I thought that I should stop visiting this place once every two days and take the bookmark away from my toolbar. Is it smart for a young and promising intellectual to use many hours each week on such a mundane topic as VGM? It needs to be a gradual reduction, that is for sure. No abrupt volutions.

It would be more... appropriate to spend my time even on an elitist music forum instead of here. To cultivate my middle class mentality and allow myself to climb up. And to stop having a beer now and then. A glass of wine is better, together with some cheese perhaps? And drinks. Loads of drinks. One cannot have a weird-ass hobby like this forever. At least not one as irrational as this. Music for games? What's the point? Seems like a strategy on how to achieve status. Just a very poor strategy. One would reach higher with almost any other strategy.... - Humble in a new environment, another forum. Get new friends. Explore new territories.

I don't impress girls with this hobby. I don't impress potential employers. Not intellectuals either. It's something that needs to be hidden. It's embarrassing. Then it is easy to blame them, to say that they are narrow-minded. But it is I who live in this isolated corner. I feel that with time I get more and more aware of my habits and how then shape me. How does this hobby shape me? Couldn't the free time been used on politics instead? An interest not more noble than VGM concerning intellectual level, perhaps. At least it gives one a face in the local media. Impresses employers. Gives you an excuse to make speeches. Attracts girls. Networking is much easier.

Sometimes I wonder if I had been a VGM'er even without favourites like Uematsu, Yamaoka, Sakuraba and Koshiro. Probably. Quality doesn't matter. Or probably not. Wouldn't have gotten into it without quality.

Any suggestions? I'm in a haze.

To be honest, as long as it isn't illegal, shame is a poor reason to give up anything you enjoy. Also, if you're trying to avoid alienating topics of conversation, skip politics for pity's sake.

Grass, if you ever find yourself in America I will buy you a beer. Of course, you'll have likely had very many already in order to find yourself here.

While racking parts with my supervisor on Friday, Britney Spears came over the stereo which he had his mp3 player plugged into to.

A few minutes pass:

Him: "Okay, I like Britney Spears music."
Me: "I didn't say anything."
Him: "I know, but you were thinking it, right?"
Me: "No, not really, I don't think I have room to judge your taste in music. I mean you're talking to a guy who's iPod has Ace of Base and 8-bit Nintendo music on it. People think I'm weird too."
Him: "Good point."

Point is, it's pointless to try and impress people with your likes and dislikes because it dumb to fight who you are. Seriously, I'm 25 and I like cartoons, and I'm not talking grown-up ones (Family Guy/South Park/Futurama). My sister makes cracks at me all the time for it but (in the most loving way possible) she can go &^%$ herself as I don't really care what she thinks. Again, it's stupid to avoid something that is part of you just because of what people may think.

Grassie: you're just experiencing the insecurity of youth. Don't worry too much about it, try to ride the tide and (if possible) enjoy it and keep your mind open for whatever comes your way (both the good and the bad). And the most important part: accept yourself. Trust me, the faster you get that point down, the better off you'll be. And yes, that includes VGM.

Everyone, great or small, significant or irrelevant, intelligent or jes plain dumb, young or old, man or woman, has odd interests, peculiar quirks, and weird things about them if you look close enough. Just pick up any good historical biography of any person and you'll notice lots of weird/alarming/amusing/revolting/batshit insane stuff about them that will make you go "really?".

Every great person (whether famous or not) builds on the passions, drives, interests, desires, etc. that constitute their unique characters. You obviously love VGM (otherwise I'm guessing you wouldn't be here), so just accept that passion and let it flow naturally: don't dam it up by some intellectual construct or pre-set form of what you or your life "should be". And if you're aiming to be great or accomplish something, it would just be cooler if you suceeded, you might qualify as the first historical person with a VGM-addiction or something. One of us have to make the books sooner or later, they can't ignore us forever! *shakes clenched fist in the air*

Although, if you're aiming for greatness, I'd say the first imperative step is to get the hell out of Norway, HAR HAR HAR!!!

As for the girls, if they're stupid and narrow-minded enough to dislike you just because of VGM, I'd say find better girls. People that are asinine-judgmental about minor stuff like that are idiots (there's just no way around that), if you dump your passion for VGM just to "satisfy" their one-track robot minds, they'll just find other small oddities that they can pick you to death over. Its relational terrorism, don't give in to it. Trust me, there are a lot of beautiful, soulful, and intelligent ladies out there that wouldn't give a flying f--- if you listen to 1880's cylinder music or Mongolian throat-gurgling on your car stereo as long as you're a good person (the "good" bit being very subjective, of course). Hell, there are even some out there that tolerate weirdos like me who listen to dark ambient and death industrial, so some damn square waves shouldn't be a problem.

I've been on this forum for at least 11 years (probably longer, can't quite remember when I first got here), and I've actually tried to leave willingly many times. Its not that I don't like the place or the people or the topics of discussion (quite the reverse, actually, its one of my few "homes" on the net). But I used to have thoughts similar to yours (or at least my interpretation of your thoughts as you've described them in your post), and those thoughts were a subset of a wider cognitive fix I've had since my early teens where I had a vague feeling that I had to "clean up my act" in some way. Nothing strange, really, most young people go through it in one way or another. In some ways, I viewed my interest in gaming and especially VGM as something "childish" that I had to overcome and put behind me. But no interest is in itself childish: its how you integrate the interests into your life and how you live that life that determines if you're a "immature" or an "adult" person (whatever those things mean...). Don't commit the mistake of confusing outward symptoms for root causes: if there's something about yourself you want to change, I hardly think trying to dump your passion for VGM would fix it, it would just constitute a small alteration in your overall pattern of life (unless listening to VGM is ALL you do all the time), and you'd just be fooling yourself if you tried to tell yourself anything else. You have to go to the root causes (and I can't help you there as I don't know you personally). You'll know in time if VGM-listening is part of what's "holding you back" or not: if it is, it'll die out quietly by itself if you let the process flow naturally. I'm guessing you'll find it isn't, though.

I'll stop here before I start sounding too much like a fortune cookie, but I'll say this: I DO think that its "smart for a young and promising intellectual to use many hours each week on such a mundane topic as VGM". Everyone has personal quirks, and intellectuals have them times 10 (most of them are neurotic as hell anyway, if you manage to connect your VGM-passion to some oedipal complex or personality disorder, you're all set for your career!). And since I'm as intellectual as they come, I challenge anyone to prove anything I've said in this post, or any other post ever in fact, wrong!

Does that go for me as well?

You know it! I'd better cut this off before I wind up buying a huge round for everyone though

More satire please.

I understand everything above quite clearly, but I often feel resentment towards my limited fermionic existence. I'd love to cut back on existence but it's not as simple as removing a bookmark, as I am essentially the bookmark. Now take this vgm hobby. It will certainly never inspire another collection of fermions, with a slightly different configuration, to slip and slide on my salamander. No, sir. You have to be mean to them, for that to happen.
  It's ok to let other collections of fermions, even whole groups of collections, listen to vgm. Provided they have no idea what it is. Once their emergent property of consciousness realizes the true nature of the mechanical energy, then coalitions of neurons seek to destroy any eloping endorphins. Gosh!, they realize. You know, I can't like this stuff, even though it sounds good, they might think. It's because of the Jones's. Everything would be cool if the Jones's listened to vgm, but they don't. If the Jones's park a Lexus in their driveway, then you better park one in your driveway. And if they listen to vgm, then you better listen to it too.
  It becomes apparent to me that some people make sure to please themselves, while other people make sure to please other people. The other people outnumber the some people, which makes some people seem abnormal.

Grassie, the people who truly matter (and in regards to women, the ones who WILL truly matter) won't give two shits about the music you listen to, and in most cases, will actually be understanding about it.

I understand where you're coming from though. About a year ago, I was really embarrassed with my huge collection of Gundam figures, but nowadays it is something I have a perverse pride in. Like, "If you laugh at me because I'm different, f--- you. You don't matter to me anyways."

Let's fight for the liberal values of the middle class. That is how one earns respect. Write in the local newspaper, and my philosophical neighbors will nod and invite me for a sip of rosé. We'll pretend that we enjoy it. He's gonna talk about the music he enjoys. Which is Bach. I will think about Adorno's remark... "Every single middle class citizen in Germany is crazy over Bach." I will tell him. And state that I love his Oboe concerto, and the only reason why I don't listen to Bach all the time is Adorno's words. But when we go out, he will be more respected. He has a "rational" interest. His music is acknowledged. It's genrefied. Not a hump of commercial music united by a common theme. It's less lower class. More about anxiety. Anxious about fitting in with the other political philosophical / art critic electronic music producing citizens. Not attempting to find oneself within an isolated branch of pop culture, he resents that lower class mentality. "You don't even have an education!" 

A solution is to de-vulgarize the discussions about VGM. Discuss it in a historical context, with an analysis of markets, trends, sociopschylogical and -economical factors, discuss what needs to be done to influence the quality of the genre, both inside and outside games, incentives for publishers, etc etc blah blah. Not talk too much about "i like this i like this sakuraba is on auto-pilot blah blah uematsu was much better before etc etc." Carl needs to do this. Establish a milieu for academic discussion, so that an aspiring elitist can brag about more than knowing the members of S.S.T. Band.

Thanks to all collections of fermions who've replied! Think I'll keep the bookmark for a while. . . By the way, ehm, Frank thinks he understand most people's tastes, but that doesn't mean he accepts them. Like metal heads! He would think of them as quite a vulgar kind.

I wasn't in this topic previously, but suddenly see that I am handed the task of needing to analyzing market trends and socio-psychological factors of the environment surrounding both vgm listeners and creators? 

Is this a job offer, and if so, how much does it pay?

Am I totally reading Grass wrong or is he being bit melancholy or something because he likes to listen VGM, instead of being those boring types of person who go blaablaa about some wannabe-intellectual shit that noone really cares after few hours?

Bah, be proud of what you're doing and nothing else, I myself really don't mind people's comments about me listening music from videogames. Pff those. Really. And I even have a girlfriend who likes to call me names 24/7. !:

What I don't get is why there would be a supposed incompatibility between liking VGM and being "intellectual" (in whatever way you interpret the term). Just the same as I don't see anything incompatible between liking VGM and being, say, an idiot or an inbred backwater hick. The only "lifestyle choice" I could see VGM being incompatible with would be a strong anti-materialist/anti-modernist stance (if you go really fanatical about it and avoid any possessions and technologies whatsoever, meaning you wouldn't have any games, CDs, computers, etc. to be able to hear the music).

Grassie, I'm guessing your initial post is to be taken with a grain of sarcasm-laced salt, and I hope you don't honestly feel a pressure to give up something you enjoy just to "fit in", whether the fitting in is to be done in relation to mainstream culture or some intellectual circle. Really, there's no reason you couldn't, for example, finish reading a dissertation on the influence of Madisonian federalist ideas on the geopolitical situation of interbellum Eastern Europe and then kick back and groove out to kt2's "Deeds Not Words" with a glass of Château Canon-la-Gaffelière '71. If that is what you really want.

lolz

Probably struggling to find common topics to talk about with other intellectuals, since he mentioned that they would just talk about Bach if the conversation would turn to music.  Thankfully it's pretty easy to listen to both Bach and vgm, so I agree that's not really an incompatibility, only a matter of time to learn as many details about bach as he already knows about vgm.