Personal choices as opposed to official game soundtracks

Abstract

In this dissertation, I investigated how and to what extent the use of personal choices of music in games affects the experience of the players as opposed to the original game soundtrack. Fourteen people took part in a qualitative study in which they played two different games twice with both the game music and their own music choice for each game. Each participant was monitored and interviewed after the sessions to see the perceived differences in involvement and gameplay. I discovered that all participants perceived a difference in game involvement. This difference was not uniform; some perceived the game music to be more involving. Alternatively, others found that in instances where they thought the music matched the pace of the 8ame, they felt more involved in the game. All participants saw that their narrative perception was drastically impacted according to the music type; they report a detachment from the story and its characters when listening to their own choice of music. Gameplay was in certain cases altered, an increased movement of the avatar was noticed when higher tempo music was introduced. While listening to their music, players also seemed to reduce their efficiency when attacking enemies but they concentrated more when solving puzzles.