Sound in Electronic Gambling Machines - Game Sound Technology and Player Interaction: Concepts and Developments - page 14

contributes significantly to the stress response
found during video game playing” (pp. 2371-
2372). This research suggests that physiological
responses to music in computer games may be
linked in part to genre, noting generally that the
more aggressive and rapid the music, the more
elevated physiological stress levels become.
A recent pilot study into the sounds and sights
of losses disguised as wins was undertaken with
16 participants by the University of Waterloo's
Problem Gambling Research Group. Each partici-
pant played Lucky Larry's Lobstermania for 45
minutes while being tested for their arousal levels
using GSR. Participants wore a GSR recording
device on their fingers while they played, with
the output from the GSR being tied to two wires
which output when the player pressed the play
button and whether or not the play resulted in a
win, loss disguised as a win (where payout is less
than spin wager) or a regular loss (that is, losses
without reinforcing sounds of a win). As might
be expected, the highest GSR rating—indicat-
ing the highest arousal level—was found with
wins, with the lowest rating with regular losses.
What is particularly interesting, however, is that
losses disguised as wins were much closer physi-
ologically to wins, than to losses. In other words,
hearing the sounds of winning, even though the
player has lost money, is enough to trick the mind/
body into believing that the player is winning
(Dixon, Harrigan, Sandhu, Collins, & Fugelsang,
forthcoming).
In the case of losses disguised as wins, these
games play on the idea of synchresis. Film theorist
Michel Chion (1994) defines synchresis as “the
forging of an immediate and necessary relation-
ship between something one sees and something
one hears,” combining the ideas of synchronism
(simultaneous events) with synthesis (p.5). Essen-
tially, sound changes our perception of the image
that we see and, despite there being an opposing
relationship between sound and image, we view
images as connected to sound when they are
played concurrently, with the sound dominating

our response. With losses disguised as wins, the
numbers displayed on the machine tell us that we
are losing (in other words, we “won” 50 cents,
but our total credits and cash have been reduced
since the last play) but the sound tells us that we
are winning. In a sense, the sound overrules our
eyes and leads the emotional (and physiological)
response to the event. This phenomenon illustrates
the importance of sound to our overall perception
of audio-visual media, and demonstrates one
under-utilized way that sound is used in computer
games. Far from merely reinforcing image, sound
can have a much more complex relationship with
what is occurring on screen. We might use a “win-
ning cue” sound for instance in a battle scene to
trick the player into thinking that the evil “big
boss” enemy is dead, only to have them return
to life. Or, we might use sound into tricking the
player into thinking drinking that bottle of potion
was a beneficial event, only to later reveal that
it was not.

cONcLUsION

The intent of this article has been to explore a
comparatively understudied area of computer
game sound, chiefly that of the role of music and
sound in electronic gambling machines (EGMs).
We explored the structural components of EGMs
and EGM games, tracing the development of
technical advances that have led to progressively
more enhanced audio interfaces over the past two
decades. Central to this discussion is the inter-
relationship between EGM technology, sound
and human behavioral psychology. Research has
shown that standard EGM gameplay concepts like,
for instance, the “near miss” and “losses disguised
as wins”, coupled with enhanced sound prompts
and triggers can encourage both more rapid and
longer gameplay.
A second correlated point in this study has been
our consideration of EGM sound within the wider
soundscape of a casino/bar/gaming environment.