Please do something about the town music

On September 29, as part of a large update, a change was made in the in-game music. This change was listed simply as: Expanded in-game music.

What this change did exactly was as follows:

- towns/outposts play 4 different tracks instead of just one
- all towns/outposts play the same 4 tracks
- some music only heard in towns have been removed (LA)
- all other areas seem unchanged

Of the 4 tracks you can hear in the towns, 2 were not previously heard in GW (that I know of). That is a good thing. The bad thing is that it's the same 4 in every town. The change was made across the board with no thought given to the mood of each area. Equally bad is that some music that was unique to certain towns, like LA, is no longer heard at all.

Let me add that I love the music in GW - some of the pieces are really well done (the 2 Ring of Fire tracks especially come to mind). It's of higher quality than most recent games I have played. It sets the mood and makes me want to listen to the game's music rather than my own.

But, this change was really bad. I posted about this before in another thread: http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=65845 and it seemed like many agreed with me. Gaile Gray responded:

Sounded fine, until I realized that I can't get any change unless I spend money on the new DirectSong music pack. Something I might consider doing - as I appreciate the quality of the music in GW, it really is a step above most online games - but not after this poor implementation of "expanded music". The mood is totally lost in many places now. You hear the same music in Ascalon, LA, Droknar's, Ember Light, Amnoon, War Camp, and on and on... the same 4 tracks over and over. It becomes extremely repetitive. I have started to turn the music off in the towns now, something I thought I would never do. Am I going to have the same feeling after buying the music pack? Who really knows now?

So please ANet, change the town/outpost music back to the way it was, to reflect the area that each is in. Make us want to keep the music on again (and buy more) rather than turn it off...

A simple jukebox function would be an amazing addition.
Select the continental zone, maguuma for example and tick the boxes next to the tracks you would like to hear while in that zone.

Another option would be to allow the downloading of the available music so we can use them in media player or whatever. This method is rather lame and tacky though because it wouldn't be synchronised with zoning/changing location.

I agree that the music needs change desperately.

I disabled music ingame and just listen to winamp shoutcast techno/trance mixes...

The entire game has about 40 tracks of music... so don't expect a great deal of change

I agree, why change what wasn't broken? It was awesome hearing that epic sounding music in the shiverpeaks/camp deldrimor but for some reason it got patched to play all over the place as well? The music is a rather epic "cold" piece and fits the shiverpeaks fine but it's SO out of place in the desert areas. That's just one example! Please put things back how they were beforehand with music that actually fit the areas...

Gaile said that Anet's doing something about it. I don't think she said exactly what they're doing though.

Straight up. I used to let the music play all the time, now I hate it. I'm sick to death of hearing the same 4 tracks over and over. The system before, where you heard different (but the same for that town) tracks in different towns was the best. Cuz you got a feeling and mood for that area, AND more importantly the music usually fell in synch with where you were in the storyline.

Now it's all fuct up. I hate it. I used to like traveling around to different parts of Tyria just to listen to differen music as I saw fit, it was a way afterall of controlling your play list. Now that's been removed and we randomly get 1 of 4 of the same songs.

Change it Back Anet

Something like that would be ideal, although I'd settle for just changing it back to the way it was until something better could be implemented.

I agree, the sense of mood is flat out lost now in many places. A few of the town musics now are upbeat tracks that just don't work at all in places like Ring of Fire, Crystal Desert, Ascalon, etc... please, please change it back ANet!

They have music in towns? Had no idea...from the sound of things, perhaps I'll just keep the music volume all the way down, as it already is.

I recently turned the music option all the way off, and listen to my xfire player instead... then it will play what I want, not what the game wants. and Xfire will control the play-list so its easy to change without alt tabbing out of game...

What Gaile said in the other thread (linked in the first post) was that DirectSong, not ANet, was doing something about it - which means we have to pay to get any changes, and that is not an acceptable solution to me. That is like saying, "Well, we made your music more repetitive, and even removed some tracks that were previously there; but you can fix it by buying more music!"

But, if you can point out where Gaile said something different, I would appreciate it.

That's not neccisarily true. It could be a free install pack like the SF music was.

I assumed that the SF pack, like the SF update itself, was free only to give us a taste, and that all future updates (including music packs) would be paid updates.

But besides that... I'm not asking for a handout by any means. I (and many others) would settle for the town and outpost music to simply be changed back to the way it was.

This is a change that might have made sense on paper, but was very poorly implemented and has actually restricted the in-game music rather than expand it as intended.

I've never heard the music for Ember Light Camp. In fact, I don't think I've heard any of the original music for the southern Shiverpeak area, except what they use as the 4. Maybe I have, I kinda forget where I was when they did the update. But I'm definately missing out on some of it.

Also, I wanted to say that it helped the desire to explore when the music had cultural relevance to the location.

I think the music changes totally sucked. I liked the distinctive music that certain locations had. Now you basically hear Shiverpeak music EVERYWHERE... very lame. The new tracks don't even come close to making up for that.

Of course the best music for anything in GW has nothing to do with the in-game music. iTunes FTW.

Ember Light used to play one of the 2 tracks you hear outside in Perdition Rock, which, believe me, was a LOT nicer to hear there. Ember Light (and the other outposts out in that region) is one of the worst areas affected by this, because the current music fits in there about as well as an ice golem would.

The Southern Shiverpeak towns previously played the same tracks as the Northern Shiverpeak towns, except the War Camp had a new track added when the SF update came out (which is now one of the 4 currently in the town rotation).

I remember when I first went to the Ring of Fire outpost. The music made the situation seem so important but dangerous, especially combined with the grim-toned dwarf who tells you about the mission objective.

When the music changed, I heard the same music they used to play only in the Shiverpeak outposts. It completely spoiled the mood on the fire island outposts.

The music didn't really seem all that expanded to me...

I haven't listened to the in-game music in...well, ever. Windows Media Player FTW!

Agreed. Why change what was perfectly working? The new music totally killed the ambience. If the idea was to get people to turn to DirectSong instead, I don't think it'll work, since now I no longer have an incentive to listen to in-game music at all.

Again, I agree. The repetition in the music is driving me crazy. I've resorted to turning it off in towns and outposts... but I hate having to turn it on and off so much.

Really, if they don't want to change it back, they could at least give us an option to customize it ourselves somehow.

I mean, they made the effort to change the music in LA to fit in with the Halloween decorations. It gives that area a certain mood, and it works well. But meanwhile, they have taken the mood AWAY from all of the other areas.

THE SOLUTION!!!!! IN GAME MUSIC PLAYER PLAYLIST FOR MP3'S AND CD'S

just like windows media player

in the menu u get playlist and u pick out songs that u have !!! boo yaaa

I missed the difference between the before and after change. I only have the after to live with. That being said, I like the music. It is rare that I find original material in a classical venue to which I would want to listen. I attempted to get the free stuff, but never saw it show up. I am concerned with purchasing the newer music at all, even though I would probably like it. the problems I had getting into the system, never having received the free bonus material, not knowing how it will affect the game, etc. all are issues for me at this time.

Fitz Rinley

or do as i do

just run your songs in whatever playlist you like

and then open GW and press F11 and turn down Music all the way to the left so you dont hear it

yep, I too have just turned off the music as it just messes up the ambience now.

In my case, it is rare that I find music in an online game worth listening to period. But the music in GW was good enough for me to go out and buy the soundtrack separately (it comes with the collector's edition, which I don't have). That is why this change bothers me so much. Don't get me wrong, I like the 4 tracks they picked for towns. But each one is out of place in any number of areas, as many have already pointed out. And the repetition is the worst part of it. Hearing those same tracks over and over, everywhere you go - no matter how much you like them, you'll get tired of them eventually. And, unfortunately, I have reached that point...

it would do no harm to have a few new tracks i suppose, but for me music has never been much of an issue in gaming.

No one is even asking for new tracks... we just want the old tracks back the way they were before they completely killed the mood in many areas...