General Discussion

MMORPG.com's own Dan Fortier uses his weekly column to discuss music in MMORPGs.

There are elements of a game that are rarely given notice in the feature list and overlooked by players engrossed in the obvious content of most MMOs. One of these unappreciated elements is the game’s musical score. It works behind the scenes to immerse or annoy us, depending on its quality. When used properly and aesthetically it can turn a well designed game into a masterpiece and can inversely mar an otherwise enjoyable product. This week I’m going to go a little soft as I explain some of the reasons why music is underrated and not given the attention it deserves especially in the MMO genre. Get a healthy supply of Compazine so we can get this little one man opera started!

When compared to the fantastic soundtracks of single player games such as The Elder Scrolls and Homeworld, most of the music presented in the modern MMO pales in comparison. Why is quality so much lower for games that players spend more time in than any other? While that cheery symphony in Freeport might sound great the first two hundred hours you spend there, it likely to be less pleasing the next thousand times you hear it. It seems unless a game is being produced by one of the MMO dynasties, the musical score and sound effects are added almost as an afterthought, just to know when you hit a monster or zoned to a new location.

Read it all here.

I almost always disable music when playing MMOs.  For the reasons already mentioned. 

I used to like that heading into stormwind would trigger that one song.  It would kinda make you feel like "you've arrived."  Each location with it's own song.  But those got old fast. And I no longer really miss them.

But out in the wild, you don't expect to hear music while out fighting in a cave, or a forest.  It's just not right, and it's distracting.

I think the author is right, why listen to lame music most developers offer in there games when i can throw on my music of choice? I personally throw on some instrumentals when im out grinding/farming, and some inspiring Rock when im in a pvp-ish situation. but i usually do pay attention to the music game devs. decide to throw in once, every once in a while ill listen to the in game music, some times they do a good job fitting music to the setting/suroundings. usually the games that focus on story content have the best music, because the game devs. focus is getting you immersed in the content, especially from indie companies, because they need to throw as many hooks in there game as they can to get their company to take off. grind-fest games like WoW tend to  have a pretty lame soundtrack, it gets old fast, but those games are not focusing on attracting the type of crowd thats going to care about the theme music. All though there are obviously some situations in WoW where music can enhance the game play/mood. Just look at the FRAPS phenomenon, people taking cool footage (usually pvp) and smashing it together with their music of choice, odds are its the type of music that those people listen to when they are playing. what ever floats your goat id say!!  good topic to write about btw, props.

I pretty much get my MMO fix playing City of Heroes/Villains. CoX has a... mediocre soundtrack. It got turned off and replaced by a playlist consisting of soundtracks from various superhero movies (The X-Men 1 through 3, Batman Begins, Spider-Man, Superman Returns... There's a whole stack of them). The only beef was that often enough a slow, quiet piece was playing while I and my group were tearing through baddies, or some high-charged action piece would come on while I was hanging at the auction house!

One thought for MMO developers: Sure, put in a soundtrack for the game, but also allow the player to set playlists of their own MP3s (or whatever format might be useful) for different purposes. Maybe three lists: An 'action' playlist for fights and such, a 'suspense' playlist for, for example in a mission or other dangerous area, but not in a fight right now, and a 'quiet' playlist for when you're in a safe area. Maybe even with the ability to add playlists that fit certain activities. Then, as each playlist's conditions are fulfilled, just play them random/repeat through the game's usual sound system, which is more than likely MP3-based, anyway. A reader for a bunch of widely used playlist formats should not be rocket science (speaking as a programmer and software developer myself, here).

I like to have great music in a game myself. It can really set the tone of the game.  Just look at Eve, that music really fits that game. SWG probably used their music the best imo, of course look at what they had to work with.  I really like the way they used the music at certain times in the game while most of the time it wasn't there.  I too eventually turn it off and play my own music, but I think it is an important element when you first start a game to set the mood.

I disable music in all games. Furthermore, I even get ticked off when cutscenes play with music. 

I like most of the music in MMO's... the first few times around. The constant looping of the same bloody song the same bloody way gets annoying. Lets face it they use repeated music as a form of torture to break people for a reason.

Over the years that a person that plays an MMO they have to put up with the same droning musicthey did when they started barring a change from an expansion pack or nomadically moving from one area to another.

On another topic, many of the MMO's play music through their own integrated jutebox programs, like EVE Online for example, and theoretically could play users own music in game, and it would not be a stretch to let them pick their own conditional and enviromental music. If they did that they would be more likely to actually use the in game music supplied by the developer as partoftheir mix.

Unfortunately this wont happen because groups like Fraunhaufer, EMI, and the RIAA threatened international game developers a few years back over putting the ability to play the users music inside a game as a "Piracy tool" and a an "uncompensated use of an artists"(record company's)"music to enhance the product". You can imagine what would happen to even a well backedgam if it got tangled in legal proceedings that put off publishing by a few years.

Finally one last point, if they made music more of a dynamic character in the game and not the constant companion that they do, I think it would be much better. Imaging arriving at a city and getting the usual local theme for a certian period of time or while you are at the entrance and haven't mooved. Most of the time walking through the city you get the city soulnds unless you pass by a minstrel or a theater that someone is practicing in. The odd female shopkeep sings to herself and the occasional male one blurts out drinking songs. If you were to approach the park during the day or early night there are musicians playing for a crouwd. Music like that adds to a games character, especially when it is dynamic so it is not the same droning on and on.

Even though Freelancer was not a MMO per say I still feel compelled to bring it up. 

While I played Freelancer I enjoyed the sounds and what ambient music there was in the backgrouind.  It was especially good when you're flying past a planet or see a nebula in the distance or some Neutron Star and you're flying around it in a wide birth because you know you'll get vaporised if you get too close.  At those points the music there was suspenseful and it gave you a feeling of pirates lurking near by, trying to use the neutron star to their advantage as a way to box people in and rob them while they were helpless and hopeless. 

Their ambient music/sounds is what I remember most vividly and felt I should bring it up here.

Originally posted by Auton

I pretty much get my MMO fix playing City of Heroes/Villains. CoX has a... mediocre soundtrack. It got turned off and replaced by a playlist consisting of soundtracks from various superhero movies (The X-Men 1 through 3, Batman Begins, Spider-Man, Superman Returns... There's a whole stack of them). The only beef was that often enough a slow, quiet piece was playing while I and my group were tearing through baddies, or some high-charged action piece would come on while I was hanging at the auction house!

One thought for MMO developers: Sure, put in a soundtrack for the game, but also allow the player to set playlists of their own MP3s (or whatever format might be useful) for different purposes. Maybe three lists: An 'action' playlist for fights and such, a 'suspense' playlist for, for example in a mission or other dangerous area, but not in a fight right now, and a 'quiet' playlist for when you're in a safe area. Maybe even with the ability to add playlists that fit certain activities. Then, as each playlist's conditions are fulfilled, just play them random/repeat through the game's usual sound system, which is more than likely MP3-based, anyway. A reader for a bunch of widely used playlist formats should not be rocket science (speaking as a programmer and software developer myself, here).

Now, this here will be my very first post..but I've been lurking for quite the long time now..heehee..But anyways, back to the point..

It isn't an MMORPG, in fact its an RTS I'm going to talk about..but Total Annihilation, that godsend of a game from Chris Taylor [the maker of Dungeon Siege and Supreme Commander (which is a spiritual successor to Total Annihilation)] Happens to have just that feature you are talking about, even though its extremely ancient..

It has a playlist that alters depending on what is going on, and you can choose which of their songs fit into each type of action, or use their default. I do not think it will play your own music though. The soundtrack in Total Annihilation was absolutely epic, blowing away the other games of the time [In my opinion, of course]..The sad fact though, was that it was so HARD to make the music WORK..if you had two cd drives, chances are it would refuse to play the music..