The Liveness of In-game Concerts: Notes on the Player/Audience Sonic Perception in Minecraft
In-game concerts are musical experiences that make use of the game’s space, aesthetic and mechanics to provide a playful way to interact with musical artists (as avatars), in which the player is also the audience to an immersive digital performance. In her book chapter titled “Being In the Game”, Karen Collins (2013) explores in depth the importance of sound in creating the perception of inhabiting game worlds. This proposal intends to answer the following question: what are the aspects specific to in-game concerts that generate the feelings of liveness (Auslander 1999; Sanden 2013) and presence? Through participant observation and qualitative interviews collected with producers, DJ’s and the audience of in-game concerts located in Minecraft between 2020 and 2023, the paper intends to answer the main question connecting ludomusicology literature to the writings on digital performance.