How the Emotional Content of Music Affects Player Behaviour and Experience in Video Games

Previous research studying music's effect on video games has focused on musical properties, such as tempo, to create particular emotional player experiences. However, music is complex, and selecting music using a particular parameter may not guarantee that the music will be experienced in a particular way (e.g., higher-tempo music will not necessarily make a player feel more rushed, as previous work implies). Through a player study, we demonstrate that music labelled by its emotional content (e.g., peaceful or powerful) could provide a better means for designers to choose music for particular emotional effects. Our results show that powerful (rather than higher tempo) music can significantly increase experienced tension and risk-taking play style compared to peaceful music. We provide game designers and composers with critical new information about how music can be chosen and designed to target play experience and shape player behaviour, suggesting that music's effects in gameplay need to be studied more holistically.