Music and Sound

Background

• Xbox 360 game console allows players to add their own music into a game

• Golden rule: never let the player become annoyed or bored by the repetitiveness of the sound

• By allowing player to be in charge, developer may avoid player turning off the music

Background

• Grand Theft Auto allows player to change in-game radio stations

• Auditory display studies say game audio is a usability feature. Audio is an information channel

Background

• Film theory gives game audio as support for game environment

• Extra-diegetic music is background music which the players hear but characters in the game are not intended to hear. A change of melody can signal an event.

Experiment

• Experiment: play a game 15-20 minutes as normal. Then without warning 15-20 minutes with sound turned off.

• 2 games: Warcraft III (real time strategy) and Hitman Contracts (avatar, tactical, assassin)

• 2 kinds of sound: music and effects. Effects give warning of danger and feedback on completion of tasks

Results

Players felt they had lost control when the sound was turned off.

• “Like playing in the dark.”

• “Like losing a leg.”

• “I never thought playing without sound would affect a game so much.”

Results

• Sound effects give information on events out of line of sight (and behind you).

• Lose ability to locate enemies.

• Sound of a door opening behind the avatar may contain crucial information.

• Sense of spatiality disappears

Results

• In real time strategy game, sound signals completion of processes, minimising player’s memory load. Without the sound, she can forget that she started the process.

• “In chaotic situations, it is not easy to see what is going on.”

• Sound gives extra information.

Results

• “I repeatedly clicked a unit because the game gave no feedback that an object had been selected.”

• Player noticed an increased reaction time, because he was dependent on seeing what was going on before he was certain that the system has accepted his order.

• Channel redundancy increases the likelihood that the information will be received.

Results

• “The first thing I notice is that my time of reaction has increased by ten. For example, in the beginning I sent a farmer through the woods at midnight... And I noticed at once that he was attacked because of the sound. But now... My whole base was attacked three centimetres below the edge of the screen, and I didn’t notice anything. And it changes things very drastically, you’re not able to move things where you want them, and you’re not able to build defences as fast as you would’ve wanted to...”

Results

• When sound was turned off the usability of the system decreased

• Players experienced problems receiving important information. System became less responsive

• Sounds that seem to be motivated by a sense of realism may support the usability of the system in different ways. (Sound works as a warning signal.)

Presence

• Sense of presence disappeared altogether with the sound.

• Specific sound objects can aurally identify and define specific areas in the game environment. Music is often connected to specific locations.

Presence

• “It’s like the gun scenes don’t work right, because it’s like you are reminded that this actually is a computer game. So when there’s no sound, it’s just like two animated figures standing there, shooting at each other.”

Presence

• “It becomes like, you become more systematic, they become almost like numbers. Like that unit fell, that unit fell, and now I lost one and stuff. There’s almost no emotion behind the fact that they’re falling.”

Presence

• One player reported feeling more scared and even a little paranoid when the sound was removed.

• Could not receive auditory warnings about the dangers around

• Felt that dangers might be lurking in the shadows all around.

Presence

• Music adds to immersion in the game.

• Too much sound may lead to an overload of information

• An overload of sound can decrease a player’s ability to distinguish between more and less important pieces of information.

Presence

• Some players play more clinically and in a more detached way without sound, resulting in more success.

• (Guards and civilians were running around shooting and screaming , accompanied by upbeat and fast-paced music)

• With sound turned off, distractions ceased and participants found it easier to concentrate.