Does adaptive music actually do anything? (Yes)
Abstract: Music is an important affective aspect of video games. We present the findings of an empirical study on the affective effects of adaptive uses of music in games. We find that adaptive music can significantly increase a players reported experienced feeling of tension, that players recognize and value music, and that player recognize and value adaptive music over linear music.
Music Matters presents an empirical study on adaptive music in games. While adaptive music in games has been studied, and the emotional effects of film music have been studied, we look at the emotional effects of adaptive game music. We compare different adaptive and linear scoring techniques, and base our musical adaptivity on an emotion model similar to others in generative game music research.
We find that any musical adaptivity raises participants perceptions of the music matching the emotion, and aligns participants subjectively experienced emotions more closely with the modeled, “intended” emotions. In other words, we find that adaptive music does affect game players, or at least they believe that it does.