Q: What happens after you've made it through all 1,250 songs?
A: Short answer, we start posting rankings! We'll still be listening to everything at least one more time to work out their Final Scores, but we should have enough data by then for the ranking to start.
Long answer: After the initial scores, all songs will be divided into several different tiers based on their initial scores (0 to 100, with decimal points allowing infinite numbers between those two extremes). This is the same scoring system as past rankings, but it's been divided into additional tiers due to the sheer volume of songs this time. Presently there are 22 tiers, though we'll likely add a few more to properly deal with circumstances where a specific tier has way too many songs crammed into it.
We'll then start listening to songs at the lowest tier. If we like the song more than we did previously, we'll quietly move it up to whatever tier feels more appropriate and revisit it when we get there. If we stand by our initial verdict, we immediately post the song and eliminate it. Once all songs from a tier have been eliminated, we'll post a proper update showing a song's exact placement in the ranking & then move on to the next tier!
...This does mean that songs will not be posted in the exact order they technically place in the ranking. Sorry, but it's much faster to decide if a song is being eliminated as part of a given tier & then fine tune the list once we're out of that tier. We followed this procedure for most of the last ranking and everything worked out. (Things will turn into a traditional ranking once we hit the absolute highest tier. Hopefully we have a reasonable amount of perfect scoring songs to make that doable, but hey, we'll figure it out when we get there.)
On a related note, songs may not be moved down a tier under this system. The only options we have are to eliminate it at the tier it was originally placed into or move it to a higher tier. This change feels good and also streamlines the process greatly. Also, we reserve the right to retroactively move songs up even after they've been eliminated; you know how it is, sometimes you don't realize how good a song is until it randomly gets stuck in your head weeks later or something.
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Q: Why 1,250 songs?
A: As far as we know, the largest completed ranking is NFUN's 1000 VGM ranking. We want to break the record and a 25% increase feels significant.
Se7en did attempt a 1,300 song ranking, but that one didn't finish after he lost all the work he had done and had no way to recover it. I suppose we could have gone for 1,300 in his honor, but 1,250 is quite enough for us to be satisfied & it feels nice to let him maintain the record for most ambitious music ranking attempted.
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Q: Why now?
A: We've wanted to do an "at least 1,000 song ranking" for a long time now, but I kinda tried to justify our numerical rating system containing infinite possible results to someone by explaining that it would be needed if we ever did a ranking this large. Which made me realize that I'd be a liar if we never actually made an attempt at doing so. So, you can either thank or curse whoever first questioned our using so many decimal points in our scoring at the Reverse Ranking.
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Q: Do you think you can actually complete this?
A: We definitely have the time, energy, and motivation. We finished an over 700 song ranking which was far less streamlined than our current process, so while the number of songs is much greater, the actual work required is less than our older topics. And while there are many things that may prevent us from being able to continue, ultimately what it comes down to is that we can either try to do what we want to do and be happy or live in constant fear of what might happen and be miserable. So we're going to go all in and have a lot of fun without worrying about the future.
So... "cautiously optimistic"? Either way, we'll post periodic updates on our progress.
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Q: There's really no limit to the number of nominations?
A: Well, it's a 1,250 song ranking. You should probably stop if you reach 1,250, but don't let me stand in your way. You just do whatever makes you sparkle and shine!
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Q: ...
A: Okay, okay. Seriously, we're not likely to get 1,250 songs, so yes, you have full permission to completely flood the topic with music if you want. If there are too many nominations, we'll adjust things as needed & shunt the excess into the mandatory post-topic mini-ranking.
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Q: Got any links to songs nominated at past topics?
A: Yyyessss, but they're split across multiple spreadsheets and it's way too annoying to look through them. It's far quicker for you to just nominate whatever you want without regard as to if we've ranked it before or not, especially when we need so many songs & revisiting things to see how our opinions have changed over the years is fun... but I won't stop you from looking at them if you want:
The first three rankings: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11EyHgbDCHNZd86SwetcXppwR9vEDi7W6owS9dbrmfb8/edit#gid=0
The fourth ranking: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19-mPuHHNtIKV8kQZ3BqtuqdTJueADuJE_Jn0LzgMf-w/edit?usp=sharing
The fifth ranking: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10NlOo6cjWLEyjuYZmRoxNnUGy_vWmO3sSegM-gwtb3Q/edit?gid=1627821251#gid=1627821251
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Q: What are you into these days?
A: Ten songs that have been getting a lot of play lately can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLH9gNy-t_PMJaz4Ypgwq1JCVvdTBsvyo7
...Though as we listen to songs that we love on an endless loop until we get sick of them, I wouldn't particularly advise directly nominating those songs. And there's no real reason we chose those ten in particular,
apart from Luce insisting vampire pony tragedy be at the top of the list because of course she does
, so I doubt the list will be of any help or interest. Though again, you do you!
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*special thanks In next post*
1,250 song ranking topic! Nominations wanted:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/80977857