SOUND AND IMMERSION IN THE FIRST-PERSON SHOOTER Mark Grimshaw University of Wolverhampton WOLVERHAMPTON United Kingdom E-mail: [email protected] KEYWORDS Advances in computer technology are used to bait further First-person shooter, sound, immersion, realism. these lures where “incredible graphics, and revolutionary technology combine to draw you into the most frightening ABSTRACT gaming experience ever created” (id Software 2004). One of the aims of modern First-Person Shooter (FPS) The images on screen can only be a part of a virtual design is to provide an immersive experience to the player. environment as they are a 2-dimensional representation of 3- This paper examines the role of sound in enabling such dimensionality. Sound, though, exists and operates both in immersion and argues that even in ‘realism’ FPS games, it reality and in virtuality; it has a real volume and may be achieved sonically through a focus on caricature dimensionality that is a 3-dimensional representation of the rather than realism. The paper utilizes and develops previous 2-dimensional representation of the 3-dimensional world of work in which a conceptual framework for the design and the game.2 Yet, in managing this feat, sound is also illusory analysis of run and gun FPS sound is developed and the not solely because it refers to a virtual resonating space notion of the relationship between player and FPS (Grimshaw and Schott 2007b) but also because it may make soundscape as an acoustic ecology is put forward (Grimshaw use of caricature and convention rather than (necessarily) and Schott 2007a; Grimshaw and Schott 2007b). Some authentic sound to represent a variety of paraspaces in the problems of sound practice and sound reproduction in the game. game are highlighted and a conceptual solution is proposed. Unlike graphics, sound rarely rates a direct mention in digital INTRODUCTION games marketing material – claims for graphical superiority over other games can be made with images (often rendered It may be stated that player immersion in the First-Person with a detail and realism that are never replicated in the Shooter (FPS) game is one of the goals of the FPS developer. game), but the game box and packaging are incapable of This being mental immersion (and not yet full physical providing a similar siren call for sound. However, it is my immersion), the goal may be defined as the player’s argument that sound too plays a part in the game’s perceptual perception that she is within the game environment, that she realism that forms a basis for player immersion. In this, my is the character whose hands she sees before her. Player argument parallels claims made for sound in other media. As immersion, then, may be supposed to be primarily perceptual Anderson (1996) states, “sound is seventy percent of the and is manifested by a shift of perceptual focus, from an illusion of reality in a motion picture” (p.80). Although I am awareness of ‘being in and part of’ reality to ‘being in and not as willing to provide such a precise figure, my contention part of’ virtuality such that, in the ideal case, virtuality is that sound is of great importance, if not the greatest becomes substituted for reality. This immersion is, in part, importance, in creating the perceptual realism of the FPS enabled through a system of sonic perceptual realism which game that leads to immersion. is technically enabled through the FPS game engine’s sonification capabilities. THE FPS GAME ENGINE AS SONIFICATION SYSTEM For the player and developer there are many processes leading to FPS immersion and perhaps the first takes place Kramer et al. (n.d.) provide a definition of sonification as the before the game has even been installed. Back stories, use of a sound generator to transform non-audio data into minimal though they are, and promotional material for FPS sound in order to facilitate, or perhaps provide new, games typically address the potential player in the second- understanding of that data (p.3). The purpose of sonification person singular and situate her within the game-world: is to monitor and comprehend data which might otherwise, “[Y]ou are U.S. Army Ranger B.J. Blazkowicz […] You are and in another form, be difficult to note and understand. about to embark on a journey deep into the heart of the Third Reich” (Gray Matter Studios and id Software 2001), “you 2 It is possible to add further layers to this particular lunge onto a stage of harrowing landscapes and veiled conceptual onion or matryoshka doll by suggesting that abysses” (id Software 1999), “[y]ou are a marine […] Only 1 sound will always carry artefacts of the user space and you stand between Hell and Earth” (id Software 2004). equipment that is inhabited and used by the player in order to partake in the game and that this adds another real space with 1 This form of direct address occurs not only in FPS games as any other real and illusory spaces already contained in the Burn and Parker (2003, p.45) note. sound. 119 Furthermore, the transposing of data to the sonic domain Furthermore, in a multi-player scenario, such sonification is allows the specialized abilities of the auditory system to be an important mode of player-player communication. brought to bear on that data in an attempt to discern meaning Sonification provides a relational framework for the player to from it. As an example, the ears are finely attuned to minute begin to contextualize herself within the spaces of the game temporal and frequency changes, more so than the eyes, and, world or in relation to events and other characters ― for the purposes of constant monitoring, the ears, unlike the ultimately, in a multiplayer game, this framework enables her eyes, cannot be shut (there being no earlids) and need not be to establish relationships with other players. oriented in any particular direction to sense sound. Kramer defines two further terms related to sonification. IMMERSION THROUGH SOUND IN THE FPS GAME Firstly, audification (or 0th order sonification) is a “direct translation of a data waveform to the audible domain for the Paraphrasing Pine and Gilmore (1999), Ermi and Mäyrä purposes of monitoring and comprehension” (1994, p.186). (2005) state that “immersion means becoming physically or Secondly, audiation relies on human experience and virtually a part of the experience itself” and, as part of their imagination whereby a person mentally invokes a sound ‘four realms of experience’, they define digital games as an when presented with an image ― an image of a dog may escapist experience because the medium includes both active provoke an audiated yap. participation and immersion.4 Following their analysis of a variety of digital games (in which the FPS Half-Life 2 (Valve The audio samples typically provided with FPS games are Software 2004) had the highest overall immersion rating), used by the game engine for audification purposes. Because they posit three types of immersive hooks: sensory these audio samples are not sounds but are representations of immersion where sensory stimuli from the game (auditory the original sound stored as bits within the game system, in and visual) override sensory stimuli from reality; challenge- order to be heard, they must be organized by the game engine based immersion requiring motor and mental skills and during game play and processed by audio transducers. imaginative immersion where players identify with the Higher order sonification is represented by the mapping of game's story and characters. game events to particular audio samples prior to their audification. These game events may be initiated by players All sound in the game has the ability to provide Ermi and or bots as they partake in the gameplay and interact with the Mäyrä's sensory immersion but, because this is sensory rather game world. Examples include the firing of weapons, than perceptual, the degree of this type of immersion is, in movement, the collection of various game items or more large part, dependent upon the type of audio interface the significant and global events such as the capture of a flag in a player uses and, for example, the relative volumes and capture the flag scenario. They may also be initiated by the relative frequency bandwidths (and overlap) between the game engine itself as ambient sounds or as audio samples game environment's sounds and the player environment's audificated in response, for instance, to the amount of time sounds. However, it is almost certainly the case that sensory remaining for play. immersion is increased through the wearing of headphones (as most FPS players do) because these serve to block out In all cases, FPS game sonification is predicated upon player sounds from the user environment (Morris 2002). Where, presence and action. Audification of audio samples occurs according to Ermi and Mäyrä, immersion includes becoming only in response to player action or, at the very least, to physically a part of the experience, this is achieved, in the player presence within the game world.3 For many game case of the FPS game acoustic ecology, through the process engine-initiated sounds, the player may exercise a of the player becoming physically immersed in the real kinaesthetic control over the sonification by moving her resonating space (Grimshaw and Schott 2007b) and so character in relation to the sound source. For example, by sensory immersion is a physical immersion. moving away from a sound source, the sound becomes attenuated until the point at which it ceases to play. In Many FPS sounds provide challenge-based immersive technical terms, the game engine tracks the character’s possibilities.