Play! vs Video Games Live

This week I attended Play! with my wife and a few friends. I really enjoyed it. It was lots of fun. If they come to your town, I'd recommend you attend (if you like that sort of thing). I'm a fan of video game music, and it's a nice excuse to go to the symphony. It was a nice night out.

You might have also heard of Video Games Live. They're both basically the same idea: "We play video game music at the symphony!" I've been to both now, and I like both of them.

But maybe you've seen one and not seen the other, and the other is coming to town. What should you do? Well, you should go, because they're both great.

So, while both are good, there are some differences, and I'd like to talk about them. Some I think are clear advantages or disadvantages, but others are more dependent upon personal preference.

I liked the music better at Video Games Live. The arrangements seem a little more polished, and closer to the originals, and they seem to flow better. The Video Games Live performance at BlizzCon 2007 had some really great music, and they did what they could to pull some of the original performers in. The Video Games Live show I attended at my local symphony hall last year also pulled in some original performers (like the Video Game Pianist).

Play! has a much more traditional symphony feel, where Video Games Live tries to turn the Symphony into a Rock Concert. While Play keeps the lighting basically the same as a traditional symphony, Live turns the lights down, and has a lights show going on in the background. During Play, the Conductor announced a few of the pieces in a row, and then the orchestra played them. During Live, Tommy Tallarico (not the conductor) becomes your personal MC. He introduces each piece, talks about the culture, plays some games with the audience, and adds his own "witty" banter. I know a lot of people are annoyed by his banter, saying things like he wants to be treated like a rock star.

Both shows have projectors displaying images during the songs. Both of them typically have noobs playing the games during gameplay footage, though the usage of the in-game cut scenes is popular too. During Play, I was annoyed with the hardware they used. There was lots of screen tearing in the images they were playing, particularly when there was lots of moving video. The 10-year old PS2 rendered the same videos more smoothly. Live seemed to be more conscientious about synchronization. They tried to get the video and the effects in line with what the orchestra was playing. Also, Live seemed to have a lot more video. At Play some songs only had video 1/2 the time, and some songs didn't have any video at all. It also seemed like the people at Live were more familiar with their video equipment. On a few occasions, I saw the computer screen, with a mouse selecting the next video to play, and the video controls (play, pause, rewind, fast forward...). Play did get the advertising (buy our CDs!) up during intermission, so that was apparently a priority.

Play had a synthesizer for a few of the songs they were using. I think they even used it for a piano effect, though they did use it for organs. Video Games Live wasn't afraid to pull up weird instruments, like a real Ocarina, and a banjo. On the other hand, that seemed to make the stage somewhat cluttered, and it was hard to see the individual performers perform (The Video Game Pianist was somewhat hidden, so we couldn't see what he was doing very well, though it was displayed on the overhead screens.

Some of my very favorite music pieces feature a choir singing stuff. I don't know if I can call them words, because it's sometimes just random chanting. I believe Blizzard's Call to Arms calls their language "Quasi pseudo Latin". I like how both Play and Live use a choir to get the same effect. In Live this week though, it appeared as if they've got the lyrics wrong, and that was less than optimal to me.

All in all, I like the feel, the ambiance of Play! just a little bit better, but it seemed as if Video Games Live had the polish down a lot better.

So again, remember that I really enjoyed both performances and I would go to either again if they came back. Here's hoping they do soon.