[Merricat]

I know that many have said that the music in the Gabriel Knight games is instrumental ( ) to the gameplay, and personally, the fact that I loved the music in Neverhood contributed to my overall enjoyment of the game. The Monkey Island music is also great, and I loved that various characters had their own themes. The music in the Broken Sword games is pleasant and also informative--it tells you when you've hit on the right line of questioning, or when something important has occurred. But other games have used music in such a limited, repetitive way that it has driven me, a die-hard music lover, to turning down the sound entirely. So my question to you all is this: is music just as important to gameplay as it is to cinema, or is it merely jewelry?

[Cris Pandry]

Personally, the first thing I do in any game I play is look in the audio options section and set music to ZERO immediately.

If music was there for dramatic effect similarly to as it's done in films, then I don't see anything wrong with that, but looped clips just annoy me and play in my head when I go to bed afterwards!

A example of good music usage for me is the Adagio for Strings in Platoon. A bad example would be the music playing in Enemy at the Gates during the siege of Stalingrad! Imagine the same thing at the beach scenes in Saving Private Ryan?!

I only caught one music score by accident. That was in the Sherlock Holmes game - The Rose Tattoo. Seemed to change appropriately as you discovered things, solved clues etc.

Music in RTS and action games and puzzle intensive adventure games, just seems unnecessary and even distracting to me.

[Nautilus]

Some wiseman someday said: "Music/audio is 50% of any animation production". So, playing an adventure without listening to the music/audio seems to be a bizarre experience. :p

[Squinky]

When done well, it's very atmospheric. When done badly, it's annoying.

[tsa]

Music is becoming more important to me than it used to be in adventure games. I remember playing the Tex Murphy games with the music switched off, because it distracted me from the gameplay. In many newer games, however, the music adds another dimension to the gameplay. I like some of the mesic in adventure games so much I've even started collecting adventure game music in the springof this year!

[QFG]

It's always been an important factor to me - when I first heard the score to Monkey Island, I knew right away I was going to enjoy the game. Same with many other games with great scores - especially Grim Fandango!

[sierramindy]

By and large I am tone deaf so music is not a big part of games or movies to me. That said, I must add that the music in the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark just blew me away. It was so terrific! The music continues in the adventure game by LucasArts, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. The whole start of that game is a pure delight for me. I also recall that I liked the music in
GK: Sins of the Fathers and especially in GK: The Beast Within. I have played and greatly enjoyed the first 3 games of the Monkey Island series but can't remember anything at all about the music. So music is not a big deal for me, except those rare times when somehow, something reaches my ears that I find enjoyable and even memorable.

[Melanie68]

I like music in games and it adds to the atmosphere for me, but I very easily forget it after I'm done playing. So I've never gone out of my way personally to listen to it outside of the game itself.

[Harald B]

Often one of the first things I do when playing a new game is to increase the music volume. I consider the music to be an integral part of the experience; on par with the graphics, I'd say. It would have to be really bad before I'd consider turning it off.
It occurs to me that in all my favorite games, I enjoyed the music a lot. That's probably saying something. Unfortunately, outstanding music seems to be a rare treat, in games as well as in cinema and tv series.

[MikaelS]

Music is very important to me. At certain level, music is even more important than graphics. As said, when done correctly it can really makes atmosphere fantastic.

[AprilLives]

Music and sounds are VERY important for atmosphere, if done well. In fact, I’m currently listening to The Road Back from The Longest Journey and still marvel at the quality. Hearing it takes me right back to the feeling of adventure I had when I first discovered the game. I also go back to the music of Syberia and Riven.

[cwapitm]

Music is important, but not as important as the plot or characters. However, a good soundtrack is like icing on the cake. I loved the soundtrack to Grim Fandango and the Monkey Island series. I'll never get tired of listening to them. I feel the soundtrack for Culpa Innata is well done too.

[Wolfrider]

Music doesn't make or break a game for me, but man does it ever enhance the experience. The Sam and Max games have such great soundtracks and sometimes I find myself wandering around just listening to the background music. Same for stuff like Blackwell Unbound and Rorschach. The soundtrack just makes those worlds breathe in front of you.

I find good music helps when you're stuck too. It's much less irritating to be lost when you've got a catchy tune in the background then having to hear the same lousy jingle over and over again.

[Henke]

Music (and sound in general) is extremely important in games. I believe it's even more important in games then in movies for example.

[MadTricks]

Originally Posted by Squinky

When done well, it's very atmospheric. When done badly, it's annoying.

Second that.

[ProggleRock]

Perhaps the most important. Music tells you how to feel. It invokes emotion whether there is a context or not. With context, music is (IMO) the most powerful element to any game that tries to get a reaction from its user.

[Merricat]

I'm intrigued by the idea that some people are completely disinterested in game music. A completely silent game, to me, is as unnatural as laugh tracks on sitcoms. Really, the few times that I've turned the sound down on a game because of an irritating loop have been weirdly unsettling experiences. Wow. And I can't imagine films without music. I don't see it as emotional manipulation or emotional tyranny; rather, it's more of a complementary layer to the director's overal thematic course.

[tsa]

Well, in the case of Tex Murphy, it felt unnatural to me to be spying around in a house you just entered via a window, and having loud jazz music in the background. The music made the game less 'real'. Games like Myst (that I like a lot) are already so unreal that the music adds to the athmosphere.

[Crapstorm]

A good soundtrack is a nice touch, but I will always turn the background music off eventually after it has looped umteen times.

[Cris Pandry]

Merricat,

There must be very few completely silent games these days. It seems strange to compare Monkey Island 1 with something like Broken Sword 3 in terms of 'music'.

MI1 is equivalent to a 1920's silent film with minimal (if any) sound effects, with written, rather than spoken speech. The 'music' just reinforces changes of location. Visit voodoo woman, hear spooky music, visit the church, hear organ music; repeat ad infinitum. Yawn... How many times do you need to hear it to get the idea?

I think a game with good sound effects conveys much more ambience than a parrot like looping musical score. If you turned your music OFF you might actually hear some.

Again, I think musical interludes that ONLY happen at the appropriate time add enormously to the overall experience. For example in between completed stages of MI1. Nice touch and quite appropriate.

I disagree that it's not directorial emotional manipulation to employ music (effects). I can't imagine For a Few Dollars More or The Good, The Bad, The Ugly without Ennio Morricone's score for example.

(There was an 80's Vietnam drama series called Tour of Duty which used The Stone's - Paint it Black as the theme tune. Due to copyright or whatever restrictions though, the DVDs of the series use generic guitar music in place of the 60's songs which completely alters the emotional involvement!)

Surely the point of music in films is to convey a particular mood to the audience? The director decides what gets played? Also, unlike games, the music in films isn't continuous!

So, I'm equally amazed that the majority here seem content to be subjected to the musical equivalent of Chinese water torture.