Q&A with Jason Hayes
by Krystalle Voecks 
Jun 10th 2007 at 6:04PM
![[Ahh, the music of WoW. Perfect for that romantic night out killing stuff with the one you love.]](http://www.blogcdn.com/wow.joystiq.com/media/2007/06/warcraft_music.jpg)
Now I will admit, I tend to alternate between playing the game music and playing my own music, depending on the zone. This is not because I don't like the soundtrack -- far from it. I've actually been known to play the World of Warcraft soundtrack in my car. (You can't imagine how fast you can weed out fellow Warcraft players by playing "Legends of Azeroth" -- or the Login Screen music -- at a stoplight with the windows down. hee!) But love it or hate it, the music of Warcraft has left its mark on our lives, even if it's just the goosebumps we got when we watched the trailer for World of Warcraft the first time and heard the music sweeping along with the images. For those audiophiles who enjoy the music of Warcraft, Gamespot has an excellent interview with Jason Hayes, the man behind the sweeping songscapes in WoW. In this interview set to preface the PLAY! Symphony set to perform in Sydney, Australia from June 19-23, Jason talks about things as varied as his work with WoW, his thoughts on the movement to accept gaming as a legitimate art form, and the technical problems he faces as the composer of gaming soundtracks. He also includes some information about his plans for the future. (Maybe SC2? We can hope!)
All in all, an excellent interview well worth checking out after a weekend of WoW before the work week kicks in. (Or alternately, a great interview to catch up on while having your morning coffee when the work week has already hit.)
[via Gamespot]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Daverick Jun 10th 2007 7:33PM
I'M GONNA BE AT THAT CONCERT!! :D SYDNEY FTW!
Nails Jun 10th 2007 7:52PM
The best music from any video game in history came from the original Diablo. The StarCraft soundtrack was amazing as well.
Blizzard's music is head and shoulders above any other gaming company for sure. I am literally just as excited for SC2's soundtrack as the gameplay itself!
finalforeman Jun 10th 2007 9:14PM
I think there are several development house with great original music. Square comes to mind instantly as well as several others. Not to take anything away from Blizzard.
Arispere Jun 10th 2007 11:22PM
hang on... "gaming as a legitimate art form?" You must mean "game design", right? That I can imagine, but I doubt we'll see people dressed in their finest tuxes packing out concert halls to watch some dudes clicking away at their consoles up in front of an orchestra any time soon.
OTOH I can understand the movement for gaming as a professional competitive sport- it's already arrived in Korea and is well on it's way to the rest of us.
Savok Jun 10th 2007 11:47PM
The problem with WoW's music is most of it gets very irritating once you've heard it a million times.
I turned my music back on for BC, while Eversong and HFP were real nice, the rest of the BC stuff just seemed to repeat itself with some rather bland tunes.
These days I just play the Starcraft soundtrack while in Outland.
Tumples Jun 11th 2007 4:26AM
When I read the phrase "World of Warcraft soundtrack," the first tunes that come into my head are the nice happy Dun Morough, Lake Modan ones, the mighty Ironforge one and then entering Stormwind through the Valley of Heroes, and I haven't played Alliance for more than six months.
BenMS Jun 11th 2007 5:50AM
Two Words: Magmadar's Room. Best music in the game, imo. It actually evokes feelings of excitement, and tension.... and then after you've done the fight a few times, you realise that after Lucifron, Magmadar is an Epic Loots Vending Machine.
CoreyT Jun 11th 2007 12:48PM
Is it me or is it just sad that the OP listens to WoW music in the car??? Get a life, and get some real music please.
Coherent Jun 11th 2007 2:52PM
Sweeping songscapes? Is it just me, or does anyone else play with the music off? Who can bear to listen to it for more than the first 10 hours of gameplay?
Maybe it's just me. Extremely repetitive music turns into agonizing noise after the millionth time you've heard it.
Coherent Jun 11th 2007 2:55PM
They need to put in more detailed music controls, such as "Only play event specific music" or "Only play instance music" or "Only play realm-specific music the first 100 times I visit an area."