I like even numbers. There's something elegant about the way that each even number is double some other number. So I went to page 246 in my thesaurus. (I believe a thesaurus is more useful than a dictionary for everyday writing.) Then I went six words down, because six is a perfect number and I like it. What did I find? The word "Hearing." (Nouns - 1. hearing, sense of hearing; audition, auscultation; eavesdropping, audibility...etc.) Realizing that this was no coincidence, I immediately got an idea for a blog entry and sat down to write about music in Runescape.
This is actually how I get ideas, by the way.
Anyway.
Most of us probably don't listen to Runescape's music very often, but maybe we should. They may not be the catchiest of tunes, but they can really add atmosphere to the experience. "Armageddon," the track in the God Wars dungeon, is a good example--it's a pounding war march that captures the feeling of a four-way battle, and even manages to throw in some tinkling bells to reflect the icy setting. The Chosen Commander's "But We Can Fight" is just the sort of heroic theme that you ought to be listening to before your final stand against Bandos. Music from the Wilderness is the sort of thing you'd expect to hear in a horror film right before somebody gets murdered.
I remember starting out in Runescape and listening to the "Newbie Melody" during the tutorial. To this day, it's still the song I most associate with the game, except perhaps for the "Scape Theme." And some of the songs are actually pretty damn good--try listening to "Route of the Problem," for example. I also very much enjoy the piano melody in the smooth arpeggios of "Waiting for Battle."
So why don't people listen to Runescape music? Perhaps it's the sheer size of the track list. There are over 600 different music tracks in the game--that's a lot. Seriously. And not all of them are any good. You can look through the song list and go, "Hey, 'Fangs For the Memory,' that's an interesting name. Bet that sounds good." Then you play it, and...meh, it'll be okay, but not nearly worth the effort of going through the list and choosing it.
The truth is, while there are a few standout songs and many that provide atmosphere in a particular area, the majority of tracks are mediocre. Sure, ambience is nice, but we aren't typically looking to immerse ourselves while we grind skills, and the few that are epic aren't worth dredging through the long track list to find. Listening to Runescape music can be like going fishing: you get all geared up and ready to go, then you spend four hours sitting in a boat waiting for a bite. Sure, sometimes you'll get to wrestle a salmon out of the river, but most of the time the best you can do is enjoy the fresh air.
Still, though it may not always wow us, Runescape's music is underrated. We ought to give it a chance more often--it's worth giving a listen once in a while. So the next time you do a new quest or try out a new minigame, flick off your iTunes and give the game's soundtrack a listen. It is, for the most part, a solid and worthy score. Besides, I know we all want the Air Guitar emote.
By the way, you need to unlock 500 songs to unlock Air Guitar. And guess what the sixth word on page 500 of my thesaurus is? That's right, "Secret." You heard it here first, folks--there's a secret that can only be unlocked if you have exactly 500 songs and only during June (the sixth month of the year). Mark your calendars--this may be the elusive answer to the secret that lies behind the mysterious door in the God Wars Dungeon!
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