Atmosphere & Challenge: An Exploration of Dissonant Player Experiences

Dissonance means an unusual combination of any two things. Two dissonant experiences in video games which could lead to undesirable player states are thematic dissonance and difficulty dissonance. Thematic dissonance potentially annoys players by breaking the atmosphere, and difficulty dissonance by preventing players with low skill from progressing past unbalanced challenges, resulting in rage-quits. This thesis seeks to deepen the understanding of dissonant experiences in video games through two experiments measuring the player experience as affected by different audio and practice conditions respectively. Results indicate that the experience colloquially referred to as a rage-quit is directly affected by avatar death events and game-specific skill and is related to lower levels of heart rate variability (HRV) and higher levels of electrodermal activity (EDA), which implicates feelings of stress. This project successfully advances the definition of video game atmosphere as the level of subjective thematic fit or association between the audio and visual components of a game’s setting, and indicates that musical thematic dissonance may lead to higher intensity negative valence facial events

Ludomusicological Semiotics: Theory, Implications and Case Studies

Video games are a challenging object of study for the musicologist because they are never played the same way twice. As video games are interactive texts, the timing of their musical events is dependent on both conventional cues and player interactions. In essence, the musical experience of gameplay may be considered as a text that the player has a non-trivial role in creating. The player’s unique series of actions evolves into an interpretation of the developer’s preconception of the game experience; similarly, the player’s actions shape the music into an interpretation of the musical experience envisioned by the composer. The analysis of these musical events must consequently be able to account for dynamic processes in both reception and creation. An important step towards appropriate analytical methods is the development of a semiotics of video game music. Incorporating a performative approach to interactivity, this thesis proposes a semiotic framework that seeks to address the complex processes of creation and reception/perception belonging to video game music due to its position within the audiovisual text. This semiotic framework is twofold, focussing separately on the music’s initial composition (a primarily poietic set of processes) and on the player’s role during gameplay (simultaneously performing processes of ergodic reception and interactive poiesis). The framework is developed and illustrated using textual case studies. Additionally, the implications of the framework for cross-media studies are explored, including the in-game and extra-game contexts of video game music, and the distinction between video game music and music in other audiovisual texts

Game Scoring: Towards a Broader Theory

“Game scoring,” that is, the act of composing music for and through gaming, is distinct from other types of scoring. To begin with, unlike other scoring activities, game scoring depends on — in fact, it arguably is — software programming. The game scorer’s choices are thus first-and-foremost limited by available gaming technology, and the “programmability” of their musical ideas given that technology, at any given historical moment. Moreover, game scores are unique in that they must allow for an unprecedented level of musical flexibility, given the high degree of user interactivity the video game medium enables and encourages. As such, game scoring necessarily constitutes an at least partially aleatoric compositional activity, the final score being determined as much through gameplay as traditional composition. This thesis demonstrates this through case studies of the Nintendo Entertainment System sound hardware configuration, and game scores, including the canonic score for Super Mario Bros. (1985)

Incrementar la presencia en entornos virtuales en primera persona a través de interfaces auditivas: un acercamiento analítico al sonido y la música adaptativos

Tesis de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Informática, leída el 25-11-2019The popularisation of virtual reality devices has brought with it an increased need of telepresence and player immersion in video games. This goals are often pursued through more realistic computer graphics and sound; however, invasive graphical user interfaces are still present in industry standard products for VR, even though previous research has advised against them in order to reach better results in immersion. Non-visual, multimodal communication channels are explored throughout this thesis as a means of reducing the amount of graphical elements needed in head-up displays while increasing telepresence. Thus, the main goals of this research are to find the optimal channels that allow for semantic communication without recurring to visual interfaces, while reducing the general number of extra-diegetic elements in a video game, and to develop a total of six software applications in order to validate the obtained knowledge in real-life scenarios. The central piece of software produced as a result of this process is called LitSens, and consists of an adaptive music generator which takes human emotions as inputs...La popularización de los dispositivos de realidad virtual ha traído consigo una mayor necesidad de presencia e inmersión para los jugadores de videojuegos. Habitualmentese intenta cumplir con dicha necesidad a través de gráficos y sonido por ordenador más realistas; no obstante, las interfaces gráficas de usuario muy invasivas aún son un estándar en la industria del videojuego de RV, incluso si se tiene en cuenta que varias investigaciones previas a la redacción de este texto recomiendan no utilizarlas para conseguir un resultado más inmersivo. A lo largo de esta tesis, varios canales de comunicación multimodales y no visuales son explorados con el fin de reducir la cantidad de elementos gráficos extradiegéticos necesarios en las capas de las interfaces gráficas de usuario destinadas a la representación de datos, todo ello mientras se logra un aumento de la sensación de presencia. Por tanto, los principales objetivos de esta investigación son encontrar los canales óptimos para efectuar comunicación semántica sin recurrir a interfaces visuales —a la vez que se reduce el número de elementos extradiegéticos en un videojuego— y desarrollar un total de seis aplicaciones con el objetivo de validar todo el conocimiento obtenido mediante prototipos similares a videojuegos comerciales. De todos ellos, el más importante es LitSens: un generador de música adaptativa que toma como entradas emociones humanas...Fac. de InformáticaTRUEunpu

On to Wisteria: Designing an Action-Adventure Role-Playing Game for the Empowerment of the Preteen Female Audience

This thesis document details the design for an original action-adventure role-playing game (AARPG) specifically targeted towards the preteen female audience, ages 10-12, as well as the production of a promotional trailer to communicate the design. This thesis aims to bring this untapped market to an already established video game genre in order to communicate to this young female audience that these games are not “just for boys” by providing a clear example of an empowering and inclusive game that is designed to appeal to their demographic. Given that there are currently no AAA action-adventure RPGs targeted towards this group as well as limited research into the relationship between video games and female youths, a broad net of research is cast in order to design a game that would celebrate this demographic without relying on stereotypes or being too narrow in defining what it means for a girl to be “strong.” Through this work I investigate female gender representation, the current gender biases in the video game medium, and what prevents young females from playing games in order to create a solution that inspires and engages this audience.The complexities of gender development in youths is considered, focusing on how media and other gendered products are marketed towards young audiences and how they can potentially influence their perceived identities. Television shows such as My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power are considered as examples of popular media aimed at the young female market acclaimed for their strong storytelling, themes, diversity, and female characters. It also examines games like Kingdom Hearts, well-known exemplars from this genre aimed at boys of the same age demographic. After breaking down the core components of the AARPG genre itself, this thesis presents a game design following this structure with original characters, story elements, and gameplay features that would especially appeal to the target market. From this design, it develops key moments in an animatic for a trailer designed to excite and capture the feeling of empowerment the game would hope to achieve for this audience if it were fully realized as a production

Video game technology and learning in the music classroom

Game-based learning, or the process of adapting an educational concept into a game-based structure, has been studied by researchers for nearly a century. Over the last several decades, new technologies have allowed digital media to create a multibillion- dollar entertainment industry commonly known as video games. Video games have become a tool for many educators who have the potential to engage and motivate students to learn in various subjects and disciplines. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of digital game-based learning in comparison to other teaching methods as related to music education and to explore the perspectives of young students regarding video games both in school and in their personal lives. Ninety-two (n = 92) fifth and sixth grade students in a northeastern U.S. elementary school completed a mixed-method experimental study consisting of a pretest/posttest control group, surveys, and in-depth interviews. Results showed that students who had access to educational video games combined with the assistance of an instructor achieved higher mean scores compared with students who had access to either video games without instruction or instruction without video games. Survey and interview data suggested that students enjoyed playing video games on a regular basis for reasons such as enjoyment, socialization, and distraction. The majority of respondents believed that video games can and should be used in educational practices, including music education, but current educational games are inadequate because they do not possess the qualities of entertainment that are inherent in commercially designed games. These findings suggested that educational video games may be potentially used as an effective tool in the music classroom to teach musical concepts and skills. In addition, benefits may also include increased student motivation, engagement, and a hands-on approach to learning that is based on the students’ individual needs. However, it may be necessary for video games to be used in combination with a qualified teacher to prevent confusion, distraction, and possible frustration. Pairing quality instruction with engaging technology that is relevant in children’s lives may be highly beneficial for the continued development of music education

Investigating Sound Design in Film: A Commentary on Kock and Louven

Kock and Louven (in this issue) examined the effects of music, sound effects, full sound design (music and sound effects) and no sound on self-reported measures of immersion and suspense in real time, as viewers watched very brief original films. This commentary discusses the method, analysis, and implications of their findings within the broader context of the state of the art of film music research, and future directions for investigations in this area