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Video Games
The revision Bible
Your Exam
Section A Section BTextual Analysis and representation
TV Drama
Mr Raymond
Institutions and Audiences
Video Games
Ms Paul
Institutions and Audiences This exam tests you on your understanding of
the issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice;
the importance of cross media convergence and synergy in production, distribution and marketing;
the technologies that have been introduced in recent years at the levels of production, distribution, marketing and exchange;
the significance of proliferation in hardware and content for institutions and audiences;
the importance of technological convergence for institutions and audiences;
the issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences (specifically, British) by international or global institutions;
the ways in which the candidates’ own experiences of media consumption illustrate wider patterns and trends of audience behaviour.
MIGRAIN
Media languageMedia words and terminology
InstitutionThe companies that produce, distribute and market
GenreHow do video games work with genre conventions
RepresentationHow do they represent people, ideas and reality?
AudiencesWho do they attract with and how do they respond to them?
IdeologyWhat theories and ideas are surrounded by the media text.
NarrativeWhat are the structures and themes?
What is an institution?
A media institution is a company who is involved in producing, distributing and marketing the media.
What is a video game?
Electronic Human players (interactivity) Video device Platforms Input devices
Platforms Platforms are the electronic systems that you
play video games on Mainframe computers
Personal computersVideo game consolesArcade
Handheld devicesPhones MP4sCamera
Input devices A piece of hardware you use to control the
data and signals to the processing system: The game controller.
This changes depending on which platform you use.GamepadJoystickSteering wheelTouch screenMotion sensingKeyboardTrackball
Video Game Production Companies Sony Microsoft Nintendo Sega
What is an institution?
A media institution is a company who is involved in producing, distributing and marketing the media.
Institution What they do
Developers Games are created by development studios comprised of software engineers, artists and programmers who write the code, create the structure and animate the game making them playable for gamers. It’s these developers that are perceived as the ‘talent’ in the industry.
Publishers These are companies that are responsible for the marketing and distribution of the game.
Console Manufacturers
The companies that make the hardware, e.g. games consoles, that games are played on –specifically Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and, now that mobile phone based platforms are emerging, companies such as Nokia.
Distributor A distributor works with retailers (shops, online) to make product available for the consumers to purchase. In the games industry the Publisher usually handles the distribution.
Consumer Or ‘the audience’ - anyone that buys, plays, downloads games.
Global MarketingAdvantages Disadvantages
Lots of money: profit Cross media marketing World wide audiences PR and Marketing Money on graphics Media convergence:
Stars Brand Graphics
Pressure Timings Technological issues Controversy, worldwide
media panic Individuality Brainwashing Lots of money on
promotion and marketing High expectations
National Marketing
Advantages Disadvantages
Long term Sustained consumers DLC No hardware costs (?) Game as art Wider audiences
Casual games New breed of gamers
Experimental No expectations
Underdogs Competing with global Marketing campaigns Graphics Recognition Less profit
SynergySynergy is when business deals are created between media institutions.
It can occur between two or many more companies.
It essentially means that multiple companies contribute to the same product.
It allows them to reach the same audience and both profit.
It can be through tie-ins (a partnership) or product placement (one company pays another to advertise in their game)
It can also be through a co-production, where companies work together to produce one product.
Synergy: Prince of Persia The film is based on
the Prince of Persia games series from Ubisoft (developers).
The game is based on the reboot of series Prince of Persia: Sands of Time which came out in 2003
So rather than create a sequel to the 2008 game Ubisoft have released a sequel to their 2003 game - theSands of Time, with similar gameplay.
Production synergy issues: Compatibility
There is pressure on the developers to complete a game for simultaneous release on different consoles.
Rockstar were under pressure to make the same game for 3 different formats: PC, PS3, Xbox 360, each with their different problems. It was rumoured that the reason for GTA 4’s delay was that Rockstar were struggling to perfect the PS3 version.
Production synergy issues: Time
If games are released to coincide with the release of a film/TV show, this brings its own problems: a strict deadline that can’t be avoided. You can’t have the Harry Potter game coming out six months after the film.
HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL INTEGRATION
CONSOLE MANUFACTU
RER
Often a single parent company will own multiple companies in the games industry.
This is divided into two types of ownership:
HORIZONTAL
The parent company owns multiple companies at the same stage of the game industry. A smaller company, owned by the parent is a subsidiary.
VERTICAL
The parent company owns multiple companies across different stages of the game industry.GAMES
PUBLISHER
GAMES DEVELOP
ERFor example Sony owns:
•SCE (Console Manufacturer)
•16 ‘in-house’ studios worldwide (Games Developer)
•It also has synergous relationships with over 30 other developers (Games Developer)
•SCEE (European Publisher)
CONSOLE MANUFACTU
RER
CONSOLE MANUFACTU
RER
Synergy and cross media convergence Synergy: production companies that
come together to produce the product Cross media convergence: various
types of media companies that come together to market the product
Rockstar
Licensed musicKanye WestIce cube
Tv channels Ricky GervaisKatt Williams
Vice city and Andreas
Technological convergence Various forms of media technologies
come together to distribute the product.
New market
Home entertainment systemBlu-rayInternetDLCMusicFamily entertainmentSocial activity
Wii sports Mario kart Rock band Kinect
*Important*
The most significant part of technological convergence is fact that all these consoles are online which allows for:Online playOnline sharing of ideasDownloading new content and new
games Also it allows for most of the
media convergence
Proliferation
A rapid increase in the number of a certain type of product.
Lots and lots of the same product, usually because of a certain product becoming popular
Change in technology
I-Phone
BIG Hit All companies produce touch screen Android Lots of android that look the same Touch screen Capitalising on success
Game developers/publishers can create content for numerous media
DLC Phone Hand held
Proliferation positives
Innovation for video game consoles Different types of game
Games on phone Handheld devices Different types of games (bigger
audiences) Complete with the bigger institutions
Negative Proliferation
Spend more on marketing and advertising
Competition Pressure to sell: ‘Playing it safe’
Giving the public what they already knowLess innovation
Negative Proliferation
Different types of games for different machinesGTA4, GTA9 different versions of FIFA 11
Don’t make a Wii versionExcluding a large part of the potential
market
Proliferation: Positive for Consumers More choice Competitions keeps price down Can play games where ever you want
Home, phone, facebook etc…
Negatives for consumers
Confusion- what to buy?Motion controller, wii, kinect, ps3 motionConsumers loose interest
Have to buy several machines to get all the different games
Can lead to less variety of choiceClones of gamesGTA or CoD
Media Ownership
Who owns what in video games?LicenceBrandsTechnology; software, hardware Intellectual property (IP)
End User Licensing Agreement (EULA)Governing video games
Ownership
Rockstar create the characters themselves
They have their own game software called rage
Licence for Euphoria: animation engine
Bullet: open source physics engine
Ownership
Rockstar had to licence all the songs in their games
Approx $5000/song Licence the TV footage Ricky Gervais’ comedy
show
Ownership
Microsoft paid $50 Million for the exclusive rights for the GTA 4 DLC
Obtaining media ownership can be used to sell consoles
Media Ownership Publishers pay for licenses from other intellectual properties (Exclusive
rights) E.g. Fiilms
Bond Xmen Spider man
Sport stars Rooney, tiger Woods
Events Fifa
Car designs Gran Turismo
Tv shows X-factor
Songs Guitar hero
Ownership
Apple allow developers to use the App software development kit (SDK) for free
Apps for Iphone Earn 30% revenue
Issues with ownership
Money = less development Synergy Who owns the game? Who gets credit for the game? DLC: Piracy Social Networking Phones Recognition
What is Audience?
Groups of people, large or small, that
consume media texts
Audiences can differ in a number of ways
so
these groups may consist of subgroups
But
how do we categorise audiences into subgroups?
Grouping people
Demographics AgeGenderRaceNational identitySocioeconomic group
PsychographicsHobbies/tastesInterestsSpending power Education/ability
SOCIO-ECONOMIC SOCIO-ECONOMIC GROUPSGROUPS
Socio-economic grouping is a more advanced way of looking at social class.
It considers the jobs people do, the level of training they have, and how society views their profession.
There are six categories:
A- Higher managerial, high level professional e.g. Chief executive, senior civil servant, surgeon
B – Middle management, professional e.g. bank manager, teacher C1- White Collar, junior manager, skilled e.g. shop floor
supervisor, bank clerk, sales person C2 - Skilled manual workers, blue collar e.g. electrician, carpenter D- Semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers e.g. assembly line
worker, retailE – No private income e.g. students, pensioners without private
pensions and anyone living on basic benefits
Media Panics Video games influence behaviour
Video games effect young children
Video games degrade women
Video games promote violence
Video games are a bad influence on young children
Do we know the difference between fantasy and reality?
Video games are addictive
Video games cause antisocial behaviour
War games train gamers to kill
Video games desensitise gamers to violence
Uses and gratification
Researchers Blulmer & Katz developed this idea and published their theory in 1974, stating that individuals might choose and use a text for the following purposes:
Hypodermic Needle Model suggests that information is absorbed into the human brain without thought.
Vulnerable from consuming media texts
Easily manipulated by producers.
We accept dominant ideologies as the norm.
Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet analysed the voters' decision-making processes during a 1940 presidential election campaign and published their results in a paper called The People's Choice.
Their findings suggested that the information does not flow directly from the text into the minds of its audience unmediated but is filtered through "opinion leaders" who then communicate it to their less active associates, over whom they have influence
Reception Theory: Thirty years ago, research was conducted on how
individuals received and interpreted a media text, and whether their individual circumstances (age, gender, class, ethnicity, sexuality) affected their reading.
Producers ‘box audience in categories.
Stuart Hall addressed this concluding that audiences take on their own readings of a text people are all different and have ideologies
Pro: Empathy Dr. Kourosh Dini argues that video games can teach us empathy.
“One of the big things about many games is you’re interacting with other people in such a way that you have to actively think about what the other people are doing or thinking in order to either play against them or play them cooperatively. Either way you’ve got to be engaged in trying to think of how is this person learning and what’s this person going to be doing next.”
Pro: Cognitive health
Arthur Kramer from University of Illinois recently found that Big Huge Games’ Rise of Nations strategy game improved specific cognitive skills (such as short-term memory) in adults in their 60s and 70s under lab conditions.
Pro: Better than TV
“Video gamers present as brighter, livelier and more interesting people than the average “couch potato.””- says Russel Dawson, who is a teacher and a parent also.
Pro: Better mood
Studies have shown, that games help alleviate common stress that we feel every day. PopCap-endorsed study by East Carolina University’s Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies in 2008 found that casual games can improve players’ moods.
Pro: Hand and eye co-ordinationThere was one interesting but small study by
doctors at Beth Israel Medical Center, New York noticed a link between gaming and improved performance in laparoscopic surgery.
Pro: Remedy for intense Pain Dr. Catherine Butz told the publication, “Research shows a very
strong connection between anxiety and pain. Distraction does a great job in decreasing any kind of anxiety that might be associated with the anticipated procedures”There are also media reports about hospitals using video games to help patients undergoing chemotherapy.
Pro: Distraction from overeating
RealGames after questioning 2,700 respondents found that playing video games was a positive distraction from snacking or overeating for 59 percent of respondents, while 42 percent of smokers among the group said casual gaming helped them light up less frequently.
Pro: New way of teaching “The learning processes behind play, I think, are
undervalued,” says psychologist Dr. Kourosh Dini . “When a person is engaged in play, they seem to learn better. … There’s this feeling of mastery that can happen that sometimes kids don’t get to achieve otherwise.”
Pro: Imagination Boost
Sims creator Will Wright once wrote, “…The gamers’ mindset—the fact that they are learning in a totally new way—means they’ll treat the world as a place for creation, not consumption. This is the true impact video games will have on our culture.”
1. Explain how the industry you have studied is exploiting new technology in the areas of production, marketing and exchange
2. Account for recent changes in consumption and production in the industry you have studied.
3. To what extent are media audiences the agents, beneficiaries or victims of change?
4. Explain the significance cross media convergence and synergy, in production, distribution and marketing; the industry you have studied
5. How does your own experience of consumption illustrate wider patterns and trends of audience behaviour the industry you have studied?
6. What impact does media ownership have on the industry you have studied?
7. How are audiences effectively targeted in the industry you have chosen?8. How do institutions in your industry meet the needs and expectations of
the audience?9. What are the issues raised when targeting audiences in your chosen
industry?10. Discuss the issues raised by institutions’ need to target specific
audiences within a media industry which you have studied.11. Discuss the issues raised by media ownership within a media industry
which you have studied.