DirectSong: Good idea or not?

[da.Guvna]

I'm just curious to see what everyone else thinks of this.

http://www.directsong.com/direct_song_main.htm

Personally, I think it's a laughably daft idea. I can't ever imagine wanting to pay money for extra in-game music, unless it was by my fav band and there was no other way to purchase it EVER.
But then, I play guild wars with the music turned off and Winamp running, so maybe I'm the odd one?

[iMc]

Pointless. Why would you want to pay to do that.

Most games have the option to turn the music off and keep SFX on so you can play tunes in the background.

[directhex]

take a feature film like The Matrix. replace the orchestral score and carefully selected pre-existing tracks with whatever tosh it is kids listen to these days.

do it for ANY film

imagine trying to play, say, Rez without any music

music is a vital part of the entertainment experience, and a lot of hard work goes into selecting appropriate music for any particular task. We all love our own tunes, but can you really say a game keeps its general atmosphere, as envisioned by its designers, when you replace the game music with some random crap?

suppose it matters how much you care, really

personally i think the idea of selling add-ons like this is a good one.

so you don't want to pay for better jusic. would you pay for... hmmm... high-res textures? that's a good example - say 3 quid gets you far better looking, more detailed character models. if you'd even consider it, then you understand directsong - you just don't like ingame music

[beanbandit]

I think this is a great idea. There is a big enough market for game music, and its currently expanding, so this gives people the option to listen to the music when not playing. Or with the official expansion paks it gives the devs a chance to change the music with out spoiling the atmosphere.

imagine trying to play, say, Rez without any music

Thats illegal!

[Dooms]

When i play wow & guild wars i dont have any music or sound on - mainly becuase im normaly playing in a window and have something like scrubs playing in the corner

[directhex]

Thats illegal!

it's not a great example (because it can easily be fixed with a copy of the offspring's americana), but try pressing the mute key on your tv when playing crazy taxi. i swear, the game INSTANTLY becomes boring

[TiG]

I can't imagine playing a game without sound/music. Unless it something like panzer general where its strategy and lose nothing from not having it.

WoW etc needs sound, otherwise how you going to hear an enemy rogue if he gets too close?, oh thats it your not heh.

Seriously LOVE the direct song web site tho
TiG

[da.Guvna]

I think it largely depends on the game you're playing as to whether the music adds to the atmosphere or not.

In my opinion, games like Halo, Far Cry, and other action games rely heavily on music to create that air of danger in frantic moments, etc. Also, I thought the musical score for FFVII was tremendous, and there's no way it would have been the same game with my winamp playlist playing in the background instead, haha.

At the same time, I don't really feel that games like Guild Wars are that atmospheric anyway. I don't feel attached to my character or the plot, and I don't feel in anyway immersed when I play the game (notice I say "immersed" and not "engrossed", because believe me, I get engrossed ), and to be frank, I don't think that the guild wars score is really punchy enough to make me feel otherwise. I know how bad this sounds, but I mainly play my winamp playlist simply to prevent boredom while running across the map. Plot-wise, I think GW has less depth than Doom3, and you never really get any moments of emotional/dramatic intensity that would beneift from music.

So, for me (as far as GW goes at least) there is no appeal in paying for more music. I'd rather put that money towards the next chapter