Russell Brower Leaving Blizzard

[leviathonlx]

I'm not saying he composed all of the music. I'm saying making this post redundant means nothing good for the future of music in WoW. Legion has already been an exceptionally weak xpac music wise, imo. It seems music will not play an important role as part of the game in the future. That's my sentiment anyways.

Russell Brower wasn't in charge of music though that's Derek Duke. An Audio Director is in charge of things like casting and recording voice overs, in multiple languages, original music, licensed music, sound effects for game objects and the user interface as well as ambient environmental sounds. He just happened to also be a great composer and the face of the team.

[Eggroll]

Can't say I agree. Legion has some incredible music. All Suramar and elven related pieces are magical, I just never grow tired of them. Anything Highmountain is very inspiring and uplifting. And "Shackled" from Broken Shore deserves a very special mention. It's an incredible piece of music. Ever since I first heard it in one of those preview trailers for the Broken Shore patch, I was totally captivated by it.

I still have to stop and listen to it every time I go there. So heavy with meaning and emotion. Seriosly moving. The different orchestrations of the piece they have are all great. The muted strings version the brassy one, then the one with the choirs ... so cool.

I'm not saying all of the music is bad, there's just not nearly the amount of new music compared to earlier xpacs, and a lot of the music in Legion is copy pasted from Vanilla, BC, Cata. Especially the night elven areas. That is something we haven't seen in previous xpacs.

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Russell Brower wasn't in charge of music though that's Derek Duke. An Audio Director is in charge of things like voice overs. He just happened to also be a great composer and the face of the team.

He also was the lead composer, tho.

[leviathonlx]

I'm not saying all of the music is bad, there's just not nearly the amount of new music compared to earlier xpacs, and a lot of the music in Legion is copy pasted from Vanilla, BC, Cata. Especially the night elven areas. That is something we haven't seen in previous xpacs.

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He also was the lead composer, tho.

Where'd you get Lead Composer from? His own LinkedIn says he was a Senior Composer just like Glenn Stafford.

If I were a betting man I'd say 'sound decentralization' more referred to things like changes with how they get voice actors (someone else may be handling it now) especially given the amount of new talent Blizz has been getting with things like Overwatch and other Audio Director responsibilities no longer being relevant or being handled by others. Instead of taking a pay cut by no longer being a director and just being a Senior Composer (since Derek Duke is the music director) he decided to get laid off where he can do free lance work or find a position as a director elsewhere.


Also as for your 'lot less music than past expansions' comment.

Legion so far has 7 hours and 2 minutes of music and that's without 7.3's zone and raid music (or 7.2 actually since my listfile is old but according to youtube videos that's another 56 minutes). That does not include the music that's re-used either (something I don't mind since there's no harm in re-using music that many may have last heard 10 years ago and when you have over a hundred hours of music).

WoD had 8 hours and 20 minutes over the entire expansion

Pandaria had 11 hours and 21 minutes over the entire expansion

Cataclysm had 10 hours and 46 minutes over the entire expansion

No quick way to check TBC or WotLK due to how those files are stored now though Youtube says Wrath had 8 hours and 52 minutes of music and TBC was at 9 hours and 10 minutes....and vanilla WoW at 3 hours and 44 minutes.

[Eggroll]

Where'd you get Lead Composer from? His own LinkedIn says he was a Senior Composer just like Glenn Stafford.

I'd like to see that list file. As I said about the repetition. It's my opinion. It's not only repetition of old music, it's also repetition of, say, of that ONE Nighthold theme that they are putting all over the place, even if it's not even in a dungeon.

I'm just expecting NEW music with a new xpac. That's what I looked most forward to in any new xpac. And it seems they are done with that.

[leviathonlx]

Well regardless of what he said in that interview his Facebook post and LinkedIn say Senior Composer which could very well be interchangeable with 'Lead Composer'.

[DarkAmbient]

You forgot Jason Hayes

He's the dude behind SW, Orgri, CoT (few of them), Tirisfal, Elwynn, etc themes, but in this thread people think that everything was done by Mr. Brower who wasn't even working at Blizz at that time.

Yep, Hayes is responsible for much of the vanilla zone music. Stranglethorn Vale, Dun Morogh, Burning Steppes etc, all Hayes.

[leviathonlx]

I'd like to see that list file. As I said about the repetition. It's my opinion. It's not only repetition of old music, it's also repetition of, say, of that ONE Nighthold theme that they are putting all over the place, even if it's not even in a dungeon.

I'm just expecting NEW music with a new xpac. That's what I looked most forward to in any new xpac. And it seems they are done with that.

You can use a listfile quite easily by downloading cascview and getting the latest listfile from something like wowmodelviewer. It's not some secret thing lol

[Ariss]

I'm not saying all of the music is bad, there's just not nearly the amount of new music compared to earlier xpacs, and a lot of the music in Legion is copy pasted from Vanilla, BC, Cata. Especially the night elven areas. That is something we haven't seen in previous xpacs.

I'm with you here, completely agree, was just telling the same thing to my husband the other day. Previous expansions had some remarkable tracks, something new and fresh, but Legion sadly is mostly copy and paste. Also the original music from Legion isnt really... memorable? Okay, I like Highmountain ambient, but thats pretty much all I can remember now.

[Deleted]

I'm not missing any "points", since you're literally not making any others than ones based in your own wishful thinking and conspiracy theories.
I don't entertain this stupidity anymore, people whom are so invested in this company/any of their games performing poorly were old news 9 years ago when I was convinced by forumgoers that WoW was ending after ICC. .

"No I wont give you any proof for my made up claims, the burden of proof that numbers I imply are there, aren't there is on you, stop making this stupid vapid points about my inability to cite the actual numbers I vaguely refer to or pointing out my narrative of hat0rz being wronged for 9 years and the game sailing fine based on my 'true' emotions, is contradicted by the last 7 years of hard facts like the subs you even reposted for ignorants! Why can't you stupid hat0rz not just believe my claims without question even if they contradict everything you know!!! Stupid hat0rz! Rolllleeyes! "

Sure, sure, as its very apparent you are the wise sage of truths and its just everyone else making such 'stupid' remarks like pointing out your narrative is contradicted by hard facts or not so recent lack thereof and your claims are objectively wrong or baseless, some just an imaginary product of your inability to actually read and comprehend those reports on Blizzards IR page you stumbled over (which totally never happend thousand of times before), if not blatant lies.

I see you refuse to admit to be patentely wrong on pretty much any account as obvious as it has already become and you just choose to join the club of blockheaded fanboys bruteforcing a delusion, spamming the same falsehoods and deliberately missleading spins over and over again and feigning ignorance in spite of the facts, instead of accepting the decline of WoW as reality like it has become the general concens over the last half decade.

[Higgit]

Have always thought artwork and especially music have been exceptional in wow. Good luck to him.

[Petelil]

Good luck to the man behind for filling our gaming world with excellent themes and tunes all these years!

[istroxpro]

Honestly, this is probably the saddest "Leaving Blizzard" post besides Metzen's for me. His music has been there for half my life, and my entire gaming lifetime. Certainly shaped my tastes more than basically anyone else in music. Will miss him.

This^ no more words needed.

[Queen of Hamsters]

You forgot Jason Hayes

He's the dude behind SW, Orgri, CoT (few of them), Tirisfal, Elwynn, etc themes, but in this thread people think that everything was done by Mr. Brower who wasn't even working at Blizz at that time.

Was about to say, I've looked up a ton of soundtracks I love in the game, and Mr Brower didn't exactly do them all...
Haha, it's funny just how quickly the rose-tinted glasses set in for some.
Desperation to latch onto any little scrap they get that could fit their narrative of the game going under I suppose. People must truly believe that every part of the game is a one-man job... Much like how bands tend to become all about the lead singer.





@Conscience , you're on my ignore list on account of you just being another one of those doomsayers without substance, so you might as well save your breath.

[ls-]

Was about to say, I've looked up a ton of soundtracks I love in the game, and Mr Brower didn't exactly do them all...
Haha, it's funny just how quickly the rose-tinted glasses set in for some.
Desperation to latch onto any little scrap they get that could fit their narrative of the game going under I suppose.

Well, WoW defo is going under when it comes to number of subs, I mean WotLK's 12kk > all

Profit-wise it's on the rise, but people don't care... WoW is dead, Blizzard is bleeding, Kotick is killing them.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Well, WoW defo is going under when it comes to number of subs, I mean WotLK's 12kk > all

Profit-wise it's on the rise, but people don't care... WoW is dead, Blizzard is bleeding, Kotick is killing Blizzard.

Yeah, Blizzard and especially their WoW IP won't be around 10 years from now for sure!

Meanwhile; Everquest...

[Deleted]

consistently the best part of wow was the music, dont understand how something like that can be made redundant

[xenogear3]

This is why old large corporation dies eventually.

It decides to make money quick by releasing "easy" products.

[Daedius]

Sad to see the creative part of Blizzard leaving, one of the redeeming qualities about Blizzard is their art and music departments. The management scene can go to hell though.

Wishing him the best of luck in his next endeavour.

[Zelk]

Probably a good thing, his approach got stale the last couple of expansions. Music hasn't been memorable since MoP.

[GMZohar1]

Sinking ship sinking ship sinking ship!!! jk