Hello, everyone! As you may or may not be aware, for the past several months I have been running a weekly video game music column on Fridays called ‘Play It By Ear’. The idea has been that each week I listen to a different game’s soundtrack and provide my thoughts on what works, what doesn’t work, and which tracks were best. While working on this project has been a lot of fun, it has become clear to me in recent weeks that with the current format I no longer feel like I have the time each week to put together an instalment that meets my desired level of quality. Unfortunately, unless the series changes in some way I will likely have to put it on indefinite hiatus.

Video game music is deeply important to me, and continuing to have a place to discuss it (alongside Katie’s wonderful tournaments) would be fantastic. That is why I am seeking feedback from you, dear reader, on what you would like to see in a weekly VGM column. One thought I had was a format inspired by Brakeman’s Genre Savvy series, where each week would focus on a specific genre/category/term/franchise and people could discuss their favorite songs or notable themes that match the prompt. This would be easier for me to put together on a weekly basis and potentially more conducive to discussion. Does this sound like something you might be interested in? Do you have any other suggestions or recommendations for a new format? And what day of the week would you prefer?

Thank you so much for your feedback, and I look forward to continuing to discuss VGM with you!