Creating Emotion in Games Through Sound

Is emotion important to online games? No. Before you excommunicate me for such an evil answer, let me explain myself. Emotion is not important in MMOGs yet. Not yet, but it will be. There are now at least half a dozen popular massively multiplayer games on the market today. What drives the consumer to play them?

Each one can satisfy the needs of most. The games are fun. There are a lot of things that you can do in these games no matter your personality. You can destroy evil, become evil, create items for your fellow adventurers, socialize with likeminded individuals, and explore vast worlds that are often compelling.

What sets one apart from another? At the moment, very little beyond genre (fantasy, sci-fi, etc.), product quality (game polish), or its community (the community being possibly the most important factor for retention, which is something I may discuss at a later date).

What is the next logical step? I don’t think it’s innovating in the areas of technology, gameplay, or even accessibility. Those all evolve and each new wave of online games bring more to the table. Well, what sets an amazing movie apart from a merely entertaining movie? Emotion.

While some of us who make games are just out to create an entertaining experience for our players, some of us are in it for more. We’re in it for a deep experience. Something meaningful that touches the lives of those who play our games. What we suffer from as a genre is the non-linearity of our products. Movies and books are linear. They have a beginning and an end, and the destinations along the path are clearly defined.

One of the greatest strengths of the massively multiplayer genre is its non-linearity, but it also effectively cripples our ability to create something meaningful for our players. Or does it?

I don’t mean to sound like an angst-filled teen crying out for confirmation of my superiority, but I like to think of game developers as artists. Or at the very least, creative individuals with the potential to become true artists. One day soon, video games as a whole will become recognized as a medium for artistic expression. It’s bound to happen at some point, and it’s especially difficult to become artistic for a massively multiplayer game developer.

Why? As I mentioned before, because of the non-linearity of the massively multiplayer game experience. We have a limited control over what our players see and feel while playing our games. We can write engaging dialog, but nine times out of ten, a player will either glance over the dialog or ignore it completely in order to fulfill his or her goals (generally, to get or advance some sort of quest).

So, that brings me to the main point of this particular entry. There are a variety of ways to elicit emotion in online games, some of which we can begin immediately to apply. One route that I believe is underutilized yet is extremely important (vital, really) is audio.

I’m going to use the movie Braveheart as reference for much of my argument for a few reasons. One, it is a movie that most of us have seen. Two, it applies particularly well to online gaming (in the fantasy genre). Three, because I feel it is one of the most emotionally compelling movies that has surfaced in the past several years.

Do you remember the final important scene in the movie (don’t read on if you haven’t seen it)? Mel Gibson’s character, William Wallace, is executed and the flower a young girl once gave him falls to the ground. For me, it was one of the most emotionally stimulating events in movie history. I, a man devoid of emotion, fought to suppress the tears I felt on the cusp of streaming down my face.

I will neglect to discuss the emotional significance of the event, because most of the emotional impact comes from how well the character and story development in the movie were. You cared for Wallace. You care for his cause. And you fell in love with the little girl (and later his wife) whose flower he dropped upon his death, if only for the duration of the movie.

So, though it was credit mostly to the writing and execution of the movie, have you ever paid attention to the audio during that scene? Have you ever paid attention to the audio during any of the scenes? If done right, and I think it was in Braveheart, you don’t even notice the audio throughout the movie. It is integrated so well into the movie that its existence is forgotten, but it elicits emotional response all the same.

A term I so love to use (because I invented it myself) is “epicitude.” What is it? I’m glad you asked. Essentially, epicitude is the sum of all the parts that make a situation epic in nature–danger, plot significance, emotion, scope, etc. It’s not something that can be clearly pointed to, but it’s something that exists in any situation that feels epic and I use it as my generic term to describe just how epic and important a situation is.

Back to Braveheart. Can you remember a scene in which a vast majority of the audio was either turned down to negligible levels or completely muted, yet certain aspects of the audio were amplified? If not, go to one of the battle scenes. The more epic a battle, the more disparity there is between the audio that intrinsically exists and the audio that garners focus.

The clash of swords gains focus not because its volume is increased, but because other aspects in a scene are muffled or muted (ambient audio, often music). You can hear the individual rasps of breath and sometimes even the heartbeats of individual soldiers fighting for their lives. Voices nearly don’t exist. They don’t need to. The clash of steel, the neigh of a horse whose rider fell to his death, the crack of earth beneath the feet of marching soldiers.

It all works in concert to bring about our emotions. The type of audio that is amplified or muffled varies depending on the epicitude of a scene or situation. Often, music will begin with a sort of impending doom feel to it. Additional layers are added to the music, and it becomes all the more desperate as the battles heats up. The music’s key changes to a sobering dirge after the battle is complete. In Braveheart, the audio works almost flawlessly with the movie itself.

The few uses of audio I mentioned there can very easily be translated into gaming, online or otherwise. I’ll list out a few pieces of audio to try to make my point, though this list is far from complete.

Audio Types

Music

• Story
• Ambient
• Combat

Voice

• Story (Voice Over, Speaking)
• Combat (Grunts, battle cries, etc.)
• Flavor (Laughing, growling, etc.)

Ambient

• Environmental (Native creatures, wind, rain, etc.)
• Character (Crowds and such)

Fluff

• Character (Equipment rustle, footsteps, etc.)
• Creature (A howl in the night, noises in the distance, etc.)
• Situational Character (breathing, heart beats, etc.)
• Combat (Swords clang, etc.)

Now that we’ve come up with a few types of audio that can be played with, I’ll explain the point of my listing them. They can all be tweaked in various ways to elicit different types of dramatic response (and therefore emotion).

I should also mention that in this audio system, music has layers. Nearly every music track has several layers that can be manipulated individually based on the epicitude of a situation (save for Story music sequences, which would be unique and always stay the same).

Let’s go over what would happen to the audio in the case of a siege. This is a player-versus-player situation in which one guild is attacking the stronghold of another. Initially, the audio is primarily ambient in terms of music and environmental noises. Nothing to see here, just your standard audio.

This particular stronghold lies within a swamp, so its musical theme reflects it. A mysterious tune plays in the background. Then the battle begins.

Immediately, because of the scope of the combat (i.e. there are dozens or hundreds of players engaging each other in the immediate vicinity), several layers are added to the music. The music becomes desperate. It gets the heart pumping. The battle rages on.

Creature Fluff audio becomes mute. Character and Combat Fluff audio stays at a medium volume. Ambient audio starts to fade out of existence. Combat Voice and Situational Character Fluff audio begin to amplify. The battle continues to rage on, and the music becomes ever more desperate.

All that can be heard are the sounds of war. It’s pouring now, but the thunder and rain are silent. Their existence doesn’t matter in this situation. It’s about the war. The battle continues to rage on for 30 minutes.

The desperate breathing of those around you and your own heartbeat become more and more prominent. Combat Voice is almost impossible to hear anymore. Combat Fluff audio becomes intermittently focused, muffled, or mute. Your senses are becoming confused. The music fades away completely. It’s just you and your desperate thirst for survival now.

And the battle ends. Your side has won. A triumphant musical score proceeds. The audio layer volume sliders slowly make their way back to normal. The world is set aright, and you can go on about your business. But it takes a while for your heart to stop pumping. You have adrenaline coursing through you. From a game.

That’s it. There isn’t really a closer here. I will likely discuss emotion and its importance in games more in the future. I may even delve further into the technical side of audio in games, but I think my point is made. If not, go watch Braveheart and pay attention to the audio. You’ll see what I mean, and you’ll realize how realistic it is to implement emotionally engaging audio in online games.