Chalk Talk - Video Game Music: In Perfect Harmony

For this week's Chalk Talk assignment we discussed one of the single most powerful and influential aspects of the games we love; the music. It is no secret that music in games can greatly influence the way we receive the game in question. Be it the simplistic notes from Legend of Zelda or the complex scores of Journey one thing is certain, video game music has a major impact on our gameplay experiences. Here's what GameSpotters had to say. UniversalSigh: The conventions of music in film has been integral for decades and as gaming evolves rapidly year after year it's reliance on music to portray emotions, set scene and cast it&acute;s power over the human brain for all manner of suggestibility, is more present than ever. Music has become so powerful in gaming that many games are given identity solely from the songs they produce. …. read more.. nintendo-naut: Whether it's the beautiful and haunting melodies of Kingdom Hearts by the great Ms. Yoko Shimomura, the legendary Koji Kondo and his ever-well-known scores for Mario and Zelda titles, or the songs from many RPGs that will forever echo through time composed by the great Yasunori Mitsuda, no honest man can deny they are truly great musical works. …. read more.. Bamul: The music makes us anticipate what will happen next, it gets us excited and then it definitely doesn't leave us disappointed. The image disappears; we are once again allowed to see through the glass. The music reaches a high point, and then bursts into the power of an orchestra. It slows down but does not stop. What we see before us is amazing - the melody only reinforces this serene, unknown and mysterious beauty. …. read more.. Starshine_M2A2: It's an wonderful combination of music and action that create a power even the best action movies seldom achieve. Once I had beaten Chaos I felt like I had just run a marathon - that I had achieved something truly epic. And ultimately that's the games magic. …. read more.. Jass5991: Music in games is unfortunately overlooked in many games, under-appreciated. It needs to be brought forward that games just would not be the same without music. Even simple Flash games, such as Realm of the Mad God, has it's own music to complement what's going on on-screen. …. read more.. The Peanut Gallery In addtion to the fantastic blogs on GameSpot we also took a quick Community Poll via Facebook and Twitter to find out what others had to say on the subject. A very special thanks to everyone who contributed to this week's Chalk Talk! To read all of the entrants, you can check out this link here. Extra Credit Sometimes a good blog is simply a good blog, and these GameSpot members deserve recognition for their efforts and contributions: - Why The Custom Language OS Is A Bad Thing By: Daavpuke - Nintendo's September 13 Event By: ad0234 - Truth in Advertising By: Uesugi-dono Next Week's Assignment - Rated M for Murder ” Violence is the first refuge of the violent.”- Aaron Allston Video games are no stranger to graphic depictions of blood, gore, and other forms of violence and these frequent appearances have impacted all gamers. For years violent games have been targeted by political figures, censorship laws, and various groups (such as BCTF and MAVAV) in an attempt to purge gaming from these blood soaked pixels. What is your stance on violence in games? Need some in stricter rules for these types of games? Or are the rules too strict already? Be sure to sound off in the roll call thread here with your awesome Chalk Talk entry! Roll-Call. &larr; Check here for more editions of Chalk Talk.