很多人，尤其是身处Flash游戏领域的人士会觉得，大家通常都会在体验游戏时忽略背景音乐或将其设成静音。

简单的问题：你怎么知道的？

部分人的观点

我知道你个人喜欢关掉音乐。我清楚你也许考虑到游戏玩家是在工作场合体验游戏，他们身边没有耳机。也许令人分心的音乐会致使你错过巴士站。也许你有朋友告诉你他们也都会取消游戏背景音乐。

game music from g4tv.com

但你怎么代表“多数人”？

每当听到这些观点，我都会有些失望。不喜欢游戏音乐的玩家通常都是出于某些个人原因，我无法改变他们。他们本身也喜欢喧哗；他们会进行抱怨。只是，你没有听到有人跺脚抱怨希望在游戏中听到更多音乐并不代表他们没有这样的想法。

我还记得自己曾在某论坛寻找音乐人帮我制作我一款早期作品的配乐。我陷入论坛的辩论中——所有人都建议我购买50-100美元的普通质量预录制音乐，因为他们觉得没有玩家会真正聆听游戏配乐。我不禁开始怀疑：也许正是因为你植入糟糕音乐，玩家才讨厌游戏配乐？

由于我的预算迫使我不得不这么做，所以我决定亲身进行试验。

基于参数的调查

我通过Playtomic分析自己的多数作品，它记录玩家在游戏中进行的所有操作。我决定观察的参数是：静音按键的点击频率。

我的一个关键参数是“至少在游戏体验过程中点击1次静音按键的用户比例”。这样，那些持续点击静音按键的用户就不会干扰我的统计数据。当然，我的数据收集方式还存在若干问题：

* 相比简短游戏，玩家更容易在持续较久的游戏中点击静音按键

* 单纯反复开关音乐的用户会妨碍我的统计结果（游戏邦注：例如由于接电话）

* 玩家可以选择关闭扬声器音量，这无法体现在统计数据中

* 笔记本用户可以选择关闭声音，这无法体现在我的统计数据中

* 我没有考虑静音键的尺寸或设置（有些处在选择菜单，有些尺寸很大）

* 游戏抽取的样本有大有小

但我依然觉得自己是唯一收集音乐相关数据的开发人员。

结果一目了然

至少在游戏体验过程中点击1次静音按键的用户比例：

* 85%：主要是我的早期作品，它们采用成本不高于100美元的预录制音乐

* 60%：我向某音乐工作室订制一首200美元的曲子

* 30%：来自Roger Levy的优秀配乐

* 11%：采用定制曲目的RevShare项目

* 6%：有DannyB参与的大型RevShare项目

数据如此低（游戏邦注：指6%），让我不禁怀疑自己的参数是否出错。完全没错，我再次进行确认。

是的，用户会“取消游戏配乐”，如果你所指的全部是85%，所谓的音乐是糟糕透底的曲目。

但游戏也有音乐粉丝。若你的游戏配乐听起来悦耳动听，你就有望获得若干忠实粉丝。

如何获得音乐？

是否想要提高游戏配乐的质量？获得优质音乐的最佳方式就是扩宽人脉。寻找符合你标准的音乐人。若你能和他小酌一杯，那么你就更有可能同其建立良好的合作关系。

若你没有机会参加GDC之类的会议，不妨将目光放至游戏开发社区的论坛，或是IndieLoopGarden之类的网站。

有时多到酒吧转转也是个良策。据我所知，有些游戏美工就通过帮酒吧歌手设计唱片封面换得他们的曲子。这是颇值得借鉴的合作模式。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Measuring the Value of Music

A lot of folks, especially in the Flash gaming market, will say that everyone just ignores and mutes the music in the games they play.

A simple question: How do you know this?

I (very) briefly touched on this subject in my previous SteamBirds: By The Numbers article (and the Survival follow-up), but after some tweeting with IndieLoopGarden, I decided this could use its own post.

Opinions are cool and all

Look, I get that you personally might like muting the music. I understand that perhaps you have ideas about people playing in the workplace, without headphones. Maybe the distracting music is a danger to you missing your bus stop. Maybe you’ve had some friends tell you that they mute games too.

But who are you to speak for “most people?”

Whenever I hear these opinions it frustrates me. The people that dislike music in games usually do so for good reason in their personal lives, and I probably can’t sway them otherwise. They are loud, too; they complain vocally about it.  Just because you don’t hear people stomping around complaining that there should be more music in a game doesn’t mean they aren’t doing it.

I remember way-back-when on the FlashGameLicense forums – I was asking around for a musician to help with one of my early games. I got into a debate on the forum – everyone was telling me to buy some shitty $50-100 pre-canned music, since no player listens anyway. I started to wonder: if you only put in shitty music, maybe that’s why people hate it?

Since my budget was forcing me that way anyway, I decided to test things out.

Metrics are Better

I’ve been using Playtomic in pretty much all of my games, and it records just about everything someone can do in-game. One of the metrics I decided to watch was how frequently the mute button was pressed.

One of my key metrics is “percentage of players that have hit mute at least once in their play cycle.” This way, someone that pounds the mute button on and off again doesn’t throw my stats off. Sure, there are some problems with  my data collection:

* Longer content games have a high chance of a mute button being pressed than shorter form games

* People that briefly toggle music off and on again (say, for a phone call) get counted against me

Speaker volumes can be turned down without touching my stats

* Laptops can be muted without touching my stats

* I don’t account for mute button size or placement (some are in option menus, some are big on the menu menu, etc)

* Some of my games have very small sample sizes, some have very large

But I believe I am (still to this day!) the only person collecting any data on music at all. I would love for someone else to jump on this train and collect more data!

Results speak for themselves

Percentage of players that have hit mute at least once in their play cycle:

* 85%: My earlier, cheaper, and short-form games using pre-canned music costing no more than $100

* 60%: I ordered a $200 track from a rapid-production-music house

* 30%: Some awesome music from Roger Levy

* 11%: RevShare project with custom tracks

* 6%: The talented DannyB on a big RevShare

The stats got so low (6%?!?!?) that I thought perhaps my metrics were broken. They weren’t, I double checked everything.

Yes, people will “all mute your music,” if by all you mean 85%, and by music you mean the shittiest music you can get.

There are music fans out there. If you make your game sound really good, you might even run the chance of getting a few evangelists on your side.

Prove me wrong. Run your own stats, hopefully more properly done and more scientific than mine. Let me know what you come up with.

Looking for Music?

Want to step up the quality in your game? The best possible way to find good music is to get out there and meet people. Find a musician that is aligned with your values. If you can share a pint with them, you greatly increase your chances of a happy working relationship.

If you can’t make it out to GDC or other conferences, look up people in game-making-community forums, or check out websites like IndieLoopGarden. There’s solutions out there, and none of them have to be ultra-expensive.

Sometimes hanging out at your local pub can work too. I know some video game artists that trade album cover art for a few tracks from local bands. This is amazing synergy that you can leverage too. If you’re not an artist, you might have one on your team.（Source：andymoore）