Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2009 February 3

Welcome to the Wikipedia Entertainment Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

February 3

Sierra On-Line

Leisure Suit Larry is a continuing series even today. There were plans for a King's Quest 9 and a Space Quest 7, but both were cancelled. Were there ever plans for a Police Quest 5 or a Quest for Glory 6? JCI (talk) 01:12, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Well, technically, Police Quest 5 already exists, although it has very little in the way of connection to the original series: the SWAT games were originally billed as Police Quest: SWAT, and I believe the first game of that series was also sometimes marketed as Police Quest 5. Still, that game was a completely different type of a game and had little connection with the originals. It was made without Jim Walls, the designer of the original series, who was replaced by Daryl F. Gates, of all people. (How much actual game design he did is anyone's guess -- mine would be "not a hell of a lot" -- but certainly he had the expertise in the subject matter.) I don't think there were any serious plans for a proper sequel to the original series.

As for Quest for Glory 6, again, I'm afraid the answer is no. Storywise, the five games form a fairly solid plot that reaches a conclusion, and the series wasn't much of a success towards its end -- it was a pretty bad time for traditional adventure games. There is, however, a fan-based attempt at such a game, Hero6, which started out as an unofficial sequel but which has now apparently become an unrelated project, at least in terms of content (which, considering the copyright implications, is probably a good move on the developers' part). The odds on that project actually ever turning into a game don't seem very good, though; all told, they've been at it for about decade now, and at a glance, all they have is some three and a half-year-old concept art and a few bland screenshots of 2D scenery, so I wouldn't hold my breath -- that's a long, long way to an actual game.

Oh, but perhaps this'd better answer your question: in a chat transcript posted at their forum, published in 2005, the other designer of the series, Lori Cole responds to a question about whether there was ever any serious talk about further sequels after the fifth game with "I really want to create the Quest for Glory World as a Multiplayer environment," which doesn't really answer the question at all, but I think we can infer that there were no such plans. And should this not be obvious, you definitely shouldn't take the answer to mean that they're actually planning a multiplayer title. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 01:46, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Which 80's rap song is this?

I have had this song in my head for over 20 years. I don't know what is. It is a hip hop rap song. I think it is British.
The lyrics I remember include lines such as:
"I've got thousands of rhymes inside my mind, I hit the button on rico [?], they're easy to find, at the show my band pulls out the PA, all the rappers s**t their pants cos it's judgement day"
"we get paid in pounds not in dollars"
Any ideas? Ta, WS.
—Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.101.233.123 (talk) 11:42, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Is this it [1]? Appears to be by Derek B. Lanfear's Bane | t 11:50, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Yes, my apologies, I thought I had done a google search on the phrases. Me dumb. Great quick response. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.101.233.123 (talk) 12:05, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

You are welcome and no worries. As for speed, no more than coincidence. Lanfear's Bane | t 12:11, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Spanish song

I'm looking for an spanish song sung by a female singer, The lyrics are like this: ala vista, viendos viendos, dos ... can't remember any more sorry :( Tailsfan213 (talk) 15:22, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

COME on please answer me!! Tailsfan213 (talk) 07:19, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

If you're assuming that someone knows the answer, read the question, and then decided to not answer you just to ruin your day, you're probably wrong. Perhaps you could provide a little more information, like when you think the song might've come out, what genre the song is in, etc. I'm fairly sure that the lyrics you quote aren't very exact, either. None of this guarantees an answer, mind you, but it might help. Or it might not. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 08:29, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

It might have been recorded in early 90s to early 2000s 217.28.177.57 (talk) 12:53, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

*Viendos is not a word in Spanish. You may have meant viendo, ?bien dos (which doesn't make much meaningful [semantic] sense), or viéndonos. With that ambiguity and only three other words you provided, it will be very close to impossible to identify the song. Try to play the song in your head a few times and see of any more of the lyrics come to mind.--el Aprel (^facta-_facienda) 01:34, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

If humans have very different taste in things, why this super extreme amount people listen to the same artist?

Has any philosopher, or another person, tried to find a answer, to this question? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.79.151.237 (talk) 19:55, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

I assume you're asking... If we all have different tastes, then why do so many people sometimes enjoy the same thing? I guess it's because that thing (or artist) has qualities that many people can appreciate. Most people enjoy music in some form, so it's only natural that many people will enjoy the same type of music.91.111.67.60 (talk) 20:07, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Even the most popular musicians/movies/TV shows/whatever are only enjoyed by a small fraction of the total population. According to our article on the best selling albums in the world, Michael Jackson's Thriller has sold 100-109 million albums that doesn't even add up to half the US population and is a tiny percentage of the world population. Tomdobb (talk) 20:20, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Yes, but not everybody buys albums (even of the artists they like), and not every listener buy a cd, if my brother or my father, buy a cd there is no reason to me to buy the same cd. And when I said the same thing, i was talking about top 300 (or 400) most listened artists, since there are many many many artists in the world. I mean it would be impossible that the list of artists that most fit in the taste of most of the listeners, would fit in a only 400 artists list. If you get the numbers of artists listed in discogs and look what % those artists, 400 would be. That would be a very small % of artists (and discogs even dont list very well artists of some styles, there many metal artists left). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.79.151.237 (talk) 20:42, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

You could examine tastes in popular music before radio and advertising told people they should all like the same things. The 1920s by Kathleen Morgan Drowne and Patrick Huber. Greenwood Press, 2004. Pepso2 (talk) 21:33, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

The simple answer: Humans do not have hugely varied taste. Yes when you get to extremely specific things such as an individual singers/bands you might get seemingly infinite variety of what people like, but ultimately you can group musical-styles into probably a couple of hundred genres (see categories:music_genres). Across a population in the billions that's not enormous. Also given that any person is highly unlikely to only like 1 genre then you have huge scope for significant numbers of people enjoying the same tastes. I would expect that most people from the same Culture would be able to find common-ground musically in some genres, even if they have hugely different tastes. (For instance I like classical music but I also like punk, and I like some pop and some hip-hop - it wouldn't be hard to find someone that liked at least 1 of the genres I like, even if they cannot stand some of the others). 194.221.133.226 (talk) 09:24, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

Why pontificate about something that, without some kind of scientific, controlled experiment, is unknowable? It is a good question, that is originally posed, but I think everything said in response to it should be prefaced by saying that this is just banter, or mere conjecture. Bus stop (talk) 14:58, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

I was talking about people liking the same artist and not the same genres. I mean with so many people liking tha same artists, its like someone called almost everyone in the world to a room and showed to them 366434 paintings, and then asked to each one, what where the best paintings, and the top40 best pictures 80%-85% of those persons would fall in a only 400 painting list. That is strange and its something similar to that, that is happening with music.201.79.151.237 (talk) 16:19, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

It is strange. I agree. It seems to me there is a "herd mentality" at work. I can only hazard a guess that there is some underlying operating principle that causes people to tend to agree with people who have already expressed a preference for some aesthetic ideal. Bus stop (talk) 17:39, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

• People want to belong to a group. A lot of them are afraid to be different, so they buy the same music as their 'friends' to belong without actually having the same taste. - Mgm|^(talk) 20:14, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

This is not the reason, since its 80-85% of the world listners. 80-85% are afraid of being different?? Also there is a lot of artists, that would not be so different from the most listened artists, so they would be able to listen to them and not feel different, also the would be able to listen then and listen the most listened one too.201.79.140.173 (talk) 23:17, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

People are more exposed to those 400 or so popular artists than any other type of music. They judge each type of music and decide which they like best from those they've heard. Casual music fans (which I believe is the majority of the population) aren't going to dig deeper into more obscure genres, they just stick to what they like, and share it with they're friends, exposing more people to that genre. I don't think its a herd mentality, I think its marketing. -- Mad031683 (talk) 23:16, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

I have a theory that explains very well those questions, and many others related to music. Its a theory that no one think about, but if you read my ideas you will think "How I never thought about it before?". I had those ideas last year. The explanation is big (but simple) because there are many things on it.

How so many people have the same taste?
They don't have, the problem is that most of the listeners dont search new artists by themselves looking in places outside the tv, radio and mtv, so when some of the those guys find a band that they never head about, there is 99% that they found this bands on those places, or by talking with someone that found the a new band on those places. Radio, tv and MTV just show few artists (either in % of total musician or in numbers) and sub-genres, the amount of artists that those people know will be very low.
A person can only listen to a artist that exist, since there is a super huge amount of artists that they dont know and will never know since they will not get exposure in radio, tv and mtv (the only places that they look to search new bands), its like that those artists never existed. So, those bands dont "exist", making people not able to listen them, and having to choose what artist they think that are the best from the list of bands that exist (the tiny tiny TV list).
There are many people that would prefer other artists, other than coldplay, radiohead, elvis presley, madonna, black sabbath, avril lavigne, paramore, bob marley, the beatles... if they knew them. But this dont matter since they will never know those artists. I mean, how we can now that some of those persons would not like Funeral doom metal, math rock or digital hardcore if they listened?

Another question: But and the Herd Mentality? And the trends? Arent those listeners afraid of being different?
No, the problem is that the amount of artists that have exposure compared to the amount of those kind of users is very low (because of the reasons that I said before). This mean that every band that appears on the media will have few competitors since they will only have to battle for a space in people tastes with the other bands that had appeared on media. Since the amount of listeners of this kind is huge, even if only a very small % of those listeners start to like them, they will have a huge amount of listeners. And is not so difficult to them get many listeners, because as I said there is not so much competitors. Also every new band in the media will fit in the taste that some of those listeners had but never listened someone near that. So, every artist that the media choose to give exposure will get the certain amount (a huge amount) of listeners needed to appear that he only got those listerners because of herd mentalitty.

Those ideas explain things like why people think that the rock is dead or that there is no songs like the old songs, and maybe even some others questions, but those things where not the original question. So i will not answer those other questions. Exdeathbr (talk) 00:01, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

Thumbs up, good explanation. Also, problem with TV is that it is all about Profit. It doesn't matter if the band (or movie) is called "Arse painkillers" or do they play Death Trash Necrophile Metal, but if it makes more people watch the channel (equals to "raises channel rating", which in turn is equal to "makes more money from commercials") AND does't ruin channel reputation in long terms, then it will be shown/played on TV. So TV can't be measure of a "good taste" or "good quality". It's just all about popularity. lim (talk) 06:48, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

---

There may be a small number of artists that nearly everyone likes, but there are a large number of artists that are liked only by those with suitably compatible tastes. So there's not necessarily any paradox here. Michael Hardy (talk) 00:11, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

Yes, there is, since the huge amount of people that just look to those small amount of artists and dont care about the others, or just listen to the small list and just 1 or 2 artists of the big list (so making almost the total % of their taste being like almost everyone else).Exdeathbr (talk) 21:25, 9 February 2009 (UTC)