soundtracks on games: always a good thing?

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I'm not sure what I think about musical soundtracks on games. I think my concern may be an aspie thing, so I'd value your opinions.

This is only about games with a strong story, I am not talking about Mario or Tetris.

This is my concern: I think music reduces a story, by reducing the possible interpretations. Maybe I think killing a character is a tragedy? The music tells me I am supposed to be excited. Maybe I think kissing a character is shallow? The music tells me it is supposed to be deep. Maybe I find some background details fascinating? The music tells me they are not important. The story is restricted, reduced, dumbed down.

Is this an aspie thing, a tendency to see the world differently? OR do NTs find music problematic as well?


[tangent:]
I have another problem as well. By combining music and story we not only reduce the story, we reduce the music. For example, I grew up in Britain with a TV series abut a sailing ship, called the Oneidin Line. It started with a sailing ship and some of the most beautiful music I have ever heard. That music always meant the sea to me. But years later I found it was Katachurian's Spartacus: it was not about a sailing ship, it was supposed to be about a slave revolt in ancient Rome! the music used to tell its own story, but now it has been reduced to simply an add-on to something else - as if the sea is not sufficiently powerful and needed some help. The music has been castrated of its story.

Another example: at the same time there were famous TV ads for a bread called Hovis (some of Ridley Scott's earliest work), and the beautiful music evoked "old and predictable." But I later found it was the New World symphony - the complete opposite of "old and predictable." Once again, powerful music had its story, its heart, torn out. Instead of listening to subtle details that evoke possibilities of the New World, I listen thinking of Ridley Scott selling out to deceptive TV ads. The story possibilities have narrowed.

Video game music can be nice, but I think it's absurd to like any enough to know the name of it on the soundtrack or whatever unless it has lyrics. I just don't get it, people make such a big deal out of the background music and I see it as background only.

Must everything be either an "aspie" thing or an "NT" thing?

Yes. The brain models the universe by savagely simplifying it. The simplified model is not the reality, but merely a tool for fitting an infinitely big universe (trillions and trillions of dimensions and relationships) into the seven items that can fit in short term memory.

Absurd simplifying is very far from perfect, but it is all we have.

I like video game music especially Elder Scrolls music haunting but nice, Dragon Age, Fable and Doom. I have a few video game songs they are good relaxation songs for me.

I cannot concentrate with music in a game and always disable it. Silence is golden.

Okay, this turned out to be... I'm not sure this is what you're looking for but I'm just going to leave it like this.

Maybe think of it this way: the author wants to tell his story - not any other story.

By actually telling his story he gives away some of his control because those who hear it will automatically interpret it differently than him. Some interpretation are really close to the author's and some interpretations have very little in common with the author's but they all differ from the original intention he had when telling his story.

Basically, he owns his story but he can't avoid it changing the moment he shares what is safely kept away in his mind. Nevertheless, he has a reason for telling his story and that reason is more powerful than his concern with that others will take "his" story and make it "theirs". (reasons: enlightenment, support, ill-intentions, boredom, money...) The author may want to encourage others to create their personal interpretation even!

Yes, music seeks to empower a certain interpretation of a scene and thereby at the same time restricts other possible interpretations. But restriction isn't always negative. By restricting we hope to achieve and usually when expressing ourselves (so obviously, this isn't as true for powerful producers who're out for money) we restrict possible interpretations because we want someone to understand us, want someone to pay attention to a certain detail or avoid "misunderstandings".

The very basis of "interaction" is restricting another's interpretation to make him see "hey, look, THIS is how I meant it". If we don't do it, we have no "common ground" on which we can make the other know what we want him to know.

Telling stories started out as a means of establishing common ground to help explain ourselves, to teach or to share specific information and to serve as an entertainment (or al at once) and still serves these purposes today. Looking at it from that perspective, trying to influence someone's interpretation of a story can be a good thing and a bad thing.



A lot of my friends (all non-autistic) who play video games get annoyed with songs they don't like or when there are songs that don't fit their interpretation of scenes.

Yes, I am sure you are right in the vast majority of cases. Also, in the vast majority of cases, the user wants escapism. They have certain genre expectations, they pay for certain feelings, and the game is expected to deliver. But I am interested in a different kind of story.

Take movies for example. A conventional war story would include fighting scenes with heroic music to heighten the excitement. But what about the war sections of Forrest Gump? Or Catch 22? Or Good Morning Vietnam? These could be read in different ways: heroic, confused, or darkly comic. The same goes for books and plays. How are we supposed to feel in Death of a Salesman? Or Hamlet? I think some stories are deliberately ambiguous.

Other stories are ambiguous because the writer genuinely does not care. Take comics for example. A couple of years ago Spider-Man had his marriage magically removed because the editors thought a younger character would sell more copies. The move destroyed thirty years of continuity, and many fans were outraged. Clearly the fans cared for the characters more than the writers did. The writers often say they are "just comics" and the fans take them far too seriously.

I like stories that you can think about and debate deeper or alternative meanings. I think games are the perfect medium for that kind of story, because you can choose where to click and what to do. Some games will try to push to back to a particular direction, but it's very nice when they don't. In that kind of game I think music is often irrelevant and sometimes destructive.

I posted this on an AS forum because I wonder if it is influenced by the aspie trait of not always seeing the "obvious" interpretation of an event.

I like in-game music. Music is often the best part of game. Sometimes I listen to music from games instead of playing them.

As a child I used to listen and silently sing catchy 8-bit melodies from games (I wasn't interested in musical bands at all). Someone once asked me: "Are you okay? You emit weird sounds.". I was the only one who appreciated NES/Femicom music.

Some game music can be awesome. I've played plenty of games where the music could easily be fit into a movie.

Shouldn't this be in Games and Video Games?

I don't generally perceive emotion in music, unless it has lyrics that clearly indicate a certain emotion.

Whoops, you're probably right. Trouble is, the kind of games I like don't fit with other games. The're more like books. I find non-gamers understand where I am coming from more than gamers.

I don't mind background music that's tied into a platform game. If I'm playing a war game, I want silence. There is no music playing on a battle field in real life.

I voted that silence is sometimes powerful, and I appreciate games that let me turn the soundtrack off.

That said, for me, so many games are powerfully associated with their soundtracks. I love Diablo, Morrowind, Warcraft II, Baldur's Gate II, Planescape: Torment, every Fallout game, World of Warcraft, etc, for music associated with them at some point in the game.

Morrowind's menu music, as well as much of the exploration music in the game, for example, just sucks me right into the game. It establishes the mindset of being into/playing the game for me. The Tristram soundtrack for Diablo just works for me, I spent so much time listening to it. I think a lot of it is nostalgia, hearing it so often when I was obsessed with that game - as long as it's good - earns it a place and I love to listen to it.

I am also a (somewhat lapsed) musician, and enjoy music for that reason as well.

I don't think this is an autistic or NT thing. I think we're all more complex than that.

I love the background music in video games. It wouldn't be the same without it. I'd say the background music is equally essential as the sounds of bullets firing and explosions going off.

Music adds to the emotions of a film or videogame. I especially love it in films when it helps build up to a dramatic part.

I cannot do anything in silence. I must read and write with music playing. The outside world is never silent and if I were to experience true silence I'd be able to hear the blood flowing through my body.