Today Winifred Phillips, author of A Composer’s Guide to Game Music, guest blogs about her new book.
My book, A Composer’s Guide to Game Music, was released only a few weeks ago, and already a very interesting online community is forming around it. Readers are engaging in that ubiquitous practice of posting “selfies” to Facebook and the Twitterverse, but with a twist. These selfies feature readers posing with their newly received copies of A Composer’s Guide to Game Music. I think this attests to a shared enthusiasm for video game music and a strong desire to bond with fellow readers. I’m very pleased to participate in this lively community that’s springing up on the Internet. It actually reminds me of a particular discussion from my book, in the chapter entitled “Why Would You Want to Write Music for Games?”:
One of the things I love about the gaming community is its complete commitment to the things it loves. No shame, no timidity. Gamers don’t do things halfway…This culture also extends into the field of game music. One prominent game composer is famous for dressing in public as a rhinestone cowboy. Another well-known composer recently dressed as a half-naked Grecian warrior while conducting a symphony orchestra in front of a screaming arena crowd.
I thoroughly enjoy gamer culture. It has the vivacity of a circus and the intensity of a war. Gamers love what they love, and hate what they hate, with equal fervor for both. Plus, gamers have formed one of the most Internet-savvy communities in existence. The gaming community is well versed in all methods of propagating its point of view as quickly as possible. Under these conditions, a small controversy can quickly erupt into a global event, sparking thousands on thousands of bulletin board threads, blog posts, tweets, and Facebook updates. Such is the power of gamer culture.