Do you hear background music while playing an intensive game?

I want to do a little survey to see how many people here can actually hear the background music while they are in a game.

My theory is that if you are concentrated enough where you pay attention to mini map, food, resources, keep up with macro and micro, hear your units coming out from building and being attacked, etc. The background music will fade away.

I want to also see the league and APM the player have also so this will come out to be more accurate. The reason for that is if a copper player with 30 apm and doesn't hear any music during the game vs a diamond player with 100 apm who doesn't hear music the game, it says differently.

I'll start first =]

League:
1vs1: Platinum before reset (I haven't have time to play =\)
2vs2 Arranged team: Platinum and Gold (before reset)
APM: 80-110 depending on my good day and if I have caffeine or not. =]
Hear Music: No

due to your brain being used to focus on higher priority stuff the less important sounds will fade away.
I.E. tired parents with a new child will notice the smallest whimper but fade out the louder but less relevant sounds

When I play Terran I sing along with the music because it’s so awesome. And i do that for an entire match- no matter how long or intense it is. It’s my musical nature. :D

That's true. I also want to see if there is a pattern being played out here within leagues and skill levels and APM. Mind giving me your League, APM, and hear music y/n ? =]

They should add an option to slowly fade the music out regardless. I like it during the start, but I see no need for it during mid/late game.

I turn the music off :D I tend to start focusing a bit too much on the music during my favorite parts. That's not productive for a high intensity ladder match.

Oh, and I'm 1-3 ranked in Diamond for 1v1 and #1 for 3s and 4s. I don't know my APM because it doesn't matter in the least.

Gold League 60 APM no music

Im in the post reset platinum league. I never hear the music cuz i always just listen to my own. Nothing like beating someone's ass to Weird Al, or losing while the Beatles blast about some guy named Jude not saying goodbye. I do not know my apm at any one time...but if i try i can spike up to the 300s in battle but other than that i stay in the 60-100 range. Just not much that needs to be done at any one point in time alot of times.

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Originally Posted by silencbank

Nothing like beating someone's ass to Weird Al

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This is possibly the greatest comment I've ever read on this forum.

I blast my own music, have skype running and manage to hear things decently - but really they way the games set up you don't really need to hear sounds anyway ;d

I turn the music very low so that I can barely hear it :p. It's hard enough hearing that 'Extractor complete' sound effect on top of all the other growling and hissing that Zerg stuff tends to do :p.

I wish the game had dynamic music. But oh well.

Anyway, I turn off the music and ambient sounds because the computer sucks and because it's distracting.

I'm in plat with about 55 apm (slowly rising) and I usualy don't hear the music after the first 5 mins.

The human mind, assuming the game is interesting and worth the attention, will ignore all unnecessary info from the conscious mind. So while the music is playing your mind is actually delegating it back to something like secondary info if it's not important. When we notice certain unit sounds the brain knows its important and we are aware of it.

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Originally Posted by Noctis

The human mind, assuming the game is interesting and worth the attention, will ignore all unnecessary info from the conscious mind. So while the music is playing your mind is actually delegating it back to something like secondary info if it's not important. When we notice certain unit sounds the brain knows its important and we are aware of it.

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I agree.

Despite being the music lover that I am, I really don't pay attention to the music in the game. I pay significant more attention to the alerts than the background music.

This is probably why I seemed confused when people complain about the music, of all things (why focus on music when someone is kicking your ass is beyond me...)

However, I keep the music in the game instead of muted because if it wasn't there, it'd be really quiet with only the alerts and the hum of my computer. Even if I had my own music blaring (I don't play that because I prefer metal, and I like to bang my head to the music...not something one would want to do in the middle of a match), the game seems quiet without the ambient sounds the SC2 has.

Never mind.

I believe that these sorts of things have a lot do with how the two different hemispheres are able to work together. The left side of the brain deals more with logical reasoning, language, and keeping track of time. The right side of the brain is the more artistic, visual side.

Now, we aren't always so good at using both sides together, and one might dominate in a certain task. Have you ever started driving, and then all the sudden found yourself at the destination without even thinking of how you got there? That's because the right brain took control, and it doesn't really have any sense of time.

It's also why many of us don't know the lyrics to our favorite songs (or fail to realize what the lyrics are implying) even though we're always listening to them in the car. The left brain hears the lyrics. The right brain is listening to something a little more abstract, and might not even realize that it's listening.

Sometimes one side of the brain tries to dominate at a task that it isn't very good at. Drawing is a perfect example of this. It sees symbols and it wants to take over. When this happens we end up with stick figures. A key to drawing well is learning to look beyond that and simply see the shapes and color. There's a really good book called "Learning to Draw on the Right Side of the Brain" that goes into a lot of detail on this. The book uses tasks that the left brain gets bored at so that the right brain can take over. For instance, copying a complicated line drawing that is upside down so the left brain can't see what it is.

StarCraft is another one of these tasks. There is some serious left brain stuff going on here. Logical thinking, following sequences, and keeping track of timing. Yet for some reason the right brain wants to dominate. Something about the visual nature of the game. Figuring out where to place things, where to move units, etc.

The better you are at using both sides of the brain together, the better you will be at the game.. You'll notice that a lot of the tips that Day9 gives are actually ways to help your left brain out. Focus on one thing and say in your head "don't forget about this, don't forget about this" is a way to keep your mind focused on the left brained tasks.

Not hearing the music could be a symptom of going into R-mode. Of course it's not a perfect measure, because the brain can also filter it out as environmental noise. I think a better measure would be if you hear the vocal notifications like "our base is under attack". Another measure would be your ability to talk or type to someone while you are playing the game. If you are unable to do these left brained tasks effectively while playing it could mean that your right brain is being too dominant while playing.
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Burningrosess

I think the left-hemisphere of your brain is at work (the side that is theorized to deal with analytical subjects and more objective things, such as numbers) whereas your aesthetic side, the right-hemisphere, is being blocked out by the demands of the left-side.

Woot for Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain!

edit: Damn just read the post above me. Already nailed it :P.

Slightly off topic, but when I'm working on something on the PC, I'm most productive when I listen to one thing on loop. I got the idea when I was discussing with a friend why he listened to one song on loop at a time.

Listening to music sets the pace. You get a sense of rhythm or timing from it, so you do things at the pace of the music. Listening to a song (or set of songs) on loop helps set a pace without being distracting. New sounds or tunes can be distracting, and that's the kind of thing you want to avoid when being productive.

When I'm playing games I don't often listen to music for anything competitive or at stake, but I will when I'm doing something more monotonous or build order focused (tower defenses, grinding mobs, etc)

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Originally Posted by n00bonicPlague

I wish the game had dynamic music. But oh well.

Anyway, I turn off the music and ambient sounds because the computer sucks and because it's distracting.

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Have you tried total annihilation? The music changes depending on what you do. It's an old rts just like starcraft, I think it's a little older then starcraft.

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Originally Posted by Twilice

Have you tried total annihilation? The music changes depending on what you do. It's an old rts just like starcraft, I think it's a little older then starcraft.

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Ah, Total Annihilation. Classic!

I think it's pretty rare now.... and I'm pretty sure it's older than SC by maybe a year, probably less.

Anyway, I listen to the music in early game, but it eventually fades out as I start to get into the game.

Hmmmm. That post about the two different sides of the brain working is interesting. So I can probably assume that at higher level game play, most of the higher players tune out the background music and only hear the important sounds (or messages from allies). While at lower level game play with lower skill players who just play the game for fun or doesn't know how to concentrate correctly(?) will probably hear the background music.

Another thing I find interesting is that I know some people who say they see everything on the screen and hear all the music. They said they even see the details in a roach's leg. But they tend to respond slow to pings or messages. Or they don't realize when they are supply blocked. Or they don't see the enemies in the mini map that well. Is that probably because they "see everything" and not focusing enough on one thing at a time while still multi-tasking? I hope I'm making sense, if not just tell me and I'll try to clarify. Haha.

couldn't the same question be asked about brood wars too...?
most of the time, the sounds produced from all the warfare, production of stuff and unit quotes drowned out the music for me and i never really got to listen to the whole complete awesome soundtrack of SC before i looked it up...