Elaborate sound design, including background music, ambient sounds (sounds describing the game world), and character sounds (sounds generated by the character’s actions), plays a pivotal role in modern video games. However, the influence of these different types of sound on the player’s experience has not been extensively researched. This study examines the influence of these sound types on immersion, avatar identification, fun, and perceived competence. In two experiments, participants played League of Legends under four different sound conditions. The first experiment (N₁ = 32) revealed a non-significant trend in the effect of character sounds on avatar identification. Ambient sounds, however, were limited because the task restricted participants’ movement across the game map. Consequently, we adapted the task to allow for a wider variety of ambient sounds in the second experiment (N₂ = 32). Here, a significant impact of character sounds on immersion, avatar identification, and fun was observed, as well as an interaction effect of character sounds and ambient sounds on fun. Furthermore, we observed a trend, though not statistically significant, suggesting that ambient sounds may influence the player’s sense of flow. These findings underline the distinct effects of different sound types, and we discuss implications for the design of sound in video games.

Mobile apps not only offer numerous benefits but also entail the risk of sharing sensitive data with third parties. This research addresses which factors shape privacy trade-offs among young adults and adults when downloading apps. The investigation involved two experimental vignette studies: In Study 1 (N = 500, 79.6% women), we examined young adults, mostly university students, aged 16-29 years to assess if low and high privacy-ratings for apps recommended by friends or a social media platform and offering relevant developmental opportunities affect the probability of downloading them. In Study 2 (N = 148, 70.9% women), we examined users aged 18-69 years to assess if low and high privacy-rated apps recommended by friends or found when browsing online, age-related differences, and privacy resignation affect the probability of sharing data with them. In both studies, we found that participants considered privacy ratings when deciding whether to download or share data with an app. While Study 1 found no differences for apps offering relevant developmental opportunities, both studies show a higher reported probability of downloading and sharing data with apps when these were recommended by friends compared to the control conditions (social media platform; browsing). Additionally, Study 2 demonstrated that participants under 29 years of age and with higher levels of resignation exhibited a higher probability of sharing data. These findings highlight that privacy ratings can support privacy decisions at the app download stage, but also emphasize the need for future interventions, especially for younger and resigned users.

Elaborate sound design, including background music, ambient sounds (sounds describing the game world), and character sounds (sounds generated by the character’s actions), plays a pivotal role in modern videogames. However, the influence of these different types of sound on the player experience has not been extensively researched. This study examines the influence of these sound types on immersion, avatar identification, fun and perceived competence. In two experiments, participants played League of Legends in four different sound conditions. The first experiment revealed a non-significant trend in the effect of character sound on avatar identification. Ambient sounds, however, were limited in this experiment because the task restricted participants’ movement across the game map. Consequently, we adapted the task to allow for a wider variety of ambient sounds in the second experiment. Here, a significant impact of character sounds on immersion, avatar identification, and fun, was observed, as well as an interaction effect of character sounds and ambient sounds on fun. Furthermore, we observed a trend, though not statistically significant, suggesting that ambient sounds may influence the player’s sense of flow. These findings underline the distinct effects of different sound types and we discuss implications for the design of sound in video games.