I have a Muckin' Great Clubbe....

[unixronin]

... for game designers who think it's a good idea to give a game four bars of music that just repeat.  Over and over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over.  And over....

And what makes it worse is when the game author picks something that you actually liked until you heard four distinctive bars of it a thousand times in a row.

Comments

[otherbill.livejournal.com]

Is it like the cello line from Pachebel's Canon in D?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

This specific instance is a seven-note sample from the beginning of Alan Parsons' Eye in the Sky. But our smalls have half a dozen different games that do it. There's one particular game line, Dally Doo or something like that, which is particularly bad about doing it.

[lebo-superman.livejournal.com]

Ha, ha! I was just thinking about that - and wondering if there was some line of code I could edit (or something like that) in "Oblivion" .esp files which would let me activate my wmp and listen to REAL music while I'm playing. So, I can fully understand your pain.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

But I thought you *liked* EBM....

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I like good EBM. :)

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

This is why I used to turn off the music when I played games.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Most games for adults have pretty decent music. So far, ALMOST all of the examples I've encountered of "three to four bars repeated forever" occur in children's games. This particular example was the exception ... it's a more-or-less all-ages arcade-style game, Rocks & Diamonds, which is a PC port of several closely related arcade games, and the repetitive music is in only one of its variations.