Guild Wars 2

I know that AN has made a custom playlist option for players to create their own playlist to each zone.
- However, while I think this is an awesome feature, I would really like AN to try and delve deeper into using the music properly themselves. There are a lot of great soundtracks for the Guild Wars Series, and Jeremy Soule is an excellent composer that knows how to make an epic score.
- I have enjoyed Soule’s compositions to The Elder Scrolls, Neverwinter Nights and especially the first Guild Wars game. I found that a lot of the scores for Guild Wars 2 seems to be randomly playing in zones instead of changing to fit the mood in certain places, and this is one of Guild Wars 2’s biggest flaws. Yes, it is, because the music helps to the player’s immersive experience into the game, which is a thing I have been missing a lot in GW2, and I found that the music made a huge contribution to either help or work against this.
- Don’t get me wrong. I love the game and I love the soundtrack. I tried out different tunes for different areas, and found that Soule has composed pieces that fit perfectly for the many environments in Tyria (and Cantha and Elona, if you have played the first game).
- I’m merely a music enthusiast, who would like to see the developers themselves improve on this aspect of the game, so that the players will enjoy their time in Tyria even more.

totally agreed. sounds like there are about 3 music total plus the fight music. i listen to skyrim sound track while i play, makes it much better

I agree, I think a bit of work going through and placing certain tracks in certain areas would help with the immersion. I have the full ost, and I have honestly never heard some of the tracks in game, which is a shame as there some of my Favourites,.

I totally agree too! I think music is the primary immersive tool for games.

This game has really nice music, but the cues for it are a bit off or maybe inexistent? The music is repetitive and really general (you can hear the same theme in a whole variety of maps that have little to do with each other’s ambient feeling).
I’d love if every map had it’s own theme, especially towns/cities! I found the Rata Sum theme on the Asura’s trailer to be perfect for them, and was hoping for it to be the city’s theme…

This game has a LOT of things that make it great, but the lack of map-specific music is disheartening.

If we were to go further into improving the immersion towards the game via music cues, having different music to the towns/camps in maps like Queensdale or Caledon Forest would be the ideal thing to do, but that is a lot more work, I know.

Thank you for all you’ve done so far. You can keep up the good work!

This thread has pretty much echoed my thoughts exactly. GW2 needs much better placement of its music on its maps. If I could make a single change, I would lower the battle music threshold to encounters with one or two mobs. It really is sad when you and 20 other people are fighting a champion at the end of a long DE chain and the music that is playing is the ambient exploration tune.

TLDR: You have great music in GW2. Let it play more frequently and strategically!

I support this thread. GW2 actually has a great music track, but it uses it so poorly that many people (including me) are led to believe it’s worse than it really is. And even if you use the custom playlists, (which are a GREAT idea by the way. You can’t please everyone with a single OST, so why not let people use what suits their own wishes.) the way they are implemented does nothing to fix the problems of why I wanted the original OST swapped in the first place.

1. MASSIVE overuse of certain tracks, particularly the ambience ones. After about the 20th time of hearing a certain melody in queensdale (the one when you visit a vista) I wanted to punch my monitor. This still happens in custom OSTs, with the same track being repeated 2-3 times.

2. Some places that need their own soundtrack cues don’t have them. Notably Orr, which has NO soundtrack at the moment, dungeons, which use the same ambience and battle music as the open world.

3. Battle tracks don’t come on nearly often enough. At least put a slider or something in the audio menu. And no matter how many mobs are involved, turn the battle music on when fighting a champion, possibly a veteran. Having the peaceful ambience going on in the background during my epic fight with an ogre does nothing to reinforce the mood.

4. Crafting playlist doesn’t work at all. Lion’s arch doesn’t trigger City playlist, which is where 90% of players are hanging out anyway. Boss Battle playlist doesn’t shuffle at all.

5. As mentioned earlier in this thread, there’s the same ambience all over the world. Try subdividing the tracks into “Swamp” “Grassland” “Ominous location”, and the such.

6. More playlists for the custom OST feature. “Dungeon” “Dungeon Combat” “Underwater Combat” “Village” “Snow” “Desert” “Underground”, and the three mentioned above would all be welcome, but for now I’d settle for just a few of these.

Personally it feels like all of JS’s music here is part of the same song.
He REALY didn’t bring his A-game here, and it shows. Orr practically has no soundtrack.
All areas in the game suffer from feeling the same, and that is enchanced by the music. There is no such thing as a single tone or theme for an area, and everything seeps to be playing at random!

While A-net nailed certain sound effects (like shooting or walking to sertain surfaces) they completly failed at others, namelly the voice acting (mostly during the story) and the Music!
I didn’t expect Music at the level on of WoW, but I at least expected that fighting in Caledon Forest would have some deferent music than “everywhere”!

IMO Jeremy Soule was a bad pick for Guild Wars 2!
He did a fantastic work with GW1 and other games, but he clearly didn’t take GW2 seriously and he clearly lacks the variety to dress all those deferent races and areas.
For Example: Have you noticed in his other games how he is reconginised for each by a single song, and the rest are just dressings?

Whithout good music, or top tier graphics, a horible launch trailer and no CG trailer or intro It’s no wonder that it didn’t draw the attention of it deserved.

I strongly agree. I just hate same 2-3 tunes in EVERY locations from 1-20, and even further. GW1 had totally immersive soundtrack, Alot darker, dramatic songs. Remember music in the Ascalon after Searing? Literally pulling you behind the screen. I’m so happy if I get some soundtrack from GW1 when playing GW2, thanks god some of the songs still remain and I don’t have to hesr same happy, “too-much-hero” tracks over over and over again.

My exact thoughts, It should be nice to know if the playlist randomizer inside GW2 is working as intended or if there are just some songs with priority.

Surprisingly.
Diessa Plateau seems to have int’s own theme an soundtrack. And it is awesome! And it actually stands out!
Why didn’t more areas got the same treatment?

Kite.2510:

Personally it feels like all of JS’s music here is part of the same song.
He REALY didn’t bring his A-game here, and it shows. Orr practically has no soundtrack.

I don’t fully agree with you there, and I shall tell you why.
- I tried out some of the different tunes of the soundtrack, that i found on the GW2OST youtube page, at different locations, and I made my experience in different zones a lot more epic.

- I feel that Orr would do well with its own soundtrack. The currently used soundtracks that I hear are some of the Original GW’s, whereas in the first game they are playing in Cantha around the Echovald Forest. I had hoped for better than that in GW2.

Must say “Fear Not this Night” is awesome, but other than that there are very very few memorable themes which is a pity.

Compare it to say Wizardry Online. I’m actually thinking of buying the soundtrack to that game because it’s so epic. Mabinogi is another one with good tunes – sure not as grand and sweeping (though some are) but very memorable and right away can be associated to a place.

Could have done a lot more here ANet.

Can´t agree more with OP.

Who wants to watch some awesome action movie without the music that gives it the epicness?

Hans Zimmer
Brunuhville
Two Steps from Hell
Youtube composers who are waiting for their music to be heard in a movie or game!

I too agree with OP.
I thought Gw2 music was good when I first played, but it became nonexistent after a while because they seem to be the same thing, on every map. Music, for me, adds onto the memorability and nostalgia of places in a game; and i’m sure other players would agree.
There needs to be some diversity, meaning a piece of music belonging and matching for each map.
Sure, the character select music produces an emphatic tune, preparing me to dive into the game, but once it gets into the world, my excitement for the music dies and I don’t feel that I’m part of the world.
Sorry for the necro? I’m not sure if there are necro rules—I hope not.

I totally agree with this!
I’ve replied to a several similar posts about this and all I can say is that game really lacks different tracks…
Every area sounds almost the same…some tracks even get messed up…
When in Divinity’s Reach, I hear Maguuma Jungle music playing…
Ascalonian music…oh God…during the day, it’s soooooo cheerful it drives me insane! “Hero’s Canton” I believe the name of the track is…and it’s playing non-stop…
I set my music interval to ’’longest’’ and all I can say is that it’s a lot better…
I would really like to hear more tracks such as:
The Tengu Wall,
Lornar’s Pass,
Fallen Comrades,
Straits of Devastation,
A Land Restored,
Out of the Dream…
In my opinion, these tracks are beautiful! I honestly hope that JS composes more tracks such as these and less ’’heroic’’/’’loud’’ tracks…
Music like this would affect the atmosphere of certain areas and give that nostalgic feeling.
During the night-time in Ascalon, whenever I hear “A Land Restored” I get goosebumps.
Custom playlist is not a solution…when I play GW2 I want to enjoy its music…not music from other games.
I would also like if we could disable combat music…Combat music is really great when fighting Dragons or other large World Bosses…though when fighting normal mobs, it’s just annoying…

EDIT:
And just to add, the new track we got for Southsun Cove is great! It just makes me want to stand there, listen and look at geysers…
It’s a shame that Krytan music, as well as Echovald Forest music play there too…wish we had more unique tracks for this zone.

I’m afraid they won’t make new music for old areas because they can’t get money from it. Which is a shame.

It would be nice if they ever made a simple ingame playlist editor with GW2 AND GW1 music. Not a perfect solution to the problem but it’d do the job for a moment.

Mathog.3157:

I’m afraid they won’t make new music for old areas because they can’t get money from it. Which is a shame.

It would be nice if they ever made a simple ingame playlist editor with GW2 AND GW1 music. Not a perfect solution to the problem but it’d do the job for a moment.

The only place that needs it’s own music is Orr, really. At least that I can think of right now. The rest can be done with the OST from GW1 and 2.