Aghghghg FINALLY! Lord of the Rings Online offers up performable music using in-world instruments (oh maybe other folks have done this, but it's the first I've seen in a structured-narrative world: SWG, Tolkein, WoW, etc).
These weren’t just videos of players going on the quests designed by Turbine Inc., LOTRO’s developer. Instead, these were gamers playing live music in-game. While other MMOs have music instruments, they’re usually just automated audio clips; by contrast, Turbine created their instruments with a dynamic, three-octave system, so that players could actually perform on them.
Bloody marvellous. A bit basic, but so what. It's early days.
I bet Raph had this sort of thing in mind when he designed the early SWG, and I also bet it was quashed by "IP protector" types who didn't want to see Twi'Leks rocking it to something 'not in the narrative'. However, this is pure conjecture, and I shall celebrate it with a cup of tea.
People are already doing bloody cool performances just using the PC keyboard so we might see some extra impressive stuff now. Maybe even bands? Or would latency screw that up?
I suspect this is something where I'll just watch the best YouTube videos rather than taking part (the trial didn't really grab me), but still, good stuff!
Posted by: Pete | October 25, 2007 at 16:01
If I recall correctly I think Raph said exactly that thing, being asked what would happen if they played copyrighted music.
Posted by: Tom Reynolds | October 25, 2007 at 18:46
You can connect a midi keyboard (with some software) if you wish, the game has the ability to play song files (abc notation) directly and the latest patch added the ability to play chords.
Posted by: Ethic | October 25, 2007 at 19:20
Oops, I also wanted to add the new feature that synchronizes players together so they can all play the same song at the same time, provided they all have the same song file in their "Music" folder. It's done by forming a group, all the musicians queue up the same song and the leader starts it off.
Posted by: Ethic | October 25, 2007 at 19:23
Re lag - apparently it's actually possible to write music that expects and incorporates lag into its playing. Andrew Hugill, the Director of the Institute of Creative Technology at De Montfort University (the guys who hosted the Machinima Europe festival) has done some work on this, in what he calls the "Internet Orchestra".
Posted by: Hugh "Nomad" Hancock | October 25, 2007 at 23:29
Heh, I like the way the video seems to suggest this is THE reason to get LOTRO.
If it is... Then something has gone wrong :-)
Posted by: Mr Tom | October 26, 2007 at 07:16
No it doesn't mean anything has gone wrong. It means something has gone right.
Posted by: olstar18 | January 06, 2008 at 16:37