I want you to consider some of the most iconic movie scores of our time and think back to how they made you feel. Permit me to provide a couple of examples from my own cinematic experiences.

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope:  Hearken back to your first encounters with Darth Vader as he strode down the hallways of the Death Star, John Williams’ ‘Imperial March’ announcing his presence. I remember, even as a lad of six years, being afraid and in awe of him. I knew this was someone powerful, an ultimate evil not to be trifled with by even the strongest of the forces of good. Even today the song resonates in my head unbidden. (I like to imagine it occasionally when Stephen walks through Wizard City.)

Now imagine Darth Vader without this music, or perhaps with some feeble attempt at this kind of score. Suddenly he’s just a big dude in a weird outfit and a black cape. Maybe he’s someone to be reckoned with, or maybe he’s just a mean-looking protocol droid. Williams’ music underscores Vader as a bad dude who finds your lack of faith disturbing.

Raiders of the Lost Ark: Who among us can hear the theme of this movie and not feel the call of adventure? As if we are running alongside Indy on a trip to exotic, dangerous lands in search of ancient treasures beyond the ken of comman man? We’re right there making a daring escape or slugging it out with the badguys on our quest. The music lifts us and thrills us – we feel the excitement and a sense of peril that’s just around the corner, and we can’t wait for it.

Remove that song from your mind and replace it with simple sound effects from the movie. Okay, that was a good fight scene, and it was cool how he did that thing with the whip, but hardly the heart-pounding adventure you signed on for.

(Incidentally, both of these scores are by John Williams, who does just some truly phenomenal work. You can hear more of it in the scores to all of the Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, Jurassic Park and Superman films, to name a few. You also might check out Bear McReary, who did the Battlestar Galactica and Firefly TV shows along with the film Serenity. Klaus Badelt is another great one; he composed the scores for all of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.)

This same concept works in video games too, particularly in MMORPGs in which players become so invested in not only the story, but their place in it as well. Take the following video game examples:

Civilization IV: I can’t quite describe how the opening theme ‘Baba Yetu’ from the Civilization IV soundtrack makes me feel. It imparts a sense of wonder at the grand scale of life, time and humanity that defies words. I have no idea what the lyrics to the song mean, but I can’t help but feel uplifted and excited when I hear it. Without that piece of music, Civ IV would still be a great game, but that opening screen wouldn’t quite put me in that same mental and emotional place.

Halo: The music from the long running Halo series of video games is practically a character in and of itself. In no uncertain terms it creates a sense of danger, excitement, fear of the unknown, tragedy and the unnerving sensation that one is fighting a near-unwinnable war and fighting it truly alone. The music narrates the game, and without it playing Master Chief wouldn’t be the same.

Think of some other games with truly iconic music; I’ll bet you can hum music from some of them right off the top of your head. Final Fantasy? Legend of Zelda? Kingdom Hearts? Mario?

Avalon does the same thing. I hear the music in Avalon and I know I’m a character in an epic legend. Stephen Spiritcaller is girding on his wand and donning his swashbuckler’s hat to do battle with foes of classic lore who scoff at his attempts to defeat them. I am questing in a majestic land of legend and wonder…and I’m the hero. It’s magnificent, it’s powerful and it’s the first time I’ve ever really felt the music grab my heart and soul in Wizard101. Bravo, guys. Out of the freaking park.

See y’all in class.

(SYI)

PJS4-4HXZ-53NG-5BFY

It’ll only be active for a limited time, so get it entered ASAP! We went to thank Gameforge, Wizard101 EU and our good friend (and Wiz101 EU community manager) Emy for the code!

When: Saturday, May 5 at 1pm Eastern (That’s 12pm Central, 11am Mountain and 10am Pacific)

Where: Right here! Just hit LISTEN LIVE!

We’ll have the live chat room where you can all comment and chuckle at my shortcomings as a Necromancer, and I’d wager we’ll give away a prize or three. Hope you’ll join us!

This Friday, April 13, Wizard101 UK is holding a big meet-and-greet the GMs party at aroun 6pm UK time. The event is meant to show off the brand new ‘GameMaster’ badge that GameForge personnel will be sporting, and allow the GMs to mingle with and get a feel for the community.

 The event is built around a Teleporter Maze through a number of houses. A number of clues have been provided to help players successfully negotiate the maze:

Each one has a number,
Fire adds one
Ice removes one
with Storm you’re back to 0
with Death you’re standing still
Stay away from the Balance
and let Life lead you to what we will be celebrating at the begining of the last week.

6:00pm UK time (GMT) is 2:00pm EDT and 11:00am PDT. Sounds like a great event and a perfect excuse to go check out Wizard101 on the other side of the pond. Good luck!

So we’re pushing the event back an episode. Stump the Mods should be held on episode 63, recording live April 25, 2012 at 8:30pm Central time (Ambrose willing and the creek don’t rise). If you’d like more information on how you can get in on this event, check out the original post!

The name of our new world is Avalon! New spells, a new level cap, new features and a whole new world to adventure through! I can’t wait to talk about it all on Ravenwood Radio #62 on Wednesday, April 11! See you there at 8:30pm Central time.

]]> http://ravenwoodradio.com/2012/04/the-puzzle-completed/feed/ 0 http://ravenwoodradio.com/2012/04/elementary-my-dear-greyrose/ http://ravenwoodradio.com/2012/04/elementary-my-dear-greyrose/#comments Tue, 03 Apr 2012 18:05:38 +0000 Stephen http://ravenwoodradio.com/?p=530 Yet another puzzle piece from Professor Greyrose behind the jump!

And remember, if you’re looking for other pieces, we’ve got a mess of them here at the Ravenwood Radio site. The others you can find at the following community fansites:

• Wizard101 Central
• Wizard101 Wiki
• The Petnome Project
• A Mythspent Youth
• The Friendly Necromancer
• Legends of the Spiral
• That Pyromancer
• Ditto Monster
• Diary of a Wizard
• Paige’s Page
• Valerian’s School
• West Karana

During episode 62 (April 11, 2012), we’re going to play a game of Stump The Mods. It’ll be simple, and we’ll give out prizes to everyone who has a question selected for the event. Here’s how it works:

• Send in an e-mail to podcast@ravenwoodradio.com with your question AND the answer to your question. The chat room moderators do not have access to this e-mail box, so you don’t have to worry about them peeking.  INCLUDE YOUR WIZARD NAME!
• Only one entry per wizard, and just one question per e-mail.
• The deadline for entry is Tuesday, April 10 April 24, at 12:00 PM Central time. That’s 1:00 PM Eastern and 10:00 AM Pacific. Any questions we receive after the deadline will not be considered.

So what kind of question should you ask? Well, I can tell you what you shouldn’t. Questions regarding the following topics will not be considered:

• Personal information (what is your real name? where do I live? what is my favorite mount?)
• Questions about player characters (who is Stephen Spiritcaller’s alt? where did Ditto first cast Meteor Stirke?)
• Questions regarding personal opinion (what school is the best for PvP? what is the best pet for a pyromancer?)
• Subjective questions (discuss the questing theme of Zafaria as opposed to Marleybone)
• Questions unrelated to Wizard101 (who played Malcolm Reynolds in the sci-fi classic ‘Firefly’?)

We’ll pick between 5 – 10 questions and pose them to our chat room moderators live on episode 62. From there, one of two things is gonna happen:

- Our chat room mods get the answer right! In that case, we’ll send you a thank you gift of 750 crowns.

- Our chat room mods are STUMPED! If you manage to defeat the mods, we’ll send you a Foo Dog pet AND a Kirin mount (both are random colors).

Start sending in those questions! Good luck!

UPDATE: MAKE SURE TO INCLUDE YOUR QUESTION, THE ANSWER AND YOUR WIZARD NAME! WE’RE GETTING A LOT OF ENTRIES THAT ARE MISSING ONE OF THESE ITEMS!