Are you more of an ambient music enjoyer or theatrical atmosphere appreciator?

When World of Warcraft: Forever’s beta first launched, I lamented its long stretches of silence and penchant for ambience over theatrics. I still sort of stand by that, but after spending more time in Azeroth (and discovering the loop music setting) I’ve a new-found appreciation for both WoW’s soundtrack and ambient music as a whole.

It’s also got me thinking about what makes a soundtrack ambient versus something more melodic. I’m chronically Final Fantasy 14-brained, where just about everything has a grand thematic soundtrack to it—the jauntiness of the Gold Saucer, the soothing Middle-earthness of Gridania’s outer Shroud zones, the grand organs of Ishgard’s bitterly cold landscape. You can’t escape composer Masayoshi Soken’s penchant for leifmotifs. He will turn anything into an orchestral spectacle.