projecting woes
Submitted by kiyochan on Sat, 04/26/2008 - 02:41.
As I'm trying to piece together my final project, I've run into a bit of a bump. See, for the paper (because I am at a lack of imagination for another medium otherwise - thank you, semester) I was hoping to see how language, image, and music mixed with interactivity creates or supports the narratives of different video games that either revolve around a musical premise or where the music itself aids in creating a narrative that it otherwise undefined.
The difficulty I'm having is that I forgot/underestimated the number of video games out there that "revolve around a musical premise." When I first drew this up, I had pretty much only Electroplankton, Lumines, Meteos, and probably Rez (though I haven't played it yet) in mind. But after reading through a few books, I realized I'd completely overlooked those games of Guitar Hero/Rock Band, the entire Beatmania (Dance Dance Revolution, etc.) series, those karaoke games and some other ones I'd never heard of before such as Buzz (some music quiz game), PaRappa the Rapper and so on.
It's a lot of games. There are so many different areas to study in them too. For example, how holding a controller shaped like an actual instrument assists when playing the game or the specific techniques that composers have used so that gamers don't get totally bored out of their brains when battling in RPG turn-based battles or the strategy (read: chess-like) fights a la Final Fantasy Tactics.
I guess maybe I should make the prompt something more exclusive - maybe to just handheld consoles (since I think Electroplankton was the one I was initially most interested in exploring) or taking an easier path and talking about games that only enforce popular music (though then I might have include the Grand Theft Auto series, which has nothing to do with creating music.) Or maybe it's not too late to change topics...
Any ideas?
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Narrowing the Focus
There is a lot out there, but I think you should definitely stick with the topic. All you need to do is find some way of paring down the number and/or kinds of music-related games you want to write about. For example, Rez is a very different kind of game from Guitar Hero (and just about everything else, for that matter), so you'd probably find it a stretch, logically, to talk about it in the same way as Guitar Hero.
It depends what kind of musonarratological viewpoint you're interested in. The different groups you draw out in the blog post would all probably end up with their own frameworks: musical performance as agency (Guitar Hero, DDR), music as commentary (Grand Theft Auto), music as diachronic emplotment device (RPGs vs. REZ doing it very differently), etc.
You can also just focus on handhelds or consoles, as you suggest.
The great thing about a topic like this is there are lots of ways to address different things, so you can always add more if you narrow it down too far and run out of things to say.
My opinion
Hmm.. I think I would just go one way or the other. Stick with games where music is essential but not the focus of the game, or stick with games where music is the major moving force of the game (DDR, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, etc.)
I personally find the first option more interesting, and it sounds like you do too. Mainly because I have a friend that learned all of the Final Fantasy pieces on piano and composed a melody out of them. Also, because my boyfriend plays through Final Fantasy Tactics like once a year, and I enjoy watching and falling asleep on the couch while he plays because the music is so soothing....
Also, I LOVE musical scores and soundtracks to movies, and I think that soundtracks to games are equally important in developing mood, immersion and narrative.
I don't know if I helped you at all, but I would definitely suggest narrowing it down so you can go more in depth instead of trying to cover everything.