How important are in-game sounds and music to you, do you play MMORPGs with the sound on or off and why?
Sounds design is huge for immersion...
Combat sounds can really sell the impacts of weapons and the power of spells.
One important thing to note is that every spell and special attack needs its own unique sound and graphical flourish. You need to be able to tell what spell is being cast just by hearing it or catching a glimpse of its particle effect. MOBA's have taught me the importance of this more than ever.
With positional audio you should be able to hear a mob casting, recognize its a nuke spell by the sound and turn to stun that mob before it finishes.
Does this take a lot more resources to pull off ... yes ... is it super important for minute to minute gameplay ... yes
As far as non combat sound effects they can be really good at selling the immersion of an area.
A busy market or the gurgle of a rolling stream... the echo of a creepy cavern or the sound of your footsteps running through sand. All important imo.
As far as musical scores I personally would like to see more classical guitar and less orchestral movement. That's just a personal preference tho.
Thanks for reading once again,
Kiz~
Angrykiz said:
Sounds design is huge for immersion...
Combat sounds can really sell the impacts of weapons and the power of spells.
One important thing to note is that every spell and special attack needs its own unique sound and graphical flourish. You need to be able to tell what spell is being cast just by hearing it or catching a glimpse of its particle effect. MOBA's have taught me the importance of this more than ever.
With positional audio you should be able to hear a mob casting, recognize its a nuke spell by the sound and turn to stun that mob before it finishes.
Does this take a lot more resources to pull off ... yes ... is it super important for minute to minute gameplay ... yes
As far as non combat sound effects they can be really good at selling the immersion of an area.
A busy market or the gurgle of a rolling stream... the echo of a creepy cavern or the sound of your footsteps running through sand. All important imo.
As far as musical scores I personally would like to see more classical guitar and less orchestral movement. That's just a personal preference tho.
Thanks for reading once again,
Kiz~
Yeah music and sound effects are on for me, I turn the music down to raid, as it's hard to call a raid with loud background dungeon or overland music but other than that I love it.
As you said, I can tell the spell or ability that is being used by sound, it saves me time looking at buff lists or knowing what my group is doing, it's pretty cool and it helps having a set of awesome headphones (Turtle Beach Z Sevens currently).
Castwell said:
With 2 of us playing in the same room.... sound goes off.
Oh man, time for a sound proof barrier mate! you don't want to miss out on the Pantheon music or sounds, I can assure you of that! ;)
I'm with Angrykiz on this one. Sound is hugely important to me. It is definitely an immersion factor. I do take a lot of my cues from what I can hear going on.
I think music can set the tone of a zone but I usually have it set to a lower level so I can hear the environmental sounds better.
@Castwell--my husband and I also play in the same room about 6 feet apart. We both have headsets and have to turn on Skype to hear each other talk!
I personally turn the music off - at least the combat music - to listen to Pandora or my own iTunes. I leave the combat sounds on though, because I like hearing the spells and the clashing of swords as well as the mob and player sound effects. I may reconsider for Pantheon though, just because what I've heard so far is very, very beautiful - so we'll see!
Similar to movies the sound can set the stage. Although once I have explored and heard it for the first time the music gets turned down so I can hear the ambients and other game sounds. I never turn the music all the way off just lower then other game sounds. I don't think I have played a game with the sound completely off. I know playing WoW currently a player can get many cues from game sounds. I look forward to seeing what Pantheon brings to the table.
Kilsin said:
How important are in-game sounds and music to you, do you play MMORPGs with the sound on or off and why?
Sounds are fairly important, as long as the dev/design team doesn't fall into a trap of making too much sound, it's like too much special effects, then it becomes distracting. The key is that sound is an accompaniment, like a spice for a meal. Spice should enhance the original taste of the actual meal, not be present in such quantities that it covers and erases that original taste.
Music... to an extent, and only if it's appropriate for the ambient. I don't like combat music. Ambient music, yes. If you can make it correspond to the atmosphere of a dank and gloomy dungeon, or desert, or a forest, or an elven outpost.
Speaking of music and elven outposts... In Vanguard, there was an elven outpost on Thestra, somewhere near Ruin Falls, I can't remember its name off the top of my head, the ambient elven music there was absolutely beautiful, the only issue I had with it was that it was a relatively short sequence that was repeated over and over but it was beautiful. If you can make more of that...
Perplexing89 said:
I personally turn the music off - at least the combat music - to listen to Pandora or my own iTunes. I leave the combat sounds on though, because I like hearing the spells and the clashing of swords as well as the mob and player sound effects. I may reconsider for Pantheon though, just because what I've heard so far is very, very beautiful - so we'll see!
I am pretty much the same way but I often actually turn all the sound off and listen to my own music. I will typically play for the first little bit of time with the sound on but often the music becomes repetitive after a while and I would rather listen to something else. I will always try to listen to the music and game sound and certainly listen to all of Joppa's beautiful stuff at least once. :)
Sounds and music are very important for me. Even the sounds the buffs had in EQ are a huge part of the warm memories I have for that game. I can still hear the music and sounds echoing in my brain from the very first day I played EQ back in 1999. Kelethin's music playing while I got buffed up from a high level. All the sounds were appropriate too. Casting invisibility made it sound like you were fading away and it sounded calm. Then casting a nuke a very seconds later was the opposite of calm, it sounded like all hell was about to break loose.
And .. can't forget the all important "DING" sound .
As with most others here I think the sounds are super important! So much info can be relayed through sound triggers, whether it's spells or combat or something social, the reactions to those sounds become almost automatic. I've never turned off any of the music or sounds. The ambient sounds really help with immersion so I will sometimes turn them up the if they are too quiet but the music is always present. I find the music really sets the mood for the zone or combat or whatever situation might be and I love Pantheon's music so far! The other day my wife heard it without knowing where it was from and asked me if I'd gotten some new music because she wanted to download it herself. =) So I have high hopes for the Pantheon soundtrack to be as memorable as games of the past have been!
@castwell My wife and I have done the same thing Marilee described - both of us in the same room, same game speaking to each other through voice chat. lol Works great though. :)
Sound is extremely important to me. It's what creates a sense of immersion. Visuals alone aren't enough. Immersion is really only possible when more than one of your senses is engaged. I'm referring mostly to ambient sound though. Imagine a forest. It doesn't feel like a forest without the chittering and squaking of insects, the chirping birds, the leaves rustling as treetops sway in the wind, the crunching and snapping sound of an animal scurrying around somewhere nearby. It's the little sensory details that make you feel like you're really there. You may not even notice them at first, but if they aren't there you'll instinctively know that something is missing.
As for music, it literally sets the tone for the scene. That dark, scary dungeon isn't very scary without the ominous music building the tension. Think of the Walking Dead theme. It's a great example of tension filled music and it sets the tone for each episode perfectly.
Now think of the opening note of the Star Wars theme. Every time I watch the movies or play a Star Wars game, I get goose bumps when that first note blares. Imagine if they went with cheesy synthesized keyboard instead, like just about every other 1970's sci-fi movie. It would have ruined the whole experience. John Williams' score is half the reason Star Wars was so successful. Imagine how much better Highlander would have been with an epic orchestral score like Star Wars.
I usually turn off combat music in games, but that's only because it rarely flows seamlessly into and out of combat. It's usually jarring and actually detracts from my immersion. If it could be done seamlessly without drawing so much attention to itself it could actually make combat feel that much more epic. If it were truly seamless and had different combat themes to go with the different zone themes I'd be very happy.
Combat sounds, imo, are very important in games. There's nothing as satisfying as the heavy thud of your broadsword hitting your enemy's wooden shield. And there's nothing as unsatisfying as that same fight sounding like a crowbar hitting pavement. I would want the weight of a weapon to be evident in its' sound and the sound of the weapon's material (steel blade, stone hammerhead, etc) to be true to the material of its' target (wooden shield – "thud", metal shield – "clank", a face – "splat"... or "crunch" depending on your weapon of choice.) I think that attention to sound detail goes a long way toward making the combat enjoyable.
BTW - One of the best combat sounds in my MMO experience is the ice based spells in EQ. They sounded so violent and painful it made me giddy at times. I would sometimes turn the volume up when I played my wizard just to enjoy the sheer power of wizzy nukes. Good times!
tl;dr: Sound important.
In game sounds and music are absolutely critical for me. I have never been able to get the amazing music from ffxi out of my head and it plays a big part in my emotional ties to the game / game world and has mad so many experiences in it that much more meaningful. As for in-game sounds (ambient and such) that goes a long way in making the world feel real. For example having a clapping npc actually making clapping sounds as opposed to not, or another thing I loved from ffxi was that when walking the sound of your footsteps would change based on the terrain you were walking on (clank from metal, plunk from wood, crunch from snow, etc.).
Because of its importance for me I always at least try the game with all of its default sounds and music. There are cases where I will turn it off, mainly being because its music or sound isn't good but that is really the only reason I will turn it off. When i'm in the game world I want to be hearing the game world and music above all else.
I'm in agreement with this whole thread, sounds are huge for me. One of the reasons I avoid voice-chat as much as possible, is because I want to hear only the sounds of the game, allowing me to feel more in the world. I have turned off combat music most of the time, as going in to combat so often and hearing that music start over and over gets tiring to me, but other than that, I love hearing everything else.
Appropriate environmental sounds and ambient noise is big for me (i.e. Froglok Croaks in Innothule Swamp) for immersion. I also enjoyed the area themes in EQ. One thing I do typically turn down/off is combat music though as it becomes extremely repetitive. Even with a rotation of 5+ combat songs - you're in combat too much for them to ever not become repetitive (realized this is very similar to AgentGenX - so +1 what he said including the aversion to voice chat).
Kilsin said:
How important are in-game sounds and music to you, do you play MMORPGs with the sound on or off and why?
My response will be very long winded --- simply because I have a passion for game music. For me, game music should be mimicing the feeling of whats going on in the actual game --- Almost like an alternative form of telling the story. I'll give a few examples from memorable games from my past and explain exactly why I they've stuck with me for so long.
PC's World of Warcraft - Sylvannas's Lament
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXhx40DcU6Y
Game Setting: Sylvannas is an undead High Elf... also known traditionally as Blood Elves in World of Warcraft. She was slain and raised as a banshee, but became sentient. She gathered the other sentient undead and formed the nation called The Undercity. Her personality revolves around vengeance and ruthlessness -- A trait that most undead NPC's have due to their magical nature.
In the second expansion of the game, a blood elf player brings her an amulet found on an undead monster. This amulet has an inscription that describes it as a gift to Sylvannas from her (Now deceased, I believe) sister. This stirs Sylvannas to sing a lament of her former life.
Why This is Memorable: ALL PLAYERS in the entire region of the Undercity hear this song when the player completes this quest. It's quite a shocking difference compared to the horrific noises typically play when traversing this city any other time. I remember players asking what was happening, how did it happen, asking about the story behind it... Just from a single song playing at just the right time. Just listening to this song tells a story without having any video to go along with it.
PC's Final Fantasy 14 --- "Answers" Bahamut's Version
https://youtu.be/MOMZV0P191Q?t=557
The Game Setting: Please note, this is the final battle of Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn. The opening theme "Answers" plays for most of the battle, until you get towards the end of the fight. The youtube video is linked to the final phase of the fight. Bahamut is basically casting Megaflare, which is A) His traditional ultimate move in the series. B) The spell that wiped out the previous saviors of the world per the story.
Why This Is So Memorable: Nothing says "Impending Doom" like a dramatic change in music and red death everywhere you look. This was basically an "Oh crap, we made it/are going to die" moment that the music (and flashy effects) just amplified. While I am not a fan of singing in video game music, this was very fitting as it was the opening theme and ending theme of an era of the game.
I fully support "Layered Music" because it allows for you to switch up music during certain points of a fight, story, and whatnot.
SNES's Final Fantasy 6 - "Searching for Friends"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-ClGdaICGI
The Game Setting: Prior to this song playing, the heroes have FAILED to save the world from the game's villian --- The "World of Balance" has literally been destroyed and is now renamed "The World of Ruin". Celes, one of the heroines in this game, is isolated on an island alone and has to embark on a journey to relocate and reform the entire team again. Locating a few (now reluctant) team members, the party sets out to look for a second airship. (The first was destroyed when the world ended.) This song is essentially now the new world map theme as Celes and company begin their search for missing friends.
Why This Song is So Memorable: The first few seconds are the hopes of the party reviving as they find a second airship --- Another chance to save the world from evil! However, the rest of the song is quite solemn as the team still has to locate other party members (and convince them to rejoin, in some cases) in a world that is dying. It fits on so many different levels.
PC's EverQuest 1 (And 2) - Kelethin's Theme
EQ1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO4_8A9Uiwg
EQ2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxnph9zfSmc
The Game Setting: I will be brief since most of us will be familiar with this song. For some, it was our first few (deadly) steps (off a platform) in the fantasy world of EverQuest. If not our starting city, this city in the tree's was a unique sight to see all on its own because you were taught to be aware of your surroundings on the ground --- But never really looking up to see what could be there. In addition, Kelethin also housed one of the most popular races in any fantasy setting -- Elves.
Why It Is So Memorable: The melody suits the race that inhabits it in EQ1 --- Elves. The harp provides a soft, soothing melody, and it also fits the "elven forest" feel quite well. Very appropriate the first time around in EQ1 as well as the second time around in EQ2 when the fey inhabited the city. I'm sure there's a small part in all of us that found the second version to be a little more solemn because the city was no longer home of the elves.
Wii U's The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword - Fi's Lament
https://youtu.be/BDqqm6rhF-s?t=87
The Game Setting: Ganon has been defeated, the Princess is rescued, and all is well in the world --- Until you have to seal away your companion who has been with you the entire game!!!
Why This Is So Memorable: This one really got to me --- I cried like such a baby even though I saw it coming. Fi's personality is very dry and direct throughout the whole game (to the point that she breaks immersion to let you know your controller's battery is almost dead) so when you get to the final scene and she shows some "humanity" along with her remixed lament playing in the background really made it tough to say goodbye.
Sorry about the long post. I know this comes across as "These are my favorites, OMG!!!" but I feel it's very important to explain why and how they related to what is going on in-game. It just adds to the experience.
Bah, was trying to embed a sound, wouldn't work and can't delete message - well this is the sound I was trying to use lol
http://www.rozziland.com/eq/skelatt1.wav
Everyone likes sound, apparently. And why not? :)
Whether it's combat sound, or city-type sound, or creepy deathly forest type sound, sound does make a difference in game play. In my opinion, music and sound "make" the game. Suspense, doubt, tranquility, battle...if done correctly, sound heightens a players sense of immersion and awareness. It puts the player in the moment, makes them aware. I have no idea how people play without it...that's like losing one of your senses in a way.
When I play a game, I usually have combat and ambient noises turned up. My background music is always on, but at a lower volume. Although, even when it's turned down really low, i feel it adds to the game experience.
Sound (for me) triggers feeling. When you enter a deep, dark, forbidden forest, you know it, you feel it. When you enter a friendly, happy city, you feel that too. You automatically become more relaxed, or, more wary and on your guard. Sound is also a key to player's moods in a game. And mood is very important to how players feel about the world they live in...(deleted a bunch of stuff...that's a whole different thread).
Anyway...
To wrap it up, I'm just going to go ahead and express that my preferred server is PvP, and sound becomes even more influential in that realm. Sound "clues" can change the outcome of many PvP battles (PvE as well, I suppose, although not as much). I've seen it happen. A split second warning can change everything... Hearing the footsteps, buffs, and preparation of the team hiding around the corner that is going to try to and attack me/my group before I can see them only adds to the intrigue and suspense of a fight. It gives that extra half second of preparedness that can change the entire outcome of a battle. However, if I'm not paying attention, not listening AT ALL TIMES, that can easily lead to my demise. (And has.)
Sound is integral to the game. Just don't over do it with environmental music, I need to hear what's going on around the next corner...
I like to hear ingame music. Always wondering when I read of other players who turn off ingame music to listen to their own. Although for some zone songs (EQ) I can understand that :)
One thing I'd like to have would be an option to turn off the game loading music (as good as it may be). It was so annoying to hear that "Ohh, you're playing that game again?" when I started up EQ (or other MMOs)...just because they heard the music :) Sure I could mute the speakers, but I often start up the game, then walk away to get a drink or something. And forget to mute the speakers first :/
On sound effects: There was some thought about improving visual effects (of spells) with increasing levels. I'd like to hear something similar for sound effects. Your first fireball has only a weak crackling sound, the final one gets huge woosh and explosion sound! :)