Music in Guild Wars 2

evianwater · July 2012

It might be a good sign that this is one of my major complaints, but it is a complaint.

There seems to be a great lack of music in Guild Wars 2, whether you're just exploring or in the midst of furious combat, music *always* adds an important element to the expirience.

Music is key to setting the mood to a video game just like it is in any major movie, and the complete lack of it is...strange.

Can someone tell me if this was ever mentioned before ? That perhaps they just haven't added it for the betas ? Or did they really decide it wasn't worth their time ?

jadedy · July 2012

You joking right?

RCP_ut · July 2012

Turn music sound on!

Kakkzooka · July 2012

Best MMO soundtrack yet. Jeremy Soule (and his kid) is (are) the man(s)!

Sovrath · July 2012

Originally posted by evianwater
It might be a good sign that this is one of my major complaints, but it is a complaint.

There seems to be a great lack of music in Guild Wars 2, whether you're just exploring or in the midst of furious combat, music *always* adds an important element to the expirience.

Music is key to setting the mood to a video game just like it is in any major movie, and the complete lack of it is...strange.

Can someone tell me if this was ever mentioned before ? That perhaps they just haven't added it for the betas ? Or did they really decide it wasn't worth their time ?

ugh.

You realize that music in movies isn't necessarily a good thing right? and that a movie can be over scored and that can pull away from the actual acting among other things? I recall "Great Expectations" and writhing in my seat because the music was not only ever present but it also insisted on forcing the viewer into a mindset as opposed to allowing the acting and the cinematogrpahy to create the mood.

There are great movies that have no music at all or minimal music. There are too many crappy movies that have music everywhere.

I think the music in GW2 is actually very good and doesnt' take away from the game at all. It's there but it's not in your face.

StrixMaxima · July 2012

Jeremy Soule's music scores are perfect for games, especially RPG-esque ones. They are subdues, but pace the action, and occasionally boom into amazing crescendos. You simply can't get better music for this kind of game from anyone else in today's market.

Listen to his Morrowind score, YouTuba has it. Probably the best game music ever composed.

evianwater · July 2012

Originally posted by Sovrath
Originally posted by evianwater

It might be a good sign that this is one of my major complaints, but it is a complaint.

There seems to be a great lack of music in Guild Wars 2, whether you're just exploring or in the midst of furious combat, music *always* adds an important element to the expirience.

Music is key to setting the mood to a video game just like it is in any major movie, and the complete lack of it is...strange.

Can someone tell me if this was ever mentioned before ? That perhaps they just haven't added it for the betas ? Or did they really decide it wasn't worth their time ?

ugh.

You realize that music in movies isn't necessarily a good thing right? and that a movie can be over scored and that can pull away from the actual acting among other things? I recall "Great Expectations" and writhing in my seat because the music was not only ever present but it also insisted on forcing the viewer into a mindset as opposed to allowing the acting and the cinematogrpahy to create the mood.

There are great movies that have no music at all or minimal music. There are too many crappy movies that have music everywhere.

I think the music in GW2 is actually very good and doesnt' take away from the game at all. It's there but it's not in your face.

Well there's a difference between music being over-done..and music just not being there at all. There's a reason why there are composers that are so well known, adding music to a medium like a video game or a movie is an art in it of itself.

If it it is done well, it can change the entire feel of the movie/game and take it to a higher plataeu. If its' done poorly..well..it destroys the medium.

Homitu · July 2012

I'd suggest you check your settings. GW2 always has music playing. It's caught my attention quite a few times now. Very well done.

evianwater · July 2012

And as for all the responses I must be missing something..because I can't recall any moment in three beta tests where I was immersed by music.

I used to think "combat music" was an annoying feature in video games until the lack of in in GW2.

stragen001 · July 2012

Originally posted by Homitu
I'd suggest you check your settings. GW2 always has music playing. It's caught my attention quite a few times now. Very well done.

Yeah gotta agree with this, there is always some music playing, and it is contextual so if you are wandering about you get some whimsical stuff, if you encoutner enemies it changes, if you are in a city it changes, if you are crafting it chnages etc etc

evianwater · July 2012

There's something wrong with my settings then..because I honestly can't remember hearing music. Plenty of FX, but no music. I double and tripple checked looking for some kind of "mute music" button or some such but never found one.

BeansnBread · July 2012

Originally posted by evianwater
There's something wrong with my settings then..because I honestly can't remember hearing music. Plenty of FX, but no music. I double and tripple checked looking for some kind of "mute music" button or some such but never found one.

It happened to me too. Some areas would have music playing all the time, but then the Charr starting area would play music extremely rarely. It did feel a bit strange and I did notice it. Which areas were you in where it was like this so I can go check and compare right now?

evianwater · July 2012

The Icesteppes in the Norn area. Zero music.

Semibrucelee · July 2012

funny because I was wondering if they had a repeat music in the audio options since i like it so much

evianwater · July 2012

There's a tiny bit of music just now. But that kind just proves what I'm saying. I guess it's taboo to speak negatively about GW2..but *personally* I prefer music more often then once every 40 minutes. Reminds me of eq1..it had a good score..but was under utilized.

evianwater · July 2012

Originally posted by Semibrucelee
funny because I was wondering if they had a repeat music in the audio options since i like it so much

Never said I didn't like the music..just that I rarely hear it.

Grimrist000 · July 2012

i think it's a valid concern. i, too, noticed the same thing. there are times when there just isn't any music playing in the background. it could just be a beta issue but i think it's definitely good to point out.

i believe TB pointed this out as well during his stream.

Netgamer7k · July 2012

I wasn't very fond of the music, because I found the same soundtrack being played in every zone I went to. I don't know what soundtrack it is, but it has a french horn. It's nice music, but having to hear it several times in an hour of gameplay is annoying.

Obviously, music isn't a big issue or game breaking, but I had to disable it because I didn't like hearing dramatic orchestra music when I killed a spider.

BeansnBread · July 2012

I just did an event in the Ice Steppes and on the way there, maybe 10% of the time I heard music. It reminded me of Minecraft in that there is no music forever and then it plays a short piece. After the event was over, there was still no music at all for ~ 5 more minutes (when I gave up).

The ambient sounds are really well done when you start to pay attention to them, but I think they should have an option to loop music at the very least. Have you reported this complaint on the official boards?

evianwater · July 2012

Originally posted by colddog04
I just did an event in the Ice Steppes and on the way there, maybe 10% of the time I heard music. It reminded me of Minecraft in that there is no music forever and then it plays a short piece. After the event was over, there was still no music at all for ~ 5 more minutes (when I gave up).

The ambient sounds are really well done when you start to pay attention to them, but I think they should have an option to loop music at the very least. Have you reported this complaint on the official boards?

I've just been putting it on the comments section of all the Beta pop-ups.

Sovrath · July 2012

Originally posted by evianwater
Originally posted by Sovrath

Originally posted by evianwater

It might be a good sign that this is one of my major complaints, but it is a complaint.

There seems to be a great lack of music in Guild Wars 2, whether you're just exploring or in the midst of furious combat, music *always* adds an important element to the expirience.

Music is key to setting the mood to a video game just like it is in any major movie, and the complete lack of it is...strange.

Can someone tell me if this was ever mentioned before ? That perhaps they just haven't added it for the betas ? Or did they really decide it wasn't worth their time ?

ugh.

You realize that music in movies isn't necessarily a good thing right? and that a movie can be over scored and that can pull away from the actual acting among other things? I recall "Great Expectations" and writhing in my seat because the music was not only ever present but it also insisted on forcing the viewer into a mindset as opposed to allowing the acting and the cinematogrpahy to create the mood.

There are great movies that have no music at all or minimal music. There are too many crappy movies that have music everywhere.

I think the music in GW2 is actually very good and doesnt' take away from the game at all. It's there but it's not in your face.

Well there's a difference between music being over-done..and music just not being there at all. There's a reason why there are composers that are so well known, adding music to a medium like a video game or a movie is an art in it of itself.

If it it is done well, it can change the entire feel of the movie/game and take it to a higher plataeu. If its' done poorly..well..it destroys the medium.

There's no disagreement by me.

However, whether or not the music in GW2 or any game is another matter.

The music is there. You just want it all the time is my guess. There are some beautiful dissonances and some amazing sections. My guess is that you are used to a more "in your face" type of scoring and not one that is there to enhance as opposed to (for lack of a better analogy) be a more central "character" in the game.

dageeza · July 2012

Simply put GW2 has some of jeremy soule's best work ever..

To bad something was wrong with your sound..

just1opinion · July 2012

Originally posted by evianwater
And as for all the responses I must be missing something..because I can't recall any moment in three beta tests where I was immersed by music.

I used to think "combat music" was an annoying feature in video games until the lack of in in GW2.

I can't imagine that music is turned off by default, but you're making me wonder.... I've played in every BWE and have thoroughly enjoyed the music. It's beautiful, haunting sometimes, never over done and always spot on with the mood of the moment. Either you don't have it turned on, or the volume is set WAY too low. I'd check that out in options if I were you.

Howdy, Stranger!

Music in Guild Wars 2

Comments

Howdy, Stranger!

Quick Links

Music in Guild Wars 2

Comments