Listening to Fear - Game Sound Technology and Player Interaction: Concepts and Developments - page 197

Figure 1. Arsenault & Perron's Magic Cycle. (© 2009, Arsenault and Perron. Used with permission)

cognitive process (as previously explained with
Arsenault and Perron's model) that is performed
almost unconsciously by the gamer while playing
a horror computer game.

world. 7 From a structural perspective, more than
the description of a world, it is particularly in the
division that exists between elements considered
as being part of the fictional world (diegetic) and
elements which are not judged to be components
of the fictional world (extra-diegetic 8 ) that this
notion has found a niche in works on sound in
game studies.
Indeed, while listening to horror computer
game sound, the fact that a sound is part of the
depicted gameworld or not will have a consider-
able impact on the decisions the gamer will make
regarding this sound. Based on the gameplay
model that was introduced earlier, these sound
cues will engender many questions in an attempt
to recreate the mental image of the game state. Is
the sound produced by an instance present in the
“diégèse”? If it is, does that instance represent a
threat to the player character or is it just a part of
the ambience of the gameworld? Furthermore,
as it was hinted by this set of queries, while the
diegetic status of a sound holds much importance,
recreating the mental image of the game state
necessitates a more elaborate set of qualifiers.

Inside and Outside of the “Diégèse”

While glancing at the game sound literature (Col-
lins, 2008; Grimshaw, 2008; Huiberts and van
Tol, 2008, Jørgensen, 2006, 2011; Stockburger,
2003), we notice that one of the most common
ways to envision the structure and composition of
sound in games is relative to its status regarding
the diégèse of the game (I am using the French
word to avoid any misconception that this term
holds the same meaning as Plato's and Aristotle's
definition of diegesis 6 ). Taking its origin in film
studies, the diégèse must be understood as a
“mental reconstruction of a world” (Odin, 2000,
p. 18, freely translated) that can be “perceived as
an inhabitable space” (Odin, 2000, p. 23, freely
translated). This definition of diégèse clearly
refers to the “historico-temporal” universe in
which the story—or in the case that interests us,
the simulation—takes place. This definition thus
allows more easily for the parallel that is often
established between the diégèse and the game-