Larian Studios Forums General Chat RPG Chat The importance of music in games

I was wondering what you all thought about music in games.

These days I cant play games that dont have good music. And sometimes good music makes me play games I normally wouldnt.

Please post your opinion about the importance of music in games (and try to stay on topic <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" /> )

Cheers,
Frank

Good music in a game is rare. I turn the music off in a lot of games because
1. I don't like it.
2. The game runs choppy and I have to turn it off to improve performance.
3. It gets on my nerves after awhile.
4. Rap or hip hop is not music and is grating.
5. Sometimes a game just feels better without it. The music in D2 is ok, but I usually play without it.

With some games like Minesweeper which I play often I put my own music on.

DD has nice music. Sacred has decent music which changes depending on the action.

Good music in a game should contribute to the atmosphere.

I like silence too.

I always swicth it off, i like to listen to the ambience, and sounds of battle, and speach.I turn it on occaisionally just to see if i'm missing anything, and very abbruptly swicth it off again. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />

Quoting Jurak, "egg-sac-lee!"


I play this halloween-themed minesweeper. Nice effects.


I listened to this BD preview track. A great track and I hope it is NOT the theme music: usually the best music is the game's theme. I even have 3 or 4 versions of Duke Nukem theme on some cd somewhere.


"Hello darkness my old friend..."
Actually I read on CNET news once that some artists have released "silent" tracks, which still cost 99 cents on Napster or apple's music p2p <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />.

Good music certainly contributes to the atmosphere of the game, and the mood of the story, but it doesn't make or break the game for me.

Good music in a game is rare. My all-time favourites are seemingly in Zanzarah. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

it is said that most japanese rpg's have great music in it.....i give example to the FF series...aniway if i don't like the music in the game i run mediaplayer through it...so music in games too me is nothing more then just a side issue.....

Well I guess I'm the only one who needs good music to play. I never play music in the background using media player cause it slows down my comp too much.

Also, by reading all your replies I believe that what you all need in a game is a feature similar to Warlords Battlecry 2. In that game you could easily make your own in-game playlist with any music you wanted, really nice <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Cheers,
Frank

Frank,
No, I love good music in games: it sets the athmosphere, but sometimes I just ignore the music because I am too drawn in the action.
The athmosphere sounds of Thief2 are very interesting and they can give you a feel of the room you're in.

Yes, I love when a game allows you to customize your music. GTA3 and VC pc had this feature, for example.
Wish space sims had it...

Cheers,
Baz
(from Montreal, Canada <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />)

my com doesn't go slower with media player in the bg........and i do need good music to play....but if the music in the game ain't good enough...i play my playlist.....btw i love good main music themes like the one from Zelda: A Link to the past..or Suteki da ne from FF X

Try using Winamp instead of Media Player. Media Player is an awful program, imho. If you use Winamp 5 with the old skin, it uses only 13 mb of ram.

i do have winamp...but transferring my music files to winamp takes a li'll bit too much time if you ask me.......

I forgot to mention that I thought Imprunner had terrible music; I shut down the game and haven't tried it again.

Just drag and drop the files to the playlist!

Cleglaw: LOL! I think the music was made to be annoying. You know, just like the music in old games.
Although I loved the music in Imprunner.

I like good music in games, too, but as I said before, I seldom find music that is really adding to the immersion - or it simply takes up too much resources.

So I often switch it iff.

I've heard of a few games allowing to use a music CD instead, orAge of Wonders (and its orecessors), which uses its own playlist where you can add MP3 files manually. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

your asking me 2 transfer 600 songs from mediaplayer 2 winamp.........according 2 the fact that i've been putting my music files everywhere and nowhere...it takes me a bit more time then it normally would...

Music I have enjoyed in games:

DD-The best, has to be said.
D2-I played without this for a long time. I recently turned it back on and I love the act 2 and 3 music-very atmospheric.
AOW had some good tunes, they got a bit repetitive though.

I hope <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beyond.gif" alt="" /> and Sacred have good music. It adds a lot to the game if its good.
Silence isn't much of an option for me, I'm married. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

Har-de-Har-har! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" /> still got a sense of humor tho,
funny one Womb......

diablo music wasn't too bad if i recall.....
but <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/div.gif" alt="" /> rules the game "soundtrack" category in my book so far..
... and thats no bull! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/suspicion.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

Hmm. Here's some of the game soundtrack that tickle me the right way:

- The IWD soundtrack
- KotOR (I'd die and get reincarnated if that's what it takes to hear the music in this game for the first time again. And play the game for the first time again, of course)
- Planescape: Torment

music does play a big role in making games more satisfying. well at least for me. some in-game music can be so boring that it can just kill your interest in the game or that u get annoyed easily.

not just quality of the music that can affect games. th number of tracks can do the same as well. for example, lionheart despite its bad (alright, worse) hack & slash part has good music but because it has only one track that keeps repeating itself over & over & over & over & over & over ...... there's only so much a man can handle.

also music can be very stereotypical. & that does piss me off. real badly. for example, any game that has strong asian elements or reference will have that typical (meaning *yawn*) flute music like how it has always been since david carradine's kung-fu series. ever heard of sitar? er-hu? gong? ghazal? sape?

drums. or percussion that just reverberates forcefully. that one is a killer. i love such music with that kind of impact. kirill, maybea track heavy on percussion (japanese) with scottish bagpipe floating above but not the one commanding the melody. just rhythm but let the percussion be the 'singer'.

i can hear drums banging in my head. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />