PLAY ALONG: VIDEO GAME MUSIC AS METAPHOR ... - CiteSeerX

category on popular gaming websites. Generic labels such as “demo” and “abstract,”
furthermore, do not seem that informative. Therefore, I propose that alternatives to
models which avoid totalizing discourse are more appropriate for game studying.
10
Analyzing specific games in light of a specific game phenomenon, music, and in terms of
a cognitive approach to reception allows for a richer understanding of what happens
when we play games and why they are so important to us. Clearly, the seduction of the
text in video games has everything to do with the enjoyment of the text, and this state of
enjoyment or “flow” has everything to do with the music that accompanies the visual and
kinesthetic components.
In short, video game music allows for an analysis which borrows from elements of
a narrative theory to argue for a re-evaluation of the video game as a technical apparatus
which actively positions the viewer/user to respond to and interact with a system. This
thesis will build on a rather small body of writing on video game music including
Mathew Belinkie’s useful history of game music online at the Video Game Music
Archive (www.vgmusic.com), David Bessell’s chapter in Screenplay, and Paul Weir’s
dissertation on sound design and structural approaches to music in games. Robert Bowen
has also provided an insightful analysis of Atari 2600 games as musical products
themselves, mapping musical structure onto the sound effects and programming
capabilities of the console. Belinkie’s paper is a rich history of the most influential
composers working in video games, and though Bessell’s chapter provides an interesting
analysis of several games, his approach fails to take game type into consideration and
instead compares and contrasts three games of wildly different type and structure.
Questions of game type are necessarily elusive, but Bessell’s comparison of the games