So i recently listened to music of several MMO's i played. I think Age of Conan and SWTOR had one of the best scores i ever heard. (and SWG because he, it's starwars)
But for some reason i find the scores of EQ, EQ2 and Vanguard the most appealing for a mmo. Don't know why and can't explain. I just listened Vanguards OST and it really fits with Pantheon too if i put some pics on while listening the the character creation and main music of VG.
What music do you think it will be, or hope it will be?
They have not released much information at all on the music in the game. When Joppa originally started with the team he worked on music and sound effects, but eventually took over as a producer and creative director.
So where does that leave the music? We don't know if Joppa will have time or not to continue working on it or if they will hire it out and what the style would be. Some people (including myself) want them to hire Jay Barbeau to handle music, but that would be expensive.
What I want for the music of the game is to build it into the game to add to the atmosphere. I don’t want music playing just so there are sounds. I want the music to changed based on the location I’m in and based on the battle I’m having. If there’s a desolate place, I would want no music and just ambience or very mild music. If I’m in a huge battle I may expect more up-tempo music.
https://soundcloud.com/pantheon-rotf Check out what they've come up with so far if you havent already. I think the one Called 'Terminus' will be title screen song, but thats just my hypothesis.
Valorous1 said:https://soundcloud.com/pantheon-rotf Check out what they've come up with so far if you haven't already. I think the one Called 'Terminus' will be title screen song, but that's just my hypothesis.
WOW!!! love em all! Can't wait.
I just listened to some old eq music, then these Pantheon ones. Didn't realize how much of an impact music (whether it's subtle or in your face) can have on a game. If these are what's planned then I am liking the music direction! nice work Joppa.
Valorous1 said:https://soundcloud.com/pantheon-rotf Check out what they've come up with so far if you havent already. I think the one Called 'Terminus' will be title screen song, but thats just my hypothesis.
These are great. I also agree music is great if it's dynamic based on the activities your doing and the area your in. These exampes sound great though and sound fitting for the theme.
Music is absolutely fundamental for an RPG . The reason is that graphics and gameplay talk to the brain while music talks to the emotions . An RPG without music or with bad music has no soul and creates no emotions what can never make a great RPG . This is why when the composer is very good and succeeds to make the emotions match the place or the story that is being told , it vastly enhances the pleasure of the players .
Joppa , a Pantheon fan like all of us , appeared for the first time when he proposed on the boards here examples of 3 pieces that he composed but which had nothing to do with Pantheon . Then he got hired , added a small number of pieces and unfortunately started to do things which had nothing to do with music . I also wonder who is working on music now and whether he/she is good enough to compose in good quality the many dozens of pieces that will be necessary .
For me Lotro has the by far best music in RPG ever .
An example for Rohan is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shAAPrF-bYI
It was composed by Chance Thomas and one must realize that the music in every single region of Lotro is of that quality (Moria's pieces are specially impressive) . I hope Pantheon will be able to box in a similar category .
To be honest, music and gaming go hand in hand. I cannot imagine games not having any type of music. So essentially it can make and break a game.
Need for speed games have uptempo music to suite the genre. Civilization has down tempo music to set your mind at ease to make concious and well thought out decisions (i agree, the latter part not always applies). So it is imperative that music for Pantheon is a must.
I personally however do NOT like combat music, not that the music isn't good. Its just too repetative. Turn on auto attack and it starts, turn it off, it stops. It should be continual. If you are in a dungeon with mobs, it should already be up tempo as danger lurks everywhere. If you are in a save spot it should be somewhat tranquil. But going from buddist to heavy metal at the push of a button is a little too rough for me. The exact reason why i normally turn off music in games simply because of that transition.
decarsul said:To be honest, music and gaming go hand in hand. I cannot imagine games not having any type of music. So essentially it can make and break a game.
Need for speed games have uptempo music to suite the genre. Civilization has down tempo music to set your mind at ease to make concious and well thought out decisions (i agree, the latter part not always applies). So it is imperative that music for Pantheon is a must.
I personally however do NOT like combat music, not that the music isn't good. Its just too repetative. Turn on auto attack and it starts, turn it off, it stops. It should be continual. If you are in a dungeon with mobs, it should already be up tempo as danger lurks everywhere. If you are in a save spot it should be somewhat tranquil. But going from buddist to heavy metal at the push of a button is a little too rough for me. The exact reason why i normally turn off music in games simply because of that transition.
dynamic music man! so you have a base lvl song for the zone. then you have a layer that is added depending on the weather. then you have another layer depending on your activity. basically the song remixes itself depending on what you are doing, time of day, weather, if you are solo or group, what class you are, what your profession is... rre re re mix.
Valorous1 said:https://soundcloud.com/pantheon-rotf Check out what they've come up with so far if you havent already. I think the one Called 'Terminus' will be title screen song, but thats just my hypothesis.
Wow, thanks so much for the link. These are great! Put me in a very happy place!
Great soundcloud link. There's some good stuff in there. :)
My favorite MMO music has come from WildStar and GW2. I love it when the music is more than something you just tune out, but rather it captures the soul of an area and enhances your experience of it. Even better if it makes you stop in your tracks and just listen for a little bit. Even MORE better (lol) if it's recordings of an orchestra; while there's nothing wrong with using technology to create music, there's just something about an orchestra recording that conveys so much more emotion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFEVGRJFcVg
https://soundcloud.com/pantheon-rotf/pantheon-rise-of-the-fallen-mystery-awakens
to make this dynamic:
the base song is pretty good for level 1, but remove the piano and the sound of fog(a low hum with some insect sounds?). lets say level 2 you bring back the piano and occurs when you been in been in the zone for a bit. suppose you are gathering you have strings accompany. if you have an active quest then it will be with brass. combat music lets say has precussion with it and since i'm in post with what i want to see when i walk into a bar. you have a bard with his instrument playing and singing. if the weather is raining you have the vocals be in dark myr language, if it's snowing have it in dwarf language.
stellarmind said:
and since i'm in post with what i want to see when i walk into a bar. you have a bard with his instrument playing and singing. if the weather is raining you have the vocals be in dark myr language, if it's snowing have it in dwarf language.
This is what you have in the elder scrolls on line . The music there is also pretty good and adapted to what you see even if I slightly prefer Lotro .
The main EQ theme is one of the most moving scores/songs in my life. That music plays and my entire body tingles. Not the remake, I mean the original low fidelity MIDI file. SImply a magnificent soundtrack that I listened to multiple times a day for five solid years while doing my favorite activity of all time.
So, it is good music with a really deep connection.
I was skeptical that something could challenge that.
I've downloaded and made a mini playlist of the PRF score(s) released so far.
The main theme song is so outrageously good I can't even make words.
Maybe it's the anticipation of getting into Terminus but when I listen to that song, I can't even
fazool said:The main EQ theme is one of the most moving scores/songs in my life. That music plays and my entire body tingles. Not the remake, I mean the original low fidelity MIDI file. SImply a magnificent soundtrack that I listened to multiple times a day for five solid years while doing my favorite activity of all time.
So, it is good music with a really deep connection.
I was skeptical that something could challenge that.
I've downloaded and made a mini playlist of the PRF score(s) released so far.
The main theme song is so outrageously good I can't even make words.
Maybe it's the anticipation of getting into Terminus but when I listen to that song, I can't even
we call that eargasm.
Deadshade said: Music is absolutely fundamental for an RPG . The reason is that graphics and gameplay talk to the brain while music talks to the emotions. An RPG without music or with bad music has no soul and creates no emotions what can never make a great RPG.
It has been my personal experience that music plays absolutely no role in the emotion of any RPG game because it's pretty standard for me to turn OFF the music as soon as I actually start adventuring.
I'm sure many of you just gasped and said "But why... it's so important!" so let me explain.
If it is a 'Good' RPG (from my opinion), the sounds around me are very important to give me information. How did I know there was a mob sneaking up on me from the right? I heard his footsteps. How did I know there were 3 Gnolls in the room around the corner? I distinctly heard 3 Gnoll growls as I snuck ahead. How did I know that one of those Gnolls was a Shaman? I heard him casting his distinctive shaman buff on his friends.
Now I know that some of you will argue that Music won't interfere with this, but from my experience I have heard a variation of this sentence too many times to agree: "I didn't hear that guy until it was too late because of the game music!"
Now, don't get me wrong. I am not against subtle mood music/sound effects that plays very quietly as you first enter an area, or when something signifigant happens. But any music that plays for a long time or constantly in a loop will get turned OFF automatically by me. To me it's just a distraction that prevents me from hearing the millions of audio queues that a 'Good' RPG (in my opinion) should have.
You might actually be surprised just how much information you get from the various sound effects in the game, and by how much of this information is missed by the players who are happily humming along in their head to the game music that is hiding that information from them. Heck even the lack of a sound can give you information: did all the birds stop chirping... does this mean a wolf just entered my area of the woods.
I once read an article talking about how your brain handle's what you hear differently than what you see. Because of the fact that we can control what we are looking at specifically, or we can close our eyes to stop the visual input, our brain doesn't bother to create filters to deal with our visual data. In fact it wants to be able to proccess all the visual data for what we are specifically looking at.
But we have no efficient way to 'stop' hearing something. Even when we plug our ears some of that sound will still get in. So our brains have developed ways of coping with all the audio data so that we can try to hear the important sounds while filtering out the unimportant sounds. This is why many sounds around us we don't even seem to notice until they actually stop, such as the hum of your fridge or furnace.
But this audio filtering can also be a hindrence, because when a sound is specifically evident (ie: highly active) then that is the sound our brains will focus on and it will try to filter out the other sounds. When a sound is pleasant, it can become our brains focus. When the sound is jarring or grating, it can become our brains focus.
Yet as we focus on specific sounds we can actually teach our brain how to prioritize the sounds. This is why a Mother often can notice the sound of her baby crying when everyone else never hears it until it's pointed out to them as the mother gets up to go comfort the child. This is why veterans often hear sharp bangs and clangs in the distance. Their brains are highly attuned to prioritize those specific sounds.
So when we play Music while we do things, our brains will either be trained to focus on the music and filter out other sounds, or it will be trained to filter out the music in order to prioritize the other sounds. So either you miss out on the Audio information the game is give you, or the music becomes just added background noise that your brain is trying to ignore.
Either way it's a distraction and so I turn it off.
With all that said... I did like some of the Music created for various games in the past. And when games allow you to turn on music only on loading screens, this is great. It's not that I don't like the music, but rather I only want to hear the music when there is no need for me to hear anything else.
Obviously, your opinions may vary and you may not agree with me.
Well appreciation of music depends on what one is doing . People who spend most of their time exploring , travelling , crafting , visiting towns and inns will definitely love and appreciate the added value that brings the emotion vehiculated by music .
EQ already understood that . The beautiful Kelethin music that everybody remembers actually triggered only when one was near to town . People that were camping the Orc hill did so without music because in those places there was none . But hearing that piece even 20 years later immediately triggers the images of Kelethin and old memories from that place .
In any case I never play an RPG game long if at all if it has not a good music that enhances the emotions of seeing something that one likes and which resonates with the spirit ofg the place .
So just for the pleasure : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Pib1DwGsqE
knoote said:So i recently listened to music of several MMO's i played. I think Age of Conan and SWTOR had one of the best scores i ever heard. (and SWG because he, it's starwars)
But for some reason i find the scores of EQ, EQ2 and Vanguard the most appealing for a mmo. Don't know why and can't explain. I just listened Vanguards OST and it really fits with Pantheon too if i put some pics on while listening the the character creation and main music of VG.
What music do you think it will be, or hope it will be?
For me music is important. It is what I remember well after I'm done playing a game. I want to hear music that is symbiotic with the enviroment around you. For me its a way to emotionally get in the head of my character, like I'm there myself. Should I feel dread or freedom when romping through an area.
Below are a few examples that I will always remember, not because they the best music I've ever heard, but because it really connected me with the area.
Vanguard Saga of Heros - Youngtree Forest. It made the forest feel majestic, full of life, and peaceful. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zITwFXxRAA
Dark Souls II - Majula. This area was a abandoned town for the last few surviving people. It had a great view of the sun setting over the ocean, but it felt hopeless and lifeless. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8ShsHeYkeI
The music I've heard from VR sounds very good. I'm looking forward to it.
knoote said:But for some reason i find the scores of EQ, EQ2 and Vanguard the most appealing for a mmo. Don't know why and can't explain. I just listened Vanguards OST and it really fits with Pantheon too if i put some pics on while listening the the character creation and main music of VG.
What music do you think it will be, or hope it will be?
I would sit and harvest for hours listening to the music in Vanguard. The music in Renton Keep was good, I really liked Southwatch music, it was more dreary and ominous. There was a bunch of music in Vanguard I really like.
stellarmind said:dynamic music man! so you have a base lvl song for the zone. then you have a layer that is added depending on the weather. then you have another layer depending on your activity. basically the song remixes itself depending on what you are doing, time of day, weather, if you are solo or group, what class you are, what your profession is... rre re re mix.
Sorry for the delay in response, but i love that idea. Don't know about possibility of implementation, but love the idea! This idea could definitely prevent me from turning sounds off.