What impact does music have on you when playing games?

[MrWizard6600]

I just wanted to know. World of warcraft started sucking after about lvl 50. I grided most of my way through 50 to 60. When i was in western plaguelands (or eastern, which ever you can grind in) I had a realization: Griding blows, the only reason I was enjoying myself was because of Chris Cornell and his band Audioslave that was playing.

After a few months of 60 (and about 60% of tier 3 epic [Taurin Shammy]) I realized that raid instances were just... boring. Sure blizzard was always working on some new dungeon, but that just didnt do it for me. Once again, music to the rescue, only this time it made it a little more difficult for me to communicate in vent.

Similar story with a smaller MMO RPG game called "Ragnarok".

So some good tunes can keep a game good, for a little while. On the other hand, in Bioshock, playing when I've got Crazy town telling me about how the place is decorated in flames really detracts from the game. The old record players raptures riddled with really adds to the mood of the game.

So im wondering, what impact does music have on you guys gaming?

edit: polls = fail...

 

[kuyaglen]

For FPS games not so much since I prefer to listen to the ingame sounds, but for driving games it makes it better (at least on what playlist I have going).

 

[stoney_titan]

I thought it was awesome to have an in-game mp3 player in ut2004. I listened to music constantly unless it got really competitive. It was also the first game i ever had my own music in. (awesome)

Also having your own radio station in san andreas was cool as hell.

 

[Shinryu]

same for fps games I like the envoroment sounds and music, for mmo's like wow I need music during the grinding to kinda help me go in robotic mode lol. For alot of japanese rpg's I like the games music as it usually sounds good, ecspecially ff series.

But music is paramount to the atmosphere and enjoyment of the game (well for me at least)

 

[Frosteh]

Singleplayer games I leave to their own music, and I only occasionally listen to music when playing multiplayer games as I tend to be a bit competative these days and need to concentrait. But sometimes during hectic games of UT2004 or large servers of W:ET i'd be down for some good rock/hardcore music.

Playing a 64player server of W;ET was my fave, with music like Linkin Park, Crystal Method and various other similar tunes, it was a lot of fun. Medic class, use small arms until you're upgraded to dual wielding pistols then just go on a adrenaline pumped rampage going nuts with both pistols on people close range. Fun

And no, I don't "normally" listen to that kind of music, just need the beat and speed

 

[Duro]

I generally use a lot of upbeat music for entertainment/awareness/speed/etc in things where sound isn't really vital like a DM FPS or RTS.

 

[eddie500]

Music is so important for games like Anno 1701, Oblivion. I just love that classical type of music. I also loved the music in games like stronghold, that medevil classical was also very awsome.

So I'm a big music fan in games.

 

[Trimlock]

Going back through some old school to the newer stuff

I remember playing Quake1 and Quake2 to some pretty hardcore metal music, loving and having the steps/weapon audio on full and it make the game way much more fun, especially seeing as those 2 games have some very intense fights this music makes them seem alot more intense.

Moved to EverQuest, that game was awsome in its own, once the ambient music wore off quickly I went very fast to find some mods that would let me listen to music over winamp in the back ground and give me controls very quickly. After grinding away for hours in Lguk and SolB, then moving onto Kunark stuff like Karnors and Sebilis music has definetly helped me out, more so that I concentrated more on the music and ended up getting a 2nd computer so I could explore for more interesting music to jam out to.

There were various games in between that I explored with and didn't really bother to get stuck with for a very long time, those I won't mention.

EQ2 and WoW I'm pretty much on over 25gigs of music, anything really goes with me, music is probably the most interesting part of these games, infact the games themselves don't hold much interest in me.

The weird part is, when ever one my older songs gets played on the list it reminds of the good old days in the other games I used to listen to them, for instance God Smack reminds me of the early days of EQ1 and reminds me explicity of the area's where I used to listen to music alot.

For me music is like crux I need to play these types of games that don't rely heavily on its own ambient sound or music of the game to set the mood.

 

[saan44]

In most cases I find music distracting, but that's because I play primarily FPS games where sounds in multiplayer are extremely important sources of information. When I was playing WoW, I found that having two monitors was awesome. I'd mute WoW and put on movies or episodes of TV on the second monitor while I'd grind out quests. Made the process a lot less painful because of the distraction.

 

[theDreamer]

I am the odd ball out I guess.
When playing FPS (single or online) I always have my choice of music. If it is a game or moment of crunch I can quickly turn it off or down, but normally I do not. Music for me calms me down and lets me think clear, even though I can never hear the guy running around the corner behind me if I am always alert I barely ever get caught off guard.

The only time I like to have in game music/sounds on is from the start of the game and I let if play for awhile to see if I will enjoy it. If the music is starting out lack luster I will turn it off for good.

 

[Nanan]

The weird part is, when ever one my older songs gets played on the list it reminds of the good old days in the other games I used to listen to them, for instance God Smack reminds me of the early days of EQ1 and reminds me explicity of the area's where I used to listen to music alot.

Every time I hear an Underworld song it conjures up memories of my EQ1 noobie days hunting in Mist-Moor getting raped by the rampant trains that ran every 30-45 mins.


When I play UT2k4 I usually listen to techno, the fast paced music helps with the fast paced game that we run(game speed 3x, bots on godly++).

When it comes to MMO games such as Vanguard(yea I still play, I did a 1 year pass thing at launch) I listen to just about anything but the in game music.