News and announcements from That Authoring Group

[Tykki-Teme]

Congrats TAG on this week's PS3 songs being ALL TAG songs!

Not even the first time. I think there have been several all-TAG weeks in the past

[ShoTTySLanKiN]

Not even the first time. I think there have been several all-TAG weeks in the past

So this means that for some reason I can't give them congrats :/.

[TylerFG]

So......where's the spotlight thread?

[FairwoodStudios]

So......where's the spotlight thread?

Next week. To ensure more people have things to show. TAG didn't have anything, I won't have anything 'til then, ChartToppers might have something then. Best to just wait.

[Taker34]

Heyo, could you please tell me if you'll release some single Avenged Sevenfold songs or the complete albums (Waking The Fallen & Sounding The Seventh Trumpet)? Thank you in advance!

[TheStuddz]

I went out and bought 40 Oz. To Freedom simply because you guys are most likely going to be bringing us songs from it, and I want to be able to shout out requests at you. I wasn't sure if I would like it, but it's pretty solid. I'm now even more excited for them to be coming to the RBN.

[ThatAuthoringGroup]

TAG state of the union :

Morning gang!

Since the start of TAG waaaay back when I've always been very transparent with what we're working on, and how things are progressing here with the community. I came from and am still very much a part of the community, and knowing what it was like on the outside trying to look in, I wanted to share as much of the daily comings and goings with the community as possible.

We've had an insane two years since we've really gotten the ball rolling with TAG. From working with amazing bands, to doing everything in our power to make Rock Band a hell of a lot more fun and awesome for everyone. And hopefully we've managed to do just that for some of you.

Now having said that, I'm sure a lot of you have noticed that our output has slowed a lot lately, and that we didn't even take part in the recent community spotlight thread. If you've been to our facebook, or listen to me squawk here and there you've probably seen me citing the return of school as a major issue for all of this.

And it is a very major issue, hence today's update. I'd say 95% of the guys that work with TAG are deep in college, and as any college age person knows the further you get in your studies the more time intensive the entire process gets. And I would NEVER ask the guys to sacrifice their future over charting a song at TAG. I love Rock Band, and I love TAG but in the end it's just a game, and not worth blowing your future career opportunities to get another song in the game.

So since school started up we've went from ten full time authors and six - ten part timers to about three part time (VERY PART TIME)...well four if you count me...but I'm more of a cheerleader and organizer...heck I couldn't author if someone put a gun to my head. I mean I know the mechanics of it, but I am just not a musician at all so if I attempted it, it'd look like the worst parts of Frets on Fire had a bastard baby with GHTunes

So the future of TAG is very very much in doubt right now as much as I hate to say it. We've got a ton of stuff already built waiting to hit creators and a bunch that is in testing at creators so it's not like we're just going to disappear over night (if we do that is). You'll still see material released from us for a good while yet. It's just the future after these fifty or so tracks are finished that I'm concerned about, and honestly not sure what's going to transpire.

Almost overnight it went from almost twenty guys to nobody has anytime to do anything with how busy they are at school. Outside of my old ass, and a couple of the guys that can still manage to squeeze a few hours out on the weekend from time to time.

Like I said, I've always been upfront with everyone here in the community, so I wanted to give everyone insight into what we've been dealing with and why you've seen a decreased presence from us here in the community and output from creators over the last sixty days or so.

I'm not saying we will fade into obscurity, as there might be some new authors join up with us at some point in the future (although I have been looking for both authors and testers to no avail for the last three months), BUT if the worst does come to pass I didn't want it to come out of nowhere and just one day we fall off the face of the internet.

So things looking dicey right now, but we've still got a lot of content ready to feed into the system for a number of months to come, and hopefully things will turn around for our workforce in the future and we can keep on keeping on with this crazy process.

See you all on the forums!

[Dogmatic2020]

lol

[ThatAuthoringGroup]

And yes it's people like all the wonderfull *******s at the DLCquickplay forums that make it hard to try and bother most days.

[TheDescent]

Just commented on your facebook page. Sure this is sad news to me, especially so short after the big announcement you made last month.

I know for sure that you're my favourite authoring group, as you bring my favourite artists to the platform, my favourite kind of music and some bands that I've never EVER thought to see in this game.

That said, I can see how Real Life must have the priority on these kind of things. I faced the same situation some years ago, tied between being a full time musician (sax player) or something else. I chose the "other" way, certainly with some regrets, but I do believe that was the right choice.

We always knew that this authoring thing for you guys was more of a hobby than a full-time job, and the amount of artist you've managed to contact it's just amazing. That's the aftermath, it was just a matter of time to see how everything would eventually stop (or just make you go into an undetermined hiatus). A part-time hobby should always stay as that, and never suck out someone's life. Especially when you're not getting any money from that!!

I just hope you'll manage to stay alive until the things will calm down.