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sound effects (Brandon, 2004; Collins, 2007; Fri-
berg & Gärdenfors, 2004; Roeber, Deutschmann,
& Masuch, 2006), there is a need for building
more general theoretical and analytical frame-
works to describe the various elements of game
sound and their role within the game's designed
soundscape and its informational ecology. Ex-
amples of rich theoretical works on game sound
are still few (Collins, 2008; Grimshaw, 2008). I
would like to propose a framework for studying
game sound that engenders a multi-disciplinary
perspective with a specific focus on listening as
a dynamically developing, socio-cultural activity
influenced by and influencing cultural production
and experience. This framework, based on the
acoustic communication model developed by
Barry Truax (2001) and inspired by R. Murray
Schafer (1977) combines media histories with the
current technological and cultural reality and takes
a critical analytical stance towards discussing the
way media shapes our world.
Delivering a full history of any game sound
predecessors and tracing critical, socio-cultural
perspectives of every game genre in existence
is not only an ambitious task, but is one that has
been done in parts by both scholars and game
writers (Collins, 2008; McDonald, 2008). Instead,
I will focus on two particular aspects of game
sound—fidelity and verisimilitude—and situate
them within the interdisciplinary framework of
analysis that the acoustic communication model
offers. They are two sides of the same idea rep-
resenting notions of
realism
or
reality
in game
soundscapes. They reflect long-standing cultural
ideals and production values whose histories
transgress radio, cinema, and real-world envi-
ronments. By juxtaposing the two ideas in this
manner I hope to elucidate qualities and features
of game sound both in a richer way and within
a socio-historical discursive context. Fidelity
reflects the development of sound in games from
a technological perspective while verisimilitude
reflects the cultural emergence of authenticity,
immersion and suspension of disbelief in cinema,
and characterizes the
magic flow
state in games.
Finally, I'd like to connect both these ideas to
acoustic ecology and particularly to the concept
of
acoustic community
, which includes the real
situation of a player's own acoustic soundscape
in addition to the game's sonic environment,
interlaced in a complex ecology.
tHE AcOUstIc cOMMUNIcAtION
MODEL: bAcKGrOUND AND
rELEVANcE tO GAME sOUND
The concept of
acoustic communication
articu-
lated by Truax (2001) is a framework that attempts
to bring multi-disciplinary perspectives into the
study of sound reception as well as sound produc-
tion and that provides a structure for analyzing and
understanding the role of sound in contemporary
culture, in media, and in technology. Its roots lie
in the tradition of acoustic ecology that was the
basis of Schafer's work in the late 1960s and
1970s: work that is already referenced by several
authors (Grimshaw, 2008; Hug, 2011). The fol-
lowing history helps contextualize and focus the
particular perspective that acoustic communica-
tion has taken on.
A pioneer in the field of acoustic ecology,
Schafer first defined the notion of a
soundscape
to mean a holistic system of sound events consti-
tuting an acoustic environment and functioning
in an ecologically balanced, sustainable way
(Schafer, 1977). Born out of the threat of urban
noise pollution, Schafer focused on conceptual-
izing and advocating an ecological balance in the
acoustic realm. He developed the terms
hi-fi
and
lo-fi
to describe different states of aural stasis in
the environment. A hi-fi soundscape, exemplified
in Schafer's view by the natural environment, is
one where frequencies occupy their own spectral
niches and are heard distinctly, thus creating a
high signal-to-noise ratio. A lo-fi soundscape,
on the other hand, often exemplified by modern
urban city settings, is one where amplified sound,
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