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Abstract

Sound has become increasingly important in video games. It is used as a tool to help tell the narrative of the game, immerse the player, and to cause a psychological and emotional response. This research investigated the psychological and physical responses the player has to sound in video games. Playing video games with the sound on has more of an effect on the player, they will feel more immersed in the game, perform better and their physical body will react more, than when playing a game without sound. With the hypothesis for this research, being that audio does improve player performance, cause immersion and is important for gaming overall.
10 participants were invited to join an experiment, in which they were assigned sections of different games, to play through, each section was played with both sound on and then off or vice versa, to record a variety of results. Data recorded by measuring their heart rate; time took to complete section, and time distortion. The results show that many of the participants performance actually improved when playing with audio, and felt they were immersed into the game. Furthermore, time-distortion was shown from the participants, but had more of an effect on the participants that had little to no gaming experience.

Course: Computer Games Technology - BSc (Hons) - C1671

Date Deposited: 2019-11-21

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis13459.html