Acerba of Cenarion Circle started a pretty fun discussion the other day on her server boards: What type of music would typify various races and cultures of Azeroth? Sure, we all have our soundtracks for when we get tired of the in-game music, and the in-game music itself often has various themes that show again and again music to represent various concepts, but thinking about what music your character would listen to or what sounds you might here around a bonfire at Razor Hill (Well, besides L70ETC) or in a fine mansion in Silvermoon City is a really fun exercise. I'm one who often creates soundtracks for my PnP and MMORPG characters alike in order to understand this, so I find it a useful exercise for us roleplayers, as well.Posts with tag music
Forum Post of the Day: What type of music do Azerothians make?
Acerba of Cenarion Circle started a pretty fun discussion the other day on her server boards: What type of music would typify various races and cultures of Azeroth? Sure, we all have our soundtracks for when we get tired of the in-game music, and the in-game music itself often has various themes that show again and again music to represent various concepts, but thinking about what music your character would listen to or what sounds you might here around a bonfire at Razor Hill (Well, besides L70ETC) or in a fine mansion in Silvermoon City is a really fun exercise. I'm one who often creates soundtracks for my PnP and MMORPG characters alike in order to understand this, so I find it a useful exercise for us roleplayers, as well.Continue reading Forum Post of the Day: What type of music do Azerothians make?
Breakfast Topic: Grinding Tunes
Unless I am doing Arenas or for some other event that involves voice chat, I usually turn my WoW sounds off. I either watch episodes of my favorite science fiction shows or listen to music.I have compiled the following WoW-inspired, classic-rock soundtrack for grinding.
Ozzy Osbourne - The Wizard, for the Mages of the world.
Aerosmith - Dude Looks Like a Lady, with all due respect to elves of both factions.
Ted Nugent - Cat Scratch Fever, I guess I could have gone with Fred Bear- either work for Druids.
Queen - Fat Bottom Girls, because Tauren females make the rockin' world go 'round.
Blue Oyster Cult - Don't Fear the Reaper, in honor of Undeads.
Black Sabbath - Iron Man, perfect for Warriors and Paladins, but more for Warriors.
The Eagles - Witchy Woman, which seems to fit Warlocks.
Styx - Mr. Roboto, for everyone who's ever been stomped by the Fel Reavers in Hellfire Peninsula.
Led Zeppelin - Ramble On, OK it's about a different fantasy epic, but it's a great song.
What do you listen to while you play?
EDIT: Corrected the spelling of Ozzy, but I'm leaving it as an Ozzy song rather than Black Sabbath as the version I have is solo off the "Hot and Heavy" compilation disc. Thanks though!
Your favorite music
Of course, if metal/rock doesn't win (and I suspect that it won't-- my guess is you all are a pretty eclectic crowd), then the question remains just why all that crazy rock keeps showing up in your PvP vids anyway.
To soothe the savage player
Recently Blizzard added a lot of great new music tracks to the game, but some of my personal favorites happen to be the older, traditional compositions if you will. I have actually found myself missing the old Inn music, despite getting the new tracks stuck playing in my head (as is happening at this very moment, as a matter of fact.) As much as I am in love with the Lament of the Highborne, I find the music in Auberdine to be equally stirring.
Perhaps it's the simple fact that I know the original music so well. My characters grew up with that music, and it seems strange to walk into a place and hear something unfamiliar. I suppose music makes me more nostalgic than I realized.
Sylvanas' song, remixed
That's why I was so excited to see that Reggie over on LJ put together a remix of it. You can check it out over on his Myspace page (or here's a direct link to the file itself). It does get a little repetitive (he cut it all together in Reason, and looped a lot, as you can tell), but hopefully it's the first in a new batch of Warcraft remixes. I've heard the music used in all kinds of media (lots of podcasts and machinima "borrow" the official music, legally or otherwise), but I think this is the first time I've heard it remixed into a techno beat. So get to it, remixers! There's at least three soundtracks of Warcraft music out there, and while Reggie's beat sounds good, I'm sure someone else could make something that sounds even better.
Captain Dan's Deadmines Battle
You may have already heard this one, but I figured it would be a good thing to post on Talk Like a Pirate Day. Our friends over at WoW Radio recently dropped a new track from Captain Dan, "rising star in the field of Pirate Hip-Hop," called "Deadmines Battle." You can listen to it over on their website-- it features some trippy beats, a little Casio jamming, and rhymes all about everyone's favorite pirate instance. My favorite part of the song, just like the instance, is Mr. Smite, of course.WoW Radio also says Captain Dan's new album hits today (it's called Rime of the Hip-Hop Mariners, which I, being a Coleridge fan, find very funny)-- there's more tunes and information about that over on their Myspace page.
Avast ye maties, thar be some good rapping off starboard side! Now get back to yer deck-scrubbing, ye scurvy dogs, afore I keelhaul the lot of ya! Yarrrrrr!
The music of your class
There's a rather atrocious radio station that I pick up sometimes when I'm "station surfing" in the car that has an equally annoying jingle that advertises itself as playing "The Music of Your Life." I'll pause here so you can all run to the medicine cabinet to grab the nausea medication of your choice. Personally, I like the pink stuff, but I digress.It's no great secret that World of Warcraft players usually turn off the in-game music within moments of installing the game. Some listen to mp3 players while they play, or perhaps they have a stereo blaring nearby in the background.
But what about the music of your class? What about a class theme song? What do you listen to when you're staring at the big boss at the end of the raid and you want to get your groove on? I posed this question to some paladin friends on another server. Their suggestions for the paladin class were "I Can Go The Distance" sung by Michael Boulton (the theme song from the Disney animated "Hercules") and – more amusingly – the chorus from "The Power" by Snap!
That's just a couple of ideas for one class, but what about the rest? What about races? It's time for you to sound off with your suggestions.
WoW Moviewatch: Lemmings raid Undercity
The music drives me nuts (is it actually from a Lemmings game?), but the video is pretty funny-- somebody took 40 green-haired
Gnome raids are an old tradition by now, but if you've never done one, this is a pretty good approximation of exactly what it's like-- lots of gnomes dying, a huge swarm of little legs and feet. The fire festival part was especially cool, but it's too bad a raid like this can't do anything really amazing-- I doubt they'd ever consider this, but how cool would it be if Blizzard implemented some lower level raids? Something that required like 60 level ones or 40 level 20s would be perfect for fun guilds like this one.
[ via LJ ]
Who made Warcraft's soundtrack?
Perhaps because of the upcoming VGL concert at Blizzcon, Erin over on WoW LJ asks about who wrote the WoW soundtrack and what else they've done. If you've got questions, we've got answers.Most of WoW's original soundtrack was written by Jason Hayes, who's worked with Blizzard since Starcraft. His most famous piece for Blizzard is probably "A Call to Arms," which probably still gets your heart pumping. He also wrote a lot of the original game's ambient music, including the Ironforge theme that we hear all... the... time. Here's a nice Q&A with Hayes, and while Hayes now works with other videogame companies (including NCSoft), he's also working on his own album, called Mosaic.
But of course he's not the only composer working for Blizzard. Glen Stafford (director of the Audio Department) and Tracy Bush also have written a lot of the music for WoW, as have Russel Brower, Derek Duke, and Matt Uelmen (the last three composers put together music for the Burning Crusade expansion, and Uelmen has won awards for his work on Diablo and Diablo II). Here's an interview with just Uelmen, and here's an interview with Stafford, Uelmen, and Hayes all together.
Unfortunately, I couldn't see that anyone but Hayes is working on other projects, unless L70ETC gets picked up by a record label-- while the members of that band are shrouded in mystery (besides lead singer Samwise Didier and Blizz Prez Mike Morhaime), I'd be very surprised if the Blizzard music team didn't have a representative on there.
PTR Notes: New music in the inns of Azeroth
After a player says he thought he'd heard something he'd never heard before on the PTR, Hortus says that yes, there is new music in inns all over the world of Azeroth.Which seems like a strange addition to make, and an even stranger change to leave out of the patch notes. Personally, I have music turned off maybe 90% of the time-- while grinding, I'm usually listening to my own music or watching a movie, and while raiding, I'm listening to my guildies on Teamspeak. While I like the Warcraft music as much as the next guy, I can only hear it so many times before I'm ready for something else.
But I supposed after the next patch comes on, I'll have to flip it back on again and have a listen. You have to wonder why they're spending time implementing new music when there seems like so much else to do, but maybe these are leftovers-- music written for Outland or other new content that Blizzard didn't have anywhere else to put.
WoW Moviewatch: Connections Are More Dangerous Than Lies
This music video by "Dead Workers Party" won 3rd place in the Ataris music video contest, and it's pretty neat for its blending of real acting and machinima. There's quite a bit going on here under the surface, with more than enough innuendo too, revolving around certain fantasies some players have. There's even a surprise ending about their many players' worst bone-chilling fear.
New professions: Music, woodworking, or something else?
Recently we talked about what kind of quest you would make if Blizzard gave you the opportunity, and since reading Tobold's suggestion yesterday about a new woodworking profession, it got me wondering about what new professions would work well with the existing system. Like jewelcrafting, any new profession should cover items or functions in the game that are not currently craftable. I know many people are just dying to have your current profession improved, but think for a moment if you could start over with a clean slate: what kind of profession would you design?
To give you an example to get you thinking, I did some searching and found this suggestion for a music profession which would let players create their own instruments and play their own music -- something I hear Lord of the Rings Online implements very well. (The clip above features a LotRO player using his keyboard to play "Dust in the Wind.") In addition to this, "song-spells" or enchanted instruments of some kind could give a benefit for anyone in range to hear them played, such as a short-term buff or heal-over-time, or else a debuff for enemies within range, such as a short charm or a lullaby. Some have suggested that a "Bard" class would be able to do this, but to me it seems that the "singing" mechanic suits a secondary skillset better than a full-fledged class and also opens it up for more people to learn and use in different ways. What's your opinion?
To give you an example to get you thinking, I did some searching and found this suggestion for a music profession which would let players create their own instruments and play their own music -- something I hear Lord of the Rings Online implements very well. (The clip above features a LotRO player using his keyboard to play "Dust in the Wind.") In addition to this, "song-spells" or enchanted instruments of some kind could give a benefit for anyone in range to hear them played, such as a short-term buff or heal-over-time, or else a debuff for enemies within range, such as a short charm or a lullaby. Some have suggested that a "Bard" class would be able to do this, but to me it seems that the "singing" mechanic suits a secondary skillset better than a full-fledged class and also opens it up for more people to learn and use in different ways. What's your opinion?
39 days until BlizzCon
It's coming up fast. Pretty soon we will all be standing in that huge line wrapping around the Anaheim convention center, buzzing with excitement. The tickets for this year's BlizzCon sold out in only three days, and if you missed your chance, well be sure to enter the WoW Insider ticket giveaway.
We now know a little more about the event than we did ten days ago. For instance, we know that Blizzard will have a playable Starcraft II demo on the convention floor. If the multiplayer is as enjoyable as it was in the original game, I'm going to need to wear some extra comfy shoes to stand in the line to sit down with the game. Blizzard also announced that Video Games Live will be performing selections from the game's soundtrack. And then there's the infamous Murloc Suit. Need I say more? It's going to be a hell of a time.
How do you plan on getting to BlizzCon this year? I've seen some requests for carpools from various points toward Southern Cali, and honestly, I think I will be hitting the road myself in order to arrive in a timely fashion. But maybe the car isn't your thing. Will you instead fly, or perhaps Amtrak it to the convention center? I know from personal experience there's a shuttle from the
Q&A with Jason Hayes
![[Ahh, the music of WoW. Perfect for that romantic night out killing stuff with the one you love.]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.wowinsider.com/media/2007/06/warcraft_music.jpg)
Now I will admit, I tend to alternate between playing the game music and playing my own music, depending on the zone. This is not because I don't like the soundtrack -- far from it. I've actually been known to play the World of Warcraft soundtrack in my car. (You can't imagine how fast you can weed out fellow Warcraft players by playing "Legends of Azeroth" -- or the Login Screen music -- at a stoplight with the windows down. hee!) But love it or hate it, the music of Warcraft has left its mark on our lives, even if it's just the goosebumps we got when we watched the trailer for World of Warcraft the first time and heard the music sweeping along with the images. For those audiophiles who enjoy the music of Warcraft, Gamespot has an excellent interview with Jason Hayes, the man behind the sweeping songscapes in WoW. In this interview set to preface the PLAY! Symphony set to perform in Sydney, Australia from June 19-23, Jason talks about things as varied as his work with WoW, his thoughts on the movement to accept gaming as a legitimate art form, and the technical problems he faces as the composer of gaming soundtracks. He also includes some information about his plans for the future. (Maybe SC2? We can hope!)
All in all, an excellent interview well worth checking out after a weekend of WoW before the work week kicks in. (Or alternately, a great interview to catch up on while having your morning coffee when the work week has already hit.)
[via Gamespot]
BlizzCon will get back to the classics
Blizzard fans can expect to get an earful at their visits to the World Wide Invitational and BlizzCon this year. The classical orchestra Video Games Live will be performing at both live events in and As nifty a backdrop as this will be, particularly for the WWI and
[via Joystiq]
Subscribe
