How many times does it take you to hear a piece of game music, to turn it off permanently?

The more accurate title is : How many times does it take you to hear a piece of game music, before you turn it off permanently for the rest of time you play that game?

For me it depends on the type of game music that I am hearing and what I am doing in the game. The music has to be repetitive , which would start to get on my nerves and concentration to play the game. Do you ever get the feeling that repetitive music that sounds awful, played over and over again, is like finger nails grating a chalk board in your ears? That's when I turn off the game music, and play my own music instead. But what is it like for you?

Everyone has different tastes of game music that they like. What games have you played that sounded bad in poor taste, where muting the game ( or turning off the volume ), and playing your own music was the only option to deal with the game play? I have met some people who will always turn off the the game music because it is a distraction to concentrating on playing to game as well.

What's your say?

Late Add :

I do this with Minecraft that I play offline only ( I use it for modeling not as a game )
 
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woodsmoke

Member
It's utterly dependent on how good the music is. If it's an absolute banger I leave it on for sure, probably even turn it up in the options. ~70% of the time I prefer to disable music completely. I'm quite picky, and it quickly distracts me when I need to think. Often when you turn it off the SFX pop more and the game instantly feels more "pure".

Games where I DEFINITELY turn the music off:
Re-volt
Live for Speed
 
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TsukaYuriko

☄️
Forum Staff
Moderator
Three, four, maybe five?

It's not exactly a countable thing... if a game's music is repetitive, bland or annoying, I turn it off.

... the game, that is - I'd rather not play a game I don't fully enjoy. Having to turn music off takes away from the game's atmosphere, which makes it feel less enjoyable to me.
 
The only times I've ever disabled music in a game are either when it's absurdly terrible (only ever happened once or twice; I don't remember the games) or when I've played the game for hundreds of hours already and am just grinding or building while I have a podcast on in the background. I turn the music on after I'm done, though. The two main things that ruin a game track for me are when it's poorly written and when it loops very often. Normally game soundtracks aren't full of awful tracks, so I rarely disable music entirely. I think if a game ever had an entire soundtrack full of auditory diarrhea, I'd probably quit playing the game before I disabled the music.
 
Here's another classic GameMaker game with really good music that fits the game well...(Music I wouldn't mute): ( snipped )
For the music of that game, question is does it change to different music tunes for different levels or does it play the same thing over and over again? That's the problem, that I come across with many of the games that I have played in the past. Also the absence of music has a affect to the player, which does not remind them they are playing a game.
 
Ok heres an example of a video game, that I played, when I had a Commodore 64 ( shown from the Vice 64 emulator - I assume ) , that has an example of a piece of music that I HAVE TO MUTE ( which is a good thing that there is an option for the player to mute ) . Dont even bother trying to play the video past 1 minute, or the music will get on your nerves ( AND I REALLY MEAN IT ).

The game is called Zorro based on the story concept that I remember. I never solved it though....


This is what I exactly mean ( I want to strangle the programmer(s) of this game because I have played Commodore 64 games with better music,
in its time )

Tell me, if your game had this type of music playing like a broken record, what would you do? If you published a game like this with that type of music - how popular would your game be? Seriously, this is an example of a nightmare, for me as a musician for designing game music.

Let me know what you think.
 

K12gamer

Member
For the music of that game, question is does it change to different music tunes for different levels or does it play the same thing over and over again? That's the problem, that I come across with many of the games that I have played in the past. Also the absence of music has a affect to the player, which does not remind them they are playing a game.
It's a short game...but the music does change each level...and luckily all the music is good.

It would be bad if a game had a mix of good and bad music...then you'd be conflicted whether to mute / unmute the music you like / dislike...
 
It's a short game...but the music does change each level...and luckily all the music is good.

It would be bad if a game had a mix of good and bad music...then you'd be conflicted whether to mute / unmute the music you like / dislike...
No it gets worse when you have bad music and the option to mute the music does not exist, so you have to turn down the volume killing the other sounds of the game.
 
How many times do you watch a movie before disabling the soundtrack?

I almost never turn music off in games. It's part of the game. In most cases, music is half the reason I like a game!

The only two exceptions I can think of are @RollyBug's. In Minecraft and the Fallout games from 3 on, the music seems like filler/a complete afterthought, so I usually turn it off.
 
How many times do you watch a movie before disabling the soundtrack?

I almost never turn music off in games. It's part of the game. In most cases, music is half the reason I like a game!

The only two exceptions I can think of are @RollyBug's. In Minecraft and the Fallout games from 3 on, the music seems like filler/a complete afterthought, so I usually turn it off.
If it comes to the point where I must disable a movie soundtrack - then the movie is all wrong. I try to avoid that situation by only playing movies that I have seen and enjoyed. Sometimes its not the same choice with some games that I enjoy , as you said, Minecraft - I do the same thing with mine. I keep wondering why Notch did not allow players to choose their own list of sound tracks, but allow the use of customized resource packs.
 

MissingNo.

Member
Fallout games from 3 on
Haven't played 3 or 4 but I really enjoy the soundtrack (Besides the radio) to New Vegas, Doc Mitchells theme and the various wasteland themes are extremely atmospheric.
Some can be really creepy when exploring abandoned places.

But yeah I almost never turn off the music to games, only exception is if it's a game where grinding is a major factor like Diablo 3. Then I will turn off the music and blast some Guns N' Roses while slaying hundreds.
 

Changgi

Member
Recently a friend showed me a video where a guy talks about the art of making good video game music and in the video, the guy touched on I believe the music of Octopath and how good VGM needs to not get on the player's nerves when played repetitively, so he puts. So yeah it probably more has to do with how well designed around that the soundtrack is rather than "how many times". Also it probably does depending on the choices too like if it was a loud and ear-piercing chiptune that loops after 5 seconds, yeah that's not gonna be good. Plus I think whether it plays continuously or whether there's other pieces of music in between (say maybe the music that repeats is a stage theme but boss themes are interspersed) plays a factor into whether you get annoyed by it.
 
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