Player Features and Ideas Discussion

But what if it's iceland and most of the world where scratchy, buzzy noises mean something good is happenening, and it's just the US where we've got it backwards?

Client localization, I guess.

I am not from Iceland.

I have heard all these sounds referenced by OP and this isn't how I interpret the sounds at all. I don't associate good/bad with them, simply audio feedback that something of some kind is happening or that a command I have given is acknowledged and has been executed.

I'm not sure what the problem is, or why sounds have to be specifically positive or negative and cannot simply be neutral.

I think that there's far too many unnecessary sounds in eve and we could do with a cull. Especially that annoying klang when you open a can or the cruise liner chimes you get when your skill queue ends.

I think you misinterpret Alvatore's statements: he's asking why you think the sounds are "positive" or "negative" when he interprets them only as "distinctive". There's this scratchy sound which means that the NPC aggro timer is expiring, that sound which means the PvP timer is expiring, and so forth. Whether you associate positive or negative connotations with those sounds is entirely in your head: it's not universal.

So what I'm gathering from FoxFire's replies here is that by not attaching an emotional association to sounds that are not inherently intended to be "good" or "bad" but simply intended to get one's attention, I am less of a human being or not one at all. Fair enough, I suppose that works for me.

Really though, in all seriousness, these sounds are not designed to be "good sounds" or "bad sounds". The Emergency Broadcast Service noise is not designed as a "bad" sound. The error noises in Windows are not designed as "bad" sounds. They are designed to get your attention. They are designed to cut through whatever else may be going on at the time and say "Pay attention to me". In order to accomplish this task, a sound generally needs to be what ends up as harsh and grating, because it has to not only resist blending into everyday noises but also has to be clearly and immediately recognized.

When you initiate a crimewatch timer or limited engagement, you get alert noises so that you're aware of whatever timers you have incurred without having to look away from what you're doing. When the timers have reached their end and are being terminated, you get a short audio notification so that you can say "Oh hey, my suspect status has worn off" without having to look up, away from what you're doing. These sounds are designed to be dissimilar from everything else in EVE so that you immediately know what's going on without having to wonder or look around.

That "high pitched buzz" is a confirmation that your ship has begun interacting with another entity in space, and it sounds again as a confirmation that your ship has stopped interacting with entities in space. Remote repping a drone, shooting a jetcan, ECM jamming an asteroid, catching room aggro from a bunch of rats. The noise sounds to tell you "something is happening in space" and it sounds again as a notification of "things have stopped happening in space".

Attaching any inherent positive or negative value to the actual sounds themselves is purely subjective and multiple people having the same subjective opinion does not transmute their opinions into fact.

"...for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." - Hamlet

I guess. I wouldn't know for I, like many other legit players, mute the audio 'cause there ain't no sound in space!

Ha!

Whatever Alvatore. <--- Please say your name there with a sarastic voice, thank you.

Fortunately for me, you're not CCP. They are the one's who can ascertain the merit of my observation/complaint, and determine if what I've had to say makes sense to them.

I believe if they put some thought into it they might very well agree, and simply hadn't considered it before.

If the emotional response to a particular sound was universal, you might have a point. In this thread there are at least two people who do not attach emotional connotations to the PVP, NPC or crime watch timers, contrasted to one person who does. Small, self-selecting population aside, what does this tell you? Only that people who start threads on the forums are far too emotionally unstable.

My aren't you oh so clever.

Assumptions aren't bad unless you are acting or making decisions based on them, and even then sometimes they are necessary. People (even you dear Sable) make assumptions ALL the time, particularly when they don't or can't have all the information. You ASSUME that bridge you drive over isn't going to collapse (but if it does, perhaps you should have done a thorough inspection of it prior to driving over it, rather than just assuming it was sound or assuming someone else inspected it for you, eh?)

Now the title of my post was a question. My assumption (as I stated) was that scratchy buzzy noises have a negative or critical connotation globally, as they generally do here in America (based on many years of listening experience), and thus I was asking if people in Iceland interpret these sounds differently. I am not the one who designed game sounds with that assumption in mind. Most people, not having that information, are likely to make that assumption. It's when they make a decision based on it does it become a potential problem, particularly if they could have gotten that information.

So there is NO 'assumption' problem here on my end.

But, I have found YOUR problem Sable. You have a limited understanding of assumptions and you have nothing insightful or useful to add to this conversation. Now that it's pointed out please fix it.

It seems you're becoming upset, Mr. Ayderan.

Perhaps it would do you good to stop now, before you descend any further into personal attacks and increasingly sarcastic and combative replies that only serve to give the appearance of wildly flailing about attempting to defend a position that is rapidly sinking into the proverbial ocean even while you yet stand on it. Even if your thesis is true, you're only serving to discredit it.

The simple fact of the matter is that your thread is based entirely on opinions which you are presenting as scientific fact. In truth, they are not. When the veracity of your statements as facts is brought into question, you insist all the more fiercely that what you say is true, citing someone else agreeing with you as proof. As the questioning increases, you begin to react more and more negatively. It really all just goes downhill from there and this post, much like the direction of this thread, is off-topic enough as it is without me going further into unnecessary detail.