Can Music Improve Your Gaming Ability?

When you play your favourite mobile game, you have to think about whether or not you play better with music on or off. Without a doubt, video game music is a huge part of the experience for Millennials. If you are a gamer then you might well have a strong opinion on this, but it's time to dive into the research regarding this.

Do Sound Effects Enhance Performance?

When you look at the vast amount of studies that have been done on this topic, it's not surprising to see that the results are somewhat varied.  Some studies have found that audio has a huge impact on user performance. On shooting games, such as DOOM, playing with music on can really help. In fact, some gamers have found that their performance doubled when they had music on. Some studies have suggested on the other hand that sound effects can diminish performance. If you look at games on NetBet slots, you will soon see that music does not enhance performance as the results are most often random, but at the same time it does help to improve the user experience overall.

Some Studies Produce Complex Results

Research shows that there are mixed results regarding music and gaming. If you look at the studies done by Cassidy and MacDonald in 2009, you will see that they used a driving game with car sounds. They also used different types of music as well. People playing with music found that they had the best time, but they also made the biggest amount of mistakes. This included knocking over road cones or even hitting barriers.

Approaching the Subject

One of the participants in the Tan study said that there is in fact more to gaming than just high scores. It's about being completely immersed in another world and the music or even the sound effects are what help you to get there. When developing the game Orbit Path, the creation company released a statement saying that music is best when it is not intrusive. It has to benefit the gameplay. Sound effects also help your brain to associate with threats or actions. These auditory cues are so important. Of course, background music is also important for helping to create a world that a user can escape to. The music reflects the environment that the user can step into and it also helps them to get lost in play. Blue Label Labs seek to try and build the best possible experiences and they also go beyond the core deliverables quite often as well. They believe that this is what makes their games so great, and they also believe that it's not just music that impacts the game, but the way that the music is used in any given situation.

Of course, music might not always enhance performance, but at the same time, it can help a lot when it comes to helping the user have a much more immersive experience which is great to say the least.