Yes, but you have to pay more (afaik) for a Steam release w/ the soundtrack. That's kinda why I created this wish, since some people on GOG do want the soundtracks, but others don't. (It may set a bad precedent about having to pay for extras in general, though.)

http://www.gog.com/en/wishlist/site/sell_drmfree_game_music_soundtracks_seperately_like_amazon_or_itunes_if_they_cant_appear_here_as_free_bonus_content

Interestingly enugh I have a mate who turns the music off in the game to listen to his own selection, yet has several VG soundtracks he loves listening to out of game. OK I think he is a little nuts, but it goes to show several soundtracks really do stand out on their own.

I think it depends on the game, some games have good music others, like Quake, have dreck for sound track and then there's ones like FO3 and FO:NV where the soundtrack is fine, if somewhat lacking in muchness. I think FO:NV ended up getting a mod to expand the playlist for the radio, and that annoying bug that made certain songs pop up to frequently probably didn't help either.

Very true on the FO:NV... I enjoyed the game a lot less than FO3 purely because the radio gave me a lot less feeling of atmosphere. The expanded radio helped however.

When they do FO4, they really need to add a talk radio option where you only hear the radio when somebody is talking. As annoying as 3 dog was at times, it was interesting to get to hear about your own in game exploits as you travel the wastes doing whatever you're doing.

I don't think I ever did find an option in FO:NV for disabling the music while leaving the news available. But, it's a moot point until I go back to the US and have a computer capable of playing that game again.

I've just finished Blackwell series, and the soundtracks are amazing. I still listen to them.

Plus, if you do pen & paper rpg, you can use soundtracks to make a game more interesting.

Do people really listen to rap while not riding dirty?

/edit: Welcome to the Video Game Music Fanclub

Yes!

About the only important extras for me but I've begun to enjoy any artwork as well.

Same here.

Some game soundtracks are fantastic and i would listen to them on my mp3 player. Depends on your taste of music. I am one who will listen to most things.

It depends on the game. Usually the music I like to hear is very different from anything that would fit a computer game soundtrack, so there's little overlap. But even before soundtracks were offered separately, I put some game music into my mp3 folder:

- Morrowind has a fantastic, amazing, epic, orchestral soundtrack
- "Baba Yetu" from Civ4 is a beautiful song
- The background music from MoO2 is very soothing
(and so on ...)

I listen to game soundtracks (outside of the actual game) occasionally, but usually I fire up something else. Bastion was the first case that made me think about getting the soundtrack (got that in the Humble Bundle).

Dude, almost a third of my CD collection is video game music. And no, I don't just own three CDs. :P

Generally I think video game music is amazing. Of course many soundtracks are only popular because of stupid fanboyism but there's lots of soundtracks that IMO simply are awesome music. It's often music unlike any other, often it's music that's just great to listen to.

I listen to a ton of game music outside the game. It's the same for movie scores. If you don't need lyrics to enjoy music, which any fan of classical or jazz will tell you you don't, then why the fuck not?

Here is your post from my perspective:

I don't enjoy RTS. It's so stressful and manic, I play games to relax not feel like I'm at work. Does anyone really play RTS? I mean why are they even sold here?

hehe, we've had Baba Yetu on our wedding vid. But be quiet so we don't get fined for copyright infringement, with us endangering music industry by wanting to use a beautiful song for a beautiful occasion.