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Stockburger, A. 2003, November 4–6. The game environment from an auditive perspective. Paper presented at Level Up, Utrecht Universiteit.    
Added by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard   Last edited by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard 15/05/2008, 10:09
In addition to spatial representation, sound serves "to inform and give feedback, to set the mood, rhythm and pace, and to convey the narrative."  
"The kinaesthetic control over the acousmatisation and visualisation of sound objects in the game environment is a key factor in creating unique spatial experiences when playing computer games."  
When discussing real-time creation of spatial signatures simulating various acoustic spaces, "[T]he simulation process literally turns the relationship between source and surrounding, as observed by Rick Altman on its head. The user follows an inductive process from isolated sound to an assumption about the surrounding space."  
"...it is precisely the dynamic relation between material and program that separates sound practice in a computer game from other [audiovisual] media".  
Acousmatic is a Pythagorean term that describes the distance between the point of hearing and the point of origin of sound, specifically to the distance separating disciples from an intoning priest hidden behind a curtain. It later became a part of the electro-acoustic and Musique Concrète tradition in its first sense above. Michel Chion uses it, and transforms its meaning somewhat, to describe particular relationships between sound and vision in film.  
Takes up Christian Metz's point that there is no such thing as off-screen sound as opposed to on-screen sound and that sound has been conceptualized by technicians in terms relating to the visual.  
The analysis of sound by use in Metal Gear Solid 2 is:

Speech sound objects.
Effect sound objects.
Zone sound objects.
Score sound objects (musical score).
Interface sound objects. 		 
Discusses the notion of a 'sound object' and its original meaning as coined by the composer Pierre Schaeffer in 1966. Schaeffer proposed reduced listening to describe listening to the physical and perceptual properties of sound devoid of semantic meaning.

Stockburger makes the point that while such a notion is useful when analyzing game audio, semantic properties of sound are used when the game player constructs relationships between the audio and visual material presented. 		 
Promotes the terms user environment and game environment. Differentiates between sounds originating from the user's environment (bedroom etc.) or hardware mediating the sound (speakers, headphones etc.) and sounds originating from the game.
Stockburger, A. (2006). The rendered arena: Modalities of space in video and computer games. Unpublished thesis PhD, University of the Arts, London.    
Added by: Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard 15/05/2008, 15:04
"The sound theoretician R. Murray Schafer considers Aivilik culture as an example for the reversal of visual dominance developed in the European Renaissance. He points out that within the Eskimo culture acoustic space influences and supersedes visual space."  
Stockburger proposes five spatializing functions of sound objects:

  • Acousmatic function – defines the relation between a sound object and the
    visibility of the related visual element.
  • Indexical function – delivers information that is vital for the gameplay (e.g. ticking sound of bomb).
  • Spatial signature function – is present when the surrounding space affects the qualities of sound objects (e.g. echo, reverb).
  • Motion function – defines the motion of sound objects.
  • Motoric function – simulates movement or motion (motor sounds in racing or
    flying games, footstep sounds in FPS games).
  
"Immersive functions of sounds within the game space depend on low frequencies and the diffusion of individual sound events."  
"In a computer game, while there also exists a set of fixed relations between sound objects and visual objects, the temporal process of visualization and acousmatisation is much more flexible and open to variation. This state of affairs makes it necessary to regard acousmatic functions in a computer game as dynamic functions. There is a constant flux between user-controlled acousmatisation and visualisation on the one hand, and the scripted behaviour designed by game developers to prepare situations of suspense."  
"Game music has a huge emotional impact on the player and it generally enhances the feeling of immersion."  
"[Effect sound objects may be] classified as being linked to the avatar, the game characters, objects, and events."  
"[...] there is no “natural” relationship between a visual object and a sound, simply because all of these elements are brought together by an “artificial” program. This is not an entirely new phenomenon, since quite clearly in the case of film the relationship between the visual and the audible is also artificially established during the post-production phase. Still it could be argued that in the case of digital games there is an even higher degree of artificiality, since so many of the objects in play are part of imaginary universes."  
"[...] it is quite obvious that a mode of reduced listening will not be achieved during the playing of an audiovisual game, simply because one is drawn
to construct relations between the visual and auditory information. It is, however, possible to describe sound qualities that are inherently spatial, independent of an indexical connection to their source." 		 
"With the exception of a number of text-based games, the overwhelming majority [of computer games] have to be regarded as audiovisual kinaesthetic artefacts and the relationship between sound and image lies at the centre of the gaming experience."
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