Read through the latest newsletter and as always I get excited when we hear anything from the VR Team. Joppa gave us a little insight to his background and desires for the game. Cool stuff to be honest.
Back to the question. How important is the music in Pantheon to you as a player? I know when I am solo playing I love to get into the game and music plays a huge part of it to me. Many games have great sound and music scores but some fall flat with game play. My personal peeve is the scores are out of tune with the game play. Another thing for me is immersion. It is that emotional bound you get when in the game. Game play coupled with great music created for the game is like going to the movies for me.
So far the music created for Patheon is great! I am hopeful Joppa/VR will release more but time will tell.
So throw down some thoughts.
Ox
Sound plays such a HUGE role in not only games but in life in general. Certain bands hold a special place in our hearts/memory that we listened to when we were young and that we listened to when we engaged in memorable moments in our lives. A band we went to see live. Or certain music we listened to when we gathered for our weekly session of D&D or maybe Magic. As we get older just hearing one of those songs can spring forth so many great times of our lives.
It's the same for MMOs and video games. I stopped playing EQ for many years and went back during the Phinny TLP opening and JUST from the music that is played at the loading screen brought back so many great memories of memorable groups and raids and just time spent playing the game. Just hearing that loading screen music filled me with so much joy because of the nostalgia factor it plays on our psyche.
So yeah, music is definitely important. It's very important that the devs create moments with the music that allows players to forge memories that they will hold on to for the rest of their lives.
I really love music when I'm exploring or traveling. But it seems to become pretty destracting to me during combat. I feel like I would prefer audio clues to the combat's progression, like shuffline feet off to my right, the sound of a spell beginning to cast, etc. Those being drown out by what is usually pretty aggressive combat music is ... I dont know. I like the music itself. I like the idea of it's addition to the moment. But in reality, for combat specifically, I almost always disable it.
Like Feyshtey, I do like background music while I am playing, but I always turn it down really low (~20% volume) so I can hear combat audio.
I agree with everyone so far. For me the sound of the EQ1 opening score will always make my ears perk and it just makes me relive all those years. Just thinking about it helps me to visualize it all. I think that sound is a huge part of immersion and that not just music but the sounds make a huge impact.
The whispers that they speak of in the article is an example of this or as you are wandering through the thick forests at night and you hear the loud crisp crack of a stick and turn to see a skeleton lunging at you. It all makes the experience that much more enjoyable.
My first mmo character was a halfling in Rivervale. I can still hear in my head the environment sounds out in the forest as I was killing bats and fire beetles, and actually installed the game to go sit and listen to it but was disappointed because it was changed. The ambient sounds for me are more important than the music, but the music I have heard so far is great. I would love to hear some of the ambient sounds for zones posted up if they have any of that ready. Keep up the good work Joppa :)
I would agree that music is huge for games. More specifically, I find it importiant in certian times and places rather than blasting on and on in some repeat mode in the background. It seems to be more significant in situations like this example:
Not so much music atm with the exception of some combat music time to time. Then you find a dark cave with wraiths and super low light. The cave you find has significance, and upon entering it cautiously, an eerie song plays once through and gets back to silence so you can hear foot steps, awaiting the scream of a ghastly figure to rush at you from around the next corner.
I think music really sets a mood at certian points of game play. When entering zones, discovering something or an area within a zone, and maybe even music tied to emotes. It shouldn't however drown out sounds like foot steps and general hitting things or moving and working with things. I really look to those small effects to help me get into the game. I want to hear the sound of foot steps stomping through gravel and change to splashing as I cross through a river and then back to gravel again as I make my way up the other bank. If the same song was on repeat, I think it gets a little old and takes away from all these other lovely sounds.
Mixed feelings here. I looked at the news letter and was like meh, didn't spend more than 10seconds on it. I did thoroughly enjoy the music & sound effects in EQ1- back when I was what? 8-12yrs old? but throughout the years of playing emulators, I preferred to have the sound turned off so I can:
talk more clearly in vent
watch a tv show/movie
or talk with my family/or to not disturb them
I forget about EQ1 live, but on the emulators I play/ed- you have to exit the game completely to turn the sound on/off, so I just kept it off. If the in-game options had a nice control over sounds, I'm sure I'll ease back into sounds again. I know I will DEFINITELY have them on for the first month or two. Then I'll probably go back to watching Netflix on my SurfacePro, talking in vent, and looking at a quiet computer screen.
It really annoyed the crap out of me to be in a raid, talking in vent, then the no-headset-A-hole interrupts other people talking in vent, while he has the nerve to also be playing an alt- killing spiders, and you hear those loud screeches echoing through everyone elses vent. Get a headset, and turn off your friggin audio. ( I seen one of you on the VoT streams mister!!! hahahaha) ;)
NoobieDoo said:Sound plays such a HUGE role in not only games but in life in general. Certain bands hold a special place in our hearts/memory that we listened to when we were young and that we listened to when we engaged in memorable moments in our lives. A band we went to see live. Or certain music we listened to when we gathered for our weekly session of D&D or maybe Magic. As we get older just hearing one of those songs can spring forth so many great times of our lives.
It's the same for MMOs and video games. I stopped playing EQ for many years and went back during the Phinny TLP opening and JUST from the music that is played at the loading screen brought back so many great memories of memorable groups and raids and just time spent playing the game. Just hearing that loading screen music filled me with so much joy because of the nostalgia factor it plays on our psyche.
So yeah, music is definitely important. It's very important that the devs create moments with the music that allows players to forge memories that they will hold on to for the rest of their lives.
I see your point of view, and I am kind of right there with you. EQ1 sounds are stuck in my head for life, and boy they were great. However, at what point in our lives did we learn these sounds ? How many distractions were in your home at the time ? Sounds definitely made a huge impact, but I personally, think society has so many distractions now that it just isn't AS important as it used to be. Back in the kunark era, I knew of like 3 tv shows i liked ? They were always on replay the next week so it was no biggie to miss it. Now, there are like 12 shows I want to keep up with, 5 movies at any given time, and they're all available to be streamed! If I'm sitting down for 2-4 hours, you bet I'm gonna try and keep up on my shows at the same time.
The only time I will not stream video, and focus on the game, is if it is a new raid encounter, a known but very tough raid encounter, or if it is a 6man (content for 6ppl w/ raid gear to do an event to give off rewards right up there with raid items- they're just extremely difficult, and super time consuming events where you have to watch for emotes and be on your pollished A game every second, where it's so nerve wracking that you rolled something but hadn't had the 5 seconds to light it.. in those situations, I'd most def. have the audio on!!!. <3
But if every single grp were like 6man content and you cannot break attention, than I probably wouldn't play the game for long. I am certain the VR teams understands this, that all the players have grown up and have families now and can't play like we used to. How crazy to actually say. 'cant play like we used to'.. a game. ha!
Some of those EQ1 sounds were great and memorable. Having just gone back and played EQ P99 for a couple of months I can say some where awful and annoying too, to the extent I would turn them off or have to leave the zone! (OMG the thunder/earthquakes in Lavastorm were SO loud).
I love love love sound 'cues' in game. In EQ the simple but effective reverb-when-you-get-stunned was *awesome*. And I believe there were particular and different sounds when you would receive damage and receive a critical hit. Getting really useful *and* really immersive sound effects is fantastic. Not getting all your feedback from a scrolling combat text window is great.
I would like to hear: -
- Locational sound: It's almost a 'given' in games these days, but I hope that 3D surround will let you accurately know when something runs up behind you, etc
- Spell effects: Carrying on from the stun in EQ, how about muffling of sound when you are rooted? Or tinny trebly effect when healed?
- Damage: Have your character make a noise or say something distinct (and brief) when hit/criticalled/slowed
- Abilities: Have your character make a noise or say something when successful hitting, stunning, slowing, mezzing, etc.
Background music I think we tend to take for granted these days, but I really like the whole musical score when you get into a zone to set the scene and mood which trails off but then subsequent music when 'stuff' happens: combat, environmental dangers, completing quest, making discoveries, etc.
Music appropriately placed can be one of the more satisfying moments in a game, at least for me. However, the combat music in EQ1 (I forget how it went, it was just BOM BOM DOM BOM DUM DUM repeated over and over)...eh, no. But music that matches the overall mood and feel of an area/zone? Yeah, I like that.
Anistosoles said:Music appropriately placed can be one of the more satisfying moments in a game, at least for me. However, the combat music in EQ1 (I forget how it went, it was just BOM BOM DOM BOM DUM DUM repeated over and over)...eh, no. But music that matches the overall mood and feel of an area/zone? Yeah, I like that.
The combat music isnt great (but isnt bad) but serves a good purpose - if it starts and you're not expecting it? Oh no! What have I aggroed! Where is it?! PANIC! Or if you think combat is over and it's still going? Oh no! Where did that last orc go? Omg!!! TRAIN TO ZONE!!!!!
It does actually serve as a pulse quickening warning :)
disposalist said:Anistosoles said:Music appropriately placed can be one of the more satisfying moments in a game, at least for me. However, the combat music in EQ1 (I forget how it went, it was just BOM BOM DOM BOM DUM DUM repeated over and over)...eh, no. But music that matches the overall mood and feel of an area/zone? Yeah, I like that.
The combat music isnt great (but isnt bad) but serves a good purpose - if it starts and you're not expecting it? Oh no! What have I aggroed! Where is it?! PANIC! Or if you think combat is over and it's still going? Oh no! Where did that last orc go? Omg!!! TRAIN TO ZONE!!!!!
It does actually serve as a pulse quickening warning :)
True, forgot about that.
Anistosoles said:Music appropriately placed can be one of the more satisfying moments in a game, at least for me. However, the combat music in EQ1 (I forget how it went, it was just BOM BOM DOM BOM DUM DUM repeated over and over)...eh, no. But music that matches the overall mood and feel of an area/zone? Yeah, I like that.
Man, I almost forgot about that. I used to have the addon for my own music/mp3 playing inthe background but that would always come through.
I am hoping for landscape style music. Meaning as you roam about the zones it changes.
Ox