First book to explore video games audio from interdisciplinary perspectives Challenges traditional conceptions of music, sound, society, violence, human agency, coexistence Provocatively compares criticisms against academia with criticisms against video games Lets reader in on big-picture questions: why (and whether) music matters, the realities and illusions of free will Video games open portals into fantastical worlds where imaginative play prevails. The virtual medium seemingly provides us with ample opportunities to behave and act out with relative safety and impunity. Or does it? Sound Play explores the aesthetic, ethical, and sociopolitical stakes of our engagements with gaming's audio phenomena-from sonic violence to synthesized operas, from democratic music-making to vocal sexual harassment. Author William Cheng shows how the simulated environments of games empower designers, composers, players, and scholars to test and tinker with music, noise, speech, and silence in ways that might not be prudent or possible in the real world. In negotiating utopian and alarmist stereotypes of video games, Sound Play synthesizes insights from across musicology, sociology, anthropology, communications, literary theory, and philosophy. With case studies that span Final Fantasy VI, Silent Hill, Fallout 3, The Lord of the Rings Online, and Team Fortress 2, this book insists that what we do in there-in the safe, sound spaces of games-can ultimately teach us a great deal about who we are and what we value (musically, culturally, humanly) out here. Readership: Primary audience: students and scholars in musicology, ethnomusicology, music theory, communications, media studies, film studies. Secondary audience: students and scholars in sociology, anthropology, political science, literature. The book should also find some pickup with general readers, especially with an interest in video games, music, and/or media.
- ISBN: 978-0-19-996997-5
- Editorial: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS.
- Encuadernacion: Rústica
- Páginas: 264
- Fecha Publicación: 15/05/2014
- Nº Volúmenes: 1
- Idioma: