User:Basirmansoor/sandbox

Effects on Gaming
Video game music sets the mood for each stage of the game. Mood is an incredibly important part of game design as not properly setting up an optimal experience for the player leads to a lack of interest in the game itself. This means that if the music of a game is not impactful enough, the game may not sell well, regardless of how extraordinary the gameplay itself is. In gaming, immersion is key, and music is a huge part of that.

Action games (includes fighting games, shooting games, combat games, etc.) typically hype the player up. This can be achieved through various music composition strategies. A few of which include a faster paced tempo, a higher treble line, as well as a more powerful bass. The quicker tempo provides the listener with a sense of urgency. Since action games are based on quick thinking and spontaneous reactions, the result is more exciting gameplay. The higher pitched melody is the main tune and is usually raised higher than typical music in order to create more of a contrast with the bass. The powerful bass not only serves to contrast with the treble but also reemphasizes the quick beat.

On the other hand, strategy games and adventure games typically employ less active music. The purpose of music in such games is to enhance the experience, calm the player, or simply serve as a catchy tune. A prime example of the former is the soundtrack of Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. While music doesn't play in the background of our real lives, the music is composed in such a way that is still reminiscent of whatever scenery is portrayed in the game. Whether it be forests, fields, temples, or any sort of setting you could find in an adventure game, there is a soundtrack to enhance the experience and make it feel more realistic.

Sound Effects
As video game music sets the mood for the background of video games, sound effects are the ones to amplify the actions within the game, therefore, making it a vital part of video game music. Sound effects help make a virtual scene, a reality by helping the player respond to the natural sounds he or she would hear if it were in real life. Usually, video games with great audio do better in the market due how well it engages the player while they play and encourage them to continue to game more. The more sound effects the creators put, the more successful the game will be.

Sound effects have the power to manipulate the environment for the player in an almost tangible way where they believe they are actually in the game. These are essentials in making it more realistic, since each little sound effect helps create a more realism within virtuality. Sound effects in video games range from hearing a creaky door open to the ear-shattering sound of ammunition being fired. Most consider the best sound effects to be the ones that one doesn’t necessarily notice instantly but tends to heighten stress and involvement within the game. This deviously affect the players mood and make sure the player doesn’t stray their attention away from the game. In the game space invaders, it was able to keep the player interested through the kinds of repetitive sound bites they played. As the speed of the aliens approaching the player begin to increase, so did the speed of the music it played as well. The music began to increase in both sound and speed. As technology has intelligently skyrocketed, it has taken sound effects into a whole new dimension making video games more addicting as ever.

Importance of Soundtrack
Along with sound effects in video game music, soundtracks as well play a huge part in manipulating the mood, heightening the player's emotions, and making the virtual world more present within the game. Soundtracks usually come from the more popular genres of music which helps attract attention to the game since it falls “within the trend.” There have been many studies conducted on whether or not the soundtrack of video games have the power to mentally involve the player into the game causing them to be deeply focused. However, this study shows how video game soundtracks also have the power to not only help the gamer focus on playing the video game but also collect their thoughts and help with their cognitive skills. After 20 minutes of playing meticulously gaming, the video games were shut off. The results showed how the gamers in this study who listened to the soundtrack had significantly higher scores on the questionnaire they had to fill out and the ones who hadn’t listened to the soundtrack had significantly lower scores. This follows the predicted trend because the players that were playing the video games were listening to the music and engaging their brain while also focusing on the game. This makes their brains more active and makes the test subject more likely to perform better on the questionnaire. After this study was published by Jiulin Zhang and Xiaoqing Fu from the School of Psychology at Southwest University in China, many video game designers began to give importance to the soundtracks that were playing in video games as a marketing strategy to increase the amount of sales that could be done if people begin to realize the direct link between video game music soundtracks and immersion. Since video game music soundtracks have the power to raise cognitive power, its importance in getting gamers to be addicted to the newest games that are being released have heightened as well. These soundtracks can not only create a more vivid and exhilarating gaming experience, but they can also help the mind in other ways by raising cognitive motor skills.

Bonding Effect of Gaming Music
Sound effects have an incredible influence on the overall game experience. While a game may be able to get by without music or dialogue, one without sound effects will be very disappointing. Video game music is meant to have a memorable effect, such as Super Mario Land from 1989 on the GameBoy. Practically everyone knows the classic Mario background music because the tune is catchy and memorable, bring gamers to keep coming and buying the newest edition of Mario games for nostalgia reasons. People can hum to the tune of video game music, however, they would not always know the composer of the music, and more credit needs to be given to the video game composers. Despite the common knowledge of video game composers and their importance on video games, they still have a major impact on video games. With the evolution of video game music from classic 8-bit music/chiptune to genres such as Synthwave, video game designers always knew the importance of video game music other than being just for entertainment. Video game composers work with video game designers to help create music best suited for the game, to help elevate the gaming experience. In arcades, it was the music that first attracted people towards the games, enticing people to play. It was not the gameplay or the game's graphic, it was the music. Music has the same amount of importance as the gameplay, maybe even more. With older games, the music stood out, allowing gamers to come back to buy the newest installment of the sage. After decades, Mario is well known around the globe, with the catchy 8-bit music that attracted gamers to the the Mario franchise, almost anyone on the street will recognize the tune; even people who never played Mario games.