Gaming and Music

[Forlorn Drifter]

So, we know for a fact that everyone here is a videogame fan. And I imagine a large amount of us are music fans. So, how many of us listen to music while gaming?

I personally love videogame music, but I'll admit it can be grating to repeatedly hear the same music after a while. Listening to the same music from a level you can't beat, or hearing the seasonal music in Harvest Moon (tell me I'm not the only one who has that haunt their dreams) just takes it out of you after a while. What do you listen to? Do you try and match the music to the game? Just put the Ipod on shuffle?

I try to match the music to the game, but my musical tastes sometimes leave me at a loss as to what would match up with my game. This leads to odd combinations, like listening to Hank Williams while playing Mega Man.

[o.pwuaioc]

I only listen to music in game. Perhaps on rare exception games with bad music I may turn down, but in general I find extra-game music distracting to playing.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I almost never mute the TV to play "other" music while gaming. I'd rather hear the game music.

There are a couple of exceptions. If I'm playing a really "grindy" RPG I get sick of hearing the overworld-to-battle music transitions over and over - it gets pretty grating. In that case I'll turn down the volume and toss on a CD.

Also, I do play a decent amount of old computer RPGs that don't have any music. When I play those, I crank some "dungeon synth" stuff - something like this or this.

[CavZee]

Aside from game music I really can't say I have any interest in music at all. I listen to the radio while I'm driving but that's about it. I guess that makes me kinda weird and...super nerdy?

[Forlorn Drifter]

Aside from game music I really can't say I have any interest in music at all. I listen to the radio while I'm driving but that's about it. I guess that makes me kinda weird and...super nerdy?

Honestly wouldn't say that is nerdy. As of late, I've become a pretty big music nerd. Its something you realize when you are up at 4 in the morning trying to find a record from a one and done Jesus-freak sixties rock band from California.

Another thing, for me, is I think something along the lines of "epic doom metal" (don't even get me started on some of these genres) just feels so right when I'm playing various Dark Fantasy RPG's and such.

[Hazerd]

http://ocremix.org/

My Winamp playlist consists of music mostly from here, they even have full albums of remixed music, all for free and original!

Here's all their albums:

http://ocremix.org/albums/?&offset=0&sort=releasedesc

[SteveyMajors]

If my fiance is doing something in the room and doesn't feel like listening to game music, we'll put on a CD. I've been playing a lot of Phantasy Star Online and I can imagine that the music gets irritating if you're not playing the game.

[hashiriya1]

Usually 'shmup' music is too techno-y (read: annoying) for my taste, so I play much better if I mute the TV and add my own soundtrack. I only do this if I am playing for score and have to concentrate extra hard on the game.

[Valkyrie-Favor]

If a game has boring music, I'll often substitute my own. I do this especially in sports, racing, and shooting games where the music is either licensed pop, or generic stuff without any thought put into it.

If it's a game with music like Soulcalibur or Valkyrie Profile, you bet I'll be blasting it.

[MyNameIsVince]

I used to do that occasionally, back in the day. However I didn't do it because the video game music sucked, but because I wanted to experience a certain section of a video game more....epically? I didn't have speakers so I would just use a walkman with headphones while my tv was muted so I can play the game but enjoy the music I wanted to.

Now I don't, because I find any noise other than the video game sounds and music coming out of my tv to be a real distraction to my playing. I can barely concentrate if I'm on the phone while playing a game at the same time.