There’s something most gamers probably don’t think about when playing a MMO, and that is musical score. This is mainly due to the fact that, despite being pretty good, very few MMOs have great soundtracks that will get you blood pumping like the music from Gears of War 2 or Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The exception to this rule is, and I can’t believe I’m writing these words, World of Warcraft. The first time you enter Stormwind and you hear that loud choral theme, you just can’t help but feel like, “Hell yeah! This is my city!” When I used to play WoW, back in the day, one of the major draws to the game was that it felt like a living, breathing world. In retrospect it’s clearly pretty stagnant, as NPCs are always in the same place and nothing you do actually affects anything in the world. What made it feel real was the soundtrack in the background, whether loud or soft, that just matched the area you were in. The music completely complimented the setting and it added a lot to the experience. Sure, the end game raider probably doesn’t give a crap, but for someone who was new to the genre, it was a major hook.

And this is really one of my major problems with LOTRO. The soundtrack is by no means terrible, but the only time I’ve ever felt moved in the slightest by the music was when I finally exited Moria and looked down on Lothlorien as this dramatic elvish music was playing. There are no themes you can really associate with a zone because so much of the music is used in more than one place and by the time you reach the top of the ravine that leads to Rivendell, you’ve heard the Rivendell theme so many times while questing that it makes absolutely no impact. That and most of the tracks have no intensity or personality. They’re absolutely mild when there’s no need to be. It’s sad that the tune to the pre-Moria capital city’s theme was a single guitar being strummed with people clapping in the background. On the other hand, since Moria it’s much improved, but the repetition haunts it everywhere. Turbine need to get Chance Thomas (their orchestral composer) and their synth team to get off their asses and write more stuff, because I’m tired of hearing the same song in five different zones.

Now that I’m done complaining, I’m just going to express my hopes that as MMOs get more popular, the quality of music in them will increase and therefore, so will the experience. The day an instance’s music will get me as excited as the Crysis combat song or the Halo theme will be a great day indeed for MMOs. It adds so much to the experience and the joy of playing a game that it is really a shame not more MMOs have excellent soundtracks.

Hmmm… BioWare games have good music…