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What’s better: ding! or the Howie scream?Vote now on this important loud decision
Vote now on this important loud decision
Ding!
What’s a level-up if no one celebrates your effort with fanfare? Some bigger numbers? More tools to better handle future difficulties? Ugh, no thank you. Give me that ding!
It doesn’t have to be a dinging bell, of course. A little orchestral flourish. A dramatic drumroll crashing into a cymbal. Some grand surging of energy. A cool electronic noise which sounds like a hacker jacking into an anti-piracy public service announcement. Some sort of Kitarō synth. An abstract noise which somehow captures the essence of the visual effects bloody well better accompany my level-up. I’ll take all your dings, thank you. I also like that “ding!” in MMORPG slang is a little announcement that you’ve levelled, a prompt for praise and celebration from your pals: a monster ding moment in itself.
The Howie scream
Like its sonic siblingthe Wilhelm scream,the Howie screamis a stock sound effect you’ll have heard many times in many places. Both have become in-jokes through their repeated reuse, little nods to the artifice and shared history of cinema, easter eggs for the ears of enthusiasts. But while the Wilhelm scream typically appears unedited, typically as the sound of someone falling or being knocked flying, the Howie scream interests me for how often it’s reworked and built upon as a sound effect used in earnestness.
The baffling yell layered behind the military fanfarewhen you click on an Academy in StarCraft? That’s the Howie scream.Half-Life 2’s fast zombiessometimes scream a sped-up Howie screamwhile leaping, and the black headcrabs supposedly use an even faster version. Call Of Duty hashidden it in guitar riffs and drum beats.TVTropeslists more uses in games and once you recognise it as a distinct named scream, you start hearing it all over.
Sure, I like a Wilhelm scream well enough, but the Howie scream is the one for me. It treads a fine line between in-joke and practical asset, holding magic without tipping over into tired irony or mugging at the screen while calling attention to itself. Plus its first documented use, in the movie The Ninth Configuration, is very funny:
Howie Scream (First Appearance)Watch on YouTube
Howie Scream (First Appearance)
But which is better?
I adore a well-disguised Howie but cannot resist the triumphant noise and special effects bonanza of a good ding! Look, I know I’m a pitiable creature easily distracted and thrilled my loud noises and bright colours, and I’m okay with it. But what about you, reader dear?
