The Bold and the Beautiful Methods of Sound Experience Research

Abstract

Investigating the subjective experience of sound and music in interactive media poses multiple challenges to a study design. Apart from considering a fitting theoretical framework for the phenomena of interest, many times the structural-expressive effects of sound and music are difficult to distinguish, estimate and replicate empirically in their virtual and physical manifestations. With situation playing a crucial role in differential cognitive-emotional processing, this chapter offers an initial look at an exploratory sequential mixed methods approach on determining the situational variance of sound and music on gameplay and immersive experience in a video game. A qualitative inquiry utilizing focus interviews provides insights on the interplay of sound effects and music across experiential categories such as dramaturgy, motivation, emotion and spatiality. These accounts are accompanied with fundamental methodological considerations on the process of data collection and its implication for further study. Finally, a quantitative experimental paradigm sheds further light on the obtained results by indicating a link between personality traits, spatial self-location and emotional response that could pave the way for future implementations of user-aware audio engines.