Poll: Is sound important in games?

[Bravo Company]

Much like the people who have already posted, when I play a game that isn't really story driven (diablo, an mmo) I'll play my own music/watch TV shows while playing. However, if its a singleplayer game or if important dialogue is being said I'll turn my music off to listen to the game. However, sound effects stay on, even if I were to turn them off, my brain would be making the appropriate sound affects automatically

Thats not to say I don't enjoy the soundtracks of games like Diablo, and there are some pretty awesome soundtracks for some areas in WoW/other MMOs. Its just I like to listen to other things as well, once you've spent a couple hundred hours listening to a game's in game music, it becomes a little stale.

When playing shooters, nothing except in-game sounds are played. Footsteps are quiet and there can't be guitar riffs playing over such things.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

It's absolutely important. I always have the sounds up. But, in the case of a multiplayer game on PC with no music in the background, I turn the sound effects down a bit and play my own music over it. Makes everything feel so good~

In terms of normal games like on consoles or on handheld, I never turn off any of the music or sounds. 95% of the time they work well enough, or perfectly, that I don't feel I need to. The game's music and sound effects are often designed well enough to not need to be adjusted. Save, of course, for a small adjustment to the music volume so I can hear it better

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

depends but almost always leave sound on. (even if it my own modded into the game)

Being able to convey emotion through speaking or hearing sounds is one of the best ways to make something powerful, I mean hell, you can't tell me this trailer would've been half as impactful without the sound:



That being said, sometimes I don't like the games music at all (fallout games are big contenders of this, it's grating to my ears the music that is in those games) or I think something fits better (I put some of my favorite game of thrones songs modded into crusader kings II, it makes it 10x more fun just during bootup)

 

[Daniel Janhagen]

Usually I leave everything on, but I will turn off music that I don't like (and replace it with something I do). I never turn off sound effects - if I don't like them, I don't like the game.

 

[EHKOS]

I wrote a bit about this once. While it's not one hundred percent relevant, it addresses a part of the topic.

http://www.gigagamers.com/positive-reinforcement-in-gaming/#more-462

Seriously, that liquid sound when you pick something up in Bioshock is great.

While I turn off music just because, I sometimes wear headphones and listen to stuff on my laptop, and normally my performance drops because I can't tell if something is behind me, or can't hear the telegraphic cues.

Might try the game later if I remember to return to this thread, It's about midnight here and I'm pretty tired.

EDIT: Played and sent the data. I hope my aim wasn't calculated, I haven't played an FPS on a PC in over a year :/

 

[Something Amyss]

Depends on the game, the circumstances, etc.

I tend to like to multitask, though.

I don't think sound changes anything.

 

[jademunky]

Is sound important? Depends on the game, but yes.

Ever play a game called "thomas was alone"?

Fantastic use of music and voice-work. In fact, I would say that it is more than half the game right there. The use of music sets the tone and the narration by Danny Wallace gives you a reason to care about the characters. Text bubbles just would not be the same.

Or how about hearing the grunting and moaning of a zombie or the hissing of a spider in minecraft?

 

[ShinyCharizard]

Hell fucking yes. It's incredibly important. Sound design and music composition is second only to gameplay in terms of importance in my mind.

 

[ExtraDebit]

In xenogears a game with only text bubble and no speech, one scene made me tear up because of the music.

In COD ghost, I relied on footstep sound to spot my enemies.

The most memorable part of final fantasy 7 for me was the theme song in the title screen.

So yes, sound is important for me and in my opinion it impacts anyone that's not deft. However I mute almost all sound from games when playing with my iphone. The lack of sounds especially music in horror games really sets the atmosphere too.

 

[default]

Design wise for feel and atmosphere it's extremely important. I do turn off the music in a lot of games though from time to time if it isn't to my taste or I find it grating. I haven't turned on the League of Legends music in over 2 years.

 

[Voulan]

I never turn any sound options off. If they're designed well, they add to the game ambiance instead of being an obvious nuisance.

The only time I've ever played a game with all sound off was with BL2 with a horrible sound glitch. Whenever I used corrosive weapons and hit an enemy my game would make a max volume machine-gun sound at random. Scared me every single time. I've never found anyone else that had the issue, so who knows why it did that. It was for PS3 as well.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I don't really understand why anyone would. It'd be the same as turning off the sound when watching a movie/show.

The only time I ever turned off the sound in a game was with the BGM in Silent Hill 1 and 2. And that was because at the time I simply couldn't focus my mind on solving puzzles when I was scared shitless. So the reason I even turned the sound off there was because it was too good.

Sure, when you're frustrated after having replayed a section endlessly without progress, I can understand muting the sound for a bit. But muting it for the entire duration is just weird to me.

 

[broadbandmink]

Is sound important in games? Wholly subjective issue that I won't even bother to discuss.

Is sound necessary in games? From a gameplay-standpoint I'd say yes. Sound cues have been an integral part of gameplay for the last 30 years and I can't see any reason they'll go away anytime soon.

As an example, I'll use Thief: The Dark Project. This was one of the first games to fully utilize the bells and whistles of the then new Sound Blaster Live sound cards, and Looking Glass Studios used it to make sound a primary part of gameplay. Levels are mostly silent (no soundtrack plays during missions) with only the sound of the wind to make you company. This quiet environment made other environmental sounds stand out and since this was a stealth game it was important to take notice as they often warned you of impending danger. Furthermore, guards, civilians and monsters were paying attention to all manner of odd sounds. If one didn't want to get caught red handed sneaking around where one wasn't allowed one had to make sure the various acts of burglary went off relatively silently.

 

[Ubiquitous Duck]

It really does depend on the situation.

I was reluctant to click any of the poll choices, as they were too generalising.

If I played WoW or any other MMO a few years back, I would always play music or podcasts or have TV on as well as the game. There really isn't that much going on in the game a lot of the time, so this gave a second outlet to be experiencing at the same time.

If the game is single-player, I will normally play with only the sound of the game.

It really depends on what you are doing though and what the game is for for you. Non-serious players of shooters could play with music, but in a proper session or match, they'd want to play with the sound on for optimum play.

Generally, if there isn't a hell of a lot going on in the game and it's a bit of a mindless endeavour to play it, I probably won't have its sound on, or at least it will be very low. Otherwise, sound is too important to just remove.

 

[RJ 17]

For me, it depends on what I'm playing.

For most multiplayer games, I'll turn the music down so that I can listen to my own music instead. That said I leave the rest of the sounds on so I can hear nearby enemies...like in Minecraft, I'd much rather be able to hear the growling zombies nearby, turning off the sounds for them would just be like giving them Stealth Mode and turning them into NINJA ZOMBIES!

For single player games or games that have an actual story, I always leave the sound on so I can, you know, hear the story.

 

[CannibalCorpses]

Depends on the game i guess. Some games have terrible soundtracks that need to be muted or turned down to 0.5 but mostly they are tolerable. Oddly though, when i play games with my friends at their homes they tend to put music on and my performance suffers massively with average scores on games i regularly beast dropping more than 50%.

 

[bluepotatosack]

Is sound important in games? Wholly subjective issue that I won't even bother to discuss.

Is sound necessary in games? From a gameplay-standpoint I'd say yes. Sound cues have been an integral part of gameplay for the last 30 years and I can't see any reason they'll go away anytime soon.

One thing...

If something is necessary, that means that it is important, right? They sort of go hand in hand, almost to the point of being interchangeable terms.

 

[AuronFtw]

Depends on the quality of the sound in the game. Some game genres don't utilize sound effectively, and some games just have really shitty soundtracks (looking at you, Hotline Noiseami). In those cases I'll turn em off for sure. But in "serious" PvP games from shooters to fighters to mobas, audio signals are crucial, and you're handicapping yourself something fierce by turning them off.

Some games are literally made by their soundtracks - the early/mid Final Fantasy games (aka "the good ones") had some of the best music in the history of the industry, and it did a hell of a lot to make those games as legendary as they were. The Ys series is also pretty notable for great music. Most games don't come close to that quality, so I'll put on my own music instead of whatever they have playing, especially if it's terribad. But I tend to keep "sounds" on, because missing cues on enemy positioning/skill activation/etc is just unacceptable for the games I play.