The Soundtrack as an Emotional Operating System: How Game Music Shapes Player Feeling, Attention, and Choice

Abstract

Game music does far more than fill silence; it shapes how players feel, pay attention, and make choices. This paper examines game music as an emotional operating system that guides bodily arousal, cognitive focus, and narrative interpretation during play. Drawing on the valence–arousal model of emotion, studies on horror audio progression, research on peaceful and powerful music, and work on energetic soundtracks, the paper argues that musical cues influence players through more than tempo or volume. Game music can raise tension, support immersion, increase risk-taking, or overload performance depending on how it interacts with genre, task demand, and player experience. The paper proposes a three-layer model of game music emotion: a bodily layer involving heart rate and tension, a cognitive layer involving attention and decision-making, and a narrative layer involving meaning and memory.