sonofableep

let me see if i’ve got this straight.  as i move through the world, i’m treated to a location-based ambient mp3.  but suddenly…i’m in combat!  so…quick!  fade out the ambient mp3!  choose a combat mp3 (from a pool of maybe two or three) and start playback!  maybe even before i see the baddie (thereby giving away its presence)!  play it from the beginning for the brief time i’m in combat (thereby ensuring i’ll never hear the end, and will get bloody sick of the beginning)!  then, as soon as it’s begun…combat has ended!  so…hurry!  fade out the combat mp3 (nevermind providing any kind of win/lose/draw resolution)!  return to that ambient mp3, and play it from the beginning (thereby ensuring…mm hm).

really?  really.  hey guys…1999 called.  they want their music implementation back.  OH SNAP!

(i couldn’t figure out a way to wrap it up with a “that’s what she said” joke, so i went with “<year> called” instead.  i think it works.)

p.s. man…how many great scores have been wrecked by this, the De Facto Standard Of Game Music Implementation?  i can recall one from a few years back that won all kinds of “score of the year” awards – and it *was* great music – but was implemented using the D.F.S.O.G.M.I. method.  hearing the music outside of the game was soul-stirring.  hearing it inside the game was…less so.  i always wondered…what did the composer think when he heard his work shoehorned into the game in such a manner?  maybe he just sobbed all the way to the bank.