I like many others really enjoyed this article above all other assigned readings. I think that this article did a great job at explaining how music plays such an imperative role in games. I especially like how he explained his concept of flow. In class, we discussed how flow was kind of like Koster’s concept of grokking. You become so immersed in what you’re doing that you don’t know you’re doing it. You simply “go with the flow.” In terms of music, flow is established when music is able to expand the concept of a game’s fictional world or to draw the player forward through the sequence of gameplay (Whalen). The result is this sort of trance effect one gets while playing the game.

 I have most definitely experienced the effect of music on gameplay most recently with the game “the crossing.” What makes this game is the music. Like Whalen noted, music does indeed draw me into the game and keep me playing for many minutes at a time (playing for more than 15 minutes is an achievement in my book). However, while playing this game yet again, I thought to myself: could it be that a game with such peaceful music really keeps me that entertained? Would I still play this game if music were absent?

I investigated the answer to this question. Without music, this game is very boring and this game really has no real purpose to being played. You simply move animated deer to the other side. Turn the music back on and this game is suddenly a lot more entertaining again (not in terms of being challenging or anything of that sort), but the sounds bring you back into the state of mellowness and keeps you playing for another 15 minutes at a time. The deer become more than just animated pixels. They become deer and you become sad everytime you let one die.

Whalen made a statement that I think best sums up “The Crossing” and a lot of other games that use music to enhance gameplay. The result of music “is that the musical cues and non-musical sound effects instill objects with even more life than the simple appearance of figures in motion” (Whalen).

I have got to say, this is by far my favorite article that we have read for this class.  Although I agree with Dani that some parts were a bit confusing, I found myself agreeing with the majority of Whalen’s claims.  As always though, I particularly enjoyed the parts of this article that described aspects of videogames by referencing things that I find easier to relate to and understand.  For example, my favorite part of this article was his description of “flow.”  It is through this “distorted sense of time, or sense of freedom or abstraction” that scholars are able to analyze the communication involved in videogame music.  At first this was difficult for me to wrap my head around, even with his explanation referencing reading.  However, even though I am no star athlete, when he hinted that this concept of flow could be experienced through athletics, I began to understand it.  When I am playing an (what I believe to be) intense volleyball or basketball game, or even during a long run, I get so caught up in it that nothing else matters-my surroundings and physical sensations almost cease to exist.  I think this is why I end up finding scrapes and bruises the day after a basketball game without having any idea as to when they were created.  If Whalen is correct, as I believe him to be, and people get this same sensation when playing videogames, I feel that I owe “intense-gamers” some sort of apology for judging their extreme gaming habits.  For, if the “flow” they experience is anything like what I’m relating it to, I understand lacking the desire to ever stop.  As far as Whalen attributing the “flow” sensation largely to the music of the game, I am embarrassed to say that although I have played all the games we have been required to play, I have done so to the track of my ipod with the game sound on mute.  Perhaps this explains my lack of love of videogames? Who knows?… I promise to play all further games with the sound on and see where that leads me..

I think Whalen does a beautiful job of describing the effects that music has on a player’s perceptions in videogames. I feel like the article may be a bit difficult to read if you have never played a musical instrument before, because Whalen makes reference to multiple musical terms that aren’t used in everyday language.

I completely agree with the way Whalen describes the effects seamless changes in music have on the game. In my opinion, Koji Kondo is a musical genius and I feel like his soundtrack is half the reason that Ocarina of Time was so successful. Not only does the music correspond to the action in the game, but it also changes depending on the area that you are in. This creates non-diegetic ambiances that work in accordance with diegetic musical cues as Link encounters various enemies, items etc. The music is so good, that the noise for collecting a small item is my text message alert on my phone.

My question would be are there any games without music out there? And if so, are they actually something that can hold your interest for a long period of time? Or is that just the equivalent of muting the game? And what effect does muting the game have on the amount of attachment a gamer has with the game they are playing at any one point in time?

Whalen’s article examines videogame music on multiple levels. The author uses previously discussed Galloway concepts of diegetic and nondiegetic to classify different music clips. Whalen discusses how the source of the music itself is diegetic while associated character actions are seemingly nondiegetic.

In my opinion, the most intriguing aspect of the article is the psychoanalytical analysis of videogame music effectiveness. This lens allows the effectiveness of sound within videogames to be related to previous class discussions and new questions to be introduced. In previous classes, it has been discussed why a player relates to a videogame character, how the given soundtrack of game provides a trademark for that particular game play, and the role of the game as a narrative.

By providing the research of Annabel J. Cohen, a psychologist who studied subject interpretation of movement and emotion in relation to music, Whalen successfully combines the preceding class discussions. Exploring “the potential for simple shapes and sounds to evoke a narrative, cognitive meaning” (Whalen 2004) conveys how stories are told through diegetic and nondiegetic gamic actions.

As previously mentioned, early class discussion included the connection of the player to the game character. Cohen’s studies suggest that the reason for this connection may be a subconscious reaction to the sound accompanying character actions while a trademark sound allows the brain to create a correlation between the game and reality.

With the above statements one must ask what other factors create subconscious or conscious relationship with an aspect of the game? Is it universally agreed upon that music has an immense impact of game play? How would a change in music result in the alteration of the game narrative?

So since there were not any posts to respond to, I decided to focus on the video that we watched during class on Tuesday. There was a part that discussed the focus on youth in games and the fact that video games allow you to remain in a child-like world even as you develop into an adult. This sparked my memory of an article that I read in Vanity Fair entitled “Addicted to Cute.” While the first part of the article discusses exactly how cute is displayed in a variety of mediums throughout the United States, the discussion of Japanese “kawaii” culture on pages four and five have a connection to the article on Nintendo’s marketing technique. There is a discussion of a 10 year time lag and the creation of this kawaii culture during the postwar 1940s and 1950s. While companies like Sanrio and HelloKitty had a big influence on this, I feel as though Nintendo was a power player as well in fusing Japanese culture into American society. Not to mention that the adoption of kawaii into American culture could easily be a representation of a switch of positions with the Japanese in a much more powerful position than they were 60 years ago and the state of depression on the United States. I wonder to what extent that the family-oriented, graphically cell-shaded Nintendo video games had an influence on this? And does this perhaps a political commentary attached to it as well?