Metodo

International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Book | Chapter

183418

Music in serious games as a healing factor

Yvonne Stingel-Voigt

pp. 271-282

Abstract

Music is used in video games in a variety of ways. Sometimes it is purely ornamental, sometimes it is the concrete objective and goal of a game and sometimes it is used to represent the virtual world (more) authentically. Sound and music enable players to engage more emotionally in the game and therefore in the virtual world. The video game experience is intensified by the appropriate musical accompaniment. Music can comment on the game, become a tool (for special activities or events inside a game), support the narrative, and constitute semantic relations to visual events. All these functions of video games are important for the use of music in Serious Games. This means Games, which can be health-promoting. The recipients need not to be musically educated in order to recognize the characteristic style of an individual motif. The understanding of the sense of music is often shaped by several attributes, linked to special experiences, incidents or conditions and emotions. If you hear an organ, you may associate the sound with a church, a drum roll on the other hand promises excitement. Slow music helps to calm and relax, while fast and rhythmical music makes one feel awake and alert and may be a stimulation for physical activity.

Publication details

Published in:

Fangerau Heiner (2019) Handbook of popular culture and biomedicine: knowledge in the life sciences as cultural artefact. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 271-282

Full citation:

Stingel-Voigt Yvonne (2019) „Music in serious games as a healing factor“, In: H. Fangerau (ed.), Handbook of popular culture and biomedicine, Dordrecht, Springer, 271–282.