Auditory Experiences in Game Transfer Phenomena

"I will wake up sometimes and check if my computer is off because I swear I heard video game music coming out of my speakers. I need help" (AraRider).

"I constantly heard someone whispering ‘Death’ in the background. After I played Black and White for a many hours. It lasted a few days" (Zullo).

• This study suggests that video game playing may be accompanied by potentially intrusive auditory experiences in susceptible individuals.
• Reducing the playing time and being aware of coping strategies may be beneficial.
• The most novel contribution of this study were data showing that that re-experiencing auditory cues from video games is not limited to music, but that sound effects and voices were also heard by some gamers. Most importantly is that these experiences sometimes lead to illogical thoughts, as well as automatic reactions and behaviours.
• More research is needed to understand these experiences and their psychological, social, and/or physiological implications, especially when the auditory cues from the game are associated with aversive or dangerous situations in the game (e.g., groans, screams, explosions).

• The findings in this study should be interpreted carefully and should not be generalized.
• We don’t know yet how common GTP are. Although, different gamers have reported similar experiences in the same games.
• Gamers demography and psychological profiles are unknown since the data was collected in online video game forums.

Once I stayed up all night to play Lemmings. The next day, when I was trying to read, I kept trying to figure out how to get the Lemmings across the sentences” (Bluesjazz)

Inner speech

Involuntary auditory imagery - Triggered by associations

Involuntary auditory imagery -Not triggered by associations

Auditory misperceptions

Multisensorial

experiences

Inner speech triggered by automatic

associations

Inner speech not triggered by automatic

associations

Inner speech occurred when gamers thought with words in their head. Sometimes the voices were regulated by ongoing activities. Some of these were triggered by associations while others were not.

Sometimes gamers thought in voice commands from the game in real life situations.

Here the experiences were not triggered by associations and they manifested as either (i) when voices from someone else were heard preserving the phonological characteristics of the voices in the game, or (ii) when gamers’ inner speech preserved the phonological characteristics of the voices in the game.

"Every time someone welcomes me,, no matter the phrase I hear ‘Wind’ from Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin in my head saying ‘you are back’ I have played too much" (Oregatech).

"Played Metal Gear Solid 4 for 15 hours when it first came out. When I went on MSN afterwards everything was being read aloud in my brain with David Hayter’s voice. I always have this:)"

Hearng voices from the game not triggered

by an identifiable cue

Hearing sounds from the game not triggered

by an identifiable cue

• Some gamers heard video game character voices after playing.

"After years of playing Outrun whenever I drive under a sign on the road, I hear in my head

'CHECKPOINT!'" (Yates1000).

• These experiences manifested either episodically or persistently, were heard in the head, in the ear or appeared as coming from external sources, or from nowhere.

• These experiences took place while the gamers were performing daily activities, or while trying to sleep or waking up.

"After a marathon of Portal/Portal 2, I heard everything in GLaDOS’s voice for about three days" (Peartech).

• Some gamers reported hearing repetitive sound effects or sound from the game console and menus when not playing.
• Sounds included: weapons, explosions, vehicles, groans, screams, breathing, lasers, swords, bullets, spreading of a web, creating a portal, beeping, rings, and falling.

Hearing music from the game - not triggered by

an identifiable cue

For some gamers the music from the game got stuck in the game and they could not stop hearing it.

"I played The Sims 3 for too long and tried to

sleep, I could not get the music out of my head"

(Yoell).

"After playing 100 hours of Killing Floor, I heard constantly chainsaws and the grunts… Maybe

I need a break" (Xoel).

Sounds triggered by associations

Music triggered by associations

Hearing voices triggered by associations

Stimuli or events that have somehow been associated with the game triggered hearing sounds from the game. Sometimes these auditory experiences resulted in gamers doing some action to avoid danger or sometimes they got scared.

In this category, gamers heard music from the game triggered by external cues associated with the game. The associations could be coming across an object, hearing a sound, engaging in an activity, or experiencing some event.

Here the gamers heard voices when

they did or saw something that reminded them of the video game. In these cases, the gamers did not clearly indicate the location of the voice but these experiences appeared

to be different than inner speech where

the gamers clearly recognized that it occurred

in their head.

"Once after I played Battlefield 2 for long,

I kept hearing ‘ENEMY BOAT SPOTTED, ENEMY BOAT SPOTTED’" (Se13).

Here, gamers misinterpreted sounds as something in the video game.

"When I played Half-Life, sometimes heard exactly the same noises as in the game. I thought they were real. Damaged lights, sparkles, creaking ... at that time I was just awaiting a head crab behind the next corner" (Raven22).

"I keep a flashlight next to my bed, and sometimes when I walk in a dark area I hear the sound the radio makes near a monster in Silent Hill, I turn around if I don’t see anything in front of me" (CrownDave).

"After playing Clive Barker’s [JerichoUndying]

for a couple of hours I heard that shivering voice

saying “looooooook” when I passed a painting…

I scared the hell out of me" (Radion56).

"Every time I stack a trolley or cab I heard the Tetris theme in my head and try to stack everything without gaps" (Pepertony).

"Quite often I mistake sounds in real-life for sounds I hear in video games" (Trevor_Class)

"I was in London, someone gave me directions, he said Wardour Street, but I swear I heard Ulduar Street" (ManuelXas).

• Gamers heard music from the game in their heads accompanied by involuntary body movements.

• Gamers also reported seeing video game images while hearing music from the game in their heads but these experiences were coded in the visual modality of GTP (See more details in the GTP study about visual experiences:

.http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10447318.2013.839900#.U9dndPldWSp)

"I once played Tetris for so long that when I stopped I could still hear the music in my head for hours and my fingers kept twitching occasionally" (Pachis).

More resources

GTP blog

http://playersexperiences.wordpress.com/

GTP cartoons. "GTP Adventures"

http://www.toondoo.com/ViewBook.toon?bookid=499931

Videos about and related to GTP

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiKZP_vExgYPbsvM91VbOrQ

Other studies about GTP

https://nottinghamtrent.academia.edu/angelicaortizdegortari

Conclusion

Aim

The aim was to investigate gamers’ auditory experiences (e.g., hearing music, sounds effects, or characters’ voices) that occurred directly after stopping playing or sometime after stopping playing triggered by automatic associations.

Participants

• A total of 1,681 experiences from 1,244 gamers were collected in 60 online video game forums in the different GTP modalities (e.g., visual, behaviours, automatic mental processes).
• 192 of these were auditory experiences from 155 gamers.

This was done by identifying, classifying, quantifying, and analysing gamers’ auditory experiences. These experiences will be referred to as Game Transfer Phenomena manifesting auditorily (GTP-AUD) and contributes to the understanding of the effects of auditory features in video games, and the phenomenology of non-volitional experiences (e.g., involuntary auditory imagery, semantic memories, and hallucinations).

Limitations

For more information visit gametransferphenomena.com

Please cite as:

http://www.gametransferphenomena.com/

Ortiz de Gortari, A. B., & Griffiths, M. D. (2014). Auditory Experiences in Game Transfer Phenomena: An Empirical Self-Report Study. International Journal of Cyber Behavior, Psychology and Learning (IJCBPL), 4(1), 59-75. doi: 10.4018/ijcbpl.2014010105.

Auditory Experiences in Game Transfer Phenomena

by Angelica B. Ortiz de Gortari (@cyberpyske)