Methodological approaches to the evaluation of game music systems

Prechtl, Anthony; Laney, Robin; Willis, Alistair and Samuels, Robert (2014). Methodological approaches to the evaluation of game music systems. In: AM '14 Proceedings of the 9th Audio Mostly: A Conference on Interaction With Sound, ACM, article no. 26.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/2636879.2636906

Abstract

Despite an emerging interest in the application of dynamic computer music systems to computer games, currently there are no commonly accepted approaches to empirically evaluating game music systems. In this paper we pose four questions that researchers could assess in order to evaluate different aspects of a game music system. They focus on the music's effect on the game playing experience (whether the music leads to a more enjoyable experience, and whether it affects the player in the intended way during the game), and how the music itself is perceived (whether it reaches a certain aesthetic standard, and whether it accurately conveys the intended narrative). We examine each of these questions in turn, for each one establishing a theoretical background as well as reviewing and comparing relevant research methodologies in order to show how it could be addressed in practice.