An Introduction to the Participatory and Non - Linear Aspects of Video

It has been estimated that the average Westerner hears music for three and a half hours per day, most of which is in a linear form. Like being locked onto a straight train track, it has been composed to start at one point and progress to another point. 3 A composer of music for linear media can predict how the music will sound from beginning to end for the listener, and compositions are constructed with this aspect taken for granted. The music of non-linear media like video games, however, works more like a major urban metro: At any time, we may want to be able to hop off at one station and hop onto another train going in a new direction. We may not get on at the end of this new train, but perhaps on one of the middle cars. The train may choose to speed up at night, or slow down through built-up urban areas. Every audio cue (train car) must be designed to stand alone, since there is no way to predict its hundreds of possible directions: There is no “correct” sequence of events for the train to follow. A unique relationship arises, then, between these cars and tracks, working with and connecting to one another.