diegetic player positions to affect otherwise non-diegetic stem mixes . For example , the volume of a violin stem could increase or decrease as players approach a door , a technique frequently used to pre-empt a scare or deceive the player into expecting one . There are basically two models related to the role and function of film music . According to Claudia Gorbman , who wrote one of the models , music provides referential and narrative cues . 22 It provides rhythmical and formal continuity , and aids in the construction of formal and narrative unity . Nicholas Cook , who wrote the other , explains that , while words and images concern the specific or objective , music deals primarily with responses – that is , with values , emotions and attitudes . 23 In this sense , the connotative qualities of the music complement the denotative qualities of words and images . Hearing non-diegetic music in scenes where players do not expect to hear diegetic music allows them to more readily become lost in the drama and rely on learned genre response .
Only video games can situate the single player into a game , provide them with a choice situation , but deny any clear information about the type of consequence that the different options will have . As noted by Sebastian Domsch , it is important that this qualification is made , because video games operate according to probabilities , that is , they do give the player information about a finite set of possible outcomes , but only a probability about which of these outcomes will be fully realized . 24 This provision of extrinsic information exists in Until Dawn through totems which 22
Claudia Gorbman , ‘ Narrative Film Music ’, Yale French Studies , 60 ( 1980 ), 183-203
( p . 186 ). 23 Nicholas Cook , Analysing Musical Multimedia ( Oxford : Clarendon Press , 1998 ), p . 21 . 24 Sebastian Domsch , Storyplaying : Agency and Narrative in Video Games ( Berlin : De
Grutyer , 2013 ), p . 130 .
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