The rhythm to jump and run

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Communications - Multimedia, Internet, New Technologies, grade: 9,0 (Niederländisch) ca. 1, 5 , Maastricht University (University College Maastricht), course: Gaming Culture - Writing Project, 20 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: The role of the music that builds the frame to the experience of playing a video game is often underestimated. Sometimes the player does not even seem to realise that there is music playing in the background or it will even be turned off or exchanged through one's favourite songs, since the original tune is annoying the player. Game music has to face a similar problem in the field of game studies. There has been a substantial amount of research and discussion about many aspects of computer games, but game music somehow remains the orphan of the gaming scene. Only one credible article dealing with the topic has been published yet, namely the one by Zach Whalen (2004) in an issue of the e-journal Game Studies. The value of the essay by Yale student Matthew Belinkie (1999) is to be doubted, since it has never been officially published beside its appearance on the Web. However, it at least gives an overview of the practices in the culture surrounding game music. Thus, this article should be a further contribution to the examination of this field.