Ever see a photo (or been to) a place where nerdom is the norm such as Dreamhack where there are 15,000 people all networked in one space? Well, besides the fact that you’ve got a billion people around you – it creates noise, a lot of noise so everyone wears a headset. Not only that, to be immersed in a game you need to hear what is going on. (Or hide from an angry spouse or sleeping baby.)
Okay – so you don’t need to know the intro music as the game is loading. (But dear Gods to this day I can still hum the opening music to Dark Age of Camelot – it was this calming effect before the storm of PvP and drama – oh and possible and old system that takes forever to load…anyways) but sometimes it is beautiful. There is a background ambient noise when you login for the first time, back in the early days you couldn’t change it and were stuck with it – or you got lucky and there was a mute button! Now you can choose how ambient you want the ambient noise, right down to the NPC Merchants who are trying to sell you their wares.
The actions of your weapon of choice, whether it is a light saber or a sword, if you are trying to kill something, think how boring it would be without any sound? No whoosh, no ka-thunk. Face it, we don’t even notice the sounds unless they are annoying. But try playing without it and you get a whole new experience.
The point I’m trying to make is, that sound is often neglected…you don’t hear the phrase “Oh man, the game sucked but the sound effects rocked!” too often. While it’s personal taste as to whether someone listens to the theme song of any game they play, it is offered because if done right, many people will listen to it even if they don’t notice and the game won’t “feel” the same without it.
Don’t neglect the less obvious this my friends, you would be surprised how much it creates your experience.
Oh and maybe I shouldn’t write things in the morning, but day 3 and I am true to my blogging word so there!
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