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Grimshaw: This actually also points to a question
related to the future of game audio in general,
if procedural methods really are the future: at
which point does the actual sound design take
place? Will we be merely adjusting parameters of
simulated physical entities? How do we achieve
the magic and the “bigger than life” effect and
surprising, new sounds, if everything is controlled
by a “realistic” simulation engine? Is there a way
to combine the strengths of procedural audio with
old-fashioned compositional sound design? Well,
my idea of a hybrid foley box would maybe be a
way to join these worlds... (Hug)
I love the idea of biofeedback and I do see that
coming in a more mainstream way into gaming
in the 10-year prediction range - and hopefully
by then game sound will operate with a new and
improved “media language” - crazy artists would
have made their mark on the interactional map-
pings between game sound and game input, as well
as the structure and mechanics of gaming period,
so biofeedback might literally control the sound-
scape or at least the avatar's own soundmaking
in the game (assuming a narrative structure once
again, I know) as a mechanic. I think along with
biofeedback, I see remote networking tangible
controllers - things that can send sensations like
touch, temperature, pressure, perhaps sound and
breath, vibration, rhythm, to a remote player. I also
like the idea of players being made to understand
more how game sound is synthesized and be able
to take part in that process more actively, though
this point makes me wonder if the future of gaming
is all about “opening up” the programmatic side of
games and making players-as-producers - I don't
know if that might result in really bland, generic
game structures that are the “blank slate” upon
which players build up game worlds and game
feedback. That said, I can definitely see, within
a year even, game sound being customizable - i.e.
players being allowed to upload their own sound
effects to each game, and thus construct their
own soundscapes.
Now there's an interesting question. Anyone?
Droumeva: In general I think that creative and
more sustainable potential lies in the definition
of new aesthetics rather than simulation of the
familiar and “real”. I think game sound could take
an example in how film sound was pushed into a
media language of its own, establishing design
strategies that have become kind of “naturalized”,
are inherently part of the aesthetics of the medium.
Game sound thus should explore new directions
and for that we need people (artists?) that abolish
preconceptions and just try out crazy stuff. (Hug)
I completely agree actually, got wrapped up in
making a point about the experiences of “real-
ity” which, I believe, will still be an important
social experience in gaming, albeit - agreed
with Grimshaw and Hug that gaming is more
about a different reality than re-immersing into
a nostaligic version of past realities. (whatever it
is that those “alternate realities” end up being).
And I do retract my previous implication that
“reality” should be somehow integrated into game
sound design, or be a design principle - I meant
it strictly as an important cultural byproduct and
social experience.
But regarding the general question of future of
game sound - obviously related tightly to the
future of game genres, and game mechanics - I
also see a rise in “lifestyle gaming” and “human
computation”. Lifestyle gaming I'd call things like
Wii Fit, Brain Age, the multitude of “games” that
are essentially utility applications thinly veiled as
games. Game sound is bound to be affected by this
shift. Thinking specifically of biofeedback, I can
definitely see it being used in “lifestyle games” for
anti-anxiety, meditation, stress control, etc. and
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