Poll: Is sound important in games?

[Davey Woo]

I discovered recently that a few of my friends turn the sound completely off when they play most computer games. I always thought this was weird for two reasons.

1. For me sound is one third of the gaming experience (the other two thirds being story and mechanics). A lot of people put a lot of effort into composing music and sound effects to add to the game as a whole, and it would be silly to ignore that.
2. I think having sound on improves my reactions.

Do you agree with me? Or do you mute the in-game sounds? Do you mute them to play your own music instead, or so you can better hear your friends if you're in-call?

Edit: Never mind.

 

[Aerosteam]

During multiplayer, almost never. Not sure why I would need sound anyway.

In some games, like Pokemon, where you hear the same soundtracks a lot of times I tend to listen to something else, aside from during major story segments/cutscenes and at times when I know awesome music will be played.

I FEEL LIKE HELPING YOU OUT.

I'll let you know how I did soon.

 

[Artina89]

I can't turn the sound all the way down, for me, the soundtrack helps set the atmosphere and the tone. If I am gaming on a handheld and there are other people around, I will just put in headphones.

 

[Smooth Operator]

If I'm playing one of those loot grind games like Torchlight or any laid back multiplayer then sound is off completely, that is mostly when I catch up on some youtube stuff.
If playing super competitive multiplayer then only music is off, and if it's a story game then obviously everything needs to be on or you just throw away the entire feel of it.

 

[shrekfan246]

When I was younger and less concerned with paying attention to the cutscenes of a game, I'd turn the sound down and listen to music while playing because I was mostly just playing for fun.

These days? I'll do that if I'm playing something where I don't have to pay attention to the story, or if I'm doing a lot of grinding. Primarily games like Diablo III or Kingdoms of Amalur, or back when I played World of Warcraft, raiding time was prime time for me to break out some tunes.

But from purely philosophical, psychological, and analytical standpoints, the sound and music design of most games is absolutely critical. It provides the player with many cues that can't always necessarily be conveyed visually, it contributes to the visceral enjoyment, and it can inform the larger situation a scene takes place within, among other things.

 

[StriderShinryu]

There are a few games that I play with the SFX on but music off, but they are very few and far between. In almost all cases, I play with both music and SFX on and wouldn't have it any other way.

 

[MHR]

Sound off? In multiplayer? You're missing so many cues it's not funny. Someone's desperately trying to tell you to do some teamwork over the microphone but you're one of those players that just don't listen as if it were against their religious vow of deafness. A spy decloaks behind you? You're dead. You generally want to hear the big thing growling around the corner or the footsteps of that invader in Dark Souls. Gunfire is almost never "white noise." You could know where and what kinds of things are going on just by the noises being made. Knowing what's going on and acting accordingly is what separates scrubs from pros.

I spent a week involuntarily without sound in TF2, twas infuriating.

 

[Elfgore]

For consoles almost always, PC depends. On games like Total War of Civ, I don't bother with it.

But sound can effect my gaming pleasure. Farcry: Blood Dragon seems to have audio cut in and out randomly, I'm not sure if it is meant to do that, but it really bugs me.

 

[bluepotatosack]

Pretty much the only games I make my own soundtrack for is racing games. Because the vast majority of racing/driving soundtracks are terrible. Except maybe Driver: San Francisco.

Otherwise, I view games as a multimedia experience. It's a creative medium that uses visuals, sound, and interactivity. For the most part I want to experience the game the way the creators intended, at least for the first time through.

Not to mention the practical uses good sound design has for playing a game effectively.

 

[Vigormortis]

Sound is an incredibly important aspect of game design. Far more than many give it credit for.

Good sound design can make or break a game. If your sound effects aren't 'impactful' with the proper amount of oomph or subtlety, your voice overs aren't articulated and emotive, your soundtrack and score expressive and mood-setting, then your game is really only half a game. And at worst just plain awful.

This is especially true in many multiplayer games wherein the player must glean specific audio queues from within the game world to better assess the current environment and game-state.

To put it simply: Don't underestimate the importance of good audio design in a game. Without it; and to use a vulgar vernacular; "your game ain't shit".

 

[balladbird]

Sound effects can be tiny, but incredibly important details, and I adore them personally.

A good example actually occurred recently. Blazblue: Chrono Phantasma added a crunching sound effect to some attacks that slam the opponent into the ground, such as slamming or stomping them.

The result? Hazama/Terumi (both of whom have moves where they repeatedly stomp the enemy into the ground while taunting them) suddenly became sadistically more satisfying to play as. XD

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Always leave the sound on. Unless I'm replaying a part for the 100th time and I'm sick of hearing the same FX or dialogue lines.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Depends on the game.

When I play competitive multiplayer shooters or something like that I always turn music down, or completely off, but turn up all the other sounds so I can hear footsteps and can pinpoint where gunfire is coming from. The sound greatly helps in determining enemy positions.

If I'm playing something in coop with friends I usually turn all the sound down low so that I can hear my friends better. Usually these types of games don't require fast reaction time quite as much as they require proper team communication.

If I'm playing by myself I tend to turn music down to about 50% and turn sound effects down to about 80% so that I can hear character dialogue better because for some reason game developers always tend to set the defaults for NPC dialogue too low (I also always have subtitles enabled).

 

[Nexxis]

I generally leave all of the sound on. There tend to be only 3 occasions when I'll mess with the sounds.:
1. If there is a soundtrack I want to listen to, I might turn the music off in a game, but I'll leave the sound effects on.
2. If I'm in a voice call with friends and the sounds are too distracting, I'll turn them down and/or turn the music completely off.
3. If the sounds are too obnoxious or annoying, I'll turn them down or turn them off.

For me, sound is an important aspect of the games I play. sometimes they're just ambient and they set the mood. Other times, sound can be used as a game mechanic. Since I wear headphones, I can pinpoint the location of objects via sound and how intense it is in each ear.

 

[V4Viewtiful]

Depending on the situation a game can be enhance by a lack of music or a lack of SFX but never both at the same time.
They can help with the immession and overall experience.

 

[Darth Rosenberg]

Of course it's important... I'd question the enthusiasm anyone has for a videogame if they decide one part of the whole audio-visual experience is somehow less relevant. As Ken Levine pointed out; the human ear is more easily fooled than the eye, so quite often audio is far more powerful than any visual because we perceive it to be 'real' (when the actual game environment always looks consciously unreal).

(obviously what someone's doing at the time - and precisely what they'replaying - affects it, but that's a no-brainer given)

Re music: in Skyrim I often turn off the music, because it can greatly enhance immersion - no more 'what? combat music? am I in combat?!'-moments. All you have are the ambient effects, of the gameworld and its characters/beasties. On the other hand, turning the music back on can enhance the atmosphere.

Re sound effects: I found Doom 3 to be a fairly terrifying experience... I edged around corners, and frequently ran away like a wuss when the game decided to spawn in a new jump scare. The whole sound design enhanced it brilliantly. And yet, one particular sound effect banished my fears and turned the tables...

The chainsaw: when I got my hands on that beast, the sound drowned out the ambient effects and the hisses/growls/wails of various demons. It was a powerful weapon, sure, but the sound effect had more of a psychological impact than the item's effectiveness.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.:SoC's sound design (music, speech, ambient effects, etc) was superb, too. By turns poignantly melancholic, disturbing, and oppressive, it fitted the gameworld perfectly.

 

[lacktheknack]

Always on. They worked hard on those sounds.

The only exception is Burnout: Paradise, where I turn the music off and turn on my own. It should have a custom playlist.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I keep sound on, music and SFX. A lot of modern games either don't do well with music or they have really forgettable soundtracks...Also, why is it that I have 3 characters with 3 smart-phones in GTAV but none of them can buy headphones for on-foot radio-listening?! Tangent is a tangent...anyway yeah: if the music flops at least there's voice acting and sound effects to make up for it...potentially.

 

[Silvanus]

Hrmm, in most games you'll need the sound effects at least, if only for immersion.

As for music, it depends on how good the soundtrack is. In Final Fantasy, Braid, Yoshi's Story, the soundtrack is a huge part of the style and the art and the everything. In others, including a lot of multiplayers, it's just as good to have itunes or the radio for music.

 

[Kotaro]

There are some games where the sound is necessary for the gameplay, like DEVICE 6, Enemy Zero, or Killer 7 (I just realized all of my examples coincidentally have numbers in their titles, which amuses me).
And then there are the others, where I need to have the sound on because that's a major part of the atmosphere for me. Especially when it's something like Evoland, where the soundtrack is the best part of the game.