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11 - Interacting with Soundscapes: Music, Sound Effects and Dialogue in Video Games

from Part III - Analytical Approaches to Video Game Music

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 April 2021

Melanie Fritsch
Affiliation:
Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf
Tim Summers
Affiliation:
Royal Holloway, University of London
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Summary

Video games often incorporate a wide variety of sounds while presenting interactive virtual environments to players. Music is one critical element of video game audio – to which the bulk of the current volume attests – but it is not alone: sound effects (e.g., ambient sounds, interface sounds and sounds tied to gameworld actions) and dialogue (speaking voices) are also common and important elements of interactive video game soundscapes. Often, music, sound effects and dialogue together accompany and impact a player’s experience playing a video game, and as Karen Collins points out, ‘theorizing about a single auditory aspect without including the others would be to miss out on an important element of this experience, particularly since there is often considerable overlap between them’.1 A broad approach that considers all components of video game soundscapes – and that acknowledges relationships and potentially blurred boundaries between these components – opens the way for a greater understanding not only of video game music but also of game audio more broadly and its effects for players.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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