Listening to Fear - Game Sound Technology and Player Interaction: Concepts and Developments - page 195

stimulus characteristics based on these concerns”,
but mostly (3) gameplay emotions “that arise
from the gamer's action in the game-world and
the consequent reactions of this world” (p. 132).
While all horror computer games are provided
with a more or less elaborate fictional setting,
in the end, it remains a part of the experience
of gameplay. For horror games to be effective,
gameplay mechanics must have been designed
with the intent of scaring the gamer, by limiting
the quantity of ammunition, for instance.

For this matter, the notion of genre will mostly
serve as an overarching catalyst through which
the gamer structures their journey in the games. 4
Of course, the chapter will still deal with design
issues such as looking at the implementation of
sound strategies, however, this will be done in
order to investigate how designers built these
stratagems out of their predictions of how the
gamer potentially produces meaning through the
sounds, in regards to generic constraints, during
their gameplay activity.
But then again, what is gameplay? In Half-
Real , Jesper Juul (2005) approached the concept
of gameplay using Richard Rouse's definition as
a basis: “A game's gameplay is the degree and
nature of the interactivity that game includes,
i.e., how the [gamer] is able to interact with the
game-world and how that game-world reacts to
the choices the [gamer] makes” (Rouse in Juul,
p. 87). To further elaborate on the question of
gameplay, and to prevent a misunderstanding of
the term, Juul added that “gameplay is not a mir-
ror of the rules of a game, but a consequence of
the game rules and the dispositions of the game
players” (p. 88). Using this quotation as starting
point, and as a way to oppose the fallacy con-
structed by Manovich's (2001) definition of an
algorithm, Arsenault and Perron (2009) reminded
me that “one of the misconceptions of gameplay
which needs to be addressed springs out when
one does not make a distinction between the
process of playing games and the game system
itself” (p. 110). Following their logic, gameplay
must not be understood as “the” game system
but as the “ludic experience” emerging from the
relation that is established between the gamer
and the game system. Therefore, it is important
to understand that through the eyes of a gamer,
the experience of gameplay is not portrayed by
a series of codes managed by an algorithm, nor
a direct representation of the implementation of
sound within this code. 5 Consequently, I chose to
exploit a terminology which facilitates the under-
standing of the gamer's cognitive process during

How to Approach Horror
computer Games sound?

In the introduction to Sound Theory, Sound Prac-
tice , Rick Altman (1992) claimed that rather than
seeing cinema as a self-centered text, it should be
perceived as an event . Traditionally, film studies
modelled the production and reception as gravitat-
ing around the film-as-text. However, as Altman
explained: “Viewed as a macro-event, cinema is
still seen as centred on the individual film, but
[…] the textual center is no longer the focal point
of a series of concentric rings” (pp. 2-3). Follow-
ing this model, the film-as-text mostly serves as
a “point of interchange” between the process of
production and the process of reception which
mutually influence one another. The film itself thus
becomes a representation of this “dialogue” or this
“event”. Computer games can be envisioned in a
similar fashion. However, while technical aspects
of computer game production might enlighten cer-
tain points about how the sounds are implemented
and structured within the game code, I believe
that it is not with regard to this code that horror
computer games should be approached. While
some PC games offer the option to look at how
the files are organised on the disc, most computer
games—particularly console games—do not. I
will therefore be addressing sounds through the
gameplay process of the individuals playing the
game and all design matters will be dealt with
in regard to creating this gameplay experience.