Title: Music in Digital Games
Prepared for: Dr. MacTavish, Professor of MMEDIA 3K03, McMaster University
Introductions
Digital games are often lumped together with the cinematic medium for several reasons. Whenever a new medium is introduced, it’s usually compared to an older, more familiar medium to ease the transition. For example, e-mail, while vastly different from traditional mail, was described as such to make things simpler to understand. In that regard digital games have been compared to the medium of film. A second reason is that many publishers believe that trying to associate one’s game with a cinematic experience is good for business, or a valuable bullet point to put on the back of the packaging. In doing so, publishers and media evangelists alike have simplified the digital gaming medium to nothing more than a film + 1 to be had in your own home. To be fair, film and digital games often (but not always) exchange notes, and many of the stylings of the cinematic genre have bled into games.