I read an article on ign.com, about how music for video games has become too Hollywood influenced. This was a really long article and I will admit that I read the first couple of arguments and then skimmed down the rest of the article to read the reader comments. This got me thinking, does the video game sound or music give away what is going to happen before it actually does happened? Is this done on purpose just like most games have a certain pattern that characters will do? Does this go along with the fact that today's games are too simple compared to the games of the late 80's and early 90's?

               First off it is my opinion that the sound of today's games or even the music of today's games give off hints as to what is about to happen as you continue to play a game. Doom 3 gives of little sounds as to when a demon or a zombie solider is in the area. Batman Arkham Asylum the music intensifies as Joker's goons are awake that Batman is in the area. Zero Tolerance for the Sega Genies, a first person shooter, all the monsters or aliens line up while in perfect lines while you shoot them. So yes there is some strong evidence that if you are aware of it the music can give away what is about to happen so your more prepared for it to happen.

               Second part of this question is this done on purpose? I think so, it is my opinion that game producers and the music composer have done this on purpose. Why? Well, unlike movies where it is known when an action or a suspenseful scene will end. This isn't the cast with video games, where a player can prolong certain events.

               The next question does this go with the fact that today's games compared to games from the 80's and 90's are just too simple. I remember back in the day when it took weeks to beat almost any kind of game from the Nintendo or Super Nintendo. Games were very difficult, and there were no such things as save points it was all done by passwords. Talking to Davideo7 the owner of our beloved vizzed.com. He told me that he might have beaten 1 out of every 20 games that he played back when he was younger. Now he says it seems like it takes only a couple of hours and he has fully played through an entire game. There is a lot of evidence to back this up as well. The Megaman games for the NES and Super NES are one example. You had to be very very aware of your surroundings in order to get through some if not all the levels in a Magaman game. The RPG's are another example, I hated RPG's from the NES and Super NES. To me they were just too hard and I quickly found myself losing interest in the game.

               At the end of the day we find out that it has been seen time and time again the Hollywood has influenced out beloved games. Not only with "cinematic" cut scenes, but with also the music that goes along with the games. This is sometimes a good thing for games as it can create different types of emotions that developers are trying to create in the game. However, this also can be kind of annoying as well. After playing 5 different levels of Zero Tolerance and being able to predict when and where a monster will pop up and where it will end up dying the game gets kind of boring and predictable as you play more into. Can this be prevented, I don't know if it can or not. Some suggest that they loop music in order to keep things more accurate as the action or non-action of a game is taking place. I myself thing that is just too boring to do and would lose interest in that game.

               What do you all think about this does music in certain games take away or create a better experience?

               Do you believe games today's are too simple compared to the games of yesterday?

               I'm curious to see and read your responses to this.

hmmm... this is a good one. But before I get started on answering your questions, just allow me to say that I used to own Doom 3, and I never noticed anything very definitive. I never really had music on, but still: did not really notice anything, I was always quite as hell, as for when something would happen. Only thing is the videos when a new enemy character is introduced.

I hear what you are saying about the music giving away stuff, and yes, I have noticed this in a few games, come to thing of it.

I think some games do this on purpose, but others do not. I would give examples, but I am beat right now, and am about to fall asleep right now. Just getting a little posting done in hopes of getting a head start for tomorrow.

yeah, I remember Super Mario 64 took me almost 3 years, and my dad 2 years to completely beat. A few moths ago, I beat Modern warfare 3 in 5 hours and 50 minutes ( a record for where I did it at), and Halo 3 in 11 hours and 30 minutes in the course of three days (also a record for the same place in terms of game play time. So yeah, I do think games these days are not long enough, unless they are story based, like Infamous 2, or Street Racing based, like the new Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit.


As for the final questions, if it is music to help with the game play, like you mention, that causes games to be predictable, it depends. But if it for Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, or Madden, then just makes the games better. I think the games are too simply yes. Better quality, but still too simple.

First of all, I think when you're talking about the music changing and all, that's just a gameplay mechanic. I don't think it applies to the opinion that video game music in general is ruining games. Really, those things are more like special sound effects that warn you when an enemy is coming, rather than the music as a whole ruining the game experience.

Now, if you take an OST from any game, chances are that the OST won't tell you exactly when things will happen (unless you have a scrolling game like Touhou where things always happen at the same time). What I mean is, the music on its own doesn't give anything away. So I don't see how people can say the music "ruins" games other than by giving it the appropriate atmosphere. It's not like the music is whispering spoilers in your ear saying "She dies at the end."

On to your second point, I think video game difficulty still depends on the game you play. The reason why video games in general seemed more difficult back then was for two reasons, I believe:
a) There wasn't a lot of data you could fit on a game cartridge, especially to today's standards. Your average SNES cartridge was only kilobytes in size, so it was hard to make games that are as expansive and complex as today. Only simple games like Super Mario Bros. and the Legend of Zelda could be made, with very few mechanics. To compensate for the lack of depth (whether the developers knew it or not), they made up with difficulty. This adds hours to an otherwise very short game.
b) Secondly, the very first developers for home consoles only had arcade games as references for video games. These were usually made hard on purpose for the sake of taking as much money from you as possible. However, this translates more to ragequitting when it comes to home video games. Fortunately, this was corrected with future games. Now, the focus is more on providing a deep, while still entertaining experience that shouldn't make you rage as much. But it still depends on what game you're talking about, because there are games out there designed to be harder on purpose.

I won't doubt that Hollywood has had a huge impact on games today. You see games like Final Fantasy XII and Xenoblade which pretty much have huge epic cutscenes and a ton of drama all over them. Even in action games, like Sonic Generations, you see environments fit for the big screen. I think gaming in general has developed for the better. Otherwise, we'd still be stuck in the mode of pixels and no one would want to try anything new and exciting. The same goes for music. When used right, it brings out the best in a game by adding dramatically to its atmosphere and experience.

Actually, Hollywood has had a huge impact on todays games. Like you said the games of old didn't really focus on story lines just difficulty. Todays game focuses on story line and less on difficulty. The fact that there is a good story line is base off of Hollywood because its those Hollywood script writers that write our games story lines. Not only that but watch some of the action movies and Horror movies and listen to the sound of the music as things get intense the music gets intense. That is something that is trying to be implanted in the games today to make gamers feel different emotions as they are playing a game. So in fact, Hollywood has impacted our games a lot. and this article that I read on ign.com explained different examples as to where Hollywood has influenced our games.

Someone70 : I agree with you. Games like Final Fantasy have nice OSTs that make you feel for the characters, and they are not Hollywood based due to the fact Japan isn't in Los Angeles. Final Fantasy uses instruments that catch your heart, and so do other classic JRPGS.