Guidelines for Sound Design in Computer Games - Game Sound Technology and Player Interaction: Concepts and Developments - page 373

the player into the context of a fantasy world
and bonding with the context of the real world.
Indeed, once a resonance state between player
and game has been established, the player might
appreciate being transported to another context.
Actually, the sense of escapism is part of the
argument for playing computer games. Even so,
this is not contradictory with the effort suggested
in this guideline. To start with, because it is a
prerequisite to first be able to empathize with the
player (something we will explore in Guideline
7 which concerns entrainment). Next, the kind of
context that is integrated in the experience and the
way that context is translated into the experience
do not necessarily evidence the bonds in such a
manner that they anchor the player to a former
state or to the consciousness of a real world exis-
tence. Ultimately, the designer may decide that the
more immersive the current state the less binding
there is with the player's outer context. But even
then, the ability to evaluate the immersion level
will probably require reading certain parameters
from the player's current context. Most of all, it
seems to be a matter of dynamically adjusting
the components of the context that are the most
critical to resonance management.

integrated according to the techniques mentioned
in Guideline 5. Regarding the combination of
the stimuli, it is important to be attentive to the
insights from acoustic ecology and consider that
the design of a shared-context soundscape should
support the fitting of individual interventions
rather than superposing their disconnected sounds
(Wrightson, 2000).
This approach may be considered with different
purposes: for example, simply aesthetic, taking
advantage of aspects of the global complexity; as
a mechanism to deliver a sense of presence and
of activity of the respective community; as part
of the gameplay, making available some aspects
and hiding others according to what best serves
the game mechanics.

Guideline 7: Integrate
Acoustic Elements that May
support Entrainment

Entrainment can be used to support the mainte-
nance or the change of emotional states. Sound
is one prominent way to implement entrainment
which can be achieved by progressively mov-
ing from one state of resonance into another. In
terms of game experience, keeping the player
emotionally involved along time, as complexity
grows and emotions unfold, is crucial. As the term
entrainment suggests, the idea will be to create
the conditions for the player to engage with and to
be transported on a journey. Still, the path can be
too turbulent for the designer to assume the player
will have enough of a pleasurable experience to
warrant reaching the end.
The consequences of such an observation
are relevant. The most important is that any tool
a game designer has to monitor and direct the
course of action in order to avoid losing players
will be valuable. In this sense, entrainment, and
its support through sound, is instrumental. Also,
regarding each particular instant of the experience,
the managing of the proximity between a player's
emotional state and the expected (or even required)

Guideline 6: consider shared
context in Multi-player Environments

This is an extension of the previous guideline
through the consideration of multi-player envi-
ronments. Each player's context may include
the perception of aspects of the other players'
context. The argument is that, in a multi-player
environment, context is both local and global
(Roque, 2005 and discussed in terms of a virtual
acoustic ecology by Grimshaw, 2008). It may be
advantageous if each player perceives not only
other player's actions but also relevant elements
of the context that shaped those actions.
The implementation of this guideline calls
for the combination of elements deriving from
different players, which, in turn, are captured or