Fairness and Zykophants

Let’s say, for a split second of fantasy, that we live in a fair world. How would OCReMix look during that split second? Fair has never… Okay, I’m not gonna try to make that funny. My lawyer suggested lack of humor might help my case.

 

60,574 posts, 2,124 threads. I’m talking about the Reviews forum. I’m gonna make a quick scientific experiment. I observed that McVaffe had an unhealthy amount of reviews in comparison with other recent remixes. Further observations should confirm that many OCR forum members are sycos (not to be confused with zyko).

 

I’m gonna list 10 recent remixes and estimate their value based on a formula. The remixes are: Harmony of Destruction, H2O, Nuclear Flash, Kirby’s Mystical Track, Celestial Winds Blah Blah Blah, Heatman (Just a Fuse mix), Livin’ la vida Stockholm, A Day in the Life of a Judge, and Yet Even More Final Fantasy VII. And yes, I’m using nonary for this post.

 

For the sake of fairness, I’m not gonna include the two Final Fantasy tracks just outside the range I just set my mind on using in this statistical experiment. That means that both emo-FF and FFVI tie with Mega Man 2, each with 2 remixes.

 

On average, there are 2 reviews a day on new remixes. The actual number of reviews per day is much higher, due to OA, DA and others, but the older reviews don’t count here. It should be mentioned that at least OA is often seen on the first page of recent review threads.

 

The top scoring tracks here were not FFVII tracks, surprisingly. Less surprising was the sycophancy, most reviews were of McVaffe’s Okami remix and the Sixto Sounds/zircon Mega Man 2 collab. The top scoring tracks had more than twice the average.

 

More surprises await in the low range, with judge JJT and newcomer Kidd Cabbage. Both tracks were from Final Fantasy games, and received less than half of the average number of reviews. While surprising, it doesn’t really break convention.

 

I’ll sum this up by saying that some remixers have a significant status, and I’d like to attribute the unfair review balance to subliminal messaging but there’s a simpler explanation, namely that a significant portion of remix fans are sycophants, and I’m coming after you with Occam’s Razor if you disagree.

 

Terra’s Got Her Track Remixed

Would anyone be surprised if a song from Final Fantasy or Chrono Trigger was the most remixed? I wasn’t. I checked OCReMix’s track listing. Surprisingly, it’s not emo-franchise FF7, it’s FF6. Even more surprising is that there’s a whopping 13 remixes of that one song, and the game features a handful of other over-remixed tracks, and a plethora of under-appreciated and under-remixed ones.

 

Yes, I mean it. More Final Fantasy remixes, please. But not of emo-fantasy. With Voices of the Lifestream, it’s gotten more attention, proportionally as well as otherwise, than it deserves. Loads of decent tracks worth a remix or two. Although I think I’d prefer remixes of games yet to be  touched by OCRers.

 

Anyway, Terra’s theme is in the lead with 13 remixes. Chrono Trigger’s Schala’s Theme and Corridor of Time, Mega Man 2’s Dr. Wily Stage 1, and Radical Dreamers: Nusumenai Houseki’s Far Promise ~ Dream Shore (Part 1) all have 10 remixes. Just look at it! Crazy!

 

The stats don’t really cover re-used themes such as the Mario or Zelda themes, which are also over-remixed. We’ve heard their Overworlds, thank you and remix something else now.

 

Interestingly, Final Fantasy 7 is represented by three tracks, each being remixed 6 times. Is it a coinkidink that it spells 666? Does it have anything to do with Square dominating the top tracks listing?

 

Anyway, I need a better lawyer. I hope Shnabubula won’t sue over the not so subtle reference to the name he picked for his take on the over-remixed track.

 

The Craze Is Out There

The winners of OCReMix’ Voices of the Lifestream AMV content are announced and their works are filling up the front page. While regulars might go straight for the forum, or just log into the irc channel and get direct links to new developments (threads, remixes) via associates on #ocremix, people new to OCR likely come by the front page, making them exposed to the emo virus.

 

The Final Fantasy craze never seems to be over. By the time this has finally been shoveled away, some other final fantasy content or fan work appears. At the time of writing, there are three final fantasy remixes on the OCR front page “latest remixes” list. That’s a quarter of the total number of remixes in the list. While 25% may seem little, consider that Nintendo’s three main franchizes have less, only two remixes in the list.

 

It’s alarming to see the craze like this, knowing it’s actually at a low point at the moment. Numerous great games are omitted due to the game bias of the nostalgic idiots that remix. Casual gamers that played Mortal Kombat, Excitebike, Starcraft… Those games are found represented by an empty list, and many games do not even have that.

 

If my lawyer hadn’t told me to stop speculating about large corporations, I’d suggest that somewhere, the presidents of Square Enix must be sitting, petting their cats, twirling their moustaches (not the cats’), blowing the smoke from their cigarettes in the faces of the contract-bound video game industry-equivalents of director Skinner (note: not principal Skinner).

 

As a site that appreciates video game music, OCR should be able to ask “where’s the love?”, and not be met by an answer implying inbreeding.