I recently started writing for Music4Games.net, which many of you probably heard of but don't visit.  I know a lot of us here are fans of Japanese VGM, and M4G seems to focus mainly on Western VGM.  I hope to change that. 

I've been trying to participate on the forums over there, but there is very little participation from people visiting the site.  I love these forums, so I figured I'd ask for people's advice on how to make their forums more attractive to people like us!

Yeah, you should try to change that. Western VGM topics on forums usually don't last long.

Haha, have some more substantial advice?    Anyone?

After looking into M4G and the forums more it's apparent that the site caters to a different kind of community than other game music forum sites. Just looking at the topics show that the peoples' interests lie in completely different places than STC (a place it seems you want to try to replicate or at least emulate) over there; as of now there are 12 threads for commercially released soundtrack album discussion, 52 for "general" game music discussion and 109 in the "Musicians" forum, where people apparently talk about their own compositions and get commissioned to compose for games.

So there are two main topics over there, it seems: Western VGM and people discussing their own compositions and music projects. That's almost a polar opposite to what a majority of the people here like to discuss. You said you hoped to change how M4G mostly focuses on Western VGM, so my advice still stands given the crowd and the discussion topics over there.

I've just had a quick look at the site. As Zane says, you're catering to a different audience but I'd say kudos for that and keep it up. It's great to see somewhere focusing on Western VGM, often overlooked simply due to its lack of foreign exoticism (is that a word?), availability and sometimes plain VGM snobbery. All I'd advise is give it time. Don't worry about forum traffic. Get it going as a great resource for anyone who wants to find out more about music from particular games and that will eventually bring some people back again and again.

That's how I found this place. Yes, I had more interest in Japanese VGM but that was partially because there was damn all info about Western VGM at the time.

Just give it time. Don't worry about appealing to people like the STC crowd. As Zane says, it's a different audience and there are plenty of places already catering for Japanese VGM.

First, I really enjoy "Western VGM" and I think it's great that there are sites that focus primarily on WVGM. I personally don't think this should change. In fact, I think most people focus too much on Japanese video game music and don't give enough credit to releases from other countries. Anyway, I took a quick look at music4games, and I probably will take a longer look later, but my initial impression is that it's not nearly as easy to navigate around as the forums here. To be honest, when I clicked on the "Forum" tab, nothing happened. So, I'm not sure what the situation is.

cheers,

-avatar!

I had to have Firefox allow popups from the site to get access to the forums. It looks like the forums open up in a new window or tab, so check your browser settings and try it again!

I would argue that there is no real focus on the forums.  The forums have been around for awhile, and are rarely posted to.  I think people post on the musician subforum because it's basically an introduction section.  The game music discussion and soundtrack album discussion are where I post most frequently, and I don't see why the soundtrack albums have to deal with Western VGM only.  It was good to see the forum admin, Tony, posting about FFXII.

Anyway, I don't see why it's so difficult to combine both Western and Japanese VGM discussions in a single place.  It's all game music.

It's almost the same as trying to get people who like documentaries to watch Korean horror flicks. Yeah, they're both different types of movies, but they're very far from being the same "type" of media. Try getting someone who idolizes Jack Wall to enjoy the Ibara OST, and then try to get someone who digs the Tokimemo peppy and melodic style of Kukeiha Club's music to enjoy the droning string swells of Freedom Fighters. Some people will (and do) enjoy both counts, but trying to mix everything up on a site that is almost specifically dedicated to Western game music and Western CD releases is going to be very difficult. What I don't understand really is why you're trying to make M4G a place that people are going to want to go to when there are several other soundtrack sites and forums available that cater to what a majority of game music fans enjoy listening to and talking about: Japanese VGM. The forum members over there probably don't care about Japanese VGM as is anyway, so it seems like a wasted effort given the other available resources on the 'net.

It should be easy to bridge the "West vs. East" gap whereever similar musical styles are used. E.g. considering plenty of new original music in all regions are using it a focus on orchestral style should be easy to take to give an overall look at music in games without any regional bias.

I have to agree with Zane and others.  The way the site's content is written, it definitely gives the impression that it is a Western VGM forum.  Maybe there are people who like Japanese VGM more than western VGM, or maybe haven't even heard of M4G.

StC, CC, GFA, and SD have seemingly been around longer than M4G, so their userbase hangs out at the places they know.  Maybe M4G should advertise their site a bit more?

Yeah, that's the thing.  So few people post to the forums that you can't really consider there being an "installed user base" there, which is why it's kind of like starting from scratch.

Anyway, I just reviewed Granado Espada and Resident Evil, both of which are Eastern VGM.  Even N3 had the majority of the tracks being contributed by Japanese composers.  I don't know that the intention is to be solely focused on Western VGM, but maybe that's all that is easily accessible?  It's a news site more than a fan site, and it's hard to get a lot of official information regarding Japanese composers when it's all in Japanese and official press releases are rarely released regarding their works!

Quick derailment for a sec...

I saw the tracklisting before I read your review. What a disappointing album, man. Not even a single save room song on there, which is arguably the most enjoyable stuff from the series. D'oh!

Quite honestly, I haven't played a single RE game, so it was hard writing that review.  And yeah, very disappointing track list.  I don't know who they made that album for.  Bunch of 15 second cutscene songs.  Annoying.