Sound is Not a Simulation - Game Sound Technology and Player Interaction: Concepts and Developments - page 47

the subjective and immersive experience of time
and space through either real world listening or
mediated listening.
Augoyard and Torgue (2006) theorize that
sound may guide social behaviours: they argue
that no sound event can be removed from “spatial
and temporal conditions” and that sound is never
experienced in isolation. They have adopted quali-
tative approaches to the exploration and analysis
of sound in urban spaces. Augoyard and Torgue
argue that the term “soundscape” is tied to a certain
empirical model of measurement which may be
too narrow in its meaning, belonging more to a
textual rather than observational critic of “acous-
tical sources” and “inhabited spaces” (2006, p.
4). They suggest that the term sonic effect better
describes the experience of sound within space.
It breaks the analysis of sound into three distinct
fields: “acoustical sources, inhabited space, and
the linked pair of sound perception and sound ac-
tion” (Augoyard & Torgue, 2006, p. 6). Each of
these fields are required in order to examine the
ubiquitous nature of the soundscape as a process
which impacts on social, physiological as well as
psychological behaviour.
What is most difficult to analyse, but funda-
mental to the soundscape design is the subjective
experience of sound. When constructing a virtual
landscape, the primary consideration is—and for
a number of games it is the only goal—the reac-
tion time of game player interaction: if I shoot,
will I hear the sound of gunfire instantaneously?

of real time and space. Thompson (1995) explores
the change in perception of “spatial and temporal
characteristics of social life” (Thompson, 1995,
p. 12) due to the development of communications
technology. He recognises that the role of oral
traditions has changed: face to face contact is
eliminated in favour of virtual communications.
Bull (2000) argues that mediated listening is now
used as a means to escape the “urban overload”
of our cities and suggests that the use of mobile
technology for listening to the radio or to music
collections affords a breather or a meta-physical
removal from the real world. How we shift be-
tween these acoustic environments, and how our
personality and behaviour may be manipulated,
both by our apparent control of one type of space
and our lack of control over another, may affect
social patterns of relating to each other and the
world we inhabit.

sound control

Research has shown that the reasons for putting on
headphones are motivated by numerous factors,
such as (Bull, 2000). Erving Goffman's (1959)
theory of civil inattention addresses this concept.
He examines the unwillingness of the individual
to be seen in public spaces and explores the no-
tion of contexts structuring “our perception of the
social world” (as cited in Manning, 1992, p. 12).
Goffman suggests that social spaces are framed
and, within these frames, we act a certain way.
How we act is perceived as being the acceptable
or normal behaviour for those spaces and he uses
the example of the elevator space: when travelling
in such a confined space, the “normal” behav-
iour is to look anywhere but at another person's
face. Mediated spaces contain their own framed
context. When we engage in a fully immersive
experience, such as gaming or mediated listening,
even if this happens in a public space we are not
seen to be ignoring the real world. We are seen
to be engaged within another space, one which
requires our full attention.

MEDIAtED LIstENING

The numbers of people turning to electronic de-
vices (mp3, walkman, ipod, mobile games, and lap-
tops) as a means of shutting out real world sounds
has increased exponentially in the last decade
(Bull, 2000). The personal headphone has played
a part in reconfiguring the landscape, allowing us
a choice in how we perceive our world and how
we are perceived as taking part in or stepping out