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Gaming Sober, Playing Drunk: Sound Effects of Alcohol in Video Games

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The Computer Games Journal

Abstract

This article develops a framework for associations between sounds, alcohol, and video games. Some recent studies (Olsen, in The video game debate: unraveling the physical, social, and psychological effects of digital games, Routledge, New York, pp 39–53, 2016; Cranwell et al., Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw 19(2):426–434, 2016) examine representations of drugs and alcohol in video games. While these studies raise serious concerns about drug and alcohol content in games, they primarily focus on the presence and stereotypical use of alcohol, offering limited attention to related sounds and music, or the increased integration between sound design and game-play. Through examples of video games and related media, this article provides historical, cultural, and music-theoretical groundwork for creating an associative soundscape of alcohol in multimedia experiences. After an initial examination of presence and censorship of alcohol content in video games, the article defines and explores four primary categories for representations of sound and alcohol in multimedia: (1) Sound Icons of Alcohol, which highlights sonic objects and their potential interpretive meanings; (2) Sound Environments, which considers cultural appropriations of music and sounds in locations associated with alcohol; (3) Representations of Drinking and Drunkenness, such as the use of specific orchestration or manipulations of musical parameters; and (4) Psychological and Physiological Effects of Sound and Alcohol, which looks specifically at altered sonic perceptions and ludic experiences.

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Notes

  1. Additional translations and game scripts for Chrono Trigger exist. For a comparison of these and other translations of the game, visit Chrono Compendium, available online at https://www.chronocompendium.com/Term/Scripts.html (Accessed 7 Aug 2018).

  2. For a complete list of ports from arcade to console, see the Arcade History website, available online at https://www.arcade-history.com (Accessed 1 Aug 2018).

  3. McCullough (n.d.) also points out the racial stereotyping of a drunk Russian, which was also problematic for NOA, yet this aspect was not largely altered in the NES release. The most recent version of the game, Punch Out!! (2009 Nintendo Wii), still retains the name Soda Popinski.

  4. These descriptors are: “Alcohol Reference—Reference to and/or images of alcoholic beverages”; “Lyrics - Mild references to profanity, sexuality, violence, alcohol or drug use in music”; “Strong Lyrics - Explicit and/or frequent references to profanity, sex, violence, alcohol or drug use in music”; “Use of Alcohol - The consumption of alcoholic beverages”.

  5. In the writings and development of semiotics by American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce, an “icon” or “semblance” was only one part of a complex system of signs, referring to relationships of objects to their potential interpretive meanings. Theories of musical semiotics, based on the writings of Peirce, continue to be developed today. For a recent, annotated discussion of Peirce’s writings see Hoopes (2014), and for recent developments in musical semiotics, see Maeder and Reybrouck (2015).

  6. For full commercial, see Busch Beer (2017) “BUSCHHHHH” Super Bowl Commercial. [online video], available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7XMvq3NLTU (Accessed 15 Jul 2018).

  7. Newton further defines an “acousticon” in connection with audio branding, which are “conventionalized figures of music or sound (e.g. reverb, fidelity) and they exist on a continuum defined by the poles of purely musical codes on the one hand and purely sonic codes on the other” (2015, p. v).

  8. The stock sound effect of the can opening and being poured can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uExQKlhx5ms (Accessed 7 Jul 2018).

  9. For a searchable database of sound trademarks, or “sound marks”, see the United States Patent and Trademark Office: https://www.uspto.gov/ (Accessed 7 Jul 2018). The Anheuser-Busch company attempted to trademark the sound of a can opening, but was ultimately rejected due to the lack of “acquired distinctiveness”, because the company could not prove that the sound of their can opening was distinct from any other can opening. The “Buschhh” beer icon, however, does qualify as distinctive due to the unique sonic design, and can therefore be trademarked. See Lizerbram Law (2014).

  10. Emphasis mine.

  11. Andra Ivănescu (2018) musically defines class structure in Beneath the Steel Sky, based on particular soundscapes of the entire game.

  12. In Karen Cook’s exploration of The Bard’s Tale, she argues that the game’s overall lack of a soundtrack subverts the trope of a typical bardic figure, yet scenes like the one shown in Fig. 7—in which the gamer does not participate—still exist within the game. See Cook 2019.

  13. “Ein Ausszug guter alter und newer teutscher Liedlein, einer rechten teutschen Art zu singen und auff allerley Instrumenten zu brauchen ausserlesen”.

  14. “Vierstimmiges Trinklied in scherzhafter Notenschrift”.

  15. Many games include benefits to drinking alcohol, such as increased strength, stamina, or some other attribute. This is particularly prevalent in games that include a “drunken master” style of martial arts, such as Jade Empire (2005), the Virtua Fighter series, and the Mortal Kombat series.

  16. “Cocktail deafness” should not be confused with the “cocktail party effect”, which is a term coined by cognitive scientist Edward Colin Cherry in the 1950’s. According to Cherry (1953), humans have the ability to concentrate on one conversation while many conversations are taking place (often in a loud room, such as at a cocktail party).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Music, Stetson University, DeLand, FL, 32723, USA

    Peter Smucker

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  1. Peter Smucker
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Correspondence to Peter Smucker.

Additional information

All editorial decisions for this article, including selection of reviewers and the final decision, were made by guest editor Dr. Kenny McAlpline.

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Cite this article

Smucker, P. Gaming Sober, Playing Drunk: Sound Effects of Alcohol in Video Games. Comput Game J 7, 291–311 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40869-018-0069-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40869-018-0069-4

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