SotA Anthology 2015-16 | Page 97

MUSI272

a better place; and guiding
as their heavy reverb and
growing sound suggest the
openness of this new world
which propels the gamer
forwards to explore.
However, this model of
immersion theory does
not take into account the
use of both diegetic and
non-diegetic pre-composed
music. Instead, it is based on
the generalisation of musical
gestures
as
emotional
cues - the musical scores
for Call of Duty 4: Modern
Warfare and Black Hawk
Down are not identical,
but both make the same
musical point. Rockstar
North’s Grand Theft Auto:
Vice City relies heavily on
pre-composed music, which
Chan (2007) describes as
“musical documents for
cultural references to an
era”; the game uses 1980s
popular music as a way of
contextualising the game’s
setting. The player also has
control over which radio
station to listen to. This
can both help and hinder
immersion, as Crathorne
(2010) suggests, “it allows
the player to listen to any
music he feels like at that
moment, but at the same
time it could be music that
does not match what is
going on on-screen”. If we
consider Gilmore and Pine’s
(1999) theory working in
tandem with Crathorne’s
(2010) and Chan’s (2007)
suggestions, then the ability
to chose the radio station
elevates music from being
a passive experience to an
active one, and by being able
to listen to their preferred
genre, the player is more

Fever 105: a radio station on Vice City. ©Rockstar North

likely to make the emotional
connection needed for
‘engrossment’; their tastes
are being met and the
music
isn’t
attempting
to completely alter their
current mood (Brown and
Cairns, 2004). The player
has made a conscious
decision to listen to music
that matches their current
emotional state, therefore
starting the game-play
sequence with some level
of emotional engagement.
If the music does not match
the onscreen action, their
conscious
decision
to
choose that particular radio
station, regardless of its
congruency with gameplay,
can add enjoyment without
detracting from immersion,
as the music becomes an
active part of the in-game
experience. Although the
player’s choice of station
might not add semiotic
context to the game world in
the same way that the 1980s
popular music tracks do, it
provides reference to the
player’s driving experiences
in the real world, since they
are granted some level of
audio freedom.
97

The use of pre-composed
music implemented in a noninteractive way within video
games happens more widely
in game trailers and nonplayable scenes. It brings
with it an intertextual frame
of reference that the game
can either use to enhance
the player’s perception of
the game world, through
choosing tracks whose
cultural significance works
in tandem with the onscreen
message, or it can work in
opposition, where there
is a discord between the
music, its semiotics, and the
game world. For example,
Compulsion Game’s trailer
for We Happy Few uses
the nursery rhyme London
Bridge Has Fallen Down
arranged for a glockenspiel
and spoken voice. The
dichotomy of music and
image instantly sets the
game in a dystopian
world.
Huiberts
(2010)
suggest that pre-composed
music, if misplaced, can
bring
incorrect
cultural
references to the game’s
setting, and that this can
break immersion. However,
Coulthard (2009) argues,