Sound is Not a Simulation - Game Sound Technology and Player Interaction: Concepts and Developments - page 51

Schafer called “earlids”. We comprehend that
sound may be reaching us from particular dis-
tances or places, and we make choices in regards
to what we consider important sounds to listen to,
but we cannot choose to not hear sounds within
our hearing range. Equally we inhabit and work
in spaces that produce sounds that we have to
make meaning from and that we contribute to,
our entire lives are spent surrounded by sounds.
So how do we make meaning from these sounds
and how do we measure that meaning? If we wish
to simulate the experience of being within a space
whether this space is a war zone a different planet
or the North Pole, we must understand that sound
is socially and culturally constructed (Drobnick,
2004). For sound design this is paramount, if we
wish to create a simulacrum of the real we must
understand to what extent sound plays in our
navigation both physically and socially of spaces.

competition, for example Space Invaders (Taito,
1978), Pac Man (Namco, 1980) and Donkey Kong
(Nintendo, 1981). Has the goal shifted towards
the user having a more connected experience or
relationship with the virtual or gameworld? If
they space is a simulation of the real world do we
engage less with the concept of a game and more
towards the concept of being able to relate to the
space. Bull and Back (2004) would argue that of
the human senses “vision is the most 'distancing'
one” (Bull & Back, 2004, p. 4), revealing only what
is real and what is. The goal has evolved to create
a sense of co-presence within film and potentially
games; 3D cinema examines the possibility of the
image creating a sense of surround and presence,
again see Avatar and the new 3D TV from Pana-
sonic. The overall assumption seems to be, that
the only way to create a sense of reality within
a digitally created world is through the imagery,
a kind of simulated panoptic vision. What seems
to be forgotten within this quest for immersion
is that sound is actually three dimensional and
listening is not a simulated experience.

IMMErsION AND
sIMULAtED rEALItY

sonic Immersion It is the concept of immersion which guides

design within the gaming industry, being seen
as the “holy grail of digital game design” (Grim-
shaw, Lindley, & Nacke, 2008). Graphic design
in gaming has evolved through several stages of
realism, towards the appearance or “illusion of
life” (Hodgkinson, 2009, p. 1). One outcome of
this simulation of the real world within digital
games can be seen in the film industry. Films are
produced which have been based on games: Tomb
Raider (West, 2001) and Resident Evil (Anderson,
2002). Equally we have movies which resemble
gameworlds and the gameworld concept: Final
Fanta sy (Sakaguchi, 2001), Aeon Flux (Kusama,
2005) and most recently Avatar (Cameron, 2009).
The focus of digital visual game design seems
aimed towards an essential realism, but why this
search for the most realistic? Early games were
less concerned with the realism of the space or
the characters and more on the idea of game and

Sound is inherently physical and we are always
immersed in it, even if we focus our listening
towards one sonic experience we are still hearing
the entire sonic effect of any space. This is then
the challenge and the goal for digital game sound
designers; to create spaces that accept the whole
universality of the ambient space, and be aware of
the outside world that will invariably intrude on
this design. Therefore sound design must create
a sense of displacement or removal from the real,
while accepting that the real will equally intrude
on the virtual experience.
Similarly digital game designers must address
the issue of the senses being in their entirety neces-
sary to comprehend a world. Surround sound must
then play a part within the design of certain game
spaces, for example, first-person shooter (FPS)
games. FPS games generally involve a single