Players, one question.

[Mestre Do Game-12.000-XD]

Do you think that when you play a game, everything related to the audio is 50% important?

Do you feel that if all sounds were removed, you would lose 50% of the experience? the fun? Or would it be a higher or lower %? Or do you think it depends on the game? If so, which games are most and least important to have audio? or good audio quality (sound effects included). Could you give some examples?

[Knee]

How do you come up with a number to say how important audio is?

[Dadpool]

By sound you mean both music and sound effects?

In terms of soundtrack It depends what kind of game it is, if it's MMORPG then it kinda sucks, but in bullet heaven it's okay.

Without both music and sound effects it would be a bit sad.

[potato]

i dunno? some games i can play without sound, like wow and cod

[The nameless Gamer]

The percentage varies. Generally though, sound has become quite a big part. From having a few chip-tunes, games have started having professionally composed soundtracks. The OST is essential for games like Guilty Gear (Arc System Works have always been known for great soundtracks) or whatever FALCOM are making. And playing a fighting game without sound would be pretty dull and not to mention difficult. Reaction to certain moves often depends on audio cues. RTS games also depend on audio cues a whole lot. They inform you of important events.

[Jet Fuel Does Not Melt COVID]

That's six questions.

[Crazy Tiger]

First you answer a question, OP. What makes you think there is a fixed percentage?

[意味のない人生]

I think the audio is quite important, but I also think it depends on the game for sure.

When I was a kid, I used to play my NES and SNES without the sound on sometimes in the early morning or at night. It was a good method for getting away with playing games past my bedtime lol. Because almost all of my games required reading and lacked voice acting, it was easy to play them with the sound off. JRPGs especially, because of all the grinding.. or you'd listen to the Victory Fanfare a bazillion times a day =P

As I've grown, I became quite attached to a lot of game soundtracks and just music in general. I rarely play games without sound now, but when I do, I don't feel much at a loss. It just lets you focus even harder on what you're seeing without all the additional noise to distracted by.

Some games are just worthless without the sound though. Audio based games like Rocksmith, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Frequency, etc. all suck bigtime without the sound. I'd say you lose more than 50% of the experience in those types of games.

[76561199540158642]

i often play games with sound, but sometimes if the games got sketchy sounds or continued gun fire i will lower it , i also find that if i play without sound i often do better, also sometimes playing with music i do better .

most of the time sound is not important, as with writing on the forums i enjoy the hum of computer fans as it generates white noise. that white noise can help you focus and inspire you in many aspects of what you are doing.

writing, home work, hobbies, inspiration, white noise in itself is a type of soothing and healing frequency that promotes positive thinking.

[Mestre Do Game-12.000-XD]

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

First you answer a question, OP. What makes you think there is a fixed percentage?

I do not think so. I just realized that it's very relative, but I still wanted to make it more precise with a %, so I left it at 50. I started to realize this when I stopped to think about how important a headset is (after I had a lot of problems with some).
I don't know if it would be the same to play Red Dead Redemption 2 without sounds for example...

[Tristin]

It is important, especially if you are first time playing it. After a while, you may be okay without sound however.

[Chika Ogiue]

To me, the only important sounds are character voices and sound effects. In that order.

For any game that lets me, the first things I do before even playing (where applicable) are:

Turn music to 50% -- lower further if still too loud
Set voices to maximum level
Set sound effects to 80%
Turn on subtitles
Turn off motion blur
Turn off film grain

Music is always the first to go. It's the the least important to me and the most likely to aggravate my chronic tinnitus.

[TGC> The Games Collector]

I like having surround sound in FPS games.
I can usually hear things coming that way, which is great.

[Ogami]

Depends entirely on the game genre. In story driven games or RPG and such i think sound and music is very important for the atmosphere. But not 50%, maybe 25% or so.
But in other genre like simulation, manager games, survival games or strategy games i often turn off the game sound and listen to some podcast or audiobook while playing.
Sound/music is barely important for me in those kind of games.

[Crazy Tiger]

Originally posted by Mestre Do Game-12.000-XD:

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

First you answer a question, OP. What makes you think there is a fixed percentage?

I do not think so. I just realized that it's very relative, but I still wanted to make it more precise with a %, so I left it at 50. I started to realize this when I stopped to think about how important a headset is (after I had a lot of problems with some).
I don't know if it would be the same to play Red Dead Redemption 2 without sounds for example...

Ah ok, just making sure. Sound for me is just part of the experience. In many cases I drop the music volume a bit, I always keep sound effects high, though. I'm autistic, having music and voices play at the same time usually means the voices get drowned out due to me not being able to filter in the audiosensitive side.

Some games barely have sounds or music, most digital card and board games don't have much. Perfectly ok for me.

I really, really dislike it when games have loud menu music when you boot the game.