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Jukebox Heroes: Lineage II's soundtrack

Justin Olivetti — Tue, 08 Oct 2013 14:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Lineage 2, Opinion, Free-to-Play, Jukebox Heroes, Music

Once again, I must begin this column by advising you to jettison your attitude toward an MMO when it comes to evaluating its music. Lineage II doesn't have the rabid following in the West that it seems to overseas, and I've heard a lot of negativity thrown its way (some of it quite deserved, but this is me jettisoning). However -- and I don't say this lightly -- its musical score is absolutely superb. It's right up there with the best of the industry and deserves to be heard.

Its many soundtrack albums have a small army of composers powering them: Bill Brown, Jamie Christopherson, Inon Zur, Hyobum Lim, Chihwan Kim, Junyup Lee, Junghwan Park, Junghye Hong, and Changbeom Kim. Collaboratively, these folks have assembled a sizable body of work that spans a decade of video game music.

The Lineage II soundtrack is, at times, cinematic, tranquil, lovely, and exciting. Check out these six tracks for a taste of the best, and if that interests you, you might want to listen to my recent Battle Bards podcast in which we dissect this score.

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Jukebox Heroes: Lineage II's soundtrack originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 08 Oct 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jukebox Heroes: TERA's soundtrack

Justin Olivetti — Tue, 10 Sep 2013 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Opinion, Free-to-Play, TERA, Jukebox Heroes, Music

Within the small but passionate video game music community, there's a common gripe that goes around regarding studios' haphazard methods of distributing and selling original soundtracks. My general thought is that it's not that hard to just make a soundtrack a digital purchase through Amazon, iTunes, etc. for those who are interested in purchasing it, but more often than not, one has to look high and low to figure out how to get the desired music.

What's even worse is when a soundtrack is released in different editions by region. Take today's subject, TERA, as an example. TERA's OST was at least released, but in two different editions: the limited 26-track edition given to Europe and Japan and the expansive 50-track edition that debuted in the US. It's just silly to do this sort of thing, but we see it all the time (and don't get me started on the way-too-expensive Japanese import of Final Fantasy XIV's Before Meteor).

Anyway, I have a burr in my saddle about this today because TERA is a tremendous soundtrack. It's rich, evocative, and just plain catchy in parts. If you've listened to only part of this score composed by Inon Zur and Rod Abernethy, then you owe it to yourself to scrounge up the full deal. Here are my favorites!

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Jukebox Heroes: TERA's soundtrack originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 10 Sep 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jukebox Heroes: Expansion themes

Justin Olivetti — Tue, 16 Jul 2013 21:00:00 EST

Filed under: Age of Conan, EverQuest II, Final Fantasy XI, Guild Wars, Opinion, Star Trek Online, Allods Online, Miscellaneous, Jukebox Heroes, Music

Main themes seem to be a strong favorite among video game music fans (and even the casual set), but I've talked about them a few times already. So instead of puttering around with main MMO themes, why not give expansions some of the credit?

Not every expansion gets its own theme tune, of course, but plenty do. We've covered a few of them in this column so far, including Riders of Rohan and EVE Online: Apocrypha. What we haven't done is spend an entire week looking at these upstart themes and see how they compare to the originals.

So strap on your headphones and prepare for symphonic excellence. Here are six great MMO expansion themes that deserve a few minutes of your time!

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Jukebox Heroes: Expansion themes originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 16 Jul 2013 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jukebox Heroes: Starting your MMO music collection

Justin Olivetti — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, Opinion, Miscellaneous, Jukebox Heroes, Music

I love seeing people turned on to MMO music, particularly after it's gotten such a bad rap over the years. But for the new fan, it can be a daunting proposition to start up a collection. After all, it's not as if you can go down to your local vinyl shop, peruse a stack of 45s, and come out with a full set of SOE's greatest hits. Only a fraction of MMO scores are available for purchase these days, with the rest being free, packaged in with collector's editions, out of print, or just tucked away inside of game files somewhere.

So how do you get started on building up a robust library of MMO music? If you don't have deep pockets, which scores would I recommend you pick up first? Well, my friend, I've given it some thought and have put together a guide to six essential purchases that will get you off to a great start. Don't thank me; thank music. And also me because I did this hard work.

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Jukebox Heroes: Starting your MMO music collection originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 11 Jun 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jukebox Heroes: RIFT's soundtrack

Justin Olivetti — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 13:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Opinion, RIFT, Jukebox Heroes, Music

From where I'm sitting, there seems to be a popular conception (at least within the MMO community) that RIFT's score was a letdown. As a player of the game, I actually shared that view for quite some time, as none of the music really popped out at me while I was playing.

That all changed, however, when I sat down to listen to the full soundtrack. While it's not uniformly excellent (there are a lot of forgettable songs), several tunes arrested my attention and made me look at the score in a new light. So as we examine the soundtrack this week, I just ask that any of you out there who shared my previous outlook on the score give it another try. Keep an open mind, is all I'm asking.

RIFT was composed by industry veteran Inon Zur (check out our interview with him from a couple of months ago). The score was originally released with the collector's edition, although it's recently become available in iTunes and Amazon.

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Jukebox Heroes: RIFT's soundtrack originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 04 Dec 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jukebox Heroes: EverQuest II's soundtrack, part 2

Justin Olivetti — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, EverQuest II, Culture, Opinion, Jukebox Heroes

Last week, the laid-back folks at Sony Online Entertainment released the 118th expansion for EverQuest II, Chains of Eternity. Fortunately, it's available as a digital download so you won't have to suffer the embarrassment of a store clerk yelling, "PRICE CHECK ON 'CHAINS OF ETERNITY' FOR THIS PERVERT HERE -- THE ONE IN THE 50-SHADES-OF-GREY COAT" over the loudspeaker.

Even more fortunate, for us, is that the expansion continues to grow EverQuest II's already immense symphonic library. SOE's been adding to the score with not only the game's expansions but also several of the larger content updates, and it's absolutely impressive to behold. As in most scores, there's a lot of forgettable noise that could probably be replaced by humming bees, but there still remains quite a few great tracks to appreciate, cherish, and adopt into one's own music library.

Instead of focusing on the game's initial soundtrack, we're going to be skipping around to look at many of the terrific pieces of music that have come out of Norrath post-2004.

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Jukebox Heroes: EverQuest II's soundtrack, part 2 originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jukebox Heroes Extra: An interview with Inon Zur

Justin Olivetti — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 21:00:00 EST

Filed under: EverQuest, EverQuest II, Interviews, MMO Industry, RIFT, TERA, Miscellaneous, Jukebox Heroes

Did you grow up watching Power Rangers? I didn't, but then again, I was slightly over the age demographic there. But it tickles me pink (ranger) that the guy who got his start doing background music for one of the cheesiest shows of all time ended up scoring many of the greatest video games of all time.

Israeli-born Inon Zur was hard at work in the film, TV, and video game industry in the '90s, but it wasn't until 2002's Icewind Dale II that his music and fame started to climb to a whole different level. Zur started winning awards left and right for his work on Dragon Age, Fallout 3, Prince of Persia, and Men of Valor, among other titles.

MMO players might not know it, Zur's deft hand is all over the place. He's composed several EverQuest and EverQuest II expansions, the now-defunct Exteel, last year's RIFT and most recently, TERA. As a driving force behind MMO music, Inon Zur has a unique perspective on what makes for a great audio experience.

Want to hear more? Us too. We have a great interview with Zur as well as a few select pieces of his works after the jump.

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Jukebox Heroes Extra: An interview with Inon Zur originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 28 Aug 2012 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TERA composers discuss musical themes

Jef Reahard — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 15:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Culture, MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, TERA

As game budgets grow, production values usually do as well, and this is pretty apparent in the spate of high-quality musical scores surrounding many modern MMORPGs. Titles as diverse as Guild Wars, Age of Conan, and Lord of the Rings Online boast cinema-style ear candy and instantly recognizable theme music, and TERA is gearing up to become the latest MMORPG to follow suit.

Renowned composers Inon Zur (Dragon Age, Fallout 3) and Rod Abernethy (RAGE, Dead Space) have been working on TERA's score since 2009, and the duo has made use of the Northwest Sinfonia Orchestra and world-class production and mixing facilities to bring the music of Arborea to life.

Zur and Abernethy are interviewed in a new piece over at ZAM, and clicking on the link will bring you discussion on regional and racial musical content as well as personal insights from both men regarding their work on Bluehole Studio's action MMO.

TERA composers discuss musical themes originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 20 Jun 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Music to kill by: The making of Rift's score

Justin Olivetti — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Culture, RIFT, Dev Diaries

The musical score is often one of the little-appreciated aspects of MMOs, providing mood, tone and emotion for the player while hopefully refraining from being annoying or too repetitive.

In a new dev diary, Trion Worlds showcases the audio talent behind Rift: Planes of Telara's score. Audio Director Yannis Brown and Composer Inon Zur (Dragon Age: Origins, Fallout: New Vegas) talk about how the music lends itself to character identity and the environment's atmosphere, while giving us an aural sneak peek of Rift's tunes. One of the cool concepts the audio team is the creation of multi-layered music tracks that provide the same theme in different degrees of intensity based on how big the rifts have grown.

Hit the jump to watch the diary and hear for yourself whether this will be a game in which the default score stays on -- or gets quickly turned off in favor of personal playlists.

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Music to kill by: The making of Rift's score originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 08 Nov 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Zur and Abernethy making TERA music

Jef Reahard — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, TERA

Bluehole Studio and En Masse Entertainment continue to impress with their ability to put together a top notch roster of talent for TERA. The forthcoming fantasy MMORPG will feature a musical score by Inon Zur and Rod Abernethy as well as the Northwest Sinfonia Orchestra. The soundtrack makes use of traditional acoustic guitar, various ethnic instrumentation and vocal performances.

Zur is a prolific composer responsible for the Dragon Age, Fallout 3, and Prince of Persia scores, while Abernethy's extensive body of work includes music for The Hobbit, Alpha Protocol, and Dead Space.

"The general direction for the music for TERA was to have an original score that sounded grand and to match the large-scale in-game world, mixed with some warm sounding music," said Mr. An Yong Jin, Bluehole's Audio Director. "Inon has created world-class quality, epic orchestral music, which is his best attribute; his sweeping symphonic music is outstanding. Rod's beautiful compositions for TERA span a wide scope of musical styles. His expertly crafted blend of acoustic guitar and orchestral compositions is incredible for enhancing the musical atmosphere and their popular music appeal."

[Thanks Greg!]

Zur and Abernethy making TERA music originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 18 Apr 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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