Time for New Terminology? Diegetic and Non-Diegetic Sounds in Computer Games Revisited

Abstract

This chapter is a critical discussion of the use of the concepts diegetic and non-diegetic in connection with computer game sound. It is argued that the terms are problematic because they do not take into account the functional aspects of sound and how gameworlds differ from traditional fictional worlds. The aims of the chapter are to re-evaluate earlier attempts at adapting this terminology to games and to present an alternative model of conceptualizing the spatial properties of game sound with respect to the gameworld.