By Winifred Phillips | Contact | Follow
Welcome to the third (and final) article in this three-part discussion of how video game composers (like us) can make strategy gamers smarter! We’ve been exploring the best ways that the music of game composers can help strategy gamers to better concentrate while making more sound tactical decisions. During this discussion, I’ve shared my personal perspective as the composer for the popular Dragon Front strategy game for VR.
In part one, we discussed the concept of ‘music-message congruency,’ so if you haven’t read that article yet, you can read it here. In part two, we explored the meaning of ‘cognition-enhancing tempo’ – you can read that article here. Please make sure to read both those articles first and then come back.
Are you back? Awesome! Let’s launch into a discussion of the third technique for increasing the smarts of strategy gamers!
Tension-regulating affect
In psychology, the term ‘affect’ refers to emotion, particularly in terms of the way in which such emotional content is displayed. Whether by visual or aural means, an emotion can not be shared without some kind of ‘affect’ that serves as its mode of communication from one person to another. When we’re happy, we smile. When we’re angry, we frown.