A Necessary Addiction

What if your music choice is the difference between winning or losing in your favourite video game?

In a fast-paced game, like Call of Duty, every second counts. Every decision counts. Your music choice could be responsible for more than just setting the mood. A split-second reaction can be the difference between winning a gunfight and being sent back to the lobby, disappointed and hopeless. While music can't automatically turn you into a CDL-level player, it can create a connection between the mind and body, potentially influencing your physical/mental energy, your focus and your reaction time when actually playing.

For me, music, along with the people I'm playing with, allows me to get into a specific mindset which could make or break my performance for that game. When I play, I usually listen to D&B, pop hits and house music. Pretty much anything that allows me to lift out of my seat and feel invincible is often the best choice for me personally. I feed off the energy that flows from the music into my ears and transform that energy into alertness, allowing me to lock in and perform as best as I can in that moment. When you're constantly adjusting to enemies, sounds and changes across the map, music with a higher BPM can increase your sense of energy and engagement, potentially helping you focus on what is happening in front of you, react more quickly and make decisions without hesitation.

Familiarity with the music I listen to can also positively affect my performance when playing some of my favourite games. Knowing the lyrics to a song can help you lock in and focus by reducing the feeling of mental distraction and providing a familiar rhythm. This tactic has always allowed me to clutch up during the hardest situations, such as match point in Search and Destroy games in Call of Duty. This is because, instead of me focussing on the high pressure situation that I'm in, I'm able to fade into the music and allow it to absorb into the background. This keeps me concentrated while also keeping my energy high and my blood pumping. For those few moments, the pressure of winning becomes secondary to the rhythm, the game and the instinct to keep going.

The relationship between music and gaming, however, is about more than simply winning and losing. Together, they can create a world that you can escape into and even crave when you go without it. The headset goes on, the playlist begins, and for a moment, you become someone different from who you were before. RÜFÜS DU SOL will always feel like home, even when the game and the people within it no longer do. That feeling of belonging and connection creates a dangerously powerful combination. One that can become almost impossible to let go of. Although everyone is different when it comes to how well they respond to the combination of gaming and music, music allows me to be the best person and player I can be when immersing myself in my favourite video games. It gives me somewhere to escape, somewhere to belong and somewhere to feel completely present in my existence. This is one combination that I will never let go of - not until the final game ends, the music stops and the day comes when I can no longer bear the thought of pressing play.