I’ve got a point I wanted to discuss about, and that is the music in BRINK.
Well, I’m not really a great philosophic or psychologic expert in music, but I’ve heard a lot of game-soundtracks, and trust me, I know what I’m talking about. What I’ve seen so far from BRINK makes me really exited for it. The newest features are of course the SMART-System and the Customizations…
BUT, what use has a new feature for me if I don’t wanna use it. I know, this sounds a bit off, but think about it. Every time You’ve seen a trailer of BRINK, You could hear some kind of music that underlines the feeling of freedom, of exitement, of justice, of riot, of revolution, of pride, of … whatever feeling you get when you’re really motivated to fight for your own reasons.
Now, there is a thing that did bother me about the feeling on the Arc. Well, the Arc was originally constructed as a haven for the rest of the population after the icecaps melt and the world gets overflown. But that was a bit too late. Now, when the Arc was supposed to have about 5000 people, it has 50000 (I think). So at this state they’re running out of food, the’re running out of water, they’re running out of aid, they’re running out of enrrgy, of nearly everything they need to survive.
As a rebell, you’re fighting for the good of the refugees on the Arc, because you want a share from the goods of the Security and the “invited” population for a just survival chance of everyone. As a security man you’re fighting for the order, for the survival of at least a smaller group. They’re thinking more forward, that even if they would share their good with the rebells, at some point there won’t be anything to share, an the riots start again. But then, everything will start to kill everything. That’s why the Security is holding them off. I’m nor praising any side, because both of them are right in their own way, but that is the point that bothers me. When you’re fighting on one side you don’t get any kind of information from outside the battlefield. You don’t get the feeling for the refugees, whose life is marked with poverty and hunger. And you don’t get a feeling for the upper class, that is afraid of beeing overrun or … whatsoever. And that’s where the music comes in place. Why music and not just some scripts? Because a script is shown every time in single- and multiplayer, again and again. But music has the ability to mark a good image for the enviroment. You’ll get more trusted with it and it makes you play for a much longer time than you think.
As experiment, if you don’t believe me (also for the studio): Try to watch a movie (for example Avatar) or try to play game (for example Mirror’s Edge) with both an amazing soundtrack. BUT, try it the first time without any kind of music and then watch/play the same scene agin and turn the music on again. I promise that you’ll get a completely different experience from the scene. Now, I know it would be extremly hard for the studio to create a good in-game soundtrack in this short time, but it would be even enough, if the the songs are about 8 minutes long, and when the scene, the number of players, the heat of the battle change, the soundtrack changes too. I promise you with MY LIFE, that it will work out.
So, that’s about it…
Stay SMART, and goodbye.
MUSIC in BRINK
I always turn music off, I’d rather hear game sounds… footsteps, VOIP, in-game voice chatter etc. Personal preference obviously, but any music in a game gets instantly disabled when I load up.
[QUOTE=Soul93;275989]Why music and not just some scripts? Because a script is shown every time in single- and multiplayer, again and again. But music has the ability to mark a good image for the enviroment. You’ll get more trusted with it and it makes you play for a much longer time than you think.
As experiment, if you don’t believe me (also for the studio): Try to watch a movie (for example Avatar) or try to play game (for example Mirror’s Edge) with both an amazing soundtrack. BUT, try it the first time without any kind of music and then watch/play the same scene agin and turn the music on again. I promise that you’ll get a completely different experience from the scene. Now, I know it would be extremly hard for the studio to create a good in-game soundtrack in this short time, but it would be even enough, if the the songs are about 8 minutes long, and when the scene, the number of players, the heat of the battle change, the soundtrack changes too.[/QUOTE]
You really struggle with writing completing a thought. My understanding from those 2000 words was that you think the music should play as segments scripted based on the active event rather than as a solid score. That’s actually how most video games are done. Even Baldur’s Gate from 1999 did that. If you want to know more about psychology, your second sentence indicates you need to be aware of this article.
Most people are going to play Brink for 4 hours, get the hang of it, go online and turn the music off for good. It’s the kind of game where sound location matters and music will only hamper efficiency.
Music is key in immersive singleplayer games, in multiplayer I always turn it off instantly like DAUK, I’d rather hear enemies.
SP is more like the movie you mentioned.
Moves stealthily to the back of a container, staying silent while listening to hear how many footsteps are audiable to get an indication for the number of enemies ORCHESTRA PLAYS *Oh ***! theres a whole army of musical soldiers!!! RUNS
The only music I need is the stuff I play in the background from my collection. Gotta love some pendulum for killing. 
The only music I need is the sound of my opponent’s brittle bones breaking as I crush his lifeless corpse beneath my heel and take aim at the next lucky winner.
All PC and console games should have a Justin Bieber soundtrack. This is a natural fact.
There’s music in L4D? If so I’ve never consciously noticed it - and I don’t count the few bars of sound when a SI is spawned as “music”, it’s a sound effect.
The only music I know of is in L4D2 and comes from the jukeboxes or the sound stage at the end of Dark Carnival.
The tank and finale? In L4D they made good ambient music which happens to also give a slight warning to what’s next. That’s only fair since spawns are dynamic. The best I think is for when you know the tank is in chase mode and there’s a horde coming. The specials already have their own grunt noises.