Effect of sound design on players choices in videogames: A case study on valorant gun sounds

Abstract

The video game industry is expanding rapidly due to the digital world's ongoing technological advancement. New ideas, projects, and inventive developers or companies that potentially advance the state of the art are supported by the industry itself. It has become one of the largest industries in entertainment and sports. In terms of boosting gameplay or user satisfaction, sound design plays a crucial part in the development of video games. In video games, auditory features can provide information about the surroundings where the player is placed inside the game scene. FPS (first-person shooter) is one of numerous game genres. In this thesis, the sound design of firearms in first-person shooter video games and its effect on players' weapons preferences are investigated and analyzed. The sound created by firearms can generate the perception of tremendous damage, bulkiness, improved aim, a rapid fire rate, a futuristic aura, etc. This assertion is tested in the reality by Valorant, a competitive first-person shooter game in which two teams compete to kill each other with firearms. In addition, Valorant allows the employment of the same weapon with multiple sounds. I conducted a study of casual players utilizing the feature game that allows a player to employ. In addition, interviews with E-sports professionals were conducted to investigate the rationale behind their decisions. Due to these characteristics, this game is regarded the ideal candidate for testing this topic. Results are associated from the sound engineering perspective such as frequency content, dynamic range, and sustain of a signal with the support of the Perspective of the Emotions. This Perspective of Emotions content is taken from a related research called "Causing fear, suspense, and anxiety using sound design in computer games" by Toprac & Abdel-Meguid in 2010 and there are 4 types of Perspectives to base on the results of this research.