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Jukebox Heroes: Tabula Rasa's soundtrack
It's a well-known fact that the ghost of Tabula Rasa haunts the Massively offices. I think it's because Shawn keeps feeding it ectopellets because he's not quite ready to let his beloved MMO go. The ghost is driving the rest of us crazy because it's constantly switching the labels on our lunchboxes and whistling the Tabula Rasa theme through the air ducts while we're trying to get honest work done. So while the MMO no longer exists outside of a few forlorn collector's editions picking up dust on store shelves, the music persists. Tabula Rasa boasted a strong score thanks to the work of Tracy W. Bush. Bush is a name you should know when it comes to MMO soundtracks: He had a huge hand in the World of Warcraft score and contributed to several NCsoft titles (which are all dead, but that's probably not his fault). [Edit: Several readers wrote in to let me know that Curse Mackey, Stacie Cline, Chris Vrenna, and Clint Walsh also contributed to the score. Thanks!] I find that sci-fi MMOs, particularly shooter-based ones, tend to elicit heavier tracks and more synth work than orchestral, and they are sometimes relentlessly grim. All of the above certainly can be applied to Tabula Rasa, up to and including its final surprising track.
Jukebox Heroes: Starting your MMO music collection
I love seeing people turned on to MMO music, particularly after it's gotten such a bad rap over the years. But for the new fan, it can be a daunting proposition to start up a collection. After all, it's not as if you can go down to your local vinyl shop, peruse a stack of 45s, and come out with a full set of SOE's greatest hits. Only a fraction of MMO scores are available for purchase these days, with the rest being free, packaged in with collector's editions, out of print, or just tucked away inside of game files somewhere. So how do you get started on building up a robust library of MMO music? If you don't have deep pockets, which scores would I recommend you pick up first? Well, my friend, I've given it some thought and have put together a guide to six essential purchases that will get you off to a great start. Don't thank me; thank music. And also me because I did this hard work.
Jukebox Heroes: Warhammer Online's soundtrack
Even though it's fashionable to bash Warhammer Online these days (or every day since 2008, I guess), I still have a lot of affection for this particular game. It was the MMO that got me into blogging, connected me with many of my current online friends, and provided exciting experiences for well over a year. So when I hear the music, there's a rush of nostalgia that floods my brain and runs down to my extremities. That's not to say it's a particularly terrific score. I'd probably classify Warhammer Online's soundtrack as slightly below average; it does the job it needed to do, but it doesn't provide any stellar breakout tracks that will endure long after I've logged out. Still, it's worth examining. The score was handled by Mythic in-house composer Brad Derrick (who also helped to make an amusing Dwarf ballad while he was there). What did he come up with to represent this savagely twisted world? Let's find out!
Jukebox Heroes: EVE Online's soundtrack
EVE Online's soundtrack is a strange puppy to me. I've heard players proclaim their love and undying affection for it, although I believe that a great deal of that is tied into game loyalty and monogamy. From this outsider's perspective, it's a large number of ambient synth tracks that are big on atmosphere and small on catchy melodies or memorable themes. Even though I wouldn't rate it as one of the most exciting scores I've covered for this column, I don't want to dismiss its atmospheric nature as a negative. Creating a soundscape that communicates the wonder, mystery, and largely empty gulf of the cosmos has proven to be a great asset to gamer immersion for EVE, and at least most of these tracks are soothing and low-key enough to warrant a high rating on the replayability scale. Icelandic composer Jón Hallur Haraldsson was in charge of this project. Responding to an interview question about the score's musical category, Haraldsson said, "Back in the days I used to concern myself a lot with defining my music, but I don't do that as much anymore. I like to amalgamate, to take whatever I like from whatever style and try to put that into my music." You can listen to a bulk of the game's music on Sound Cloud, but here are my picks for the six best tracks out of the bunch!
Jukebox Heroes: Character select music
Character select and creation music has always fascinated me. OK, maybe not fascinated; it's interested me. I've always viewed such themes as the overture of the game, the interlude between the title theme and the game proper to come. These themes don't tend to be rip-roaring in their presentation because that's not their purpose. They have to be pleasant enough without being annoying when looped endlessly. After all, sometimes players spend a loooong time making their characters or sitting there at the select screen, and the last thing you want is for their ears to become fatigued by the experience. So here are six MMO character select and character creation themes that I've enjoyed over the years. And if you saw the title graphic up there and immediately started hearing this song in your head, then you and I probably grew up in the same era.
Jukebox Heroes: Defiance's soundtrack
First of all, I wish my first name were a cool animal. Bear McCreary has that on me, so it seems unfair that he's also a geek icon for his work on several beloved TV series (Battlestar Galactica, Eureka, The Walking Dead). And now the guy is composing the soundtrack of one of this spring's hottest MMOs? Where did I go wrong with my life? Before I go and change my name to Sugar Glider Olivetti, I guess it's only fair that I put a lid on my hurt ego to give Defiance's score a fair listen. McCreary was tapped to create the music for both the MMO and the TV series, giving the crossover project a unified sound. "I had to make sure that players could hang out in one area for long stretches of time without getting bored by repetitive music," McCreary wrote on his blog. "As a result, melody plays less of a role throughout many of these cues. The real stars of this music are the texture and colors." Music has texture and colors? If Bear says it, then it must be. Let's dive in!
Jukebox Heroes: Wrath of the Lich King's soundtrack
After my so-so review of The Burning Crusade's score a few months ago, I'm sure a few of you thought I was barking mad. World of Warcraft is well-known for great orchestra pieces, but I stick by saying that most of the brilliant stuff stayed the heck away from Outland. Fortunately, the sound quality got a lot better when we went up north for Wrath of the Lich King in 2008. The score was composed and arranged by Russell Brower, Derek Duke, Matt Uelmen, Neal Acree, and Glenn Stafford. As to be expected by that name sandwich, the score features a lot of variety. While there are epic chants and the like that are to be expected from WoW, there's also a lonely, savage feel to the music that represents these far-off lands. There's also a lot of blowing wind that segues between tracks if you listen to the album straight through, and if that doesn't make you envision a snow-blasted landscape, I don't know what would. The liner notes say that "this is the music of ice and despair, a dirge and a call to arms." I couldn't put it better myself. Let's dive into my picks for the best tracks from this score, shall we?
Jukebox Heroes: Battle music!
It's time once again to take a week off from looking at specific MMO soundtracks and open ourselves up to a theme instead. The topic? Battle music. Yeah, it can be some of the most obnoxious music in the game, especially after hearing it for the 3,000th time, but every once in a while I hear a piece that has some merit to it. These are the ones we want to examine today. What makes for a good battle music track? I think it has to get you excited without being annoying or grating and not so loud or incredibly noticeable that you can't help but get tired of it sooner rather than later. It was actually pretty tricky to pull together six such tracks for this column, but I managed to do with with the help of Colonel Bugle up there. He's got the best MP3 collection around.
Jukebox Heroes: Super Adventure Box's soundtrack
OK, yeah, how could I not do this? I know that we at Massively have gone a little ga-ga over ArenaNet's stellar April Fools' Day prank-slash-massive update, but when I saw that the team released a half-hour of original score in addition to all of the pixelated monkey mayhem, I knew I had to review it. Your enjoyment of Guild Wars 2's Super Adventure Box and its score will largely depend on your memories or feelings about old-school video games. For a kid who grew up on 8-bit and 16-bit games, the sound of SAB is pure nostalgia (even if it is original composition). I think it's also as catchy as cooties. Composers Maclaine Diemer and Leif Chappelle put in a lot of effort to not just make a classic-sounding soundtrack here but specifically reference and pay homage to plenty of old-school hits. Hang with me as I highlight the best of Super Adventure Box, and I promise that next week we'll get back to serious business.
The Perfect Ten: Final moments of MMOs, part 1
Maybe many of us would just rather remember MMOs as they were in life rather than at the moment of their demise. But I believe that how a game went out is incredibly fascinating for many reasons and worthy of examination. It's in these final moments when an entire community has to say goodbye. It's in these moments that the developers mourn as well before pulling the plug. It's in these moments that history is being made one last time. And it goes without saying that it's in these moments that everyone curses the unfairness of it all. Today we're going to watch the first half of 10 videos featuring MMOs in their final moments. It's here we'll see how weird, crazy, sad, and interesting things can get. Maybe you were part of one (or more) of these moments or are simply curious what it was like. Either way, it's the end of the world as we know it. And we feel fine.
Jukebox Heroes: Guild Wars Factions' soundtrack
East Asian-themed music in MMOs is something that I generally welcome. Even if the title isn't an Asian MMO, chances are that sooner or later developers like to work an Eastern zone, class, or city into the game -- and with that comes a specific sound. I'm by no means educated on what instruments are used in these tunes, but the result is so distinctive that you can't help but think of the region. Guild Wars: Factions definitely drew upon the Orient for its theme, and composer Jeremy Soule returned to create a score that would paint a picture of Cantha. Unfortunately, I don't think he was up to the task. While technically sufficient, Factions' score is definitely lacking in the grandeur of Prophecies and the basic catchiness necessary to elevate a soundtrack out of the crowd. The best I can say is that none of the tracks is horrible to hear, but the album as a whole is actually a bit bland and forgettable. I'm by no means besmirching Soule here. His previous and subsequent Guild Wars projects are heads and shoulders above this one, and everyone has an off day. Perhaps Asian music just wasn't his forte. In any case, I sifted vigorously to discover six tracks that best represent Cantha and its people.
Jukebox Heroes: The Sims Online's soundtrack
The recent SimCity is by far not the only botched product that EA's launched with the Sims name on it. The truth is that The Sims Online had a great potential and franchise behind it, but it let the ball drop, big-time. It was already visually obsolete by the time it launched, and that was the least of its worries. Yet this fizzled MMO-slash-chat room had some pretty solid music backing it up. I've always been partial to the Sims series when it comes to OSTs because sometimes I just want to relax to happy, effervescent tunes. Series composer Jerry Martin produced the score to TSO in the same vein as his other projects, and it's still a delight to hear. Unfortunately, the only way you can get a copy of the soundtrack today is to find a seller who's got an otherwise-useless copy of The Sims Online: Charter Edition lying around. Otherwise, it might just be easier to forge on in this column and get a taste of the Sims soundscape!
Jukebox Heroes: Final Fantasy XI's soundtrack
Hey you! Want a good way to die a horrible, painful death? Enter into any geek domain and put down the music of the Final Fantasy series. Do it. I double-dog dare you. Even scrubs who couldn't identify a single other composer or notable video game soundtrack will leap to the defense of One-Winged Angel. While I generally do like the Final Fantasy tunes, especially the earlier 8-bit era stuff and Final Fantasy IX, I haven't seen it as an infallible series in regard to its music. I think along the way Nobuo Uematsu's become this person who can Do No Wrong in the gaming community, which has stifled an honest look at both the highs and lows of his soundtracks. I don't want to be all about hero worship or mindless bashing today; I want to examine a fairly good but not perfect soundtrack that represented Final Fantasy's first foray into MMOs. Along with Uematsu, Naoshi Mizuta and Kumi Tanioka shared composing duties on this project. There's some terrific stuff here that you'll listen to after the jump, but there are a lot more completely forgettable (and sometimes annoying!) tracks that have been shoehorned into FFXI's expansive game. So let's come down to earth and see what Final Fantasy XI has in store for us.
Jukebox Heroes: The Matrix Online's soundtrack
It's been almost three-and-a-half years since players were forced to unplug from The Matrix Online for the last time, but the memories and music remain. When I first was wowed by The Matrix back in 1999, the dark, action-packed score became an instant favorite of mine. It's a franchise in which the sound is critical to the feel of the films, and it makes sense that this would extend to the MMO. The makers of MxO went to great lengths to retain the look, story, and audio of the films, which is why the trilogy's composer, Don Davis, was called in to create the music for the game. While the films are more dependent on an orchestra for the score, Davis went with a heavy synth sound for the MMO. It's still quite Matrix-y, however, and pretty dang cool to discover (or discover all over again). Let's boot up this ancient laptop that I found and see if we can coax a few tunes out of it before Windows 98 shuts down on us for good.
Music on the frontier: An interview with WildStar composer Jeff Kurtenacker
A great soundtrack has the ability to raise the mundane to memorable and the wonderful to epic. It's hard to imagine films like Star Wars or Back to the Future without their iconic scores or video games like Super Mario Bros. and Final Fantasy without their catchy tunes. So I'm always keen to hear the soundtracks of up-and-coming MMOs because they give me an indication of how much care is being given to the overall quality of the project. I'm doubly excited for WildStar's score because it's being composed by Jeff Kurtenacker. Kurtenacker produced one of my all-time favorite MMO soundtracks, Pirates of the Burning Sea, which is a playful, exuberant romp through the nautical soundscape. And so far from what we've heard of WildStar's score, we can expect much of the same when we make planetfall on Nexus. On one drizzly afternoon in a country that you've never heard of, Kurtenacker met with us in a small pub to talk about the joys of creating the music that will soon be infecting the brains of thousands (millions?) of gamers worldwide. Read on, space-man or space-woman, and be astounded!
Jukebox Heroes: Soul of the Ultimate Nation's soundtrack
Yes, you're seeing the header graphic correctly; Howard Shore is the powerhouse behind Soul of the Ultimate Nation's soundtrack. Yes, it's that Howard Shore -- The Lord of the Rings guy (not to mention all of his dozens of other film score projects dating back to 1979). How this smallish MMO was able to attract the likes of Mr. Shore I have no idea, but we're faced with the reality that the game did and this exists. Other than doing a little double-take when I first found this out, I'm really cool with it. I love it when well-known movie composers dip into video games, such as when Harry Gregson-Williams branched out to do several of the Metal Gear Solid titles. Shore's works are really distinctive and give SUN a sound that's far more "professional" than many of the game's contemporaries. That said, it's not the best score I've ever heard. It's quite noisy and pulls a little too much from the LotR films. Sometimes composers crib their own works (Harry Potter's music is John William's shameless ripoff of his own Home Alone soundtrack), and that's just how it goes. Let's take a look at an MMO scored by a Hollywood bigshot, shall we?
PlanetSide 2 rocks: An interview with composer Jeff Broadbent
In this post-Halo age, it's hard to imagine any sort of galactic ground battle happening without a stirring score at your back. So the challenge to the SOE audio team and Composer Jeff Broadbent was formidable: PlanetSide 2's soundtrack had to rock so hard that it would bring tears to the eyes of combat-hardened troops. Whether or not the musicians and audio team succeeded is, of course, your personal opinion, but it's hard not to be impressed with the end result. Broadbent's worked on a variety of projects spanning video games, TV, and film, but PlanetSide 2 is his first crack at scoring an MMO. We talked with Broadbent about his inspirations, experiences on the project, and his take on the end result. Read on and be enlightened!
Jukebox Heroes: Spiral Knights' soundtrack
Wow, talk about a soundtrack that leaped up and bit me on the... earbuds! Sometimes I'm surprised how the smaller MMOs get treated to such lavish score releases while big-name games hoard their music to themselves, but in the case of Spiral Knights, I'm sincerely glad that this two-volume set was put out there for the world to enjoy. It truly is a kickin' project. Spiral Knights was composed and arranged by Harry Mack (Doctor Who: Worlds in Time, Braid). Mack likes the smaller indie projects, so tackling this was one of his more high-profile works. For this album, Mack said that he was inspired by retro games: "It pulls a lot from the 'sound' of an earlier era, coupled in with more modern, easier-on-the-ears instruments." The end result is a chirpy, peppy ride through a clockwork MMO, and trust me when I say that I had a hard time narrowing it down to just six picks. I hope that by the end of this column I'll have convinced you to listen to the rest of this terrific score.
Jukebox Heroes: Granado Espada's soundtrack
So here's an impossible task that lies before me right now: picking one musical genre that defines Granado Espada's score. I can't. It simply cannot be done. I've listened to a lot of soundtracks, my friends, and this game's score is literally all over the place. I don't know how or why the composers chose to toss opera, techno, electronic, international, jazz, and epic fantasy together like a bi-polar salad, but the end result is a nutritious blend of the crazy voices and catchy tunes. Part of the... diversity on display here is the result of of a collaboration between several composers and one composer group: SoundTeMP, S.F.A., Junsung Kim, and Osamu Kubota. The game's sound department defended the decision to host a variety of composers in an interview, saying, "We took such an ambitious approach with the music in terms of different styles and the sheer quantity that we knew relying solely on a single composer would be inadequate." Granado Espada has survived several transitions between companies and even a couple of name changes, but its soundtrack has endured just fine. It may be one of the most eccentric soundtracks you'll ever absorb, but at least it's never boring!
Jukebox Heroes: A few of my favorite MMO soundtracks
I could hear some of you thinking in disbelief last week, "If Age of Conan isn't one of your top MMO scores, what is? And just how much am I not sending you a Christmas card this year, you loser?" You were kind enough to just think it and not say it, but I could hear it even so. As we've mentioned countless times in this column, musical tastes are subjective. What's appealing to you may not be for me and vice-versa. What more is that musical tastes -- and favorites -- are always shifting around. I listen back to the jams that I enjoyed in the '90s and absolutely pity my younger self for such a deficiency in his musical diet. So I thought that I'd take a week off our normal soundtrack reviews to bring to you my current top six favorite soundtracks. This list comes with the caveat that it's always subject to future changes as I continue to listen through more soundtracks for this column.
