I was wondering what peoples preferences are for background noise when adventuring out in the wilderness (such as a forest or Great Plains aka not cities...).
A) Silences: No background sound added by the game
B) Game Music: Music created by the game, played on a loop in the background.
C) Environmental sound: Wind, rain, insects, distant animal sounds…
Personally I almost always lean towards option C. I think light environmental sounds used sparingly (looped insect buzzing sounds get annoying) trump even some of the best game music when you are trying to convey a sense of wilderness. Hearing a distant wolf call at night really get my into the frame of mind more than a jazzy drum solo does.
Definitely C. Adds to so much, it's the third layer.
Silence is close to 'muted', i start yawning truth be told if i play it like that. Really yawning :)
Music..?.. you could compose the greatest soundtrack ever, it would still be doomed to be cycled over and over, whether i have music on 'repeat' or not. Eventually i'm just bound to get bored of it and becomes an auditory distraction/annoyance; thus, turned off :)
I might be in the minority but I'll say B+C. I always muted combat music in EQ but I will never forget the music that plays when you first leave Felwith and enter Greater Faydark.
That goes for Crushbone too: https://soundcloud.com/everquest-music-reimagined/crushbone-entrance
I believe that background/ambient noise is required to make the game immersive (at least to me...) I remember leveling up in Everfrost and hearing the wind blow and snow storms occur with the whistling sound that comes with it, and I would actually start to feel chilly, but the kicker is outside my house the temps were in the 90's... That immersivness of the background/ambient noise made the game feel alive to me and really brought me into the game. When I use to run through zones and hear birds chirping or lions roaring always made me feel like I was in a game world that was alive.
Rint
Music has its place in a MMO, but I hope that we are not inundated by it. A short introductory piece when entering a new area--be it a dungeon or new zone--is fine, just don't have it looping continously throughout the zone. Environmental sounds are a must, as it adds depth to the world and definitely increases immersiveness. Of course, if one finds his or her self in a pub, the music can flow freely with momentary lapses. I'm sure the devs will work it out just fine, as long as there aren't the issues I had in Vanguard where music would just randomly start or stop, sometimes while only half way through the song. :P
Yes, music definitely has its place. Check out EverQuest's Planes of Power and Gates of Discord tracks for some high quality stuff. As well, some of the original music that would kick in when you entered a particular area of a zone -- gold!!
Environmental noises are also definitely needed. If someone wants silence, they can turn their speakers down! (Or maybe there can be an option to turn off those sounds altogether.) If anyone else has played through EverQuest's 'The Darkened Sea' expansion, you'll remember the background dinosaur roars on Thuliasaur Island -- simple, but effective.
Don't want to leave out NPC noises, either -- idle, roaming, attacking, dying... At some point, giants in EverQuest lost the sound of their thundering footsteps -- who's ever heard of a giant creeping up on people?
The first thing I do I mute background music. I find it distracting. Now when I say background music, I am referring to the stuff that just loops over and over for infinity.
Some nice horror music when entering a ruined castle, or some cheerful music when entering the land of fairies is fine, as long as it basically plays once, then cuts out to leave just the environmental sounds.
Even environment sound I prefer to be controlled. Like others, I don't want to listen to a constant buzzing bee for hours. Bee comes around buzzes a minute or 2 then is gone, and comes around again periodically is fine.
I prefer the sound of the wind in the trees, footsteps, birds chirping, owls hooting, the occasional roar of a beast in the distance, or the sound of a coming storm, which alwasy bugged me in EQ, one minute it is sunny and great the next is thunder and rain, you never heard it coming, it just appeared over top of you, which I suspect had more to do with zone setup technology used at the time.
Environmental sounds are a huge part of a game to me. I love how that draws me in, makes me feel like I'm really there. Music depends, I'm not usually a fan of bombastic orchestras that are seemingly trying to blow me away. It's even worse if that happens whenever I move five steps after it finally shut up and then it starts again.. hrnngg. I do love more mellow pieces that flow along somewhat unobtrusively but keep me spellbound without really noticing it. Elven areas are usually among my favorites in games, no surprise there. From what I've heard of the soundtracks I think I'll be happy, some amazingly beautiful music there :).
Out of the 3 Options, I like all but its very situational dependent. Like, I like the eviroment sounds and music, but if I am on comm's with players it just always seems to drown the other players out and you can never seem to get the volume just right and end up muting it, Even when playing solo the music can get kinda annoying because it gets repetitive after a while (10 hours later) same with the enviromental sounds, like something I noticed in EQ was that the enviromental sounds work get in a Frog Ribbit loop and omfg after 5 minutes you are just tired of it.
C of course :) To be able to sit out in the forest with a crackling fire going and hear animals rustling around , the wind blowing the leaves or moving brush, hearing an owl hoot, insects are a must :) Listening to the flow of water from a nearby brook. Being able to hear the creaking of the wood from the guards walking on the nearby pass.
