Now that’s a 'dome that I could get behind.
I’ve seen it, and have happily ignored it, but have finally decided that I must state my undying bewilderment for this topic/thread. Game music for me is very much like that in an elevator. It is “just there”, not enjoyable in any way, just background noise, in most cases annoying and unnecessary. How anyone could find actual enjoyment and/or find pleasure in it is beyond strange to me. There, I’ve said it, and I’ll now go back to ignoring this topic, and shut the hell up. No, I will not apologize either. So there! Weirdos!
EDIT: ok, sorry
Hey, I have a friend very similar to you. He won’t even play games he can’t disable the music for. However, he pipes his own music while playing the games (console or PC) and enjoys the hell out of that. So I guess if there were ever a game with the same type of music he listened to, it -might- hold his admiration, at least for a little bit.
But you are certainly not alone, @nogwart
Nesrie
1650
There are a fair amount of people out there that disable game music and blast their mainstream albums. I just don’t know how they can get into a game that way, but there are not just a few who do that.
Do you enjoy music in a general sense? There’s a lot of game music that I think is entirely enjoyable as music-music, divorced completely from the game it stemmed from. In fact, most of what I nominated for the Dome was stuff I jam to of my own accord, rather than just stuff that made a particular moment in a game cool or whatever.
Yeah, I usually have to play a game a lot before I start adding my own soundtrack. Game music, if it’s well done, really pulls me in and contributes to the whole … er… gestalt? … of playing it. I think the huge impact of Ultimas III and IV when I was a kid would have been substantially lessened had I played the versions without music.
As early as the late '80s/early '90s I was looking for ways to listen to game music independent of the game itself. My brothers and I were making mix-tapes of C64 tunes before 1990, and around '90 I found an Amiga program by Per Hakan Sundell (who later made the CCS64 emulator) that aggregated and played the bulk of the great C64 chiptune library.
From the very beginning, some of us actually sought this music out rather than just tolerating it as the best a game could provide.
Monster.
There, I said it.
Like, how could the confrontation with the Ladies of the Wood in Witcher 3 be half as memorable without the strings waling on that soundtrack.
Or well, anything in Nier: Automata. Fuck, i still well up when I hear the choral version of Weight of the World because that moment is such a perfect marriage of gameplay, themes and music, and hearing brings me back to that moment.
Thanks to all for not bashing me on this. I know I’ve discussed this here before, but I do actually enjoy music very much, and am a professional musician (bass guitar) for over 30 years, ten of those wherein music was my sole source of income. My problem is that I enjoy music too much, and I find the music in games a distraction to my concentration on the gameplay. Basically, when I want to listen to music, I listen to music and give it my full attention; analyzing chord progressions, interesting melodies, lyrics, etc. And when I want to play a game, I’d like to concentrate on the game with no distractions, like the music (which may or may not be great) going on in the background. No disrespect intended to those who love game music. It’s just not my thing.
That makes sense to me. Like people who listen to podcasts at work. If I hear spoken English (sung doesn’t affect me at all), I lose the capacity to concentrate on anything but the words being said.
geggis
1656
Then what’s your issue with this thread then? You’re not playing a game in here! The whole point of the game music thunderdome is to give each track your full attention, decide which one you prefer and optionally explain why. You don’t even need to have played the game or heard the piece of music before to get involved and cast your vote.
And yeah, this is totally me too!
In the light of this, I’d like to revise my statement of Monster to Doofus.
While I can certainly understand why it can be hard for you to not analyze, pull apart and get distracted by game music, basically, you kvetching about this thread amounts to you kvetching about people enjoying your chosen craft, no?
Yikes! I knew this was a bad idea. Apologies to any and all I offended.
geggis
1659
And, y’know, I love the idea of you, having disabled game music or paid it very little attention over the years, joining in here and being surprised by what you’re hearing. That would be awesome.
Nesrie
1660
If I am writing or reading or do something that requires focus, I can’t really listen to lyrics either. The weird thing is I can half pay attention to TV and movies. TV if it’s something I am sort of interested in, like sticoms not drama, and only movies I’ve seen a dozen times. Kung Fu Panda gets a lot of play around here because I love the movie and the music. Moana… same thing.
geggis
1661
So I don’t know the Kung Fu Panda soundtracks well but on my Google Music rounds at work I heard this and adored it:
Nesrie
1662
OMG. I love that. That is one of the best pieces in the series.
See now this isn’t gaming music, so clearly it wouldn’t be here but… this isn’t official either right? I am not sure I could pick this version over the original but I do like it a lot.
Oh no, they do LoTR too. I’m in trouble.
Just to be clear, since tone is hard to convey in text, not being able to enjoy game music is not a thing I’d genuinely call someone a monster over. I was not offended in the slightest.
And your problem of a craftsman not being able to stop analyzing the works of others is basically the most sympathetic reason imaginable to turn game music off.
(But kvetching about people enjoying your craft still makes you a doofus though.)
Thanks for the explanation. I was wrong, and am properly reprimanded. Good day to you, sir.
EDIT: To be clear, I admittedly misunderstood the intent of the thread. I understand now that game music being in games was not the subject, but the rating of game music was the point. Definite Doofus, me. I’ll try to do better. Sorry, Soren. My Bad.
I’m with you, @Soren_Hoglund . In many games, the music is part of the experience (sometimes, a huge part, like in To The Moon), and it’s a lesser experience without it (or with something else).
I understand what @nogwart said, being a musician myself, but games enhance the experience for me in games. I don’t usually find myself getting distracted by the music, but then again, I’m the kind of guy that tends to “dive” into the game as a wholesome experience, so maybe that’s why.
