HA10 – Analysis of a Game Genre

First person shooters (FPS)



Call of Duty

Halo 4

Battlefield 4

Structure 

The structure of  these 3 games is very slimier even though they are very different games content wise but they all use the same structure, they all have a slimier objective to get in the game which is in the multiplier is win the game. In the campaign it is beat the enemy. Each one of these game has a very slimier games play style you look from the perspective of the person and all of these games have very slimier characteristics especially in the multiplier each one of these games has a mini map in on corned a kill feed which shows your kills and a ammo count which shows how much ammo you have.


codes and conventions

A convention that these 3 game have and most other FPS game is the rebounding health meter that has become a custom of the Call of Duty games. Implemented just right, by covering the screen in a bloody haze when the player is near death, it ratchets up the anxiety in moments where it is truly needed. A numerical or bar indicator of the player’s health value can’t come close to slow losing the ability to hear and see as the player’s avatar loses consciousness. Other Fps's have adopted it as a lazy way to not include game balance for poorly placed checkpoints. Die three seconds after a checkpoint? That’s fine, just wait for the reload, dive for cover, wait five seconds, and try again. this is also slowly be adopted by all Fps game franchises.  

Another quite common convention in FPS games is the kill cam and COD’s kill cam allows the player to instantly view a replay of how they were bested. Since Halo’s replay system is entirely optional this does provide  useful information that can help to root out the sniper that keeps killing you.

Having a match you just lost end with a rank up is one of the best ways to keep a player coming back for more. Unlock able and usable items were the true genius of Call of Duty′s leveling system, something even Halo didn't figure out. Most players don’t care about the shape of the rectangle on their character’s armor, but they do care about whether their gun is silenced or not. This another example of a common convention that nearly all of the modern day fps game have this also keeps the player playing the game.

Sticky Aiming is another common convention which all modern FPS game have adopted this allows you the ability of when you aim near an enemy to lock on to them and this helps with the ability to take out enemy's at a high rate this also allows the developers to make the maps smaller.   


stereotyping

These 3 games do stereotype men as strong, emotion less and expendable like if they die there is another to take there place, in the game halo there a unrealistic body image and the main character is very emotionless in most of the halo game. and until 2013 there was no women solders in Call of Duty but even though there is now they do have a very hard to mach body shape but it is no impossible.                                                                                 www.wattpad.com












www.rocketchainsaw.com


Narrative structures

The narrative structure of these games is closed this is because the game tell you what do and you have no control over the game and what you do in the game. This the same not just with these three game but all first person shooters.







 

HA9 Task 2 - Effects Debates

Violence

The recent release of Grand Theft Auto 5 and the discovery that the Washington Navy Yard gunman was "obsessed with violent video games" and just because that he was obsessed with this game it has led to yet another series of the media claiming that video games cause violence.

The media's main concern appears to be that enthusiastic gamer can't differentiate between games and the real world so violent games will result in violent behavior. But anyone who has the cognitive faculties to purchase, set up and operate modern games consoles won't have trouble differentiating between a cartoonist fantasy world and reality. There are two examples below of the media blaming violent video games for the murder of people and they also say that they were "obsessed with violent video games".

Explicit Sexual Content

Abusive/ Inappropriate

Addiction

Video game addiction the video below show that video game addiction in some people can take over their life and in some cases people have try to help there family members that were addicted and the person that was addicted has ended up killing some of there family members to get back and play the video game. but that is in extreme cases for most addict they do end up at the point where the game is slowly taking over there life and they only seem to care about what they are playing.

people that get addicted to video games must have other reasons for playing it non stop like the seance of achievement that they are getting in the game or they might not have self control and don't know when to stop.

What makes the game addictive 

This video below shows what make a game addictive for some people and why they like to keep playing the game. For example the fact that some game need you to think of your own creations and ways to survive in the game and find thing to help you survive in the game etc.

Stereotyping and representation

Media has a subtle but profound impact in our tastes and body image. A lot of women in video games are betrayed stick thin with metric tons of cover up on to hide even the tiniest blemish and this is concerning a lot of people it give them the image that all women should look like that and it is an impossible look, and all the men are on steroid and are ridiculously built up with large mussels and minimal emotions.

Censorship

Many video games have certain elements removed or have been edited due to regional rating standards. While, in the past, games were often toned down when translated overseas, in terms of violence, religious references, profanity, drug use, etc., when compared to their Japanese counterparts, in recent years Computer Entertainment Rating Organization, among other ratings organizations, have imposed harsher restrictions on violent games.

Task 1 – Response Theories

The Hypodermic Needle Model

The hypodermic needle model is also known as the hypodermic-syringe model. dating from the 1930s, This was the very first attempt in how to explain how mass audiences might react to mass media. The government had now discovered the power of mass media and they could produce propaganda and try an sway people way of thinking. but in the modern day it is largely considered obsolete.  




The Inoculation Model
The inoculation Theory was developed by social psychologist William J. McGuire in 1961 to explain more about how attitudes and beliefs change, and more importantly and  how to keep peoples original attitudes and beliefs consistent in the face of persuasion attempts.

So the inoculation theory suggests that inoculation is used to describe the attribution of the resistance to individuals, Or the process of supplying information to receivers before the communication process takes place in hope that the information would make the receiver more resistant.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inoculation_theory





The Two-Step Flow Model
In 1944 Paul Lazarsfeld an American Social Researcher introduced The Two-Step Flow of Communication in the book called “The people’s choice on how the voter makes up his mind in a presidential campaign. 

Researchers wanted to find out whether or not the mass media messages affect direct influence in voting decision among the people. Unexpectedly they found the media messages has less influence on people voting behavior. 





http://www.utwente.nl/cw/theorieenoverzicht/theory%20clusters/mass%20media/two_step_flow_theory-1/Two_Step_Flow_Theory-1-1.png
   

The Uses & Gratifications Theory

Uses and gratifications theory is an approach to understanding why and how people actively seek out specific media to satisfy specific needs. is an audience-centered approach to understanding mass communication.

This communication theory is positivistic in its approach based in the socio-psychological communication tradition, and focuses on communication at the mass media scale. The driving question of is "Why do people use media and what do they use them for? discusses how users deliberately choose media that will satisfy given needs and allow one to enhance knowledge, relaxation, social interactions/companionship, diversion, or escape. 

 

The Reception Theory

The reception theory the work of Hans-Robert Jauss in the late 1960s. It was most influential during the 1970s and early 1980s in Germany and USA. Among-st some notable work in Western Europe. A form of reception theory has also been applied to the study of historiography.

Stuart Hall is one of the main proponents of reception theory and having developed it for media and communication studies from the literary and history oriented approaches.

The reception theory says that a group of people who share the same genial ideas and interests may interpret a piece of media in the same way. This theory was most influential in the 70s.


    

Task 1 - Construction Glossary and Analysis

Media text
All media products such as television programs, films, CD's, books, newspapers, website pages , music, games and the internet.

Semiotics
semiotics this is the way that people react to what they see, and they would decode what they saw and try and make sense of it in which they decide weather or not they like what they has seen so for example the game just dace would be liked by some people and not by others because of the bright colors. and the last of use would not be like by others because of the violence and the horror.

Genre
The genre of the game is a style or category, it is the type of the game that you are playing.  For example is it a horror, thriller, action, adventure, etc. For example the game just dance would be a simulator game and the game last of us is a survival, horror and adventure and this is shown in the game play of the game because there is a lot of violence in the game.

Content 
Content is about the way the look and feels they would do this by the type of the media that is used for example the style, sounds and colours etc. for example the game just dance is colour full and cheerfuller and the audience would betray this as more laided back. Where as the game last of us would be more serious and dark in appearance.

 



Construction 
The way in which the game is structured and how the interaction is constructed. it is how the game looks, feels, sounds for example the sound in just dance are all dependent on the song that you are playing but there are also sound that are triggered by how well that you do in the game and there are other sound that are trigger when you do bad. The sounds in the last of us are specifically designed to draw you in to the game.

Codes and Conventions
The codes and conventions are a list of things that are must-dos things that must be featured in a particular game genre for example in a horror game you would expect jump scares, i n the game last of us you would expect jump scares but in just dance you would expect other things that are not scary like a more comical style. There are also things called Technical codes and they include camera angles, sound, lighting, interface design and interaction. Symbolic codes include the language, dress, and actions of characters.

Modes of address
It is the way it speaks or shouts at the audience for example a game like just dance would be loud and it would shout at you because is a bright and colorful party game and they want you to have fun and get involved in the game, Compared to a game like the last of us which would be less in your face and more depressed and laided back due to the style of the game.


Target demographic
This is who the game is aimed at such as the last of us is aimed at the the more mature audience you get the idea of this from the content in side the game such as the language and the violence in the game. whereas the game just dance is more family based as you can see in the game because there is no violence and it is all fun and it is like a party.


Just dance                                                      last of us 

HA7 Task 3 Presentation Of Research Results

HA7 Task 2 Applying Research Techniques

 Quantitative Research


I had to create a survey about GTA 5 to identify the target audience. To create the survey i used survey monkey to create the survey and the survey that i created is shown bellow. once the survey was created i sent it to Facebook and all the contacts on my email.

I had found out that the problem with this method is that i only got one response in a week so i made another one and i went out and asked people around the college and i go more responses that way and i also knew that people were not  messing about with results because i could see them so they could not lie about the results that they were giving me. from the image below you can see that i only got 1 result. 

  Qualitative Research

So I have also done another questionnaire which has open questions and after the other one I did, I decided not to make in on survey  monkey because I did not get enough results so I just went around the college an asked people that way because it also meant that my results would also be honest results.  

Questions 

Do you play video games?  26 said yes 4 said no 

What games do you play?  25 said fps    5 said third person 

What do you play games on? 25 said xbox 360    5 said playstation 

What working class are you in? 20 said middle class 10 said upper class 

Have you played GTA V? 20 said yes 10 said no 

Did you like GTA V? 20 said yes 10 said no 

HA7 Task 1 Research Techniques

Quantitative research

Quantitative Research options have been predetermined and a large number of respondents are involved. By definition, measurement must be objective, quantitative and statistically valid. Simply put, it’s about numbers, objective hard data. The sample size for a survey is calculated by statisticians using formulas to determine how large a sample size will be needed from a given population in order to achieve findings with an acceptable degree of accuracy. Generally, researchers seek sample sizes which yield findings with at least a 95% confidence interval which means that if you repeat the survey 100 times, 95 times out of a hundred, you would get the same response, plus/minus a margin error of 5 percentage points. Many surveys are designed to produce a smaller margin of error.

A good example of this type of research is the Gaming Britain report from IAB, The Internet Advisory Bureau. IAB is the UK trade association for digital advertising, representing most of the UK’s leading brands, media owners and agencies.

Qualitative research 

Qualitative Research is collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data by observing what people do and say. Whereas, quantitative research refers to counts and measures of things, qualitative research refers to the meanings, concepts, definitions, characteristics, metaphors, symbols, and descriptions of things.

Qualitative research is much more subjective than quantitative research and uses very different methods of collecting information, mainly individual, in-depth interviews and focus groups. The nature of this type of research is exploratory and open-ended. Small numbers of people are interviewed in-depth and/or a relatively small number of focus groups are conducted. Participants are asked to respond to general questions and the interviewer or group moderator probes and explores their responses to identify and define people’s perceptions, opinions and feelings about the topic or idea being discussed and to determine the degree of agreement that
exists in the group. The quality of the finding from qualitative research is directly dependent upon the skills, experience and sensitive of the interviewer or group moderator. This type of research is often less costly than surveys and is extremely effective in acquiring information about people’s communications needs and their responses to and views about specific communications.

https://www.icoe.org/webfm_send/1936

Electronic Arts carried out a form of qualitative research using mothers ho were asked to respond to the then new Dead Space 2 in 2011. This was really a form of innovative marketing, as EA thought that their game would sell even more if mums hated it.

For example,

Profiling

The recording and analysis of a person's psychological and behavioral characteristics, so as to assess or predict their capabilities in a certain sphere or to assist in identifying categories of people.
A consumer profile is a way of describing a consumer categorically so that they can be grouped for marketing and advertising purposes. It has been shown to be more profitable to target advertising to a specific market segment. As a short-hand way of talking about consumers, market segments are often represented by consumer profiles. Consumers can be identified by many different preference, lifestyle, lifestage, attribute, and trait categories. Thinking about consumers in terms of the way they are represented by categorical tiers can be useful. The first tier includes the most common categories for describing consumers, such as demographics, socioeconomic status, and product usage. The second tier extends the concepts of the first tier and includes psychographics, generation, geography, geodemographics, and benefits sought

 

Demographics

A common and traditional method of audience profiling is known as demographics. This defines the adult population largely by the work that they do. 

The NRS Social Grade breaks the population down into 6 groups, and labels them by using a letter code to describe the income and status of the members of each group.

Psychographics
This is a way of describing an audience by looking at their behaviour and personality traits. Psychographics labels a particular type of person and makes an assessment about their viewing and spending habits. The advertising agency Young and Rubican invented a successful psychographic profile known as their Cross Cultural Consumer Characterisation, based on Abraham Maslow's, Hierarchy of Needs theory.

They put the audience into groups with labels that suggest their position in society.

Psycho graphics

This is a way of describing an audience by looking at their behaviour and personality traits. Psychographics labels a particular type of person and makes an assessment about their viewing and spending habits. The advertising agency Young and Rubican invented a successful psychographic profile known as their Cross Cultural Consumer Characterisation, based on Abraham Maslow's, Hierarchy of Needs theory. 

They put the audience into groups with labels that suggest their position in society.

Geodemographics

Geodemographic segmentation is based on two simple principles:

People who live in the same neighbourhood are more likely to have similar characteristics than are two people chosen at random.

Neighbourhoods can be categorized in terms of the characteristics of the population which they contain. Any two neighbourhoods can be placed in the same category, i.e. they contain similar types of people, even though they are widely separated