Effects of soundtrack music on the video game experience

ABSTRACT

Aesthetic elements such as soundtrack music have been neglected in game entertainment research. Based on previous work in games research and the psychology of film soundtracks (Cohen, 2001), we test the hypotheses that soundtrack music contributes to players‘ enjoyment via intensification of emotions (affective route) and via amplification of the sense of spatial presence and identification with the game character (cognitive routes). Study 1 tested these assumptions with N = 68 young male players of an episode of Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag^®, either with the original soundtrack music present or absent, and reported game enjoyment, as well as scores of the assumed mediator variables afterward. In Study 2, N = 59 young males played an episode of Alien: Isolation^® with soundtrack music present or absent and reported their horror experience, as well as the experiential facets as in study 1. Findings clearly show an indirect effect of soundtrack music on enjoyment through positive emotions (study 1) and an impact of (shocking) music on players’ horror experience (study 2). However, a mediation of the effect of soundtrack music on game enjoyment via spatial presence or identification was not established. We discuss implications for future research in game entertainment.

Notes

^1. Following Davidson, Scherer, and Goldsmith (2003), we understand emotions as „a relatively brief episode of coordinated brain, autonomic, and behavioral changes that facilitate a response to an external or internal event” (p. xiii; see also: Juslin & Sloboda, 2010). In contrast, “affect” is a broader umbrella term that covers emotions but also other “valenced” states such as moods (Juslin & Sloboda, 2010, p. 10).

^2. Unstandardized regression coefficients are reported, because standardized coefficients are affected by the distribution of the cases between the groups of the independent variable, as well as group mean differences (Hayes, 2013).

^3. We thank an anonymous reviewer for this comment.

^4. We thank an anonymous reviewer for this advice.