Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

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.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface: Game Sound Gets Heard (p. vii)
• Acknowledgments (p. xi)
• Introduction (p. 1)
• How Is Interacting with Sound Different from Listening to Sound? (p. 2)
• The Sound of Music: Musical Sound (p. 3)
• Interacting with and Listening To (p. 4)
• Game Players: An Interactive Audience (p. 13)
• Game Players: An Embodied Cognition Approach to Audience (p. 15)
• 1 Interacting with Sound: A Theory of Action, Image, and Sound (p. 19)
• Schizophonia: Disembodied Sound? (p. 23)
• Synchresis: Integrating Sound and Image (p. 26)
• Kinesonic Synchresis: The Event-Driven Nature of Interactive Sound (p. 32)
• Kinesonic Congruence and the Player (p. 35)
• 2 Being in the Game: A Sonic Approach (p. 39)
• Extension and Incorporation (p. 41)
• Self-Produced Sound (p. 43)
• Sonic Game Space: Point of Audition in Games (p. 44)
• Spatial Sonic Embodiment in the Game (p. 56)
• 3 Sound at the Borders: Enacting Game Sound (p. 59)
• Posing and Playing (p. 60)
• Voice and Role-Play in Games (p. 68)
• Alternate-Reality Games (p. 82)
• New Sonic Boundaries: Identification, Performance, and Cocreativity (p. 87)
• 4 Embodying Game Sound in Performance: The Real and the Virtual (p. 89)
• Performing Music in Games (p. 92)
• Performing to Music in Games (p. 96)
• Performing Game Musk (p. 105)
• Creating Music from the Game (p. 111)
• Interacting with the Game as Instrument (p. 119)
• 5 The Second Life of Game Sound: Playing with the Game (p. 121)
• Sonic Modification and Player-Generated Content (p. 123)
• Modeling Game Sound (p. 126)
• Art Mods (p. 134)
• Player-Generated Content: A Fourth Wall of Sound (p. 138)
• Conclusions (p. 143)
• Future Directions in Interactive Sound Studies (p. 147)
• Notes (p. 149)
• References (p. 155)
• Audiovisual References (p. 173)
• Index (p. 179)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Playing with Sound is a concise and densely researched study of game audio. It approaches sound from an active player-centric view and positions it apart from passively consumed audio. Collins (Canada Research Chair in Interactive Audio, Univ. of Waterloo; Game Sound, CH, Mar'09, 46-3749) highlights and explains the myriad opportunities for interactions presented through audio, such as dialogue, sound effects, ambience, and music. While not a history of video games, the work examines audio throughout gaming history and highlights its major contributions to interactive player experiences. The book closes with ruminations on the future of game audio study and the potential applications and influences it may have. Those interested in the book should note that the accompanying hyperlinks might be more useful in the e-book format. Overall, this is a significant step forward in game audio and game studies. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels of undergraduate and graduate students in game design and audio programs, researchers/faculty, and professionals/practitioners. A. Chen Cogswell College