I agree with many of my classmates that this article was one of the most informative and entertaining assignments we’ve had so far. I loved how Whalen incorporated the sound clips into his article- it really took the content one step further. I even found myself so interested in the material that I was jumping back and forth from youtube and Whalen’s piece, watching all the mickey mouse cartoons he talked about. In class a lot of students expressed how important they felt music was to the play of the game, and I would have to say I agree. I think that it contributes greatly to flow as well, which is something Whalen talked about. I just imagined myself playing a game with no music, just the sound of the player walking or performing actions, and realized how that would certainly discourage flow. Music is what ties it all together. Even some of the games that do not have a soundtrack playing at all times all some kind of background noise during gameplay- whether it be wind blowing or the sound of rain falling. The only type of game I can think of that does not have some kind of background noise would be a ‘horror’ game, and in that case, situations with no noise serve to tell the player that something scary/big/violent is going to happen soon. Whalen even talked about this in his article, about how certain sounds or the lack of sound can aid in a player feeling apprehension or nervousness about what is yet to come. In this case, the player pulls out of flow- because if you know something is up ahead, most of the time you take a step back in order to prepare for the upcoming encounter. You have to turn off cruise control and make more conscious decisions about your next move. And this all comes from the lack of background music- fascinating.