Those who played were listening to the music? Immersion and dynamic music in the ludonarrative

Abstract

Non-linear storytelling environments take us one step closer towards immersive experiences while relying heavily on the emotional congruency of the presented stimuli, such as music, as a function of user action. A pilot study was conducted to explore immersive presence as well as emotional valence and arousal in the context of dynamic and non-dynamic music in an action-adventure video game. 60 subjects answered self-report questionnaires of experiential states each time after playing the game `Batman: Arkham City' in one of three conditions accounting for (1) dynamic music, (2) non-dynamic music/low arousal potential and (3) non-dynamic music/high arousal potential, in this way manipulating emotional arousal, structural-temporal alignment and emotional congruency of nondiegetic music. Investigating the perceived drama related semantic ecology of dynamic music in the likes of a Theory of Mind approach, different layers of virtual mind sets between the player, avatar and game environment are assumed to moderate a continuous regulatory modulation of emotional response achieved by context effects of dynamic music.