they concluded with music from Castlevania.

Afterwards, they were holding a "meet and greet" with local video game developers. I thought it would be more of an introduction with the dozens of game developers here in Utah, but mostly it was a set of tables for autographs from certain local developers, Tommy, Jack, Martin Leung, soloists from the show, the producers of Advent Rising, and a few other local developers. I noted that there were more game developers hanging out just outside the line to the "meet and greet" than actually there at the tables, so I chatted with Steve Taylor and a few other guys. And I bought a T-shirt.

Overall, the concert was awesome. We had a blast. Sure, there was plenty of cheese and silliness - but this is the video game industry, after all! We enjoyed ourselves tremendously. I highly recommend going to the show if you find it playing nearby.

Labels: Biz, music

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 9:08 AM (Permalink) 4 comments links to this post

 
Guitar Rising Q&A
This game has far more of my interest than the next Guitar Hero installment:

Guitar Rising Q&A on RPGVault

An excerpt:

Jake Parks: Guitar Hero brings the enjoyment of making music to the masses through the simplification of making music. Guitar Rising attempts to do the same thing, but with a real guitar. By breaking down the complexity of the guitar into a rhythm game, we want to appeal to guitar players and non-guitarists alike.

For the former, this could be possibly the fastest and most enjoyable way to learn a song that you don't already know. For the latter, it is simply playing a game, and by virtue of doing so, you are learning a little bit about how actually to play a guitar.

Nice to know I won't have to shell out for yet another controller... I happen to have two of 'em handy already...

Labels: Guitar Hero, music

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 1:25 PM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
Another Free Audiosurf Recommendation
I finally got around to playing Audiosurf to the Void War soundtrack. You'd think I would have tried that out first, huh? But it's very nice.

I highly recommend "Dogchild" from Void War for your Audiosurf-ing pleasure. But most of the music from the (*plug*really awesome award-winning*plug) game works well.

You can download the entire soundtrack (and some... weird remixes) for free from Matt Barnson's site here:

Void War Soundtrack

Labels: Indie Evangelism, music

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 10:22 AM (Permalink) 2 comments links to this post

 
Great AudioSurf Song: Sidology Episode 3
Okay, if you happen to be playing Audiosurf and would like a really killer (FREE!) musical piece for it, I recommend this hard-rock medley of old Commodore 64 game music by Machinae Supremacy (also known for making the soundtrack to the indie shooter Jets 'n Guns).

Sidology Episode 3 - Apex Ultima

7 Minutes of high-speed downhill racing. My score was terrible.

If you haven't played the IGF award-winning indie game Audiosurf yet - hey, the demo's free, and it's a CHEAP (and fun) indie game. Give it a whirl with your favorite music as tracks.

But definitely try it with Sidology Episode 3. It may not create the most psychotic track of all music out there (I've seen some wild ones - like this one using the song from the most evil Guitar Hero track of all time...), but it's fun.

And BTW, I normally play the mono pro racer... this level is practically impossible for me with the other racers. Yeesh!

Labels: Indie Evangelism, music

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 12:27 AM (Permalink) 1 comments links to this post

 
How Much Do I Spend On Rock Band?
Rock Band, Harmonix's newest game and possible successor to the Guitar Hero throne, cost me about $170 initially. Money well spent. While I think Guitar Hero III might be a better solo game if you prefer being an air-guitar star, Rock Band is probably the best party game videogame I've ever played. It's the perfect size for our family of four, everyone can play cooperatively on different skill levels, and when friends come by, Rock Band comes out.

I don't buy all of the downloadable songs that come out for it. Though I found myself buying a couple that I'd originally skipped after playing them at a friends' place. Last night, downloading the Grateful Dead pack, I realized that I've probably spent narly $40 on extra music for the game.

And you know what? It didn't bother me.

Rock Band shipped with a reasonable number of songs (most of the expense of the game is due to the guitar, drum set, and microphone controllers that shipped with it). True, when starting out in world tour mode, it seems like it takes forever to escape the first couple of batches of "beginner" songs, but eventually all 58 songs become available and it feels reasonable.

Now the number is around 78. It feels like a great game has just been made better, and it's becoming customized to my tastes. Sure, it would be better if there was an option to remove the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" completely from the list, and if the downloaded songs were swapped in as stand-alone songs on different venues rather than only appearing in random or custom set lists. But hey - I've got three songs by Rush, "Gimme Three Steps" by Lynard Skynard, and songs by Blink 182, the Pretenders, Weezer, and CCR with my game.

And I've been getting introduced to music that had always been under my radar. And some of the artists (and iTunes) have profited.

Nevermind the fact that Rock Band has sold something like 3 million of these downloadable songs by now. Or am I underestimating?

If I were a music studio executive right now, or an agent for an indie band, I'd be lining up with an attractive licensing deal for MTV / Harmonix - or Activision / RedOctane - or whoever else might be working on the next big music game (Hmmm.... a licensing deal for Steam's indie hit Audiosurf?) - right now. In fact, I am guessing they already are.

As GLaDOS would say, "Huge Success."

UPDATE: Wow, can I call it or can I call it?

Labels: Biz, Guitar Hero, music, rock band

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 9:31 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
On the Future of the Music Business
Seth Godin has a PDF transcript of his talk about the future of the music business.

You can download the PDF here.

So why am I linking to it? This blog is about games, not music, right?

Yes, and no. The game biz as we have known it derived from the same historic business model as the music industry. In fact, early on, EA actually really tried to emulate the music business, releasing games in packaging and art resembling albums, and treating developers (who were at that point about the same size as rock bands) as rock stars. The videogame biz as we've known it - from the Nintendo era and even before - is changing, the same way the music business is changing, with exactly the same problems.

Godin doesn't have answers, but he firmly states that trying to force things to stay as they were back in the studio's heyday is not one. And he makes some interesting suggestions, drawing upon such examples as Jerry Seinfeld and - of course - the Grateful Dead.

I believe that in a lot of ways, the PC gaming scene isn't "dying" so much as it is "evolving." Due to proprietary technology, the consoles have a little bit more grace period left in them before their business model goes the way of the dinosaur. The PC hasn't had that luxury, and in many ways it has been blazing the painful trail. But the music biz has been even further in the front, and there are a lot of lessons we can learn from watching that particular industry getting its butt kicked a few times.

Labels: Biz, music

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 4:27 AM (Permalink) 5 comments links to this post

 
Lessons Learned From the Failure of the Music Biz
Seth Godin has a list of lessons to be learned by other industries from the impending collapse of the music business:

Seth's Blog: Music Lessons

Some points that game developers and publishers ought to take note of:

2. Copy protection in a digital age is a pipe dream
This one has had "baking my noodle" ever since the Bioshock DRM stupidity happened. I still haven't come to a conclusion on this one, but there are two conflicting human responses battling it out on a battleground much bigger than DRM / Copy Protection:

#1 - Most people (westerners, at least) believe that creators of media content (a book, a movie, a song, a game, etc.) should be financially rewarded for their efforts. This is evidenced by the assumption that creators of the most popular content ought to be rich.

#2 - Most people also seem to feel that paying for something for which there is no scarcity is optional.

I'll hopefully have more to say on this one at a later date. I'm not prepared to give up on copy protection entirely, but I do believe it needs to be toned down so that it's near-zero impact on honest consumers, and that it needs to only part of a bigger solution.

3. Interactivity can’t be copied
Part of me wants to say, "Like Hell it can't!" But again - there are some germs of ideas here. Not just interactivity with the games, but interactivity with people. Like between the creators and the audience.

5. A frightened consumer is not a happy consumer.
The consumer in the information age has a lot to be frightened and worried about. Even when it comes down to a physical purchase. This weekend, my brother was complaining about the number of console games he owns that are effectively lost forever due to his kids damaging the discs.

The thing that stopped me from buying Bioshock was a concern that I won't be able to install it and play it when I want to do so. Considering that I am an occasional retrogamer, and that some of the games I've played this year came from companies that no longer exist, that's a real concern for me.

I think the games biz needs to think long and hard about how to make buying and "owning" games a better experience.

7. Remember the Bob Dylan rule: it’s not just a record, it’s a movement.
He's got an even better quote here: "People pay a premium for a story, every time." If you've ever felt that the gaming industry has turned into just something that churns out products instead of real experiences, this may be because they fell into this trap. They keep cranking out things they think I will buy instead of things that have meaning to me. The former follows the latter, not the other way around.

10. Don’t abandon the Long Tail
I think the videogame industry is finally waking up to discover this. They've been trying to bury all those obsolete games all these years, to prevent them from interfering with sales of The New Thing, which in reality is just The Old Thing with prettier graphics. And now, they are discovering that there's still money to be made there when the cost of distribution is dropped down to $cheap.

11. Understand the power of digital
And quit using my CD-ROM / DVD-ROM as a fragile dongle!

12. Celebrity is underrated
Especially in the games business. Publishers don't like to promote someone that might leave for the competition tomorrow. So rather than making sure said celebrity has no interest in leaving, they just try to hide the people responsible for the game behind a curtain, and pretend that these games are just magically produced by an unchanging corporation. And those few celebrities we do have are usually self-promoted, and too often predating the era of the game-publishing juggernauts, when videogames were still a niche business.

Labels: Biz, music

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:45 AM (Permalink) 5 comments links to this post