Your feeling on the current quality of the game's music

[Super Kami Dende]

WoW's Music is the most consistently amazing thing they create.

[Pull My Finger]

WoW music has made incredible leaps in the last few expansions. It's infinitely superior to Vanilla both in terms of composition quality as well as sonics. It's original, colorful, has strong themes and motifs and is also largely played by real musicians in a very good sounding space, as opposed to heavily sample-based mockups like the ones used in Vanilla.

[DeicideUH]

The music has always been awesome. The style always change every expansion.

I think people tend to like the old music more just because you keep the good ones in your memory and forget the others. Meanwhile, with new stuff, you are forced to keep revisiting those areas you don't like.

Some of my favorite music from all time come from newer expansions, thought. I absolutely loved the ones brought by 5.1 ("For the Alliance", Garrosh Theme and "Jaina's Homeland"). Warlords of Draenor introduced master pieces like "Wolves at the Gate", "Magnificent Desolation" (Frostfire), "Stormlords on the March". Cataclysm had gems the Burning Steps music, Gnome theme and "Nightsong". And there's probably a ton of awesome themes that I'm gorgetting right now.

[dope_danny]

overall pretty forgettable. On a whim i went back to the blood elf areas to level a new forsaken and the music was so good. It was a long period but i think bc to pandaria was the golden era and everything after that has been competant but completely forgettable bar the main legion theme. Everything else is generic fantasy.

[Soon-TM]

Imo, this game's music peaked during BC. Terokkar Forest, Zangarmarsh, Eversong Forest, Azuremyst Isle, Netherstorm are among the best tracks ever made. Not that Vanilla's music was bad -far from it- but BC definitely surpassed it. WotLK was not bad either, but I cannot recall anything from it aside from the Grizzly Hills and Howling Fjord themes. Cata was awful, except for a few jewels (Darkshore, Silithus and Feralas).

[Azerate]

My music is permanently turned off. I'm not the "game immersion" guy, I'm the farming guy, my wow is running all the time and I'm watching youtube/movies/shows/listening to music while playing. My sound is also off, except for DBM sounds during boss encounters and sometimes when I'm camping world bosses to hear the sound while alt-tabbed.

[TwoShoedLou]

Always loved WoW's music. That said vanilla and BC did have some great tracks and did a good job of setting the mood. The belf starting zone will always be my favorite music. Wrath was forgettable and so was Cata with the exception of the goblin area, really enjoyed the music there. MoP was just amazing all together, probably the first expansion since BC where I thoroughly enjoyed all the music. Warlords was forgettable except for a few music pieces and Legion was kind of the same. Though I enjoyed the Stormheim music because it was very Skyrim sounding.

But yes, overall it has changed to more orchestral, epic movie music. I don't know if that's good or bad..just different.

[Eggroll]

I feel that the music changed a bit after the passing years. Might be me. Feeling like it's more about making an epic movie-like music, than creating an atmosphere or making a melody that stands out and that we never forget. Hearing older soundtracks, the melody was clearly recognizable, while I feel that there's often no particular melody, just orchestral instruments now. There's exceptions, but in the end I feel that it's globally different.

I was just curious of your opinion of the game's current soundtrack (especially since wod).

Just wanted to add to your question:
Music qualitiy is going to deteriorate greatly. Based on how the WoW devs value composers based on where they are mentioned in the game credits.

I bothered to check the game credits from MoP, WoD, Legion and now BfA. What I found was this:
In MoP and WoD credits the audio director and lead composer (Russel Brower) along with the Cinematic Composer (Neal Acree) and other composers were mentioned directly after the dev team.

In Legion however, the audio director is mentioned AFTER "Security" and the additional composers are mentioned after "additional thanks" after the friends and family thanks. There is no more "cinematics composer" mentioned.

In the BfA credits that were just released they put the composers as far back as in Legion, but they are actually taking the disdain a step further: in the additional composers section, they don't even bother to mention all additional composers names.
They just state two names and then they do the ... Also, all composers are listed as "External" aaaand there is no symphony orchestra mentioned for the OST recording.


Also: Russel Brower was fired last year, Neal Acree doesn't mention "Blizzard cinematic composer" in his Twitter profile, Jason Hayes is audio director at Riot (LoL) now, Eimear Noone has signed with an artist agency, and there are no newcomer composers anywhere to be seen.

[Cæli]

Just wanted to add to your question:
Music qualitiy is going to deteriorate greatly. Based on how the WoW devs value composers based on where they are mentioned in the game credits.

I bothered to check the game credits from MoP, WoD, Legion and now BfA. What I found was this:
In MoP and WoD credits the audio director and lead composer (Russel Brower) along with the Cinematic Composer (Neal Acree) and other composers were mentioned directly after the dev team.

In Legion however, the audio director is mentioned AFTER "Security" and the additional composers are mentioned after "additional thanks" after the friends and family thanks. There is no more "cinematics composer" mentioned.

In the BfA credits that were just released they put the composers as far back as in Legion, but they are actually taking the disdain a step further: in the additional composers section, they don't even bother to mention all additional composers names.
They just state two names and then they do the ... Also, all composers are listed as "External" aaaand there is no symphony orchestra mentioned for the OST recording.


Also: Russel Brower was fired last year, Neal Acree doesn't mention "Blizzard cinematic composer" in his Twitter profile, Jason Hayes is audio director at Riot (LoL) now, Eimear Noone has signed with an artist agency, and there are no newcomer composers anywhere to be seen.

Let's just enjoy the fact that wow already contributed incredible music to humanity, which are already there and live in the game. That was my fear too, we'll see, but we must keep exposing the older work to the younger generation and not let that accomplishment die out in history.

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Wow, this is a perfect example of a botched poll.

OT: I think music in WoW gets better with every expansion.

How so ? this makes 0 sense. (for the poll, I included all opinions I could think of)

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You are not stupid, this poll was super over-complicated to the point where I didn't vote because I couldn't understand the options :P

On topic: old music was great, much slower and methodical for the purposes of reinforcing the ambiance imo. Newer is a but more up-tempo and does indeed seem to chase big memorable moments, if that makes sense. Bottom line for me is WoW's music has always been, and continues to be, fantastic and underrated. Pains me to know 75% of my raid turns off the music, etc. Missing out...

out of curiosity, what went wrong in the poll's complexity?

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WoW music has made incredible leaps in the last few expansions. It's infinitely superior to Vanilla both in terms of composition quality as well as sonics. It's original, colorful, has strong themes and motifs and is also largely played by real musicians in a very good sounding space, as opposed to heavily sample-based mockups like the ones used in Vanilla.

Do you have a better music from recently better than the music I linked for instance ? probably where we'll see how people have different tastes

[Velerios]

Ah shit, I found a time traveler! Do you take requests?

BfA is already finished and it is crap; i doubt that an crappy expansion will get so much better in upcoming patches. But yes, the music was always one of the most awesome parts in WoW

[Nattwenny]

I like it all. I even listen to it at work, when I can avoid random people asking me what I'm listening to.

[Heladys]

The music is objectively better now, and more sweeping and more daring in reaching to try things.

Which is no stone thrown at vanilla. That music will always have a place in my heart for the association to the memories it spawned.

[Eggroll]

WoW music has made incredible leaps in the last few expansions. It's infinitely superior to Vanilla both in terms of composition quality as well as sonics. It's original, colorful, has strong themes and motifs and is also largely played by real musicians in a very good sounding space, as opposed to heavily sample-based mockups like the ones used in Vanilla.

Can you kindly point out the leaps in Legion. Because I utterly missed them. Thanks

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Let's just enjoy the fact that wow already contributed incredible music to humanity, which are already there and live in the game. That was my fear too, we'll see, but we must keep exposing the older work to the younger generation and not let that accomplishment die out in history.

Not gonna work for me. The music is (was!) one of reason I kept shoving money in Blizzard's .... Also one of the main reasons the game kept me engaged. The fresh supply of awesome music with every patch cycle. But this is history now. Legion has proved it.

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The music is objectively better now, and more sweeping and more daring in reaching to try things.

Which is no stone thrown at vanilla. That music will always have a place in my heart for the association to the memories it spawned.

I partly agree. Music kept getting better until/including WoD (actually ONE good thing in WoD ) . Legion was a complete failure music wise.

[Pannekaker]

ITT: Taste is subjective.

[Cæli]

Can you kindly point out the leaps in Legion. Because I utterly missed them. Thanks

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Not gonna work for me. The music is (was!) one of reason I kept shoving money in Blizzard's .... Also one of the main reasons the game kept me engaged. The fresh supply of awesome music with every patch cycle. But this is history now. Legion has proved it.

To be honest, I find that near catalcysm the music started to be more orchestral and ressembling like a cacophony, bombastic, overly epic, forgettable on the whole. There has almost always been a few song that stands out but yes. As for legion, I didn't listened to all, the ost is 5+ hours, and I'm afraid there's like 5 minutes that really stands out. For instance I found this melody very well made https://youtu.be/RS4iN_MqMTc?t=8m10s not sure who composed it. There's 2 or 3 other short good samples, like the beta highmountain part. Still doesn't top the unfathomable quality of older music and that's the problem for me, what we have now, is 90% movie like music, and the good bits still doesn't top what we had. BC had ambient tracks, there's no word to describe how they manage to make video game music with the "blizzard feeling", epic with subtility, and talent. For me nothing will undo what is already done so I'll probably give my time forever to the game, even if there's bad music, considering wow done and the rest is an "optional bonus".

The thing is that a lot of persons seem to like the new music. Tastes you'll say, but I don't know, sometimes I wonder how old are they, when did they joined, if they normally like music outside the game, if they're the type to really pay attention to music and its details, do they easily know if they like a music or do they listen to it multiple times. I personally don't get it, but you'd be surprised how people's taste can differ.

[Grevmak]

I mean I can't point what I mean. Here's an example of music from TBC I like a lot, there's a lot more than this. The melody is genius. Is there anything better in legion or bfa ? I didn't found. But that's where I might be wrong, as I didn't listened to all the OST. There was a very good melody in a suramar sewer in legion, can't find the name. Highmountain tauren beta music is also very good, it has something, but the final orchestration is closer to a movie music / orchestral. But that's still quite not as good as some music in wotlk and before. Also cata and mop had some fairly memorable themes. But at this moment the OST started to change style a bit imo.

Agreed. The Bloodelf starting area is a piece that I will love forever and ever. No song in WoW has come close to sounding this magical, love it.

Then again, I just love big strings so there's that. Just an opinion.

[Garkanh]

Nothing will ever beat the first time i set foot in grizzly hills back in wotlk and heard the music there.

[Eggroll]

The thing is that a lot of persons seem to like the new music. Tastes you'll say, but I don't know, sometimes I wonder how old are they, when did they joined, if they normally like music outside the game, if they're the type to really pay attention to music and its details, do they easily know if they like a music or do they listen to it multiple times. I personally don't get it, but you'd be surprised how people's taste can differ.

One: I loved the orchestral pieces, too, especially those with choir
Second: If you read the game credits, you clearly see that Blizzard has stopped to put effort or money into the production of game music. Of course it will show.

[Pull My Finger]

Do you have a better music from recently better than the music I linked for instance ? probably where we'll see how people have different tastes

Don't know what pieces you linked, but I saw you posted the Sin'dorei stuff. Hard to name anything that beats that, because it's generally some of the most fucking brilliant music in a game ever. It's incredible. But apart from that, I don't think TBC was actually that notable. I feel that WoW music started to become really great from WotLK on.

Can you kindly point out the leaps in Legion. Because I utterly missed them. Thanks

Generally a lot of the Nightborne and Suramar stuff is fantastic. It's just hits home so incredibly well and tells a story without needing images or words. It encapsulates the zones, the race and the background lore really, really well. The themes themselves are emotional and the stuff is also very soundly instrumentated, using unsual stuff like Cimbalom etc. You don't hear that kind of stuff at every corner.

The Broken Shore piece "Shackled", in its different variations, is incredible. There's a solemn "seriousness" to it that's new for WoW and you don't hear often in mass entertainment. Absolutely brilliant piece, heavy on meaning and emotion.

Argus music generally is great. Takes a bit more of a discerning, careful ear, but there's some fantastic stuff in there. Not too obvious when just hearing the stuff casually play while you're doing shit, but again - really carries meaning and strong emotions. It's just a little bit different from the stuff we used to hear in WoW. You can hear it's still the same game, but there's a drift to it that felt fresh to me and I appreciate that they're still passionately working on these things, instead of jist going through the motions as they could.

[Cæli]

Don't know what pieces you linked, but I saw you posted the Sin'dorei stuff. Hard to name anything that beats that, because it's generally some of the most fucking brilliant music in a game ever. It's incredible. But apart from that, I don't think TBC was actually that notable. I feel that WoW music started to become really great from WotLK on.

Here's a few examples that I think are notable from TBC. I didn't noticed at first, played at the time and only realized years after when listening outside the game and paying attention how good that was.


Nagrand : https://youtu.be/1yFiU5Ctr6g?t=6m07s

The whole piece is great but some moments really stands out. I usually don't like "orchestra" like music because I often find it poorly composed, but this piece of video game music manage to create a long and haunting melody. It is not overly emotional, it feels like beauty and I feel that's precisely what the composer wanted to depict with nagrand. It's ambient and epic at the same time, it has a real identity.

I really want to like current music, but compared to the old work, I believe the word for all this orchestra overload is just goofy. sorry my opinion