Decline There's nothing more immersive than music

[octavius]

Some of my favourite music is music that creates "soundscapes", like Yes, Pink Floyd, Hawkwind, Jarre, Oldfield.
I still don't like ambient music in games, at least not when I play a single character in FPP. When I play Thief "I am Garret", so to speak, so where the hell does that sound come from? Hearing the moaning of the Horn of Quintus in the Bonehoard, now that is a good way of making good ambient sound, since it actually exists in the game world.

I have a suspicion that the need for constant background sound is tied to short attention span.

 

[†††]

I have a suspicion that the need for constant background sound is tied to short attention span.

I have a suspicion that the need for full realism in games is tied to massive autism.

 

[Valestein]

the ocean. there's nothing more immersive than water.

 

[Shitty Kitty]

 

[octavius]

I have a suspicion that the need for constant background sound is tied to short attention span.

I have a suspicion that the need for full realism in games is tied to massive autism.

That's quite possible. I have always favoured gameplay over realism, though.

 

[Gilius Thunderhead]

Some of my favourite music is music that creates "soundscapes", like Yes, Pink Floyd, Hawkwind, Jarre, Oldfield.
I still don't like ambient music in games, at least not when I play a single character in FPP. When I play Thief "I am Garret", so to speak, so where the hell does that sound come from? Hearing the moaning of the Horn of Quintus in the Bonehoard, now that is a good way of making good ambient sound, since it actually exists in the game world.

I have a suspicion that the need for constant background sound is tied to short attention span.

In Thief and other FPP games you are the character. The purpose is simulation. Silence is obviously an important part of it, whether it's Thief or Arma, otherwise you couldn't take it seriously.

In isometric and other games TPP games where the camera doesn't follow the player you're looking at a scene. The music helps explain the reality of the characters and the world the same way literature would use description or movies angled shots or any variety of techniques. Sometimes the music tells a better story than graphics.

Some (very few) people would say that graphics are also tied to short attention spans and we should RETVRN to text adventures.

 

[octavius]

Well, the advantage of text is that is allows you to make your own images. A bit like simple graphics lets the player fill in the blanks.

Maybe it's less an issue of attention span, and more about having imagination vs needing to be spoonfed all the stimuli?

 

[Shitty Kitty]

Well, the advantage of text is that is allows you to make your own images. A bit like simple graphics lets the player fill in the blanks.

Maybe it's less an issue of attention span, and more about having imagination vs needing to be spoonfed all the stimuli?

There are times I like to see what other people's imaginations are capable of.

 

[Butter]

Playing through IWD2 right now and one thing that really sticks out is the lack of music. Jeremy Soule's music in the first IWD created a palpable atmosphere, and that atmosphere is mostly absent from the sequel.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

An ideal computer game should be a Gesamtkunstwerk, a union of gameplay and various forms of artwork, including music.

 

[Shitty Kitty]

Not from an RPG, but whatever.

 

[J_C]

Well, the advantage of text is that is allows you to make your own images. A bit like simple graphics lets the player fill in the blanks.

There is a medium where you can imagine all the characters and the details of the world. It's called books. A videogame is a audio-visual medium, so it has to show you how the world looks and sounds. It also has to convey the atmosphere, and music is a great tool for that. It's like asking that a film shouldn't use music, because where is the music coming from in a scene.

 

[octavius]

Well, the advantage of text is that is allows you to make your own images. A bit like simple graphics lets the player fill in the blanks.

There is a medium where you can imagine all the characters and the details of the world. It's called books. A videogame is a audio-visual medium, so it has to show you how the world looks and sounds. It also has to convey the atmosphere, and music is a great tool for that. It's like asking that a film shouldn't use music, because where is the music coming from in a scene.

You seem to have quite a narrow definition of videogames.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Well, the advantage of text is that is allows you to make your own images. A bit like simple graphics lets the player fill in the blanks.

There is a medium where you can imagine all the characters and the details of the world. It's called books. A videogame is a audio-visual medium, so it has to show you how the world looks and sounds. It also has to convey the atmosphere, and music is a great tool for that. It's like asking that a film shouldn't use music, because where is the music coming from in a scene.

Following this reasoning all movies should be musicals.

 

[Rincewind]

For me, it depends on the game. There are games where music is such an integral part of the experience that turning it off would be like playing the game on a monochrome monitor or something...
A few examples where I think turning the music off is almost sacrilege: Fallout 1, Banner Saga, Witcher 1, Betrayal at Krondor, Nehrim, Divine Divinity.

Some games, on the other hand, are really better without music. Grimrock 1, Eye of the Beholder, Styx 1 comes to mind.

In some games the music is really awesome, like the first Gothic, but I just had to turn it off after a while because it got too repetitive.

And then I can't stand in-game music that's busy or feels slapped on. E.g. something like this would drive me crazy after five minutes:

https://youtu.be/z0UtU4nQjmY

Similarly for Grimoire; based on the few gameplay videos I saw music would be the first thing I'd turn off.

 

[Gerrard]

I pity the fool who has never played The Faery Tale Adventure with the music on, especially the daytime travel music:

Nigga please, those samples are "windows default general midi sample bank" quality awful.
Also, it's almost a complete ripoff of Pachelbel's Canon in D.

Here's some good Amiga music for comparison

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Agony, Title Music, 1992

 

[Rincewind]

Or the music from one of my favourite Amiga game intros (Powermonger):

 

[Rincewind]

Actually, I played Gothic 1 for a bit today and realised (again) that I find it much more immersive with music turned off.