作者：Steve

这个内容或许不好说明，但应该是开发商检验的首要内容之一，其常常被忽略。让我们通过情景来阐述，在你脑中绘制生动画面。

若你身处某个演讲，主题是14世纪的加泰罗尼亚家庭生活（游戏邦注：我们不知你为何身处此地，你个计算机专业学生，或许你认为那里会有三明治）。演讲很枯燥。你试图登陆微博，但没有网络连接。那么我想此时是玩iPhone游戏的最佳时机。将手机切换成静音状态，那么，你就能够尽情享受！

哦，天啊！《Marble Zone》竟然是最大音量呈现！我们被请出讲堂，你的三明治泡汤了！

是哪里出错呢？虽然手机调成静音，但游戏还有声音。这取决于编码员的细心程度，是iPhone一直存在的问题，因为当设备设置为静音时，其并不会自动将应用也调成静音，这需要手动编码。草率移植或者健忘编码员常常会忽略这点。

这成为用户体验的一个问题，用户认为这个静音转换适用所有内容，但当情况并非如此时，他们就会感到惊讶和沮丧。就像上述情形，这会让用户陷入尴尬境地，有时甚至会显得愚蠢至极。

这不是常理角度认为的单纯只是个“设计选择”。手动调整应用理想声音设置完全就是重复设备已有功能（游戏邦注：设备的声音设置功能更强大），而且我认为没有用户会希望自己的手机成静音状态，而游戏还能够发出声音。这是个糟糕设计。

所以总的来说，应用设计师不应如此设置！

表现突出作品

Doom Classic from mzstatic.com

坦白讲，很多游戏都表现很不错，因为这不是个“表现好坏”内容，而是个设置和未设置问题。所以让我们来看看《Doom Classic》（游戏邦注：该作品就有做此方面设置）。John Carmack最终面向iPhone推出原版《Doom》端口。姑且不论控制问题，这是个可靠端口，还融入WiFi多人模式。《Doom》玩家知道自己能够从中获得什么，游戏和15年前一样趣味横生。就相关内容而言，其兼顾iPhone设备的静音切换，所以我认为这是个典型例子。Carmack计划移植《Quake》，我们都满怀期待。

表现不佳作品

hook champ from 148apps.com

Rocket Cat Games的《Hook Champ》是款有趣的平台游戏，其中快速获得成就的唯一方式包括悬挂于天花板，越过火山岩浆，穿过砖墙，避开可怕诅咒，以及搜寻物品。游戏富有趣味，再现《夺宝奇兵》开场景象。遗憾的是游戏忽视设备静音切换，无视iPhone设备以最大音量呈现。你可以设置游戏音量。但这不应是你的工作。真是个令人失望的疏忽！

另一个失败典范就是《Sonic 1》。这里就不详细阐述。

游戏邦注：原文发布于2009年11月9日，文章叙述以当时为背景。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Shh! iPhone gaming should respect your sound settings

by Steve

This one may be hard to illustrate, but it should be one of the first items on the checklist for developers, and is often missed. Let’s use a scenario to illustrate it, painting vivid pictures in your mind!

You’re sat in a lecture, and the topic is domestic life in 14th Century Catalonia (We don’t know why you’re here, you are a computing student. Maybe you thought there would be sandwiches). It’s dull. You’ve tried to check twitter, no internet connection. Time to play a game on the iPhone then, I guess. Check the phones on silent, yep the switch is flicked. Ok, time to rock!

Oh no – its playing the Marble Zone theme at full volume! We’ve been foiled, and you’ll never get the sandwiches now!

So what went wrong? Despite having the phone set to silent, the game still had sound. Depending on how diligent the coders were, this has been an issue with the iPhone for a while, as the iPhone won’t automatically silence apps when set to silent – this has to be manually coded. Quick ports or just forgetful coders (usually working in small teams) can miss this.

This becomes an issue because of user expectations – they’d expect the silent switch to work globally, and will be surprised and frustrated when this isn’t the case. As seen in the scenario above, it can lead to the user being embarrassed and worse of all (according to Alan Cooper) feeling stupid!

It’s not simply a ‘design choice’, as a logical look at the situation will tell us. Not only would manually setting the desired volume settings inside an application duplicate functionality that is already implemented in a much more functional manner on the device itself, but I can also think of no scenario where a user would want their phone on silent, but their game to make sounds. It’s just poor design.

So in summary… just don’t do it app designers!

(Also while you’re at it, let me listen to my own music in game!)

Who does this well?

A lot of games to be honest, as its not really a ‘do well’ thing, rather its just done or not done. So lets talk about Doom Classic, as it does do this. John Carmack’s finally (6 months after it was “almost ready”) released his port of the original Doom for the iPhone. Control issues aside, it’s a faithful port, and includes WiFi multiplayer. Its Doom, so you know what you’re getting, and its just as fun as it was 15 years ago. More relevant, it does respect the silent switch on your iPhone, so I’m justified in talking about it here! We’re all looking forward to when Carmack starts on his port of Quake.

Who does this badly?

Hook Champ, from Rocket Cat Games, is a fun platformer where the only means of getting anywhere fast involves swinging from the ceiling, over lava, through brick walls and away from the scary cursed..fish thing. Its fun, recreating the opening scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark. It’s just a pity that the game ignores your silent switch, and so plays at full volume regardless of your iPhone’s settings. You can set the volume in game. But you shouldn’t have too. A disappointing oversight!

Another offender is Sonic 1, but I didn’t feature that as I’ve already talked about it in a previous post (link to previous post). Oh dear!

Also, just quickly, thanks to Brian Franklin from WebHostingSearch for featuring this blog in their ’20 Great UX blogs’. Rather unexpected, but thanks!（Source：stevebromley）