Abstract
This study provides one of very few experimental investigations into the impact of a musical soundtrack on the video gaming experience. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions: game-with-music, game-without-music, or music-only. After playing each of three segments of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Electronic Arts, 2002) - or, in the music-only condition, listening to the musical score that accompanies the scene - subjects responded on 21 verbal scales. Results revealed that some, but not all, of the verbal scales exhibited a statistically significant difference due to the presence of a musical score. In addition, both gender and age level were shown to be significant factors for some, but not all, of the verbal scales. Details of the specific ways in which music affects the gaming experience are provided in the body of the paper.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 337-343 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Journal of Physiological Anthropology and Applied Human Science |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Nov 2004 |
Keywords
- Cinema
- Film music
- Film sound
- Music cognition
- Music perception
- Sound design
- Soundtrack
- Video game
- Virtual environment