The Video Game Music Challenge [Suggestion and Discussion]

[Nessy]

Welcome to the Video Game Music Challenge Discussion! This thread is ONLY for the discussion of the general rules and regulations for how this game could work.

New Modified Ideas For The Challenge

1) Starting on July 20, 2020 you will be given three short descriptions of a certain type of video game music, and it's up to you to write down the title of one specific video game track from one specific video game that matches each description and essentially creating a list of three different video game tracks. Links to your music track choices such as one on YouTube for others to listen to is not required but highly recommended! Finally, please post your list into a spoiler tag so that people that have already posted their own list can look but people that haven't posted their list yet won't be accidentally influenced.

2) You will have roughly three days to not only get your list of titles posted but in the meantime everyone is encouraged to discuss everyone's choices and list.

3) After that three day cycle another set of descriptions will be posted. This challenge will roughly end when general interest starts to die down, in the hopes that sometime in the future someone else will take over and revive the challenge!

The Original Idea Suggested (No Longer Valid)

1) Each day for the next 30 days starting on July 20, 2020 you will be given a short description of a certain type of video game music (all of these descriptions are listed at the bottom of this post in spoiler tags), and it's up to you to write down the title of one specific video game track from one specific video game that matches that description onto your own personal list on your computer (not this thread). A link to that specific music track such as one on YouTube for others to listen to when this challenge is done is highly recommended, but not required.

2) At the end of the 30-day period you will PM me your completed list. I will then collect everyone's personal list and place them all into one zip file which I will post on this thread for everyone to look at and compare everyone's answers to every day's description. Remember, this is just meant to be for fun so there is no major competition or anything.

3) While there really isn't a way to stop this... the idea is that each day you will only view the description of the day we are currently on and that day only (which is why they are all in spoiler tags). For example, if it is July 28 you should be viewing the description under the "Day 9" spoiler tag.

4) If you can't figure out a music track for a specific day, it's okay to leave it blank.

[DireKrow]

I already post a vgm a day on the discord so... why not?

I feel as though it'd be better if we posted our picks each day in the thread here. That way there's ongoing discussion about it rather than dead air for 30 days. Also, if the list is compiled personally and then given to you, there's not much point in spreading it out over 30 days. I can curate the whole list in an hour or two and then just sit on it for 30 days, and nobody would know the difference...

[Colorful Arty]

This sounds awesome! Count me in!

[Nessy]

Glad to see people are interested

One very important thing to note is that after reading some feedback I think this challenge should be tweaked a little bit. Instead of having one song description each day and then having all the dead air during the 30-day period... my new proposal is to have a certain number of descriptions (most likely 3 to 5) posted on here and then allow everyone who wants to participate to post their favorite video game track that matches each description (so they will have a list of 3 to 5, basically the final number of descriptions we decide on) and then allow a few days for everyone to discuss them before moving on to another set of descriptions.

I'm wondering if this would strike a better balance and essentially be more engaging than the "one a day" idea?

[607]

In any case this sounds very exciting!
But I also do not see the point in posting all 30 privately first. I would think it unlikely that I'm going to read through everyone's picks if it's so much at once! More than one at once might be a good idea though, because this forum doesn't seem to get too much daily activity. I'm very curious for the descriptions, but I won't check them yet. I'm not sure why you already put them all in, though.

[Nessy]

I'm not sure why you already put them all in, though.

Me neither I actually don't know what I'm doing

But in all seriousness it seems that people prefer my new proposal so I think I'll leave this thread as the "suggestion and discussion of that suggestion" thread and start up a brand new thread with the true forum game this Monday, July 20th. I will go ahead and update the original post anyway so that people can still read both the original and new ideas and provide last minute feedback.

[IchoTolot]

I think I will be joining as well.

I think this challenge will become much more interesting if we can gather people who enjoy very different types of games. 

[namida]

I'd suggest bring back one idea from the original: Keep the "submit via PM" system. This reduces the chance of people's decisions influencing each other (and thus may lead to more variety in the results).

[Nessy]

I'd suggest bring back one idea from the original: Keep the "submit via PM" system. This reduces the chance of people's decisions influencing each other (and thus may lead to more variety in the results).

Honestly I think I want to avoid the "submit via PM" system for now. If this was more of a legit competition instead of a silly, for fun kind of thing then submitting responses via PM will definitely have to be done. Of course, this can change if others want that system, or even if a few rounds of the game in action show that a system like this is needed.

[Proxima]

An alternative to PM submissions would be to have a rule requiring that two people can't submit the same VGM for the same category. This slightly privileges whoever manages to post first, but not by much, considering the amount of VGM out there is vastly more than the number of people taking part.

[namida]

My thought is less about people directly copying each other, and more about influence. For example - someone else posts a track from FF7. Now I have FF7 on my mind and might be more likely to consider FF7 tracks myself.

Given that it is more a just-for-fun thing without winners / etc though, perhaps simply using spoiler tags is enough to avert this effect, and simply use the "ask nicely" approach with regards to not viewing other people's answers before posting one's own.

[607]

An alternative to PM submissions would be to have a rule requiring that two people can't submit the same VGM for the same category. This slightly privileges whoever manages to post first, but not by much, considering the amount of VGM out there is vastly more than the number of people taking part.

I disagree with this idea, I think it would be fun if several people happen to choose the same tune independently.

My thought is less about people directly copying each other, and more about influence. For example - someone else posts a track from FF7. Now I have FF7 on my mind and might be more likely to consider FF7 tracks myself.

Given that it is more a just-for-fun thing without winners / etc though, perhaps simply using spoiler tags is enough to avert this effect, and simply use the "ask nicely" approach with regards to not viewing other people's answers before posting one's own.

Yeah, I think using spoiler tags would be quite enough.

[WillLem]

Soooooo..... what do we have to do?

[Nessy]

My thought is less about people directly copying each other, and more about influence. For example - someone else posts a track from FF7. Now I have FF7 on my mind and might be more likely to consider FF7 tracks myself.

Given that it is more a just-for-fun thing without winners / etc though, perhaps simply using spoiler tags is enough to avert this effect, and simply use the "ask nicely" approach with regards to not viewing other people's answers before posting one's own.

Oooooh I see what you mean now... okay yeah that's true, and I think the spoiler tag is a good idea and a nice common ground.

Soooooo..... what do we have to do?

I updated the original post now to include the spoiler tag rule. Everything should (hopefully) be final now

[607]

3 out of the 6 prompts so far have involved picking your favourite track in your category. Are you planning to do a lot of these? They are interesting, but also limiting, I feel. It will be interesting to see if people's favourite themes will often be the same or will be different, but what's more fun to me about this game is sharing music you would like to share (fitting to the topic) and getting to know new songs. With a 'favourite' prompt, you are completely restricted in what track to post, and it might not be a track you would like to share. Also, I'm not sure yet if this is the case, but I expect that with a 'favourite' prompt the variety in tracks will be smaller, and you are less likely to get to know new tracks (actually, to my surprise, this seems to not be the case, looking at others' replies to Round 2).
What do other people think about this? I haven't looked at the list that used to be in the OP as we weren't supposed to, so I don't know what Nessy was planning, but I honestly hadn't expected any 'favourite' prompts, and so far half have been so. Regardless, this game is still fun so far! Especially listening and replying to other's picks.