Playing with Sound: A Theory of Interacting with Sound and Music in Video Games

Collins, Karen

ISBN 10: 0262018675 / ISBN 13: 9780262018678

Published by The MIT Press, 2013

No dust jacket. Ex-library book with typical stickers and stampings. Priority Mail is available on this item. No international shipping. Seller Inventory # B101025mug173730

Synopsis:

An examination of the player's experience of sound in video games and the many ways that players interact with the sonic elements in games.

In Playing with Sound, Karen Collins examines video game sound from the player's perspective. She explores the many ways that players interact with a game's sonic aspects―which include not only music but also sound effects, ambient sound, dialogue, and interface sounds―both within and outside of the game. She investigates the ways that meaning is found, embodied, created, evoked, hacked, remixed, negotiated, and renegotiated by players in the space of interactive sound in games.

Drawing on disciplines that range from film studies and philosophy to psychology and computer science, Collins develops a theory of interactive sound experience that distinguishes between interacting with sound and simply listening without interacting. Her conceptual approach combines practice theory (which focuses on productive and consumptive practices around media) and embodied cognition (which holds that our understanding of the world is shaped by our physical interaction with it).

Collins investigates the multimodal experience of sound, image, and touch in games; the role of interactive sound in creating an emotional experience through immersion and identification with the game character; the ways in which sound acts as a mediator for a variety of performative activities; and embodied interactions with sound beyond the game, including machinima, chip-tunes, circuit bending, and other practices that use elements from games in sonic performances.

About the Author: Karen Collins is Canada Research Chair in Interactive Audio at the University of Waterloo. She is the author of Game Sound: An Introduction to the History, Theory, and Practice of Video Game Music and Sound Design (MIT Press).

Bibliographic Details

Title: Playing with Sound: A Theory of Interacting ...
Publisher: The MIT Press
Publication Date: 2013
Binding: hardcover
Condition: Good