From the ready room to the battle bus: exploring militarisation through gamespace soundwalks in Fortnite

Abstract

ABSTRACTWhile its candy-coated shell may provide a clever camouflage for younger markets, this paper acknowledges that militarisation has been made pleasurable in more sensuous ways. Deploying gamespace soundwalking as a method, we attune to the ways Fortnite's sound design rehearses the neoliberal citizen-soldier on a sonic dimension. Yet, its capitalist priorities both corner youth markets while letting young players experiment with counterplay. To arrive at this conclusion, this paper illustrates the application of a novel method within game and sound studies – gamespace soundwalking. In the case of Fornite where the narrative context is individual military victory, the affective atmosphere ought to be one of keen attention to warfare, ambience and combat events. But how is war specifically depicted there? What is the significance of the sonic environment in forming a sense of place? We argue that method must take us beyond a semiotic analysis of the sonic components of Fortnite; we need a real-time ethnographic exploration of gameplay. In so doing, we tune in to Fortnite's ear-candy sound design as it exemplifies neoliberal standardisation of sound environments – masking grizzly conflict zones – as well as consumptive priorities that reach spectacular levels and the militarised Taylorist perfection of the citizen-soldier.KEYWORDS: Neoliberalismdigital consumptionFortnitegameplaymilitarizationsoundwalking Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 ‘My’ Twitter feed refers to the lead author's. Acknowledging that Twitter's algorithm is personalised for each user, this example is intentionally anecdotal and may not have been replicated for other users.2 Recordings were made with the Playstation 4's built-in gameplay capture feature, which captures the last fifteen minutes of game audio and visuals, allowing for direct uploads to YouTube (See the Appendix).Additional informationNotes on contributorsBen SchollBen Scholl is a Ph.D. student in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University. He holds a BComm. in Business Administration and an M.A. in Communication and Social Justice from the University of Windsor. In his thesis, Ben intends to explore the intersection of algorithmic platform governance with the institutionalisation of Canadian professional esports via ethnographic approaches.Milena DroumevaDr. Milena Droumeva is an Associate Professor of Communication and Sound Studies at Simon Fraser University specialising in sound studies, sensory and multimodal ethnography. They have a background in acoustic ecology and work across the fields of urban soundscape research, sonification for public engagement, as well as gender and sound in video games.