I have a coworker that plays electronic music throughout the day. I casually asked about it and she said it was a game?
I’m not a gamer. So I’m not sure what she means. I get the impression that’s she’s somehow staying connected to the game? All those crackles, beeps and pops mean something?
Can someone explain how this works?
Is she discretely playing a game on her phone, and it has music in the background? Or is it the soundtrack of a game? I know some people really enjoy game soundtracks. (I don’t, but it doesn’t affect me.)
Depends on what type of game soundtrack.
There are some really good ones out there. The soundtrack to Mechwarrior 2 will always be in my playlist, there are some excellent pieces off of some of the Final Fantasy games.
But if it’s 8-bit MIDI music, then she is either very odd or just trying to be annoying. (Or both.)
A friend of mine, who is an avid video gamer, is also a big fan of OSTs (the “original soundtrack” music from video games), and he often listens to them just for the music, as well as the fact that the music reminds him about things that he enjoyed from those games. He’s a particular fan of the various Final Fantasy OSTs, among others.
And, I admit, I have a bunch of OST tracks from the Star Wars: The Old Republic MMORPG on my phone – it’s pretty good, Star Wars-y, orchestral music.
I haven’t seen my coworker looking at the screen and playing the game. She keeps the phone in a case on her hip and the music is playing.
It doesn’t sound very musical to me. 
But everyone’s taste is different.
It sounds like a adventure, role playing game. Sort of a heroic theme to it. That’s just my impression.
Is it actually 80’s style 8-bit music, or does it at least sound like it was generated with an actual instrument?
I think there’s sampled instruments. Like you’d find in Pro Tools.This lady is around 30. I’d guess she’s into games from the last 15 years.
Instead of asking us to guess why she does it, you could ask her directly.
I’ll listen to different music at work based on the task at hand. When it’s something really mindless & tedious electronica and metal seem to be the most motivating for me.
I guess you can be happy it isn’t metal. Or would that be better?
The Zelda series has some incredible music.
Some games have very unique soundtracks. I still listen to the soundtrack for Katamari Damacy from time to time. Someone else mentioned music from the Final Fantasy series, and there are quite a few songs from that which I enjoy.
Most of what I listen to in that genre sounds more-or-less like regular songs. You generally wouldn’t get much of a “video game” vibe from them.
I don’t know this coworker very well and didn’t want to ask a lot of questions.
I’m not a gamer and got curious when she said it was game music. I wondered if she was tracking the games progress from the music.
I see now it was just music she liked. Similar to listening to a movie soundtrack.
I still will always have a soft-spot for “Seeking Power” from Final Fantasy XII. (AKA The Paramina Rift song.)
It’s a haunting melody which fits well with wandering around a barren, snow-covered landscape. Also the French horn and oboe counterpoints over the main melody are great.
It’s also reprised in a fairly important reveal scene near the climax of the game.
The “Searching For Friends” over world theme song from Final Fantasy 6 (Final Fantasy 3 in the US) has been my ring tone on my phones for many years. I love music from that series, the Zelda games, and many others.
I’d recommend Ori and the Blind forest soundtrack to anyone who likes . . . well, pretty much an movie soundtrack. Increasingly these sort of things are additions/included in video game releases on platforms like steam. If you have Amazon Prime, it’s in the Prime music section as well.
Child of Light is another favorite video game soundtrack. Honestly considering the $$$ put into the music of a lot of modern games, it’s really no different then buying or steaming the soundtrack of a movie you enjoyed.
Most modern video games are movies. They have a full cast, director, writers, some of the biggest stars are in them. You can look up who made a game on IMDb for crying out loud. The theme song from Civilization IV won a freaking Grammy 15 years ago.
The composer for the Last of Us games is a two-time Oscar winner.
Could be one of those games where there’s thousands of people playing on-line and you spend hours building up cities/troops/resources etc. In some of these games your cities can get attacked and decimated even when you’re not on-line playing.
Possible she has it on her hip with the volume up to get alerted when she’s under attack.