Modeling Multimedia
Creating a Script for Multimedia Analysis for Games
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52930/mt.v9i1.296Abstract
The analysis of music for games presents a surprising array of challenges. Interactivity poses problems in constructing an analysis of the product, as it introduces a series of unpredictable factors that directly influence the gaming experience; the esthesia of this multimedia instance. Additionally, musical analysis within the multimedia context holds a great potential for contribution, as sound is one of the most prevalent media among multimedia. Within this multimedia analysis, then, a relevant factor would be a musical analysis adequate for counterpoint with other media rather than remaining isolated in its own expressive context. However, authors such as Whalen, Aarseth, Consalvo, Dutton, and Konzack point out a scarcity and inadequacy of analytical methodologies in the realm of games and music for games. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the field of musical analysis taking into consideration the specific context of multimedia foremost, by suggesting a qualitative analysis script. This script adapts Nicholas Cook's framework from his book “Analysing Musical Multimedia” (1998) to incorporate interactivity, imagery, and sound in the analysis of a game. For the conception of the script, a qualitative research with a exploratory nature was conducted, delving into the book “Analysing Musical Multimedia” (1998), as well as including works by Aarseth (2007), Aguiar and Battaiola (2016) to understand the functioning of interactivity and immersion within games, and Jørgensen (2007) and Camargo (2018) to comprehend game soundtracks. We consider the product of this research as an exploratory starting point for multimedia analysis focused on games, enabling the incorporation of various types of analyses, such as musical, imagery and interactivity.