Assignment 23: Perfect Playlist - Thomas Stokes

Many video games are trending towards an "open world" type of expansion. MMO's have been this way for a while and with the rise of fantasy titles like FFXIV and Skyrim, there's just so much to explore! Countless hours wasted journeying across vast landscapes in GW2 and you'd think you've seen it all. Then you see the button to zoom out on your map and BAM right back at square one. So here's the perfect playlist for exploring open worlds in fantasy games. They make good walking songs too.

1) TES V: Skyrim - Distant Horizons
This song lets you really feel how open your world really is. This track makes you look off to the side, or really stroll through forests to view landscapes. This track has a lot of subtle sound accentuates, and they give each footstep you take that extra emphasis to be meaningful. You'll really feel like you're wandering through a movie trailer with this tune in the background.

2) LoZ: Wind Waker - The Great Sea
A faster paced song. More fore riding across plains or sailing across the sea in games, this song adds to it to no end. With a quick snare beat and a pressing horn, it compels you to move forward, to push to the edges of the world and see where you end up. No stopping at towns or using teleport spells or scrolls when listening to it.

3) Guild Wars 2 - The Silverwastes
Another slow song, but this time it follows a more traditional "fantasy" game type style. Lots of flute-sounding and lute-sounding instrumentation in this one. This song is more suited for a calmer walk, or maybe discovering a new area, as the music tends to highlight taking things in rather than delving and finding what you can.

4) FFXIV: A Realm Reborn - La Noscea Field (On Westerly Winds)
This song starts with a grand opening and transitions into a soft-yet-driven string part. Perfect for starting a walk or leaving a town in a game. Really gives you that feeling of leaving something behind in order to find something new. It's a nice track to listen to when the day is partly cloudy, and not to hot, conditions ideal for being outside, as La Noscea is a port town.

5) Donkey Kong Country Returns - Title Screen
Another high-energy song. Very percussion driven. A constant drum beat throughout the entire song. Perfect for riding along the planar countryside on a chocobo, or taking a jog. This song is all about momentum. Once you start moving, there's not stopping. It would not only break immersion by stopping in the middle of the song, but would do the song an injustice because it carries so well.