Guild Wars 2

Hey.

So i’ve been playing this game for a while now, and unless i’m just not paying enough attention, i’ve noticed there seems to be a lack of zone music.

By zone music i mean soundtracks that are unique to a certain zone. For example: in GW Factions; Shing Jea island, Kaineng City, Echovald Forest and the Jade Sea each had their own unique soundtracks that only played in those zones. In GW2, it seems like it’s mostly the same music across all the zones. If i remember right, Orr has some unique music, but there’s also the same music like i’ve heard everywhere else.

Some might ask, why is this so important? Well for me it is, because i think zone music does a great job in immersing yourself into that zone. In GW Factions, you knew you were in Shing Jea Island because of the music, you knew when you played in Kaineng City because of the music, or the Jade Sea, etc etc… Right now in GW2, i never really feel much difference when i go into a new zone because it’s always the same music playing.

I’m not complaining about the music itself, because i love it, i just wish each zone had it’s own unique soundtrack.

I know it’s probably too late to change this in the current game, but maybe you could try this out in future expansions?

I was just thinking about this earlier and intended to post about it. You’re right, there doesn’t seem to be any unique music for specific locales in game — at least I haven’t noticed any either, so it’d have to be pretty forgettable music for us to both be wrong. The music in the game is good, sure, but I feel the same way you do about tying certain pieces to certain locations. I will probably always remember certain pieces of WoW’s musical score because they would trigger every time you enter the capital cities, creating a complete, far more memorable audio/visual experience. So far, the only piece of music I could probably remember from GW2 is the music that plays at character selection.

The in-game music is designed around a categorized system. Music is dynamically selected from playlists within 7 categories which you can actually customize as well. These are self explanatory, Battle, Boss, City, Ambient, mainmenu, nighttime, and underwater. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Customized_soundtrack

The system you speak of is much better in my opinion, and awhile ago I posted a suggestion topic asking for per zone soundtracks! Keeping the current dynamic system mostly intact.

Yep to this. I posted something along these lines a couple weeks ago. Would love to see music tied to zones. WoW nailed that combo… will always remember that sort of parched, dry feeling I got walking from Elwynn Forest into Westfall for the first time, and that feeling was all down to the music.

Anyway great game but zoning atmosphere could do with a good kick in the right direction here.

Yeah, I hope they’ll do better with a possible Cantha expansion.

Hearing Ashford Abbey after spending 10-15 minutes in a zone was the musical highlight of GW2 for me. It’s one of the most iconic Guild Wars track:

I agree with you Skaan. There is still music I specifically associate with the Crystal Desert and I’ve noticed they are still using some of the Fire Island soundtrack in the Charr areas. Every time I hear it I remember those hydras and the missions I did there. Jeremy Soule composed such a fabulous soundtrack for GW2, but lately I don’t feel like I’m hearing a lot of the music playing.

About Orr….I don’t know if it’s just me, but I don’t hear any music in those regions aside from the instances for our PS. I hear the noise of all the catapults, cannons, etc. and what sounds like seagulls, but no music. I don’t know if they wanted to create a “dead feeling” and so didn’t want to have music for this area. If other people are hearing music, then maybe it’s just bugged for me. Anyway, I hope as the servers settle down and everything is more stable, they’ll be able to include more zone specific music especially in Orr.

Absolutely agree, definitely big dissapointment for me, because I am huge fan of the music themes

Since the game has already been released, and I doubt that they would add or change the musical score of the game, I believe adding in additional custom playlist options that can be triggered by specific areas would be great. I hope that wouldn’t be asking too much of the devs.

I would say possibly add a playlist option for every major area or major city. This would probably be a lot. Considering that we may not be able to fill every city and area with a good song, the music could default to whatever playlist would normally play for the area.