Finding The Old School Groove: History and Nostalgia in the Music of RuneScape

Tatlow, Stephen ORCID: 0000-0001-5138-4161 (2024) Finding The Old School Groove: History and Nostalgia in the Music of RuneScape. Journal of Sound and Music in Games. (In Press)

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Abstract

RuneScape (2001–Present) has had over twenty years of musical development. Throughout the history of the game, the music has shifted to meet the needs and desires of both developers and players. Through examining developer posts, design documents, and game file data, this article explores the history of the music of RuneScape as an example of a browser-based game from the early 2000s and examines how the composition and implementation of music for the game was altered when the underlying technological affordances of the game were expanded through access. The emergence of Old School RuneScape in 2013 also offers a chance to reflect on how constructs of nostalgia can emerge in contemporary media, and how we might consider player relationships to games with iterative development such as RuneScape as being centred in nostalgia, and also as a form of retrofuturism.

Item Type:	Article
Article Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	RuneScape; Old School RuneScape; music for browser-based games; video game music history; nostalgia
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GV1199 Games and amusements > GV1469 Computer games. Video games. Fantasy games M Music and Books on Music > M Music M Music and Books on Music > M Music > M5-1480 Instumental music > M1470-1480 Aleatory music. Electronic music. Mixed media.
Divisions:	Schools and Research Institutes > School of Creative Arts
Research Priority Areas:	Culture, Continuity, and Transformation
Depositing User:	Stephen Tatlow
Date Deposited:	14 May 2024 11:22
Last Modified:	14 May 2024 12:26
URI:	https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/14085

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