I want to recommend the short story "The Road Not Taken" by Harry Turtledove. The premise is that the aliens focused on the part of the "tech tree" that allowed FTL, and skipped a bunch of the techs that we have.
Games like this always make me wonder what's up with the musical licencing for this.
Are they purchasing a package of 'Bad Romance' done in a ton of different styles by the original artist a la audionetwork, and the developers picked the 'upbeat workout midi version, no vocals ' of the song? Did they make these versions themselves? Does this require a licence or is it fair use even if it's done for a commercial product? Can you still title a song Bad Romance - Lady Gaga if it's your weird in house version of the song that might not be fully representative of the original product and might damage the perception of the original song & artist? Like if it's a cover or remix, shouldn't it be clearly marked?
PS. Good Abby commentary on this one :D
Music licensing is kind of interesting. Weirdly enough, the rules were initially created because songwriters feared that the introduction of the player piano would lead to a drop in the sales of sheet music. The law was changed to give them royalties on "mechanical reproductions" of songs but also made song writing subject to COMPULSORY licensing.
In short, you don't need permission to record, sell, or distribute a cover of a song, as long as you pay royalties to the songwriter and don't "change the basic melody or fundamental character of the work". (Although in practice, mostly they purchase the rights from an organization like Harry Fox Agency that the songwriter allows to sell licenses on their behalf. The compulsory rate just sets a ceiling for how much they charge.)
If you want to use the actual sound recordings of Lady Gaga, and you aren't a terrestrial radio station, you have to also license "master use" rights from the owner of the recording (usually the record company). It's usually cheaper to hire someone to record a cover. I don't know if there's an audionetwork-like company that makes a whole bunch of covers for others to license, but it wouldn't surprise me.
Finally, to use the music with any visuals (e.g., in a movie, TV show, or video game), you need to license the "synchronization rights" from the songwriter or publisher, again usually through an organization like ASCAP.
In the past I have called you out on giving tv ,film and video games higher praise/scores than they deserve just because it has a high female representation in whatever capacity in its development. This type of positive discrimination is dishonest in the field you are in and goes to the heart of the integrity of Giant Bomb and yourself.
...
On the other hand, saying you are tired of women dying in video games etc., so the male protagonist can go off and do his thing is your very valid, honest opinion. Therefore you should never be censored or disgracefully vilified over your comments in these cases.(These things should never happen no matter what the case)
On a lighter note I am currently playing AC Odyssey as Kassandra and it's a great thing, plus the game is full of women and it only makes the game richer.
Isn't praising a game for having high female representation ALSO Abby's honest, valid opinion? Especially when you're apparently okay with doing so yourself?
Gee_rad's comments