Listening to Fear - Game Sound Technology and Player Interaction: Concepts and Developments - page 200

which creates sensations of energy, textures,
speed, volume, temperature, for example, (3)
scenography effect concerning the creation of an
imaginary space and (4) effect related to time and
the construction of a temporal phrasing. These
audio-visiogenic effects and materializing sound
indices are essential to horror computer games such
as Dead Space , as they give an organic texture to
an anthropomorphic monster. The gooey sound
that accompanies the impact of a plasma cutter
blast as blood and guts explode on the screen
helps the gamer believe that what they are seeing
is real, while in fact what is showed on the screen
is a simple translation of coloured polygons. The
effectiveness of the added value rests upon 3 fac-
tors that have also been defined by Chion. It is
principally by means of synchronisation points ,
“a more salient moment of a synchronised reunion
between concomitant sonic moment and visual
moment” (p. 433, freely translated) or, more
broadly, an effect of synchresis , and an effect of
rendering which will give the sound a necessary
degree of veridicality (Grimshaw, 2008) for it to
seem “real, efficient and adapted” to “recreate
the sensation [...] associated to the cause or to
the circumstance evoked in the [game]” (Chion,
1990, p. 94, freely translated). For this to be ef-
fective, Grimshaw (2008) reminds us that a sound
“must be as faithful as possible to its sound source
[within the game], containing and retaining, from
recording or synthesis through to playback, all the
information required for the player to accurately
perceive the cause and, therefore, the significance
of the sound” (p. 73).
However, we must not forget that computer
games are not only audio-visual, but also inter-
active. Therefore, sound must also establish a
sentiment of causality between the gamer's ac-
tions which mostly correspond to the handling of
joysticks and pressing buttons on their controller,
and the action performed by the player character on
the diegetic level. For this matter synchronisation
points turn out to be less aesthetic and more prag-
matic as they become the product of the gamer's

will in act. This relationship between action and
sounds is primordial in establishing the horror
games conventions and greatly contributes to the
effect of presence as it gives a sensory support
for the gamer's agency.

Gameplay Functions

From a gameplay point of view, and following
the loop of Arsenault and Perron's (2008) model,
sound performs two main functions: (1) to give
information on the game-state and (2) to give
feedback on the gamer's activity in response to
the game state. Before we engage in a typology of
the different gameplay functions of sounds, I wish
to mention that I am fully aware that every sound,
while serving gameplay purposes, simultaneously
has immersive and affective functions. However,
for reasons of brevity, I will not integrate those
functional poles together right away. In this line
of thought, I will not present an exhaustive list of
gameplay functions, and keep only those useful
for my analysis of horror computer game sound
strategies. 10 Based on Collins (2008), Grimshaw's
(2008), Jørgensen's (2008) and Whalen's (2004)
work, I wish to take a look at five gameplay func-
tions that some horror game strategies are founded
upon: spatial functions, temporal functions, pre-
paratory functions, identification functions, and
progression functions.
In computer games, it is essential to determine
the approximate location of the sound genera-
tors. Spatial functions allow for the localization
of generators in terms of direction and distance,
contribute to the quantification and qualification of
game space and help the gamer to navigate through
it. More precisely, the sounds will be described as
choraplasts which are sounds “whose function is
to contribute to the perception of resonating space
[volume and time, localization]” (Grimshaw,
2008, p. 113). By privileging a “navigational”
mode of listening (Grimshaw, 2008, p. 32), the
augmentation or diminution of a sound's intensity
might, for instance, assist the gamer in localizing