Assignment 1Postmortem

The process

Developer•Game Design•Writers, artists,

directors, animators, coders

Publisher•Oversight, funding,

distribution•Manufacturing,

marketing, advertising, localization, QA

Ad Agency•Creating and

managing advertisement

Production Company

•Trailer design•Direct, writers, artists, directors, animators, coders

Just so you know…• 2+ different ad agencies might pitch the publisher (sometimes

spending thousands of dollars to do so).• 2+ different production companies might pitch the publisher

(sometimes spending thousands of dollars to do so).• Sometimes, multiple agencies will be doing work for a

publisher

• Lesson: don’t go into advertising or marketing if you don’t like rejection

For exampleHalo 3 (publisher Microsoft, developer Bungie)

• E3 Trailer• Agency: Edelman (Microsoft's primary marketing arm)• Production: Bungie

• Starry Night• Agency: McCann Erickson• Production: Digital Domain

• Believe• Agency: Edelman• Production: MJC

• Landfall• Agency: Edelman• Production: Weta/Bungie dir. Neill Blomkamp

So what?

1. Do some research• http://www.bestadsontv.com• http://adsoftheworld.com/• http://www.adweek.com• Wikipedia

2. If you are unsure, refer to the “producer” of a trailer or ad or the “marketer/marketing.” If nothing else, the “publisher” is more likely to be involved than the developer.

Trailers have a title

• Sometimes they are lame, like,• The Sims 3 - Official E3 First Look Trailer (PC)

• Sometimes they are obscured by multiple uploaders. Seek out the most “official” title by searching for the publisher on youtube or the internet

• Trailer titles are italicized. They are “works.”

Context

• When was the trailer released?• Year, month. This is useful for kairos.

• Where was the trailer released?• E3, the Super Bowl, Youtube

• Why was the trailer released?• Interest, sell pre-orders, sell game

• What was going on around this time that would be helpful to know?• Other game releases? World events? Entertainment

events?

Errata• The absence of logos, pathos, ethos is just as important as its

presence. • You can write about why logos is not used as much• HOWEVER: it’s rare that there would be NO logos, or ethos or

pathos.• Logos, ethos, pathos are appeals. • The producer relies on pathos to appeal to the audience• The images demonstrate a strong ethos• The logical appeal to the audience is that there is a wide selection

of outfits for the player’s character to wear.• Kairos is NOT an appeal. It is a moment. A writer can be aware

of, exploit, understand, or use to his/her advantage. One can manipulate kairos in linear artistic expressions (pacing in a film, for example).

Audience

•There’s not a universal, general, massive audience.

•Every ad has a specific audience in mind, and it is neither…

Or

However…Most people play games (just like most people watch TV). The difference is in how a game is marketed towards the audience.

• Seventy-two percent of American households play computer or video games.

• The average game player is 37 years old and has been playing games for 12 years.

• The average age of the most frequent game purchaser is 41 years old.• Forty-two percent of all game players are women. In fact, women over the

age of 18 represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (37 percent) than boys age 17 or younger (13 percent).

• In 2011, 29 percent of Americans over the age of 50 play video games, an increase from nine percent in 1999.

• Fifty-five percent of gamers play games on their phones or handheld device.

Entertainment Software Association: Industry Facts

But to confirm some of your suspicions…• Sports games are played mostly by men (98.4%), who are

white (80%) and in their mid-20s (M = 26), and sports fans (93%).

Stein, Abraham, Mia Consalvo, and Konstantin Mitgutsch. "Who are sports gamers? A large scale study of sports video game players." Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies (2012).

• Female gamers• 50% of social and mobile game players• 40% of MMO players• 30% of Halo players• 20% of Call of Duty/Battlefield players• 15% of Grand Theft Auto players

Graser, Marc. "Videogame Biz: Women Still Very Much in the Minority." Variety. 1 October 2013.