Understanding Player Perception of Music In Games under Varying Cognitive Demand: A gameplay experiment and survey

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master_Bhatnagar_Prabhav_2022.pdf (7.24 MB)

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Perustieteiden korkeakoulu | Master's thesis
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Date

2022-07-29

Department

Major/Subject

Game Design and Production

Mcode

SCI3046

Degree programme

Master’s Programme in Computer, Communication and Information Sciences

Language

en

Pages

56 + 10

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Abstract

Although it has been established that presence of background music in gameplay experiences affects player behavior and emotions, a deeper understanding about how players perceive game music in diverse gameplay situations is lacking. We aim to address this gap by studying the relationship between the player's perception of music and cognitive demand experienced. We conduct controlled experiments (N=102), using two independently verified game scenarios with game mechanics and scenarios designed to elicit high and low cognitive demand. As the dependent variable, we measure experienced perception of game music in terms of variance and confidence of felt and perceived emotion in the music. Owing to the lack of a standardized survey method for measuring music perception, we also propose a survey design that can be utilized to measure the same through the proxy of said confidence rating. Our results suggest that there exists a small trend but do not reach a decisive conclusion. We highlight the tendency of lower quality music perception with an increase in cognitive demand that warrants further investigation. We discuss the implications from both an academic and industrial perspective and share the potential of future research in this direction.

Description

Supervisor

Mekler, Elisa

Thesis advisor

Mekler, Elisa

Keywords

games, music, player experience, game audio, cognitive demand, digital games

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https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202208285209

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[dipl] Perustieteiden korkeakoulu / SCI