blitzlunar wrote:
oh i thought this was all done with
sometimes the fancy tracknames are even more confusing to people who have and haven't played the game. Earthbound is a good example ~ "Boy Meets Girl" is ambiguous compared to "Twoson", which isn't a generic title to begin with. same with "Hi Hi Hi" vs. "Saturn Valley", "You've Come Far" vs "Coffee Break" and others. the obvious titles are often the best - most recognisable, most meaningful, descriptive and functional.... they're perfect honestly, so that's why it's confusing to see the need to reach for alternatives.
Before I go any further, I'd like to state that in this regard, you're right. I did not name the Earthbound SPCs, nor do I know who did; at one point, we *did* have more direct names. I assumed "Boy Meets Girl", "Hi Hi Hi", etc. were OST names, given some comments field entries, so I left them as is. They're not the kind of track titles I'd come up with myself.
But again, how "confusing" tracknames are is subjective; whether they're made up by someone on the internet or the composers themselves, confusing is confusing. Unless you're lobbying for *all* SPCs to have basic descriptive tracknames, ignoring the OSTs entirely, that argument is, has always been, and will always remain moot.
Now, moving right along...
blitzlunar wrote:
the reason it can be construed as disrespectful is because it's a creative decision being made about someone else's creative work, especially as the soundtracks are being published in a way that give them some gravity and officiality. really and truly, only the original authors/game developer can make these decisions. if they have, just follow their lead, and if they haven't, it's best to be as objective about naming as possible. it seems the only real benefit to improvised titles is in making sets look "showy", but it's a pretense in reality, and often times they're designed with one person's own coloured perspective of a game and the meaning/experience they personally derived from it (confusing to people who may not have had the same experience.)
Now here we have the prime example of an "opinion". You're fully entitled to it, as well, and are allowed to see things however you wish; I can't change that, nor is it my place to try. However, I feel differently; as I said, I see it as a sign of respect that I care enough about the music to want to elevate it to "Soundtrack Quality" as opposed to using generic filenames that scream "Game Rip". And moreover, most of my custom tracknames, as I've stated, are not even particularly "showy": If you've played a game, you should know what song you're looking for by the way I've named it. If you're looking for the awesome up-tempo song that plays in that factory stage, a quick bit of browsing and you'll find "Crazy Factory" or somesuch. It may even be easier to remember the theme of the stage than what stage number it is; you may not remember it's stage 5, but you remember it was a weird factory. And if you *haven't* played a game, it's literally no better or worse than "Stage 5", except that it gives the listener some idea of *how* the song is used, not simply *where*.
And then there's those instances where coming up with fancy custom titles is simply better to look at than having sixteen songs, of which one is "Title Screen" and the other fifteen are "In-Game Music ##". Due to the haphazard in-game music usage, you're no more likely to pick "In Game Music #8" as the song you're looking for than "Easygoing". In this case, a touch of creativity wins out over fifteen tracknames with the only difference being a number.
Now, if a composer were to contact us and say they didn't like it, that would be one thing. But it's never actually happened, and given the unusual case with the made-up Demon's Crest SPC titles becoming Capcom canon when a soundtrack was released... I don't really ever expect it to. I'll cross that bridge if I ever come to it.
Like I said, I'm not saying I'm right or you're wrong. All I'm doing is explaining my views, why I do it, and why I will continue to do so to a limited degree. Anyone who disagrees can go right on doing so; just know that nagging me about it won't make me change my mind. I do what I can to please everyone, but if I'm not able to please myself as well, I can't do a very good job overall.
blitzlunar wrote:
it's a bummer about not being able to propegate composer changes... datschge should fix that. there's many things that hold this site back
as brilliant a resource as it is it could be even better if only the user base were able and encouraged to contribute information.
I agree. SNESMusic.org *could* be even better than it is; perhaps if there's enough demand, a site overhaul could be in order sometime down the road. That said, I suppose I *could* "ninja-update" those composer info stuffs and just mention it in my usual "Site Update" post and not on the site itself... should work. Maybe. Hopefully? But over 100 of the things? ...yeah, I'd want to scatter those around several smaller updates.
Or possibly I could relegate those composer updates to KFF. I'd still want to handle new sets or content updates, but it'd be nice to have someone helping with the smaller jobs.
(Heck, if I had my way, I'd allow for multiple downloads of each set. One with artsy titles, ones with more direct ones (even if an OST is available), ones with timers removed for those who like to just let songs loop endlessly, etc. A guy can dream...
)
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
