Dec 02, 1:18 pm
Music can make or break a game for me. I’m the type of gamer who MUST have the music on, even if I’m playing an MMORPG in a zone I’ve been to a thousand times. When I walk in on people playing games with the music off, I become flabbergasted and spluttery. Gaming without music is inconceivable to me, and perhaps is a clue as to why I’m so keen on games like Guitar Hero and Rockband that are entirely based around the music.
My most recent reminder of my weird obsession with good game (and movie) music came a couple weeks ago when I was playing an early build of the new Prince of Persia (which will be in stores this week). During every momentous story transition, I was swept up by the kind of epic, classical-style music that gets high school orchestra nerds all hot and bothered. I wasn’t an orchestra nerd in high school, but I have been playing classical piano since I was 4, so that kind of epic stuff is right up my alley. Some of my favorite composers of this kind are Jeremy Soule (Baldur’s Gate II, Morrowind, Oblivion, etc.), Jason Hayes (many of the World of Warcraft tracks), John Williams (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, etc), James Horner (Braveheart), and Joe Hisaishi (Princess Mononoke). The new Prince of Persia has some tracks that would make any of those composers proud. And since I’m raving about their work, I should mention that PoP’s soundtrack was composed by Inon Zur and Stuart Chatwood, dudes/gals I’ve never heard of but who apparently have some legitimate talent.
Classical, orchestral music isn’t the only kind of music I like to game to, of course, and my excitement over PoP’s tracks got me to thinking about my other favorite game soundtracks. It would be impossible to mention ALL the game music I’ve gotten excited about in the past, so to keep things simple, I came up with 10 of my all-time game music favorites. I’ve intentionally left out the Guitar Hero or Rockband set lists because those deserve a separate discussion entirely (for the record, my favorite is still the original in Guitar Hero 1). The 10 I have listed here are soundtracks (or main tracks) that are the best at enhancing the game play experience and overall immersion.
• Okami: Traditional Japanese style crossed with adventure music.
• Katamari Damacy: Jazzy Spacey Japanese Supersonic Awesome!!!
• Final Fantasy VII: Both epic and memorable. The Aeris theme still haunts me.
• World of Warcraft: The most ambient soundtrack on this list, but better than any other at creating rad atmosphere without getting on your nerves when you hear it for the 8,346th time. Nevermind that some of the stuff is kind of Enyaish. Everyone is in the mood for Enya every once in a while, whether or not you are willing to admit it. 
• Braid: I only played this game for 10 minutes before desperately searching the net for the soundtrack. It’s full of traditional celtic themes that suit the game perfectly.
• any of the GTA car radio song lists: full of great songs and the format makes for a more interactively fun and immersive gaming experience.
• the main Halo theme: I’m in love with the main, intro track more than the rest of the Halo soundtrack combined, but that one track is legendary enough to warrant a spot on this list.
• Elder Scrolls theme in both Morrowind and Oblivion: Again, I’m mostly a fan of the main theme, not as much about the entire soundtracks, but the main theme sets the tone. I listen to this when I need an extra boost of motivation.
• Lumines: a funky, jazzy, electronica-esque soundtrack that is so essential to the game it’s easy to imagine that the music might somehow be tied to the puzzle mechanic.
• Bioshock: I might look back on this later and decide that it’s a random addition, but that 40’s and 50’s style music in that underwater dystopic setting successfully creeped me the heck out.
There are plenty of reasons to play the new Prince of Persia, like the smoothest platformer gameplay I’ve played in years, not to mention the unbelievable graphics and art style which, if I get started on, I’ll get all Okami-style-cel-shaded-watercolor fangirl about. But if you’re a fan of good in-game music, check out the new PoP to see why I might end up putting it’s soundtrack on that Top 10 list someday. Prince of Persia is out this week (in stores by Thursday), but in the meantime, chime in on the forums and tell me which in-game music is YOUR favorite.
Nov 01, 6:56 pm
Nothing is permanent, as many wise individuals have said, and indeed we are witnessing an amazing era of change. We hear the word Change on the tongues of presidential candidates, climatologists, and economists. Everything is changing, as everything always does, but the changes seem especially visible right now, even for us gamers. We will see major evolutions of beloved things like Xbox Live and World of Warcraft in the coming month, and innovations like Little Big Planet are already altering our expectations of what a game can do.
During this period of noteworthy transition, the Frag Doll team is undergoing significant change as well. Jinx moved to the other side of the world, which marked the first time that our original members were outnumbered by teammates recruited through Casting Calls. As sad as we were to see Jinx go, the silver lining was the possibility of recruiting the extremely talented and energetic Phoenix who has already infused the team with new purpose and enthusiasm. Some of our girls have had major career changes, including Pyra’s new full-time IT job and Psyche’s recent job offer from Ubisoft’s Digital Marketing group in San Francisco (the same department that both Jinx and I used to work for).
Big changes are afoot, and it is in this trend of rapid transformation that I must announce another significant milestone in our team’s history. Both Calyber and Mischief are moving on to pursue aspirations outside of the Frag Doll team. It is always with mixed emotions that we say farewell to teammates as they begin new chapters in their lives, and certainly these emotions are especially intense when faced with the unprecedented departure of two at once.
We are sad to see Alyson and Alex go. Both of these girls have made important contributions to the team as professionals, and we have learned important lessons from each other as friends. But we are glad to have had the chance to work beside them and get to know them so well.
Both Calyber and Mischief have written Farewell Blogs. You can find Calyber’s HERE and Mischief’s HERE.
We wish them the best, and look forward to seeing what they do next. In terms of the Frag Doll team, we’re back down to 7 members, and we will miss the extra coziness of having a full 9, but I admit to being excited about where this current of change will take us. I have a hunch that big, new things are waiting for us just around the corner.
Oct 17, 3:17 pm
I really need to write blogs more often. Between graduate school and making sure this team gets where it needs to be, I have too many opportunities to make excuses. I’m gonna be better about it from now on, I promise, but for now you can take the fact that I’m writing a blog as proof that I have something SUPEREXCITINGAWESOME to tell you.
It is my pleasure to announce that we are welcoming a new Frag Doll to the team! This may come as a surprise because we didn’t do a Casting Call to find her, but that’s because we’ve had our eyes on this gamer for while now. We first got to know her during last year’s Casting Call, and then were lucky enough to play with her on Xbox Live for the months leading up to our competitive MLG Rainbow season. She not only proved that she has amazing natural talent in every game she touches, she is also one of the most passionate gamers we’ve ever encountered. Finally, at PAX 2008 we got to see how well she gets along with everyone in our community. After that point, we were confident that she would be a perfect addition to our team. We knew we could have complete faith in Faith.
Previously known as She Devil, Faith is now our newest Frag Doll, Phoenix! She will be playing War World under her new tag during Frag Doll Friday tonight so if you want to come try your trigger finger against her, feel free to send a friend request to ‘Ph0enix FD’ (spelled with a zero).
Her profile will be up on our site next week, but here is some more information about Phoenix so you can start to get to know her now.
Please welcome our new sister Frag Doll, Phoenix FD!
XBOX LIVE GAMERTAG: PH0ENiX FD
GAMES I’M PLAYING
* Halo 3
* Rainbow Six Vegas 2
* Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
* Soul Calibur IV
* Battlefield: Bad Company
* Grand Theft Auto IV
* Grand Theft Auto IV
HEIGHT: 5’4 ¾”
EYES: Blue
HAIR: Strawberry Blonde
LOCATION: Katy, Texas
HOMETOWN: Boston, Massachusetts
FAVORITE GENRES: FPS, FPS, and did I mention FPS…plus Fighters, Racing, and Fantasy
FAVORITE GAMES: Rainbow Six Series, Halo Series, Call of Duty Series, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Unreal Championship, Burn Out Revenge, Battlefield Series
FAVORITE SNACK: Vanilla Ice Cream with Chocolate Syrup and Whip Cream…YUM!
FAVORITE CHARACTER: Niko Bellic from GTA IV
FAVORITE QUOTE: It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, “Always do what you are afraid to do.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
FAVORITE MUSIC: Disturbed, Slip Knot, Mushroomhead, Tomahawk, Rammstein, Avenged Sevenfold
FAVORITE TV SHOWS: Entourage, Dexter, Sex and the City, True Blood, Californication, Spongebob
FAVORITE BOOKS: Harry Potter Series, Lord of the Rings Series, The Poet
FAVORITE COLOR: Blue
FIRST GAME ADDICTION: Lode Runner
FIRST CONSOLE: Nintendo Entertainment System
GREATEST MOMENT: I was the last one alive and I killed everyone on the other team in Search and Destroy (did I mention that there were 6 people left alive on the other team!)
LONGEST SPREE: 36hrs straight on Rainbow Six Black Arrow, and almost 40hrs straight on COD 4
OBSESSIONS: XBL, Video Games, Nintendo DS, Shopping for electronics and video game accessories, playing with my son
I HATE: Arrogant little boys on XBL
I LOOK LIKE: the last thing you see before you die! MuaHaHaHa
Apr 29, 12:50 pm
The fat reality of gaming is that we spend a lot of time sitting on our asses. With the exception of burning calories while rocking out on Rock Band, serving people on DDR, and gesticulating wildly for certain Wii games, there’s a lot of sitting and staring. Trash talking and frustrated controller throwing are probably the best workouts we get while playing the traditional stationary games.
To make matters worse, junk food is as much a part of the ‘typical gamer’ stereotype as is pasty, sun-deprived skin. It’s safe to assume that potato chip grease is one of the top 3 reasons why Nintendo put wrist-straps on the Wiimote. I’ve known fellow gamers to live on nothing but Skittles, Pringles, Red Bull, and Hot Pockets, and I’m not sure if this is purely because they don’t want to take time away from their games to spend more than 2 minutes preparing food, if they’re on a tight budget, or if they just don’t know any better.
I’m a bit of a health nut for some of the normal health nut reasons (ie. I like being relatively fit and I don’t want to get cancer and die early just so I could fill my body with artificial flavors and preservatives). But the #1 reason why I advocate eating well and getting some exercise is because when you exercise a little and put GOOD things in your body, you feel GOOD. It’s an amazingly simple, beautiful, symmetrical equation. Eat well = feel well. Eat crap = feel crap. Same goes for exercise. If you act like a blob, you’ll feel lethargic and heavy like a blob. If you make yourself active and energetic a little bit each day, you will start to feel active and energetic.
Of course, it’s easier to say than to do, but I have some personal tips that help make the doing almost as easy as the saying.
*****
Little eating habits that make a big difference:
1) AVOID PROCESSED SUGAR! Soda is definitely the biggest culprit. I’ve known some people to do nothing more than cut out the sugary sodas and they lose 10 lbs of couch potato flab in just a few weeks. Candy is another naughty source of empty sugar calories, so avoid it when you can.
Note about sugar: I have a major sweet-tooth so I know how hard this can be, but I’ve found ways to still get some sweet and not suffer as much for it. Good alternatives include fruit and natural fruit juice (with no sugar added), and baked goods without regular white sugar. For example, Trader Joe’s has these amazing granola and dried cherry cookies sweetened with molasses, evaporated cane juice, and brown rice syrup, all of which are better for you than white sugar. And these cookies are seriously delicious. I would have eaten them as a kid and that’s saying something.
2) AVOID PROCESSED CARBOHYDRATES! White flour is bad, whole wheat flour and whole grains are really good. Don’t eat things like white bread and frosted flakes. Instead, eat whole grain bread, granola and whole grain Cheerios. Not only does it help you drop pounds, you get a lot more energy and nutrients from the whole grains.
3) AVOID DEEP-FRIED FOODS! This is a bit of a no-brainer. Deep-fried foods are full of fat and usually empty carbohydrates. Icky.
4) EAT SMALLER PORTIONS, but EAT MORE OFTEN! These are two habits that should go together. When you eat a meal, try to make it small enough that it satisfies your hunger but doesn’t make you feel full. Then in 3-4 hours when you feel hungry again, eat some more. Having 5 smallish meals and snacks each day instead of having 3 (or, more typically, 2) big meals a day helps speed up your metabolism to process and burn calories more quickly. Think about it this way: Sumo wrestlers fatten themselves up by eating only one HUGE meal a day and then going to sleep right afterwards.
In order to not look like a sumo wrestler, I advise doing the exact opposite: eat lots of small meals and…
5) DON’T EAT RIGHT BEFORE BED! Give yourself at least 2 hours to digest and let your body channel the food to muscles and organs. If you eat and sleep soon after, your body will store the energy as fat.
Easy ways to exercise:
1) DON’T TAKE SHORTCUTS FOR STUFF THAT’S ALREADY EASY! Best example: take the stairs instead of the elevator. 4 floors it might take you an extra 30 seconds and you’ll get a nice little workout from it. If you have to go up more than 5 floors, it might make the most sense to take an elevator most of the way, but you can still climb a few of them and then hop on the elevator.
2) TAKE THE 5 MINUTE WALK! If something is only a 5 minute walk away, walk it, don’t resort to something lazy like a cab or bus or subway.
3) DO RANDOM, EASY EXERCISES THROUGHOUT THE DAY! It can look kind of silly, but I like to walk around on my toes and do calf-raises when walking around an office or while at home. I also like to periodically flex my abs hard and hold it for 30 seconds while I’m sitting at my desk, on the couch, or in a car. These are small things that can make a difference.
4) STRETCH! Stretching actually burns some calories and helps make you feel good. Don’t underestimate it as a way to make your body happier and healthier.
5) LOADING… DROP AND GIVE ME 10! Example: before Blizzard fixed the queue times for Battlegrounds in WoW, those 7 minute downtimes were the perfect for getting in a set of sit-ups or push-ups. Over the course of several hours of gaming I could do a few hundred crunches, some lunges, a bunch of push-ups, some stretching, etc. Many games these days still have downtime of some sort, whether they be loading screens or waiting for everyone on the server to stop chatting like it’s grandma’s teatime and finally start the stinking game. Use this time!
*****
I’m all for breaking stereotypes about gamers, especially when the stereotypical traits lower our quality of life. Luckily, being unhealthy and out-of-shape is one of those things that we have the power to actively change. Be conscious about what you eat, use your downtime wisely, and enjoy not feeling like a blob.
Mar 07, 1:31 am
Have you played many or any fighting based games?....what improvements could be made to increase the genres popularity? theviper556
Yeah, I love Mortal Fighter! Ryuken is my fave! Shodoquacken!!!
Just kidding. Yes, I’ve played a decent amount of Street Fighter and I’m a Chun Li fan. And I know you’re thinking that I only play her because she’s a girl, but really it’s because the rest are all guys.
How to make the genre more popular? theviper556
Put Britney Spears and Paris Hilton into a fighting game! Who could resist making them beat the crud out of each other?
Does the “Alert an administrator about this post” button thingy really work? SuperRobot7
If by “work” you mean that it donates $1 per click to the fund that will support a space station run by monkeys in clown costumes, then yes.
It also flags a post for review by an administrator.
Will you be my valentines? SuperRobot7
Are you rich?
Ummm… but seriously, with enough chocolate, anything is possible.
Will there be cake? emp_wordsmith
It will be so delicious and moist…
What is the best why to ask out a friend who has put you in the “friend category”? For a while cujonuke
Are you rich?
Seriously though, it’s hard to come back from the “friend category”. My recommendation is that guys should always make their interests clear from the beginning so there’s an opportunity for more-than-friendship to develop. Once you’re in the friend category, you’re most likely going to be stuck there.
However, if you’re dead-set on asking this girl out, suggest dinner or something and then try to be receptive to the hints she’s giving you. If she seems hesitant, back off. The last thing you should do is act desperate. You gotta be cool and chill about it.
Or you could always pull a Ron Burgundy:
“I wanna say something. I’m gonna put it out there; if you like it, you can take it, if you don’t, send it right back…
I want to be on you.”
Grand Unified Field Theory. Pipe dream or Holy Grail of physics. Please phrase your answer in the form of haiku. theexpozay
No need for haiku
Since everyone knows that the
Answer’s 42
What game angers (or angered) you the most? Why? How did you overcome this? Dangler_Chief
EverQuest angered me the most of any game I’ve ever played (it’s also still one of my favorite games I’ve ever played and the one I’ve spent the most time playing overall). Retrieving one’s body after dying was sometimes so difficult and frustrating that it made me want to throw my monitor out the window. I eventually overcame this by not playing EverQuest anymore, but I didn’t stop playing because of the body retrieval frustration.
Can we have tacos for dinner tonight? OtnemeM_IroM
