Tag Archives: geeky

15. Video Game Music

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I love video game music. As I’ve mentioned previously, video games have an unfortunate (and mostly unmerited) reputation for being lowbrow or even harmful. Video game music is not generally considered to be of much value.

This is sad, since much of the music from video games is absolutely superb.

In addition to the great music in video games, there are thousands of remixes created by musicians who rearrange, reinterpret and reinvent video game melodies.

There are four things I particularly like about video game remixes.

They’re creative

I’ve heard the main theme from Super Mario Bros. remixed as electronica, performed by a string quartet, scatted a cappella and played on a piano. A single song might be interpreted in a hundred different ways. It’s delightful to find a new perspective on a familiar melody—rather like looking at a painting in a museum and recognizing the view out of my own bedroom window.

They cover pretty much every musical genre

I’ve heard at least one song rearranged with bagpipes in the style of traditional Scottish music. Need I say more?

They’re often amazing

Composers of video game music have commented on the surpassing quality of remixes they’ve heard. David Wise and Christopher Tin, among others, have spoken positively about remixes of their music. (Christopher Tin, by the way, won a Grammy for a song he composed for a video game.) I’ve heard many remixes of professional quality, sometimes with vocals or live instruments.

They’re free

Most video game remixes are available for download—legally—for free. Because remixes are based on music owned by video game developers, those who make them aren’t usually able to sell them without breaking copyright law. The alternative is to distribute remixes for free, which is legal and totally awesome.

In order to demonstrate the quality, variety and grandeur of video game music, I’ve decided to give a few examples—or rather, one example remixed in several ways. The remixes are taken from OverClocked Remix, an organization “dedicated to the appreciation and promotion of video game music as an art form.”

First is the original song, “Valley of the Fallen Star” from Final Fantasy VII. The song has sort of a Native American feel to it, with muted percussion providing rhythm and a woodwind carrying the melody.

Next we have “Red XII Redux,” a straightforward rock remix—nothing fancy or extravagant, just a smooth arrangement of the song recorded live.

Moving from laid-back rock to frantic guitar shredding, “Lunatic Moon” combines rock and electronica in a song that practically radiates energy and aggression.

We finish with “Ascension to Cosmo Canyon.” The song is simply beautiful, every bit as peaceful as “Lunatic Moon” was frenetic, with piano and strings leading into a woodwind melody backed by drums and a male chorus. The song is lovely and has a decidedly cinematic feel.

These are just a few examples of how one song can be interpreted in many ways. Video game music is wonderful on its own merits—especially in these days when so many games include music from choirs and live orchestras—and remixes present endless interpretations and reinventions of video game melodies.

Remixes are also free. You can’t beat that!

8. An Unapologetic Apology for Video Games

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I like knives. To be honest, I like sharp objects in general: knives, daggers, sabers, katanas, broadswords, machetes, claymores and pretty much every other kind of blade devised by mankind.

(It would be more politically correct to say humankind, but in this case mankind is probably more accurate since men are the ones responsible for most of the blades in the world.)

Used correctly, knives can be useful for everything from peeling oranges to creating works of art. Used incorrectly, knives can kill and hurt and destroy. Knives are inherently neither good nor bad. Whether they’re good or bad depends on how they’re used.

I’ll return to the exciting subject of knives in a moment, but I should mention first that I’m student teaching at a local high school. The other day I glanced through a book for teachers about the problems of apathy and disrespect in the classroom. I was a little disheartened when the book blamed video games for the lethargy of unmotivated students.

Why was I disheartened?

Because it’s often true.

Video games can be addictive. Some are horribly violent. Many are painfully shallow or stupid. Finally, while I’m no expert in psychology, I think the satisfaction of accomplishing goals in video games can become an unhealthy substitute for the satisfaction of accomplishing goals in real life. Why bother working hard at school when you can save—or conquer—the world in a video game?

Video games can definitely be harmful. So can knives. But knives can also be beneficial, and I think video games can be too.

There are two kinds of apologies. First is an expression or remorse or regret. Second is a justification or defense. This post is the second kind of apology.

If you will, consider the following.

It’s not fair to judge an entire medium by a few bad examples

Yes, there are video games like Grand Theft Auto and God of War that glorify violence, profanity and sexual depravity. There are also books and films and songs that are just as bad or even worse. We don’t condemn all books or films or songs because some are bad. Why then do we assume all video games are harmful because some happen to be?

Video games are a unique form of storytelling

I’ve read many books and played many games. To be honest, some of those games are a lot better than some of those books. The Final Fantasy games, for example, consistently provide fantastic settings, clever plots, superb characterization, interesting themes and (in the later titles) good writing and acting.

Some games even give players the freedom to influence the story by their decisions: the player and the storyteller become partners in bringing the story to its conclusion.

Video games have artistic value

There are people—including some game developers—who would challenge this assertion, but I think video games can be a valid form of artistic expression. Graphic design, animation, writing, music and acting are acknowledged to be forms of art.

Video games bring together some or all of these artistic forms and add the unique element of gameplay, the finely-tuned mechanics that allow a player to interact with the game. How is that not artistic?

Video games are fun

‘Nuff said.

Video games can be thought-provoking

Although we expect them to be intellectually vapid, video games can be quite profound. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, for example, has some fascinating moral dilemmas: Is a harmless illusion better than a painful reality? At what point does a person have the right to make decisions for another person?

The Final Fantasy series deals with all sorts of serious moral, political and ecological themes, and there are many other games that wrestle with issues of equal importance.

Video games bring people together

The stereotypical gamer is a lonely misfit with pale skin and no social experience. However, as is often the case, the stereotype is usually wrong. Most of the gamers I’ve met are cheerful, well-adjusted people. In my own experience, video games have actually strengthened friendships by giving friends something to do together. It’s hard not to enjoy spending time with other people when you’re tossing green shells at each other in Mario Kart or trying to knock each other off the screen in Super Smash Bros.

Is there more to a meaningful friendship than video games? Of course. Can video games be part of a meaningful friendship? Absolutely.

Video games inspire creativity

I’ve seen beautiful artwork inspired by video games and listened to amazing arrangements of video game music. There are many online comics centered on the oddities of games and gaming culture; some of them are really fun to read.

Video games have inspired many creative people to exercise their creativity, and that’s a very good thing.

What are your thoughts? Are video games a good thing? Are they evil? Let us know in the comments!

5. Anime Hair

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In my middle school days, it seemed that everyone had spiked hair. Well, by everyone I mean many of the boys. I did know a girl with spiked hair—it was actually quite a good look—but the fashion was almost exclusive to the males of the species. I even tried spiking my hair once, a dreadful mistake that I’m still trying to block out of my memory.

It would be much more convenient to have naturally spiky hair. People have naturally wavy or curly hair. Why not naturally spiky hair? Sadly, spiky hair is not a gift God has given humankind. Perhaps spiky hair is a gift we lost when we sinned against God at the beginning of the world. Could Adam and Eve have had naturally spiky hair in the Garden of Eden?

I guess I’ll save that theological question for another time.

Spiky hair seems to be a requisite for anime, or Japanese animation. This prompts a number of questions. Do anime characters take time to style their hair, or is it naturally spiky? If it’s naturally spiky, what are the theological implications? Are characters with spiky hair holier than characters without spiky hair?

Another common tendency of anime hair is to be creatively colored. Anime characters have black, brown or blond hair like the rest of the human race. They also have blue, green or purple hair. Explanations are never given for these unusual colors. Viewers are left to assume that anime characters either dye their hair or possess highly irregular genes.

I read somewhere that the trend toward odd hair colors began with manga, or Japanese comics. These comics were printed without colored ink, restricting a character’s hair color to black, white or a shade of gray. The covers of the comics, however, were printed in color. In order to visually distinguish characters as much as possible, comic artists gave their characters vividly colored hair. This tendency toward unnatural colors passed from manga to anime, thereby accounting for the brilliant shades of pink and indigo that brighten the hair of certain characters.

The really striking thing is how natural spiky or vividly colored hair seems in Japanese anime. Viewers tend not to think twice about a character with spiky blue hair.

Of course, there are a lot of strange things in Japanese anime that viewers tend not to think twice about. Like the characters (usually females) with furry ears and whiskers who possess a vague resemblance to cats, and the innate ability of some characters to produce large hammers from thin air, and the inexplicable ubiquity of pandas.

Strong Bad was right. Japanese cartoons are weird, man.