How important is music in a game?

[BrotherRool]

It's just not that probable that so many games are the very best. If they're all the very best, then doesn't that itself mean the very best is by definition a bit average?

That necessitates take a view of 'best' as a very small percentage of a total, rather than exceeding a very high standard of quality - which, technically, is the more accurate way of using best, but isn't necessarily what people mean in this context. Even so, it might be - I mean, there's a lot of games out there, and while a fair few names have been bandied about here, they're still a very small percentage of games, and probably fit within the top bracket of games with high musical quality.


But yeah, so much good stuff - a lot's been brought up, a fair bit of which is on my iPod. Nowadays, if a game catches my eye, one of the first things I do is check the composer.

I considered that, but look it's so darn reliable. I was actually thinking of a way to prove this so I figured, well Torchlight 2 and Dishonoured I haven't heard much of? But they're both name dropped in this thread. And people name drop every single FF game and Halo and all Bioware games and all the Elder Scrolls games and the Fallout games and although it hasn't been mentioned in this thread Uncharted pops up all the time. God Of War. Metal Gear Solid. Silent Hill. Deus Ex. All the big franchises. They're all fantastic (maybe CoD is an exception here?)


And there's so little that's widely acknowledged as bad.

The difference between say the Elder Scrolls games and Bastion/FFX is that there are people who hate almost all video game music who praise Bastion and I know lots pianists who absolutely adore To Zanarkand and they don't even really know what game it came from. But generally it's all so consistent it can't really be the best in it's genre, maybe the game gives us a good impression and the fact that a lot of us don't normally listen to this type of music otherwise means we can't judge well. Or maybe you really can just pay for good music

 

[BrotherRool]

Part of it is to do with the quality of the composers hired. The reason the entire FF series keeps getting brought up, for instance, is because Nobuo Uematsu did the vast majority of the music for the series from I-X. And Nobuo Uematsu is to gaming what John Williams is to film. Any composer who can consistently come up with the likes of One Winged Angel, Terra's Theme, You're Not Alone, Aria di Mezzo Carattere and more is going to get namechecked a lot. The guy's a legend, and he worked on the majority of the FF series.

Same for Jeremy Soule, who's worked on a huge amount of games. His theme for the Elder Scrolls series, in all its iterations, is as majestic as any Hollywood theme, hence why the series gets brought up. Anything he works on, he tends to bring a high quality of composition to. Same for Marty O'Donnell, Yoko Shimomura, and others.

The videogame industry has a very high quality of composers working in it. Hence why so many games are brought up in these discussions. When you have people as talented as Uematsu, Shomomura, O'Donnell, Soule, Harry Williams, Koji Konda, etc, etc all working in the same industry, that's a huge amount of games with a stupendous amount of musical talent involved.

And there's so little that's widely acknowledged as bad.

Unlike being in a band or a pop music group, becoming a VG composer generally requires having qualifications. If you want to compose VG music, then unless you're Nobuo Uematsu, you're probably going to have to study music to a degree level at a dedicated music college. This tends to raise the quality a lot. Once you start studying music and learning how it's put together, it becomes a lot easier to avoid the pitfalls that many bands and artists fall into. In short, even if it takes a lot of skill to compose 'great' music, it's very easy to avoid composing 'terrible' music once you've learned about theory and composition. This is the case for the majority of composers in the industry, hence why there aren't many games with truly 'bad' music.

Sorry, you're completely right.(Does that come over right? I want to apologise for barking up the wrong tree and confirm that you're argument has convinced me basically, it's hard to phrase that in a way that doesn't sound potentially sarcastic) I guess the great film composers are able to make great track after great track without any blips so there's no reason the game industry can't hire people who can do the same.

 

[Mullac]

Yeah, music can be fairly important. If a game has good music then it will be even better, but if a game has plainly alright or bad music then it doesn't make a lot of difference. Very rarely does bad music actually change my mind on a game, it's normally only if it's good.

 

[Andrew_C]

Extremely unimportant. There are only 2 games where I don't automatically turn off the music - Minecraft and Dwarf Fortress. Although Carmageddon had a pretty good soundtrack. The radio station idea in Fallout3 and falloutNV could have worked if they had had more than 4 tracks.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Quite important. While we do remember certain scenes in a game but we always hum or being reminded by the catchy tune of the soundtrack or just remember how awesome the tune is!

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

It is very important. Music can help achieve many things in a game. Atmosphere, mood...even nostalgia.

Two points on music and nostalgia - Sometimes, games can use music that's already been made to achieve this. As most people know of the Halo franchise, I wonder how many people can easily indentify with this:

Spoiler: And probably name the exact place and scenario this plays at

Now then, let's take a look at a more recent game Pokemon Black/White 2. Game Freak didn't use an outside source like Halo did, but if you're a fan of this franchise:

Spoiler: Memories and nerd chills aplenty

So yes, music is an important facet of games. It's what can make good games great, or great games legendary.

Also...

*ahem*

[HEADING=1]MANY THANKS TO CARAMEL FRAPPE FOR MY NEW AWESOME AVATAR![/HEADING]

 

[el_kabong]

I think it depends on the situation. You've got games like Portal 2 thats use music and sounds together to set the mood and the pace like they would in a movie. Then you've got games like Amnesia: The Dark Descent that use music sort of in the same way, but it has a lot more time where there is no music so that the impact of the music when it occurs is stronger. Having no music for long periods of time makes you feel even more alone and isolated, which is very important for the atmosphere of that game. And it also enhances the impact of sound effects, which are very important in that game not only for setting the mood (letting you really hear Daniel's breathing when he's scared, hearing your footsteps echo in the hallway, hearing the building creek around you), but also for letting the player be aware of what's going on (hearing a growl and knowing what direction it came from, knowing what kind of a surface you're on, all the little sound effects that come from interacting with something).

Then you've got games like Limbo which sort of uses "sounds as music"--the steady and semi-rhythmic pulse of the environmental noise (the crickets chirping, the wind, bullfrogs in the swamp, etc) behaves like music, and only at critical moments does the game reveal any sort of true melody. It isn't actually music, but it has the same effect--it sets a pace and a mood through sound. Like Amnesia, the sound effects are enhanced by the subtle approach to environmental sound.

And then there's games like Bastion, which takes the total opposite approach--every second of that game is scored except the loading screens and significant narrative moments. This in turn makes the silence signify an important moment. Having music all the time sets the game to a regular tempo--it makes you want to play to the speed of the music. When the music is slow and solemn, you want to keep it slow and look around more. When the music is fast, you're in more of a hurry. It almost turns the experience into sort of an interactive music video--the music is playing, and what you as the player do is the choreography.

MMOs use music in a similar way--since players spend a lot of time in certain areas, the music sets a certain pace and atmosphere. Since the point of an MMO is to roleplay the gamemakers could get away with no music at all--and many do for lots of areas, but again having that background music gives the player that "interactive music video" feeling and makes them feel more heroic. Because the point of an MMO isn't just to give players a playground. The player wants to come from the experience feeling a little badass, so the game needs to deliver on that feeling.

I likes what yous is saying.

When music is used to reinforce gameplay, I couldn't imagine the game without it. When it's simply used as background music that doesn't dynamically change with setting or player action, it's removable.

A great example of scoring as it relates to gameplay is the first time I discovered a dragon word in Skyrim. In that situation, I entered a silent room. As I approached the wall in the back, chanting was heard and grew as I approached. Once this lured me in, I was treated to epic glowing words on the wall and the particle animation of absorbing the power. Once I learned the word, the chanting became the loudest, changed timbre, then stopped.

It's a great example of how music not only heightened the experience, but reinforced the gameplay. I didn't know that I was supposed to go to the wall, but I was intrigued by the chanting. It also tied in directly with the reward of a new ability. The atmosphere made it feel very "cinematic". I liken it to when a movie's musical score crescendos when the hero picks up his legendary sword in preparation for fighting evil.

One thing I'm really hoping for in the future (as I'm unaware of a game that currently does this) is a score that changes with the morality systems developers seem to be so fond of. It would be really cool to have the score of the game change to match the side of the morality chart you're on. If you're on the good side, you're treated to epic, heroic anthems. If you're on the bad side, your music consists of strong, foreboding music. Very similar to the differences between the Star Wars Theme and the Imperial March as used in John Williams' score of said movie.

 

[Orthus]

I would say, they are very important as they help set the mood of the experience. However Music doesn't need to be in a game. But it really does depend on the type of game as well, and what they devs want to player to get from playing it.

 

[M920CAIN]

I think it is highly important. Some people don't agree. But, I think music is a huge factor in defining the atmosphere and tone of part of a game. Play happy upbeat music while fighting a dreaded boss then try listening to it with some more dramatic and sinister music and you get a completely different mood.

I'll have to agree with you. A great soundtrack can really make even a bad game shine and it makes all the great games legendarily epic.

 

[bigfatcarp93]

This should've been a poll, just so we can see exactly how one-sided polls can get.

OT: Very important, obviously. It helps to set the tone. In Portal 2, imagine how much less effective (SERIOUS SPOILER BELOW)

Spoiler

Wheatley's Betrayal

Would be without the right music?

 

[Serinanth]

Ya know, I haven't thought much about that scene until now and the music popped right in my head. Music is important to most people, the others? I guess they just don't have souls.

Seriously have you ever been just about to hit a highway ramp and your random playlist starts up the Mjolinir mix? You hit that ramp and merge onto the highway like a god.