Guild Wars 2

So…. Not sure if this is the right area to be posting this but I’ll throw it out there.

I feel bored in the world when I do nothing. Does that make sense? No? Hmmm. How about this. I find myself with the game sound muted listening to Spotify, Netflix, or the daily Youtube video. I don’t have fun now just sitting in Divinity’s or Lion’s Arch listening to the fountains, or chatter of the crowds, or the occasional level up of the person next to me. (Ok, I agree, the person tome leveling at the bank can get annoying)

What I’m trying to say is there’s not enough ambient sounds playing in my opinion. The music doesn’t seem to loop enough either. I LOVE GuildWars2’s soundtrack. It’s these sounds when I have my headset on that really pull me into Tyria; at least that’s what happened in GuildWars 1.

Guild Wars 1 had in my opinion the best ambient sounds I have ever heard (here’s the kick) in any MMO. The sound of people turning in quests OHHH how much of a nostalgia kitten I have there. I can just remember the amount of time I’ve sat in KC just listening to the crowd chatter of the market place watching or talking in chat.

I finally just broke today when I was sitting at the log in screen of Guild Wars 2 bored out of my mind trying to figure out what I wanted to do in between Class Finals study sessions. Then I realized, the in game music wasn’t looping.

Simply put (in my opinion): In game music should be on a quicker loop, more of those adventurous pieces should also play in zones, and either ambient sounds need to be turned up, multiplied, or added to.

Thank you to anyone who replies in advance. I’d love to hear other’s opinions on if I’m crazy about this or not.

A lot of my time spent playing these days is with the in-game music muted and some playlist running through Winamp or Spotify instead. It really depends on what I’m doing, of course. If I’m going through Living World story instances or other HoT-related content, I’m more likely to turn the in-game music back on simply because there’s more diversity with the new music introduced with HoT.

I’ll be honest, while I really do love the music in GW2, as with any other MMO (or really any game you’ve spent hundreds or thousands of hours playing), hearing the same 20 or so tracks playing on repeat can become very tedious. The same could be said for listening to the same album by your favorite artist on repeat for days at a time. At a certain point, you can’t listen to that album anymore because you’ve worn yourself out on it.

That being said, I do love the music in GW2. I especially love that HoT brought us new tracks to listen to, and even new ambient music in some areas too (like the little band that plays at a waypoint in VB, for example, or the band that plays in the new LA occasionally).

I think the music in this game is already pretty diverse. There are a lot of tracks, but one “problem,” so to speak, is something you’ll encounter if you play the same content repeatedly. If you hang out in a specific city all the time, you’re bound to get sick of the track that plays in that city simply because you spend so much time there. I’d love to see more music added to the game that supplements core Tyria maps. I don’t really want to see a ton of ambient sounds added to the game everywhere, as (in my opinion) this would make the world a bit too loud when you factor in player and NPC movement or dialogue/voiceover sounds, combat sounds, mini sounds, etc.

tl;dr: No matter how many music tracks a game has, if you play it long enough you’ll get tired of hearing them on a loop eventually. /yes to more music, /no to more ambient sounds. (in my opinion, of course!)

Cody Crichton.7516:

Seems to me like you’re mostly after music playing more often than not and that the silence between tracks is bumming you out. In the sound options panel [F11] there’s a slider toward the bottom called Music Interval. Crank this bad boy all the way to the left and you’ll have less silence in between musical tracks. Is that helpful at all?

If that’s no good and you’d just like more options for music in areas of the game, custom playlists might be your savior. Check out this page here for a run-down on how to set it up:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Customized_soundtrack

If you’ve got the GW2 soundtrack files, you can change up the game’s score to a certain extent. Fill the cities up with your favorite tunes if that’s your thing.

Cheers!

I have my length between music set to the minimum meaning there should be no gap in theory. However in some places I (can’t think of them off the top of my head as I mostly have music off now days) when I do have music on there can be periods of up to 5 mins of no music!

To the ambient sounds, for me they seemed bugged at the moment as the volume slider seems to not work after a few seconds, I have made a post about it in the bugs section.

Back to the music. I love all the new music (HOT maps and LA) but sadly now besides the music on the char select screen I just don’t like it anymore, well most of it anyway. Especially the GW1 music, it just seems out of place and out dated now. Don’t get me wrong Jeremy whoever was great and did great work back then, but today in the GW2 environment it just seems out of place to me. I suggest giving the current music designer (of the HOT maps and LA) a pay rise and get him to create some new, up to date music for central Tyria, music that pumps you up and matches the excitement of the game. Don’t even get me started on the music for Divinity’s Reach, it’s the most boring music ever and I probably pick up on that since that is the city where I spend the most of my time. But seriously, that has to go lol!

For me, the music of Guild Wars (One) is some of my favorites, as it reminds me of play-gone-past. Please don’t remove it; I love Maclaine and Lena’s music, but there’s something about being reminded of what we did 250 years ago, as well.

Thank you in advance. =)

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

For me, the music of Guild Wars (One) is some of my favorites, as it reminds me of play-gone-past. Please don’t remove it; I love Maclaine and Lena’s music, but there’s something about being reminded of what we did 250 years ago, as well.

Thank you in advance. =)

It would be nice if they gave us some more options in the music settings. In another game I used to play they let you open the music list and even select which track played right then and there. Added to that was a check box next to every single song so you could choose which to play in the rotation and turn off those that you really dislike.

Something like that could go a LONG way here for QOL.

It is actually good that there are breaks between music even if you set the slider to the minimum, as a form of “palette cleanser”. Music playing constantly can tire you out and eventually lose the effect.

I would also agree that there was something magical about ambient sounds in GW1 as well, or it might be nostalgia talking – but I what I really miss the most are the sounds of Cantha. Notably the Kurzick forests and the Jade sea, and the busting main city even the peaceful zen starting island – the whole Factions expansion there was really something special both visually and in it’s soundscapes, I keep having nostalgia fantasies about it, it left good memories.

Sometimes turning off the music and having more ambient sounds can be good for immersion. For example, wandering through the jungle with more sounds of birds, roars, and general background, can really enhance the setting.

I remember when I reached Gondor in Lotro and the glow of Mt Doom was visible on the horizon. The intense thunder and lightning, combined with an eerie silence made it far more immersive than playing obtrusive music.

Not that GW2 music is bad, in fact the newer music since Dry Top has been exceptional and more appropriate to the maps than Soules stuff. But, sometimes you can enhance a setting equally with amplified sounds of nature and weather just as much.

You know you’re either 1). addicted to the game or 2.) really appreciate the music when you find yourself humming the theme song or other in-game music at work. Like others have posted, I’m nostalgic for the GW1 music and still find myself humming it. I agree with the OP – the GW2 music has been so good that more would be better. The only issue I have, personally, is that LA’s music seems loud. Maybe it’s just the anthem nature of the music or maybe the sound level is set too high for that one piece. That’s the only time I find myself muting the music.

I turn the music off in ANY game except for DooM and DooM II because I love FM Synthesis. But else, I turn it down. Borderlands, the radio in GTA, FF14, GW2…

I use to sit often on a bench near a preserve area in my hometown and I enjoy the silence and only have natural sounds of nearby crickets and the wind moving the trees. There is no music. Why should be music in video games? It kills my immersion in that matter.

The first time I enjoyed the atmosphere in a video game was in Splinter Cell 3 in the Hokkaido level. At the sunset, having the frogs making sounds while the wind can be heard and a TV inside the building and reverbed footsteps from inside a concrete building of the NPC. From that time on I turned off the music in all games.

GW2 has also great ambient sound. The deep drones inside caves and the well-known sounds in the corresponding areas give a lot of immersion. I think there should be more effects, too. As in: More layers. But else, I don’t even know how the music in this game sounds, except for that tree level of the plant people – it simply starts playing when coming close and stops when getting a distance.

Shortly after beginning any new game I turn off the music, regardless of how good it is. I get enough stimuli from the rest of the sounds – which I also play at low volume. Not to mention the explosion of action that comes at me in this game.

Sometimes I will have music or a baseball game playing while in GW, but not often.

I have unfortunately turned all sound off. Too many squeaky toys, jack in the boxes, and the general cacophony of effect sounds on everything. And the Backpack O Tron. Shudder.

I just plug in 7 hours of GW1 Anthology.