World of Warcraft - Give the Music team a Blank Check

I doubt if I would win an argument that music is as important to a great MMORPG as balancing PvP for example. I’m sure if we posted a poll on the site here about what was most important, music would rank somewhere towards the bottom. However, if you’ve ever seen a summer blockbuster that made you drool, I guarantee there is a well constructed, emotion stirring score behind all your favorite scenes. Seriously. When Star Wars Episode 1 first started with John Williams score blasting those first few notes, you were giddy (until Jar Jar came out of course). Blizzard has some gems in their music department and if given a chance I think they could help add a touch of style and punch that WoW’s competitors lack.

Ok, so you’ve all heard the music on Blizzard’s site and thought “that’s pretty damn good”. You’re probably asking what my problem with it is. I think most of us who played EQ, shut that music off probably ten minutes in to the game and NEVER thought about turning it back on. What I’ve heard so far of WoW's score makes EQ’s music sound about as good as my blender when I make margaritas. I love what I've heard and the feedback on

Jason Hayes, Tracy Bush, Derek Duke and Glen Stafford, did a great job with Warcraft 3 and Frozen Throne. Each race has a unique feel to them. The creepy moans of the undead are in stark contrast to the rolling drums of the orcs. In short, when it comes to game music, I think pretty much all of us who take the time to listen, think the team is at the top of the A list. I am 100% sure that the music that is in WoW will actually be listened to by most of us (there will always be those who’d rather listen to speed metal as they PK after all).

So what’s my point? I’ll tell you.

Music is like the ugly stepchild of the gaming world. The art team has thirty people working sixty hours a week and the music team has one or two guys and a keyboard. I’ll admit that a game with garbage graphics and an amazing musical score isn’t going to do much. But a game with amazing graphics and amazing gameplay, is going to do that much better if there is music that elevates and accentuates the mood of the game. Music sets the tone for what is going on. You don’t remember it the way you do a game’s graphics, because you’re not supposed to. It’s supposed to be in the background subtly manipulating your emotions. When Resident Evil first came out, me and some friends were playing in a dark room late at night. The effect of the “enemies are coming music” would quicken your pulse and they’d use it randomly sometimes to really mess with your head. The list though isn’t long for really great soundtracks coming out of games though. You can argue that music isn’t worth the time and money most of the time. But would Beetlejuice have been as cool without Danny Elfman’s quirky track? Would Gladiator and Titanic been as moving without Zimmer and Horner's unique style? My point is, if you have a composer whose style matches the “vision” of what you want the viewer to experience, then what they add is like a touch of magic. The music team has that kind of potential.

Why are musicians working on games still working with the same budget, tools and manpower they had during the days of Super Mario Bros? The art guys have pixel shaders and all that techno mumbo jumbo, but the music guys still got one thing…a keyboard. Sure keyboards have more sounds, but they all still sound like something produced in the 8-bit world. Keyboards make decent copies of real sounds but they are still copies. I remember thinking that Final Fantasy (the first one) had the greatest music I’d ever heard in a video game. It’s irritating to think that after so many years, that music in games has not progressed past one man sitting in a room with his keyboard. Hollywood respects the value of soundtracks. Why don’t game developers. Would Grand Theft Auto have been the same hit without the soundtrack? Would Star Wars games be as fun without John Williams’ score?

Hire an orchestra Blizzard. There’s a darn good one right there in San Diego. Jason already has the scores laid out and I’d bet money that he’d flip out if given the chance to hear his music performed by one. Too expensive? Do what the folks did for Ultima X and Wing Commander did and hire one out of Eastern Europe that will work for pennies. Am I a musical purist or some kind of sound snob? Maybe, but there is a reason you haven’t watched a decent movie with a soundtrack played on a keyboard. It just doesn’t cut it. Polish is what Blizzard built its name on. Its time you gave some money to polish the music in the same manner you do with the rest of the aspects of your games.

Maybe I don’t understand budgets, marketing or all the other excuses that nearly every other game developer has used to justify skimping on music. Maybe as an outsider, I don’t have a clue what internal pressures force EVERY dev to make music a near afterthought. Maybe most gamers believe in their heads that music is something you turn off right before clicking on your MP3 playlist. But maybe that’s because every other dev has skimped and players are just used to hating the game music? Jason Hayes’ stuff is just sooooo darn good that I want to hear it as it should be heard. Maybe by me saying that someone will say “it must be good enough as it is, if people are begging for an orchestra”. Hopefully though, they’ll say “What if we’re the devs who finally give our musicians the resources necessary to truly be a factor in our success”.