Sound for Fantasy and Freedom - Game Sound Technology and Player Interaction: Concepts and Developments - page 27

MIND tHE GAP—sOUND FOr
FEEDbAcK AND IMMErsION

Lindberg, 2007). In both these projects the bal-
ance point between visible and audible stimuli
from the game has been moved away from the
visual and towards the audible. In both cases the
users of the computer games are given only a
minimum of visual information and are, instead,
given rich and varied soundscapes. The projects
have shown that the users have had rich and im-
mersive gaming experiences and are given other
types and amounts of freedom compared to more
traditional computer games. These projects will
be described in more detail later in this chapter.
Humankind has, in recent centuries, invested
considerable energy and creativity in creating
complex technology. We have a long tradition
in replacing human capability with machinery.
In the early days it was mostly muscle power
that was mimicked, replaced, and superseded by
steam, combustion, and, later, electricity. It can
be argued that research into artificial intelligence
is striving to do the same with human cognitive
and emotional capabilities. Following this long
tradition, it seems that we often neglect human
capabilities, affordances, gifts, and needs when
designing computer games and other systems.
Much of the focus has been on creating photore-
alistic 3D-environments in real time and less on
how the players' internal, fantasy-driven, “sound
interpreter and mapper” can be put into play to
create complementary, mental images. In the
following I will describe how we at Interactive
Institute, Sonic Studio work with finding ways
to increase user satisfaction and involvement
in gaming situations by using existing technol-
ogy in slightly new ways. Often, this has meant
moving complexity from technology to the user,
decreasing the demands on technology used, and
increasing the demands on the user to invest and
spend energy physically and mentally in a game
experience.

Pictures are not the real world; they are merely
the shadows of it. René Magritte's provoking pipe
is a painting about exactly this: the picture of a
pipe and beneath it the text “ Ceci n'est pas une
pipe ” ( This is not a pipe ). We are surrounded by
still and moving images and we are used to treat-
ing pictures as pictures and not the real, physical
world. Even the most violent computer games and
Hollywood film productions are assumed to be
physically and mentally non-hazardous to us just
because we are supposed to be able to discriminate
between reality and the fictive picture of it. Sound,
on the other hand, seems to work slightly differ-
ently. When striving for engagement, immersion,
and suspension of disbelief in computer games
and films, sound, plays a very prominent role
and, according to Parker and Heerema (2007),
“sound is a key aspect of a modern video game”.
Natural sounds in the physical world are the result
of events in that world and we become aware of
physical events to a large degree through sound.
It can thus be argued that sound is a strong link
to the physical world. In fact, Gilkey and Weisen-
berger argue that “…an inadequate, incomplete
or nonexistent representation of the auditory
background in a VE [Virtual Environment] may
compromise the sense of presence experienced by
users” (quoted in Larsson, Västfjäll, & Kleiner,
2002). It is this mechanism that is utilized when
creating the sound tracks to films and games.
Just seeing Donald Duck smash into a wall is not
enough. It is not until the sound effect is added that
the nature and the full consequence of the smash
are made evident to the audience. When we hear
the sound of the smash, all of us have our own,
slightly unique, experiences of and relationship
to the sound. The sound has the power to im-
mediately trigger our interpretation machinery
and evoke memories and fantasies. In a fraction
of a second the sound makes us re-live our own
experiences and we can feel what Donald feels: