Autopoiesis and sonic immersion: Modelling sound-based player relationships as a self-organizing system

In previous work I have provided a conceptual framework for the design and analysis of sound in First-Person Shooter games and have suggested that the relationship between player and soundscape in such games can be modeled as an acoustic ecology. This paper develops these ideas further in the context of multiplayer First-Person Shooter games. I suggest that individual acoustic ecologies within the game combine to create a virtual acoustic ecology, of which no player is wholly aware, and that this virtual acoustic ecology may be modeled as an autopoietic (sonopoietic) system that, in part, explains and enhances player immersion in the game.