Game Design Blog 2

While reading through different sound designer interviews I came across a sound designer that was comparing the difference between sound in movies and sound in video games. The key difference between the two is the player versus the watcher. A player grasps and gains satisfaction from the sound effects because the player is 'inside' the gaming world and experiencing sound effects based on the decision they make in the game. A watcher is simply along for the ride. While watching a movie the sound effects are the same no matter how many times you watch the movie. When you play a video game the order of sound effects will different every time.
The player can choose to do different things like pushing a button to fire a weapon, and then hears a reaction and sequences of sounds to correspond to that action. For example, the sound designer may implement a multitude of sound samples for one action, like an explosion. For explosions at a distance, a latency effect might be implemented, or an explosion behind a wall the sound might be blurred or dampened.