Guild Wars 2

The composers at Arenanet have outdone themselves. The music is fantastic on its own and goes well with the environment and story. I recently saw “The Living Soundtrack” video on Guild Wars 2’s official youtube channel. I’m glad to see that Arenanet is taking the music seriously and recording it live. Music is an essential, yet sometimes overlooked part of any video game. I hope Arenanet is able to continue producing such quality work.

I’m glad you are reading here Mr Maclaine Diemer.

I am not happy with everything that is happening to GW2 and more particularly with everything that is not happening but I have to say that those tracks are indeed beautiful.

I will not lie here : I find you did a better job here than most of what Jeremy Soule did for this game. I am very happy to know that you are composing for GW2 and will be waiting for your new tracks with great interest

Respectful cheers from France sir

Will we be getting a chance to download the music during the battle against the Shadow of the Dragon, Maclaine?

Maclaine Diemer.7693:

Thank you, Sebalon. There will be more new music in the future, so keep your ears open.

Hey Maclaine, in general I like the songs of Guild Wars 2, however I don’t feel as excited as in other games I’ve ever played (Lineage II), Miss Joy, that could be embedded in modern history? Because we must remember that the climate is not the best …

Thanks Maclaine! Would be awesome to be able to add those tracks to my personal playlist too.

I really like the LS2 music as well. Fits each episode very well, atmospheric with memorable melodies. Keep up the good work!

Bumping it up. “Meeting the Asura” and “The Nightmare Court” are fabulous.

Wish you guys updated the playlists in old areas, too.

And battle music, but that was mentioned many times.

I don’t know if you’re familiar with “Syberia” games, Macaline, but music from Episode 7 kind of reminds me of those series and it’s touching in particular!

Will we be able to download the music or purchasing them?

Is there a chance that you add more music variety to the old world?
There are many zone that could greatly benefit from some “musical enhancements”.

I was searching for a thread regarding the music before I created my own because I just picked up Living story part one to start off from the beginning and the music is amazing. It gets you right in the feels!
I don’t know the song names particularly but the music box-like symphony is my favorite. As a video game music fan, I must say the symphonies for this living story are touching. Great job!

Gaile Gray.6029:

Kite.2510:

Is there a chance that you add more music variety to the old world?
There are many zone that could greatly benefit from some “musical enhancements”.

Kite — it might be helpful if you could give specific areas that you feel would benefit? I’m not sure where the “old world” would be in reference to your post.

Thank you.

I dont know about Kite, but what the “old world” could mean is the content released with the game, Areas and story parts in the open world and PS. Music-wise there are some parts that could be improved.

For me, its the common combat music. Some tracks originally used feel too repetitive and unassuming. It doesnt provide any inspiration or mood for the fight, they feel more like just additional rythmic noise to go with the sounds of clashing weapons.
Examples (names by a youtube playlist
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9u7rbRjJmqD_qh-WXX7zSftvxOL5nUhI):

• Battle with the Tamini
• Legion of Flames
• Blighted Battleground
• Rytlock
• Caithe’s Daggers
• The Grand Gamble
• The Pact

Hearing the above list play for 98% of the battles since release made me get my own selected battle musics into the game. Unfortunately i learned that this messes up the new (exceptionally good) music in most of the LS instances and boss-fights too. I almost missed hearing the Breachmaker and the Twisted Marionette themes in the game with the epic battles they were written for because of this.

The other original battle-themed tracks are awesome and epic, like Issgramor or Raven speaks or Here be Dragons. Those are good, and they play on epic encounters. I guess maybe thats half the point, further enhancing the mood of these bigger encounters with better music, but sadly those are too rare if we dont look for them specificly.

Expanding the selection of tracks playing during common (not area- or story-dependent) battle situations would be nice. My personal list has like 30+ tracks from selected games or trailer music. It rarely gets old or repetitive. That 7 tracks… they got repetitive after 3 months.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Kite.2510:

Is there a chance that you add more music variety to the old world?
There are many zone that could greatly benefit from some “musical enhancements”.

Kite — it might be helpful if you could give specific areas that you feel would benefit? I’m not sure where the “old world” would be in reference to your post.

Thank you.

For starters!
Make the currently playing music stop when you zone to another area or instance. If you want to play a specific music in an area to built atmosphere, don’t wait until the last track ends to play it.
I want to believe that this is a bug and wasn’t on purpose.
Most of my bellow suggestions might have already be implemented, and I hadn’t noticed it because of this.

The biggest problem with the music is that it isn’t very memorable, and the reason I believe for that, is that it plays through the entire continent (not just zones) non stop, the same 2-3 simple tracks. Almost all MMOs are doing it, but they have ways to break the ice.
Lets take WoW for instance… Each zone there has a theme of 4-5 short tracks that loop in random order. Yet they break the ice with various tricks.

1. When you go to a village or an inn in the area the music changes to a “town theme” or a “Tavern theme”.
2. When you go to an area of the map where something weird/different is happening, the music changes (caves, hunted houses, mysterious altars, corrupted lands, enemy bases). They made specific mini tracks for that.
3. A theme stays on a single map. Rarely they recycle it for more than one map.
4. Themes stand out. You’ll never confuse the Ashenvale forest music for Elwynn Forest despite both being foresty areas. However it is possible to swap the Maguma jungle Music with parts of Kryta music, and people not figuring out that something is wrong, especially since that is already happening because of the above bug.
5. Capital Cities have always VERY distinct music. The kind you could sing after only hearing it a few times. Since players Visit the Capital cities as ofen as they visit a random inn, it’s a good opportunity to add some unique music there.
6. Maps are small! They might just feel smaller because of the existence of Mounts, but once you gain a few levels you are sure to move on on another map.

The reason the new area music have been liked so much I believe is because:

• The music is very different from JS, and that makes it slightly more memorable than the generic epic music he wrote for the game.
• It leaves an impression of “mystery” and “unknown”, which is fresh compare to the music someone would expect from a desert canion area. Also it’s mysterious theme can also double as “the theme of Modremoth”.
• It’s New.
• In silver wastes, for the majority of the map, you are facing an army of enemies, initiating the “combat” music kicks in and unintentionally creates the said break that I mentioned above.
• There is much more variety in the living story music as well, making attempts to use the music to enhance a scene rather than just letting it play.

To be continue in the next post

What I would suggest:

1. Write a theme for each race and faction! There have been some attempts for it in the launch race trailer, but you can hardly distinguish the tracks from each other, as all follow the same epic style.
   Here is a hint on how to make a theme memorable, so when someone hears a few notes, he can immediately remember that this is the theme of the Norn, or the Pact, ect.
2. Make the music in each Capital play each race’s theme in a strong and memorable way, and on the camp’s of the various races, make it play a simpler version of it or other music of the same style. Some nice tavern music for Norn inns. Some Magical and mysterious for Sylvari camps.
   When was the last time you remembered the current theme of Hoelbrak?
   Also make sure that each race’s music has a completely different style. Use Dark Celtic Music for the Norn, and modify the music of Divinity’s Reach to be stronger (perhaps with some vocals) and to include a strong but simple (hum-able) theme. Treat similarly the rest of the Capitals.
3. Then make a weaker less epic version of those musics for important towns of those races: a sinister faster version for combat event’s in each race’s area, a festive version for gathering event’s in each race’s area. Make the last two uninteruptable by the generic multiple enemy combat music.
   That way, whenever you hear a faction’s theme, you’ll immediately think of them.
4. Then make some “Cave” music. Some “Fort” music. Some theme for non friendly factions.

All those will offer some nice variety to the music you hear to each map.
It IS however a lot to ask for…
I’m not expecting to see these changes before an expansion, but for the time being, please write some Town, Fort/Base and Cave music along with some “Combat Event” music to break the ice…. And fix that bug!