Whoosh
In my defense, I did read an article recently about a mobile game that added DLC music awarded through player achievements. Interestingly, the games forums were dead-set against it, afraid it would shift resources from creating new scenarios or something, but turned out to be a BIG draw for casual players, keeping them playing the game longer, much less drop-out after three months.
On-topic though: while I wouldn’t be opposed to a few more tracks or a somewhat longer track (as long as they won’t hog up too much precious MB’s) I think it’s really not worth it considering the amount of people that play the game with the music muted in favor of their own music or activity.
I’ve read many articles about music in mobile games and MB’s aren’t a problem when done right, considering most game music is repeating loops. It’s how you mix those loops that makes a difference between good music players want to listen to over and over again and “meh” or annoying music that players mute forever after a few minutes. Again, the problem is most mobile game devs consider music something necessary but trivial (when they consider it at all.)
In my experience, games with great soundtracks have a lot of diversity and also change due to progression/levels/tension etc. But MPQ is just matching gems until the level is over and the levels don’t really change either.
Good point. MPQ levels do last long enough for a decent tune, but right now the music plays at a steady fast pace that doesn’t change, so maybe even a slight change in tempo from start to finish might make a difference? Considering all the talented people d3 has making many, many games they should be able to do a little experimenting with the music, if only to one-up their competitors.
mpqr7’s response:
I could definitely do all of that and more! Have a full song, add and remove elements, change the tempo, you name it, I’ll do it. Put me in, coach!!!
Any samples we could listen to? How about recording videos of a few battles from start to victory/defeat with the music off but sound effects on, then compose new music for the video? If you do, please try different genres/styles. “Generic Synth Noise” and “Overly Orchestrated Mess” are soooooooooo overdone, some electro swing or rock-a-billy would be appreciated. Also, doing this could make for a good demo to show dev companies who are seriously lacking in the music department.
You have already lost pretty much everyone on the forum with that statement.
Oops, bad copy/paste there. I think I meant to say that it feels like 4-5 hours because you have so much else to do in your life. Maybe. I was distracted by the internet at the time. Hard to do any research on forum topics because every time you look up something (like procedurally-generated music in games) you keep finding more interesting stuff to read/watch/investigate. And of course cat videos. There’s no escaping the time-theft of cat videos.
Also, losing everyone on this forum isn’t a problem considering everybody here only makes up 0.00000000001% of the global player base for d3 games. Only the most hard-core players of mobile games with oodles of free time and a strong passion for a specific game visit forums. This really skews the viewpoints represented here. For example, everyone here likes MPQ (as it is) so much they are compelled to visit these forums, so they have a vested interest in the game remaining the same and auto-dislike suggestions that might bring about change.
This is good for devs as it gives them insight into the game’s strengths from players who really, really, really like playing the game, but it can (and has) destroyed games if the devs take their forums too seriously. If the devs only pay attention to forums they miss out entirely on the feedback from 100,000 times more players who try the game for a week/month before deleting it due to the game taking progressively more time to play as they get better, a reward system that heavily favors a deep commitment most can’t develop, a PvP system that totally ignores experience and skill disparities, or annoying music (for most casual players annoying/aggressive music creates a bad impression of the game from the very start that sticks with them even after muting.)
Biggest problem is the forums are often the only way to give devs the feedback they need, which opens the casual player to a lot of abuse. If 90% of new players delete a game after ten minutes of play because the PvP system is totally out of whack (first-time players are put up against experienced hard-core e-sport level slaughter machines) and just one of them posts on the forum “The PvP is too hard for new players” they are shouted down by a dozen forum dwellers who believe the game is perfect as is, so the devs are going to believe the PvP system working just fine and no changes need to be done.
That being said, we did get an Infinity Stone that is aimed at .001% of the playerbase, so, maybe we are looking at more niche needs.
Supporting niche needs makes for a highly profitable mobile game. The games that respond to niche requests while building on their core strengths are pulling in truck-loads more money than those that only follow forum echo chambers. MPQ has already done this with new character polls, supports, etc., so why can’t they try improving the music to appease those casual players (who don’t post in forums) who think a game’s music says a lot about how fun it is to play?
