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The real treasure is the music.

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This pretty much sums up the main idea behind my thesis. “We don't always bother picking up every single thing on a map, but sometimes we're suckered into it by the power of audio” (Outside Xtra).

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LISTENING

In Barthes’ work, “Listening”, he claims that hearing is a physiological act, whereas listening is a psychological one (245). To argue this, he explores the three major modes of listening: alert, deciphering, and the unnamed. The first mode is listening on a more fundamental level where human and animal are akin to each other. The objective of alert listening is either to reveal “danger or promises the satisfaction of need” (Barthes, 247). In other words, this is our best defence against surprise that may threaten the familiar space. On one hand, hearing is linked to the spatio-temporal situation; on the other hand, listening is the sense of space and time (Ibid, 246). Deciphering as a mode of listening is where “begins the human”; where meaning is made by the decoding of messages and signs (Ibid, 245). As Barthes describes it, “to listen is to adopt an attitude of decoding what is obscure, blurred, or mute, in order to make available to consciousness the ‘underside’ of meaning” (249). It is in this mode where “listening speaks” (Ibid, 252). By this, Barthes means that the intentional reproduction of a rhythm means listening becomes a means of creation; language uses this rhythm to produce signs (Ibid, 249). As Barthes has not given a title to the next mode, I will refer to it as the unnamed. The unnamed mode of listening is where the unconscious lives. It is not about what is being said, but who is saying it. Barthes writes it as where the “spoken emanates from an unconscious knowledge transferred to another subject, whose knowledge is presumed” (252). Thus, only trained psychoanalysts may tap into this language to hear a broadened, unfocused message.

In regard to reward sounds in video games, the act of listening to them means the player is subjected to such psychological acts. My argument is that these three modes of listening word in tandem and can be applied to the way a player would interpret such sound effects. Firstly, the immediate pleasure gained from hearing the sound or even the negative feedback from losing sounds falls into the alert mode; meaning, either danger or satisfaction is revealed to the player. A player deciphers the codes within these sounds by understanding why they happen after interacting with the game in different ways. Depending on the reward sound, the player can tell that they either just picked up an item or leveled up. The unnamed mode is perhaps a more difficult connection in relation to reward sounds; however, it can be interesting to explore how the brain perceives these rewards in the players unconscious. Does the constant praise and approval feed into the player’s self-confidence? I will have to do more research into this and other ways that positive (or negative) feedback affects the player’s identity.

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I C O N I C

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ADDED VALUE

Audio Vision: Sound on Screen, written by Chion, explores the ways sound and visuals affect each other in film. Chion claims that when we cut out the visuals, “we now ‘see’ with only our ears” (4). By doing this, we may notice things we had not seen upon first viewing when the visuals were included. One of the main concepts in Chion’s text is the notion of ‘added value’ in which he explains that it means:

“the expressive and informative value with which a sound enriches a given image so as to create the definite impression, in the immediate or remembered experience one has of it, that this information or expression ‘naturally’ comes from what is seen, and is already contained in the image itself” (5).

Although it enriches images, it often gives the impression that sound is unnecessary and simply duplicates the meaning of the image (Ibid, 5). However, Chion explains that both sound and visuals work together to form meaning and when one is taken away, a different meaning is produced. The next concept Chion explains is empathetic versus anempathetic music. The former is the music that directly participates in the feeling of the scene by “taking on the scene’s rhythm, tone, and phrasing” (Chion, 8). In other words, stemming from the word ‘empathy’, it means to feel the feelings of others. The latter is music that is indifferent to the situation. The anempathetic effect is often made by music, but can also come from noise (Ibid, 9). In terms of perception, sound and visuals are experienced at different speeds. Chion explains that the ear analyzes and processes faster than the eye due to sound being the vehicle of language to a verbocentric race (10).

Video games, like film, are often seen as visual mediums but also have the ‘added value’ of music and sound effects. When one is rewarded an item as positive feedback, seeing the item itself come out of a chest, lets say, may be considered the reason for a player’s pleasure. However, I argue that the reward sounds played when getting feedback is just as pleasurable and motivating for the player. Even if one does not need the item, just the act of receiving it is desired and often the sound that corresponds with getting it gives a sort of satisfaction one might not get as intensely without the jingle.

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Just solved a puzzle? Here is the sound to make those sometimes frustrating minutes worth every second.

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Doesn’t even matter that you’re getting game currency, that sound is enough to make you collect/steal (no judging).

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PHONOTONIE

Phonotonie, or the phonotonic effect, is defined as “the feeling of euphoria provoked by a sound perception. Sometimes it induces a behaviour directly, such as a renewed activity, a collective movement, or a reflex gesture” (Augoyard and Torgue, 86).

As we seen from Barthes, Chion, and other authors like Franklin, music and sound has the ability to manipulate or motivate people depending on the intention of the creator or those in charge. Whether on a fundamental level or an empathetic one, sound - in particular reward sounds – create a sort of satisfactory feeling in the player. A feeling pleasant enough to keep players engaged and partake in hours of gameplay for the chance of getting that next upgrade. Like the definition states, behaviours can be induced by these sounds and we see this occurring in games. Even in a collective group, the feeling of success is powerful enough to make players work together to reach a goal – a goal which has little ‘real world’ value in the broader sense of the term.

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A somewhat controversial sound - either you hate it or love it, but either way, you want to pick it.

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QUESTIONS and COMMENTS

I need to do further research on the way positive feedback affects a player’s self-confidence and/or psychology; however, I do have a few sources already in my working bibliography on this subject.

In terms of the Barthes reading, I was also questioning if and how reward sounds fit into his third mode of listening.

Although I did not choose Schafer’s Soundscape reading in the above sections, I do wish to explore soundscape and environments created for fantasy worlds and how they can induce behaviours based on the tone of the music.

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That sweet, sweet reload sound.

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WORKING BIBLIOGRAPHY

Augoyard, Jean François, and Henry Torgue. (2014). Sonic experience: a guide to everyday sounds. McGill-Queen's Press-MQUP, p 1-237.

Barthes, Roland. (1972).“Listening”, Critical Essays, translated by Richard Howard. Illinois: Northwestern University Press, p 245-260.

Chion, Michel. (1994). Audio Vision: Sound on Screen. In Projections of Sound on Image. New York: Columbia University Press, p 3-23.

Schafer, Murray R. (1993). "Introduction: The Soundscape." The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World. Rochester: Destiny Books. p 3-12.