Sound for Fantasy and Freedom - Game Sound Technology and Player Interaction: Concepts and Developments - page 28

pain, anger, and humiliation. In this way it can be
argued that the sound is playing us. Like a guitarist
plucking a string that generates sound, sound is
plucking our interpretation, spawning memories,
understanding, and emotions. The string cannot
stop the guitarist from plucking it and we cannot
stop sound from triggering our understanding, our
memories, associations, and emotions.
For a computer game to be successful it is
crucial that the players can immerse themselves in
the gaming experience and that they are invited to
a gameworld and game experience in which they
are willing to suspend their natural disbelief. After
all, World of Warcraft is not the real world. In their
GameFlow concept, Sweetser and Wyeth (2005)
set up a number of criteria that game designers
and game researchers can use when designing and
evaluating games with respect to immersion and
suspension of disbelief. Some of these criteria
are general, overarching principles that relate to
many human activities, while other criteria relate
more closely to gaming and the media used to
convey the game's metaphor and narrative. The
GameFlow model lists the following criteria for
player enjoyment in games:

• Social Interaction . Games should support

and create opportunities for social interac-
tion (Sweetser & Wyeth, 2005).

As can be seen from the list, these criteria are
very general and could be applied to many aspects
of life, from children's play to high school educa-
tion, working life, and leisure. When it comes to
sound design for computer games, some of these
criteria are more relevant than others. When look-
ing at Tuuri, Mustonen, and Pirhonen's (2007)
hierarchical listening modes, a clear link to the
GameFlow concepts Feedback and Immersion
criteria can be found. Sweetser and Wyeth divide
the Feedback criterion into the following parts:

• Players should receive feedback on their

progress towards their goals

• Players should receive immediate feed-

back on their actions

• Players should always know their status or

score (Sweetser & Wyeth, 2005).

The Immersion criterion is similarly divided
into the following parts:

• Concentration . Games should require

concentration and the player should be
able to concentrate on the game

• Players should be less aware of their

surroundings

• Players should be less self-aware and less

worried about everyday life or self • Challenge . Games should be sufficiently

challenging and match the player's skill
level

• Players should experience an altered sense

of time

• Player Skills . Games must support player

skill development and mastery

• Players should feel emotionally involved

in the game

• Control. Players should feel a sense of

control over their actions in the game

• Players should feel viscerally involved in

the game (Sweetser & Wyeth, 2005).

• Clear Goals. Games should provide the

player with clear goals at appropriate times Given our ability to listen on several cogni-

tive abstraction levels, as indicated by Tuuri,
Mustonen, and Pirhonen's hierarchical listening
modes, it can be argued that sound is well suited
to communicate feedback to the user and to sub-
stantially add to the game's ability to immerse the
player in the gaming experience. In the following

• Feedback . Players must receive appropri-

ate feedback at appropriate times

• Immersion . Players should experience

deep but effortless involvement in the
game