I was especially excited about this week’s focus on sound and music in relation to video games because I think both have become increasingly important in creating the experience for players. As I worked with Joseph to come up with discussion questions for this week we talked in length about the ways in which music has changed the video game industry and why these games that employ music as a mechanic of the game have become so popular. I tested out a few games that use music in multiple ways and had different experiences with each.

When Nick and Austin asked me to play Rockband earlier tonight I realized with some embarrassment that I had never played the game. I found myself sitting in front of the game drum set awkwardly holding the drumsticks, nervous for the music to start. I have some musical background, I played piano (as most young children do) throughout elementary school and picked up the cello for 7 years of school orchestra spanning middle and high school. I consider myself to be a somewhat rhythmic person, someone who has a good ear and a deep appreciation for music. However, as the “notes” came hurdling at me on screen, I found myself unbelievably unrhythmic barely squeezing in a correct note. Playing guitar was a slightly better experience, I strummed along nicely but had increasing difficulty getting both hands to operate in their individual tasks. All in all, I enjoyed myself, I liked the satisfaction of getting the right notes and I was enjoying playing with my friends.. until they made me sing. There are few things that make me extremely uncomfortable, but singing is one of them. Especially into a microphone in front of people, all games aside. And I think my fear of my own voice was my greatest inhibitor to success as the singer for Rock Band. I was so afraid of messing up or generally sounding terrible that I sang timidly and reserved and didn’t have much fun at all because of it.

I’m not sure if I’m an introvert or an extrovert, but I have come to realize that I don’t like doing things that I’m not good at in public. This may seem rather intuitive, but I have a real problem with putting myself out there. Its not that I’m uncomfortable with being terrible at a game, but that I’m uncomfortable with people watching me be terrible at a game. I would so much rather sit alone in my room dying 18 times in a game of League of Legends than I would play in a room full of friends privy to my failures. I think part of the reason Rock Band and other multiplayer performance based games have become so popular might be because they give people the opportunity to show off, to be something they’re not. In doing so they allow us to adopt a potential alter ego and to enter into a world outside of our own similar to most games, the difference being that this world and the real world seem to have more of an overlap than many other games. I think this is because of the way in which music is employed as a mechanic of the game. The songs these games use are familiar to us, we already know the words even before they pop up on screen and that familiarity reminds us of the real world. These games offer a unique gameplay that carefully balances and blends  game like structure with real world influences.