Exploring the Role of Audio in Games
Katja Rogers · 2017
Audio occurs in games in many forms and has the potential to significantly influence the player experience. My research explores immersive effects of audio design on components of the player experience. In particular, I analyze how the presence of different types of audio influences players' immersion, engagement and affective state. I plan to further explore this by comparing variations of specific audio types such as narrative and background music, for example versions with different affective associations. Further, I examine the role of audio within increasingly immersive virtual reality (VR) gaming technology. Through mixed-methods studies, I empirically explore how audio design influences the player experience in traditional and VR games. This dissertation research will contribute to understanding the role of audio within player-game interaction, by exploring the immersive effect of specific audio types and their variations. This will allow myself and the games research community to formulate recommendations for game designers and developers, and inform new research questions.