Just curious what you folks prefer with respect to background music in games. Note that I'm talking about background music that's built into the game design itself, not music you might choose to listen to from your own collection/playlist while playing a game.
The only time I use background music is when I am playing an MMO during dailies, dungeons and raids. I never use music outside of those times and will use what is included in the game.
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If a game features constant music, I crank that down to maybe 20% of its default volume. Low enough that I don't focus on it or notice it, so I won't get utterly sick of it.
If a game features music that cues off places, people, or other contextual events in an interesting way, I'll leave it up, though. That gets repetitive much less quickly.
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EverQuest is one of the few times I turned off music, because it was so horribly implemented (seriously, play a rogue and experience the sonic dissonance of action-triggered combat music). Otherwise, I hate not having the music on, or replacing it with external stuff.
Joined: Thu Sep 03, 2009 9:11 am Posts: 9449 Location: Your Dreams
Everquest's combat music sucked, but Everquest's location music absolutely rocked more than anything, right from the introduction screen and onward, even in all it's synthesized, crap-MIDI glory. 989's composers were spectacular. I still remember those songs and they still give my chills.
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I'll give most video game music a chance. When done/composed well, a game's music is half of the experience. Red Dead Redemption is a great example of this.
The entire score of RDR was composed at 130 beats per minute (similar to a horse's gallop), so that it all flowed together perfectly depending on what the player was doing. It could go from a slow, peaceful, relaxing harmonica to a pounding horse chase without being jarring. And then add the fact that every single instrument was period to the game, it adds even more flavor. The first time I got into Mexico the music was even more powerful (if you've played it, you'll know what I'm talking about if not, maybe I'll spoiler it below). It was the first time I've seen game feel truly cinematic
I'll only start to mute the music (or turn it down really low) when I've heard it to the point of being sick of it. Though I will admit that threshold is difficult to achieve (Warcraft did it, not many others have). I'll also turn it down when it affects me understanding dialogue, especially outside of cutscenes.
Oddly enough I must have played EQ without the music on. None of that music sounds familiar to me, and my brain remembers music pretty well. I remember the login screen music, but that's it. I do remember listening to my own music while playing that game. Probably due to how ungodly boring camping was and how even worse all the downtime between fights were. Even worse when you had to stare at your inventory screen (ie: can't see ANY of the game world) while regenerating mana. Boy that sure was a brilliant mechanic. Kudos to the man who came up with it.
Spoiler:
The game is about a cowboy in the twilight of the Old West. Industrial Revolution is creeping in and slowly killing off his kind. He in particular used to run with a very bad crowd until he got married and settled down and had a family. However, the government has gotten involved by holding his wife and child hostage until he brings his old gang members to justice. Every step he takes seems to bring him further and further from seeing his family again. Particularly, when his chase leads him out of the country and into Mexico. When that happens, the moment you find a horse to ride to your destination, all of the game's sounds softens and this song kicks in. It was unexpected, especially since up until this point the whole game's music had been instrumental.
It was simple and yet very effective. It was not a cutscene, as you had full control of the game as normal. But with the beautiful scenery, and the lyrics driving home the main character's predicament, it was quite moving and powerful.
This was the song (minus the in-game quotes, of course)
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Last edited by Numbuk on Tue Jul 30, 2013 11:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
Mechanic was fine, interface sucked. Once the XML interface was created and you could open your spell book without it being fullscreen, there was no problem.
Mechanic was fine, interface sucked. Once the XML interface was created and you could open your spell book without it being fullscreen, there was no problem.
It was marginally better. At least you could see the world around you while you twiddled your thumbs for five f-ing minutes. I used to practice my guitar while getting mana back. That's how much downtime there was.
This is something I get really nerdy over. I'm a huge fan of video game music, and have been since they started putting music into video games. As a kid, I spent most of my time (when I wasn't programming) arranging and performing music from video games into various formats (.MID and tracker music, pre-MP3 days). My first job at the age of 12 was composing some music for a small Windows 3.1 gaming company*.
Even now, video game music is about all I'll play on the piano.
*Found through BBS friends of BBS friends. Also did some coding on one of the games. They never sent me a check, and never went to production as far as I know.
In EQ I really liked the music, and even put up with the combat music. This was before the use of vent or some other voice service, and we were typing to communicate.
In WoW, I generally listen to the background location music if playing solo. Especially for the first time in an area. Other than that, I turn it all off because I use ventrilo to communicate with others.
I seemed to enjoy EQ's music best of the two. Of course, EQ was a magical time as my first real gaming experience.
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