Videogames
A video game is a media product with an interactive or ludic element
Ludo = latin for 'i play'
- First video game to be released = Computer Space in 1971 - developed by scientist due to the huge computers they had access to
- First people to make and play video games were scientists and students (due to computers)
- PLATO system - started in 1960's, touch screen activated - the computers were all linked so could interact with other players - designed for education purposes but students made it into a game - based off Dungeons and Dragons - very modern multiplayer video games that students across America could play against each other
- video games were first commercialised by Japan in 1970's - space invaders was one of the first, it was massive in Japan - America saw this and had to catch up so they had games like centipede, astroid, missile command - these were often made and published by a company by Atari
- In England and Europe was consoles, low budget, bedroom coders e.g. Bandersnatch
- examples of modern video game genres = sport, survival horror, fighting - there were NO genres in early video games
- 1990's video game crash - ET game often being said to cause this crash
- Nintendo made the NES (nintendo entertainment system) and in Japan FANYCOM - they made RPG (role playing games) has a fantasy theme etc.
- Dragon quest came out in 1985 in the NES - completely different league compared to the other games that had been released
- there was a huge division between Japanese games and American and British games
- game that made Nintendo famous = Super Mario Brothers - 1985
- 1986 - Legend of Zelda
- Street Fighter II - 1991 - changed a lot - gave the opportunity to interact with other players which hadn't been done like these before
- SEGA vs Nintendo but then in 1995 another company came through and changed everything = PLAYSTATION
- Playstation and Sony came out in 1995 went to the Ministry Of Sound and set up Playstation Booths - therefore shows they were targeting young adults who went out = young, cool, adults
- Playstation 'mental wealth' advert = good marketing campaign as is different and makes it seem secretive
- Not everyone likes 'triple A games' take thousands of people to make and has a high production value - others prefer
- LA Noir came under huge criticism because they treated their staff very badly - similar one to Red Death Redemption 2 - people were forced to work 80 hour weeks with no extra pay - can be quite an exploitative business
- Women are very sexualised in video games - Tomb Raider - Lara Croft was seen as being too sexy as she had big breasts - director said "we decided to make it third person so you could see her arse"
- digital distribution = using computers to distribute games
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How are videogames different to other media products
- more interactive than other media products - however films can be just as interactive as video games as you are able to talk to other people about it
- It is an extremely broad industry - broadest of any industry apart from online media
- there is an assumption that video games do not have a deeper ideology beneath the message
- there are competitive scenes based around videogames - some people are better at playing video games than other people
- substantially higher RRP (recommended retail price) - can be up to £50 for a newly released game
- expectation that games are much longer than films - some can take weeks to complete
- games are developed for specific hardware (phone, computer, playstation etc)
- videogames tend to target a specific core (hardcore/ dedicated/niche) audience
Videogames are an extremely specialised industry
Assassins Creed III - Liberation
- This game is a sequel and is a spin off
- has been rereleased as the Liberation version
- It was first published by Ubisoft in 2012 for the Playstation Vita (handheld device), with a subsequent HD re-release for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360
Playstation vita less popular in UK than Japan because they had more of a preference to home consoles and on a handheld console it wasn't as interactive
The HUD provides the audience with an immersive experience
Trailer for Assassins Creed III - Liberation- playstation 3
How does this appeal a niche and wide audience
- 18
- over the top action + violence appear in trailer
- protagonist is a girl and mixed race - uncommon in video games - this game is appealing to a mixed race female audience as they are able to identify with the protagonist - this also has a unique selling point as it is different.
- The trailer had a movie feel to it - cuts to black that makes it look like a film trailer - this than enables it to appeal to a mass and generalised audience - it's not appealing to videogame fans (if it did it would feature game play = parts of the videogame that are interactive) we are seeing cut scene footage (when you don't play it)
- it doesn't say where to buy it - end of the trailer it just says Playstation store which is a link to Sony's digital distribution service (which is similar to Netflix or iTunes)
- The trailer did have a clear and easily identifiable narrative - revenge story as the slave is fighting back after her parent is killed = this makes intertextual references to other games for example Djanga Unchained
- This videogame looks like it has very high production values
- title cards are targeting niche audiences - people that play videogames
- The setting is set in the Louisiana (others have been set in Rome, London, Egypt, Paris etc) which offers the audience the gratification of escapism - something new and fresh where the Assassins creed has not been set before - (formation by Beyonce was also set in Louisiana - they both have themes of slavery and black and white history)
- The game has a pretty controversial subject = gratification
- Soundtrack = high production value
- Digital video game is being advertised on the digital streaming site, YouTube = very easy to access = digital convergence
- it is a sci-fi game - the trailer didn't show this to target a more generalised audience
David Hesmondhalgh = The Media Industries - Structured through horizontal and vertical integration - minimise risk and maximise profit
Vertical = when a media industry owns another company in a different sector
Horizontal = when a media industry owns another company in the same sector
EXAMPLE FOR BOTH OF THESE = DISNEY
Vertical integration could be seen as illegal due to monopolisation. This is when it limits the ideology and the ability of other companies as one company is bigger than the rest.
Curran and Seaton theory of power = monopolisation
Videogames are extremely expensive to make because they have to hire extremely specialised staff in order for it to be made -
Assassins Creed III Liberation is too big to fail - videogame industry has recently become very close to the film industry - if it flops, it can shut down companies as they are so expensive to make - therefore the trailer needs to target audiences to make them be popular
Steve Neale - repetition and difference
Ubisoft repeat the same genre games over and over again because the audience like it and it sells. It will never change if people keep on buying them.
Cut scenes can cut into the game - disrupting the equilibrium
Ludonarrative Dissonance - where the game play elements get in the way of the story/ narrative elements - only videogames have this - however Fight Club communicates to the audience
Suspension of disbelief - where you pretend that someone or something is real - arguably when you play a videogame you never suspend your disbelief - this is because missions, health bars and more pops up on your screen
"press A to start"
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Dichotomy = two things that do not exist without each other, two things that contrast each other, same as binary oppositions. Videogames are nerdy and niche but a lot of people play them.
Super Mario Land - Gameboy 1989
- it is a platform game
- easy to play and follow
How significant are economic factors in the video game industry?
- very significant - they exist in order to sell - if they don't sell, the company loses money and ceases to function
Assassins Creed III Liberation and surrounding economic factors
Avatar = technical name for a character
HUD, Head's Up Display = life bar, map, weapons selection etc. By them telling you what to do it suggests video games are confusing. Refers to a generalised audience as you are told what to do - Sci Fi elements target a niche audience
Ubisoft:
Beyond Good & Evil, 2003
- genre = action adventure
- platforms = Xbox, Playstation 3, Xbox 360m Playstation 2, Microsoft Windows, GameCube
- Target audience =
- Critical reception = critics praised the game's animation, setting, stay and design but criticised it's combat and technical issues received generally positive reviews from critics
- Commercial success = not a commercial success. The game saw poor sales upon it's release in the 2003 Christmas and holiday season. Retailers quickly decreased the price by up to 80%
Watch Dogs, 2014
Ubisoft is a transnational company - French company
How are videogames different to other media products
- more interactive than other media products - however films can be just as interactive as video games as you are able to talk to other people about it
- It is an extremely broad industry - broadest of any industry apart from online media
- there is an assumption that video games do not have a deeper ideology beneath the message
- there are competitive scenes based around videogames - some people are better at playing video games than other people
- substantially higher RRP (recommended retail price) - can be up to £50 for a newly released game
- expectation that games are much longer than films - some can take weeks to complete
- games are developed for specific hardware (phone, computer, playstation etc)
- videogames tend to target a specific core (hardcore/ dedicated/niche) audience
Videogames are an extremely specialised industry
Assassins Creed III - Liberation
- This game is a sequel and is a spin off
- has been rereleased as the Liberation version
- It was first published by Ubisoft in 2012 for the Playstation Vita (handheld device), with a subsequent HD re-release for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360
Playstation vita less popular in UK than Japan because they had more of a preference to home consoles and on a handheld console it wasn't as interactive
The HUD provides the audience with an immersive experience
Trailer for Assassins Creed III - Liberation- playstation 3
How does this appeal a niche and wide audience
- 18
- over the top action + violence appear in trailer
- protagonist is a girl and mixed race - uncommon in video games - this game is appealing to a mixed race female audience as they are able to identify with the protagonist - this also has a unique selling point as it is different.
- The trailer had a movie feel to it - cuts to black that makes it look like a film trailer - this than enables it to appeal to a mass and generalised audience - it's not appealing to videogame fans (if it did it would feature game play = parts of the videogame that are interactive) we are seeing cut scene footage (when you don't play it)
- it doesn't say where to buy it - end of the trailer it just says Playstation store which is a link to Sony's digital distribution service (which is similar to Netflix or iTunes)
- The trailer did have a clear and easily identifiable narrative - revenge story as the slave is fighting back after her parent is killed = this makes intertextual references to other games for example Djanga Unchained
- This videogame looks like it has very high production values
- title cards are targeting niche audiences - people that play videogames
- The setting is set in the Louisiana (others have been set in Rome, London, Egypt, Paris etc) which offers the audience the gratification of escapism - something new and fresh where the Assassins creed has not been set before - (formation by Beyonce was also set in Louisiana - they both have themes of slavery and black and white history)
- The game has a pretty controversial subject = gratification
- Soundtrack = high production value
- Digital video game is being advertised on the digital streaming site, YouTube = very easy to access = digital convergence
- it is a sci-fi game - the trailer didn't show this to target a more generalised audience
David Hesmondhalgh = The Media Industries - Structured through horizontal and vertical integration - minimise risk and maximise profit
Vertical = when a media industry owns another company in a different sector
Horizontal = when a media industry owns another company in the same sector
EXAMPLE FOR BOTH OF THESE = DISNEY
Vertical integration could be seen as illegal due to monopolisation. This is when it limits the ideology and the ability of other companies as one company is bigger than the rest.
Curran and Seaton theory of power = monopolisation
Videogames are extremely expensive to make because they have to hire extremely specialised staff in order for it to be made -
Assassins Creed III Liberation is too big to fail - videogame industry has recently become very close to the film industry - if it flops, it can shut down companies as they are so expensive to make - therefore the trailer needs to target audiences to make them be popular
Steve Neale - repetition and difference
Ubisoft repeat the same genre games over and over again because the audience like it and it sells. It will never change if people keep on buying them.
Cut scenes can cut into the game - disrupting the equilibrium
Ludonarrative Dissonance - where the game play elements get in the way of the story/ narrative elements - only videogames have this - however Fight Club communicates to the audience
Suspension of disbelief - where you pretend that someone or something is real - arguably when you play a videogame you never suspend your disbelief - this is because missions, health bars and more pops up on your screen
"press A to start"
_________________________________________________________________________
Dichotomy = two things that do not exist without each other, two things that contrast each other, same as binary oppositions. Videogames are nerdy and niche but a lot of people play them.
Super Mario Land - Gameboy 1989
- it is a platform game
- easy to play and follow
How significant are economic factors in the video game industry?
- very significant - they exist in order to sell - if they don't sell, the company loses money and ceases to function
Assassins Creed III Liberation and surrounding economic factors
- released on October 30, 2012, the same day as Assassin's Creed III. In Japan it was released under the title Assassin's Creed III: Lady Liberty. It was announced on September 10, 2013, that the game would be re-released as Assassin's Creed: Liberation HD for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows via the PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade and Steam, respectively, in 2014. The game features visuals closer to III as well as updated audio, AI and facial animations. Additional missions have been added and some of the Vita-specific touch screen missions have been removed, as well as the nodes multiplayer and a minor Quick Time Event minigame.[13] The game was released on the PlayStation 3 on January 14, 2014 in North America and January 15, 2014 in Europe. The Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 versions were released worldwide on January 15, 2014
- focuses on the life of African-French Assassin Aveline de Grandpré, the series' first female protagonist
- initial reviews for Assassin's Creed III: Liberation were mixed. Metacritic, which assigns a score based on reviews from industry leaders, has the game scored at 70/100 based on 71 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
- Shaun McInnis, reviewer for GameSpot, gave the game a score of 6.5/10, and wrote that the game "squanders its most unique ideas...Liberation takes little advantage of its own narrative format" and that the plot is "largely aimless and hastily delivered".
- IGN's Greg Miller stated, "The moves and kills you'd expect are here, but the story is boiled down to be easy to jump in and out of. That takes away some of the excitement in playing through it", giving it 7.2/10. In December 2015, Game Informer ranked the game as the 10th best game in the Assassin's Creed series to date.
- Developed by Ubisoft Sofia, Ubisoft Milan and Ubisoft Montreal. However it was published by Ubisoft
- It sold 600,000 copies. This did not live up to internal expectations
- The platform it was released for wasn't very popular, which could be why this game didn't do as well as expected.
- The playstation Vita has small controls, and therefore this game wasn't a typical Vita game - it is easier to play an action game using a dedicated controller
- Handheld devices can be more immersive, however this can be contradicted through consoles with larger screens also being immersive - In the East in Japan especially people are moving around a lot which could be why handheld devices do well. Consumers in the West tend to prefer consoles, they have larger houses
- Assassin's Creed III sold 3 million copies, which is a lot more than Assassin's Creed III Liberation
- Ubisoft are a conglomeration, they produce and distribute it. They are vertically and horizontally integrated - they own Ubisoft Milan etc.
Avatar = technical name for a character
HUD, Head's Up Display = life bar, map, weapons selection etc. By them telling you what to do it suggests video games are confusing. Refers to a generalised audience as you are told what to do - Sci Fi elements target a niche audience
Ubisoft:
Beyond Good & Evil, 2003
- genre = action adventure
- platforms = Xbox, Playstation 3, Xbox 360m Playstation 2, Microsoft Windows, GameCube
- Target audience =
- Critical reception = critics praised the game's animation, setting, stay and design but criticised it's combat and technical issues received generally positive reviews from critics
- Commercial success = not a commercial success. The game saw poor sales upon it's release in the 2003 Christmas and holiday season. Retailers quickly decreased the price by up to 80%
Watch Dogs, 2014
- Genre = action adventure
- Platform = Playstation 4, Xbox one, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, Wii U, Playstation 3 models
- Target audience
- Critical reception
- commercial success = Watch Dogs was Ubisoft's most pre-ordered new intellectual property (IP), their second-highest pre-ordered title, the most pre-ordered game of the year (more than 800,000 copies), and the most pre-ordered game for the eighth generation of video game consoles. The company's executives predicted over 6.3 million copies in overall sales. The day it was released, Watch Dogs sold the most copies of any Ubisoft title in a 24-hour period. According to Ubisoft's sales figures, Watch Dogs had sold ten million copies by the fiscal quarter ending December 31, 2014
Ubisoft is a transnational company - French company
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Power and Media industries - Curran and Seaton
- The media is controlled by a small number of companies primarily driven by the profit and power
- media concentration limits variety, creativity and quality
The assassins creed series is clearly targeting 14-21 year old males:
- mise-en-scene of the weapons
- the proairetic code of the hood connotes violence
- the male protagonist
- Assassin's creed III Liberation had a female playable character which is a possible reason as to why it didn't sell as well as it is targeting a male audience
- Pirate ship setting for Black Flag
- Assassins creed captures the zeitgeist (spirit of the time - all set in the future/past but capture what was popular when released)
- colour scheme = blue and dark colours - stereotypically what boys like
Livingston and Hunt - regulation
- Due to digital convergence, regulation has been made completely ineffective because it is easy to stream things that you shouldn't watch - they are also very easy to break (newspapers shouldn't be politically biased but they are)
- Videogames are regulated by the PEGI (Pan European Game Information) - they produce information that is mainly for parents who buy the games as young teenagers don't have jobs
- PEGI replaced ELSPA
- in 1982 a game called Custer's Revenge was released where you rape a tied up native American women
- E.T was made by Atari and it wasn't very good
- in 1994 a game was released for a console in the UK called Night Trap (it didn't get an ELSPA rating, it got a BBFC 15 rating) - this game started a Moral Panic because it is real people within the game - suggested that this game could scar children for life - (the idea is you are head of security and have to catch villains)
Silent Hill
- Had no BBFC age rating
Resident Evil
- had BBFC age rating of 15
THIS SHOWS THAT THE REGULATION OF VIDEO GAMES IS INCONSISTENT AND INEFFECTIVE - the regulation is illogical and confusing - sometimes they will rate them and sometimes they won't
Red Dead Redemption 2 - 18 rating
- target audience = similar to assassins creed - problem with 14 year olds playing this game is that it has an age rating of 18 so they shouldn't be playing it.
- They dont make it less violent because they will still sell and people will still play it because parents buy it for them
Pokemon's target audience is older people - not actually aiming for a younger audience
(Videogame industry is upside down) - when the new game came out older people were saying it was too easy because it had been made for younger people
"Explain how ownership shapes media products. Refer to Assassins Creed III Liberation to support your points"
- UBISOFT - trailer for assassins creed III - liberation has a high production value
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Games played -
Skyrim -
got an age 18
Dark Soul 3 -
- independent video game but does have a high budge - Made by Japanese company called FROM
- USP = one of the hardest games
- Released 2016 for Playstation and Xbox
- meant to understand the game through environmental storytelling = supposed to look at where the character is placed and make assumptions on what to do
- "VaatiVidya" made a video behind the stories of the bosses in Dark Soul 3 - almost has 6 million views - negotiated reading - it is there if you want it - the people who have watched this video and the maker of the video are fans = Henry Jenkins - Theories of Fandoms
Goat Simulator -
- Sandbox Game
- Indie game but did do very well
- different approach to normal video games
Tekken 3 -
- Versus fighter
- released in 1997
The reason these look all different is not only because of age but because new consoles are brought out so games have to be made differently.
_________________________________________________________________________
The Silver Case: The 25th Ward
Square button on playstation = punch = shows that games are violent
- The media is controlled by a small number of companies primarily driven by the profit and power
- media concentration limits variety, creativity and quality
The assassins creed series is clearly targeting 14-21 year old males:
- mise-en-scene of the weapons
- the proairetic code of the hood connotes violence
- the male protagonist
- Assassin's creed III Liberation had a female playable character which is a possible reason as to why it didn't sell as well as it is targeting a male audience
- Pirate ship setting for Black Flag
- Assassins creed captures the zeitgeist (spirit of the time - all set in the future/past but capture what was popular when released)
- colour scheme = blue and dark colours - stereotypically what boys like
Livingston and Hunt - regulation
- Due to digital convergence, regulation has been made completely ineffective because it is easy to stream things that you shouldn't watch - they are also very easy to break (newspapers shouldn't be politically biased but they are)
- Videogames are regulated by the PEGI (Pan European Game Information) - they produce information that is mainly for parents who buy the games as young teenagers don't have jobs
- PEGI replaced ELSPA
- in 1982 a game called Custer's Revenge was released where you rape a tied up native American women
- E.T was made by Atari and it wasn't very good
- in 1994 a game was released for a console in the UK called Night Trap (it didn't get an ELSPA rating, it got a BBFC 15 rating) - this game started a Moral Panic because it is real people within the game - suggested that this game could scar children for life - (the idea is you are head of security and have to catch villains)
Silent Hill
- Had no BBFC age rating
Resident Evil
- had BBFC age rating of 15
THIS SHOWS THAT THE REGULATION OF VIDEO GAMES IS INCONSISTENT AND INEFFECTIVE - the regulation is illogical and confusing - sometimes they will rate them and sometimes they won't
Red Dead Redemption 2 - 18 rating
- target audience = similar to assassins creed - problem with 14 year olds playing this game is that it has an age rating of 18 so they shouldn't be playing it.
- They dont make it less violent because they will still sell and people will still play it because parents buy it for them
Pokemon's target audience is older people - not actually aiming for a younger audience
(Videogame industry is upside down) - when the new game came out older people were saying it was too easy because it had been made for younger people
"Explain how ownership shapes media products. Refer to Assassins Creed III Liberation to support your points"
- UBISOFT - trailer for assassins creed III - liberation has a high production value
_________________________________________________________________________
Games played -
Skyrim -
got an age 18
Dark Soul 3 -
- independent video game but does have a high budge - Made by Japanese company called FROM
- USP = one of the hardest games
- Released 2016 for Playstation and Xbox
- meant to understand the game through environmental storytelling = supposed to look at where the character is placed and make assumptions on what to do
- "VaatiVidya" made a video behind the stories of the bosses in Dark Soul 3 - almost has 6 million views - negotiated reading - it is there if you want it - the people who have watched this video and the maker of the video are fans = Henry Jenkins - Theories of Fandoms
Goat Simulator -
- Sandbox Game
- Indie game but did do very well
- different approach to normal video games
Tekken 3 -
- Versus fighter
- released in 1997
The reason these look all different is not only because of age but because new consoles are brought out so games have to be made differently.
_________________________________________________________________________
There is a new console brought out every 5 years
Albert Bandura - the effects model =
Hypodermic needle model
Media has changed the way we think or our opinions through creating moral panics - for example the Corona Virus
Another example of this was during the Second World War, when the Holocaust happened through propaganda controlled by the Nazis
Bobo doll experiment =
- Methodology explored isn't depicting violence against a human - it's a toy - doesn't look anything like a human - looks fun to kick - might as well be kicking a football
- Doesn't look aggressive or violent act - looks like she is playing with the doll
- Using children in the experiment could be seen as ethically wrong as he is trying to make them be violent - big ethical issue
- Using children during the experiment suggests that they are more influenced by the things they see - kids dont know how to fit into a society and do whatever they feel like
The people who are easily influenced are children and people with mental health issues, other than these two groups everyone else won't be violent as a result of video games
Who is the target audience for Assassins Creed III Liberation?
- teens
- male
- heterosexual
- Possible secondary audience of females due to the female protagonist
How likely is assassins creed III Liberation going to harm the audience?
- it's clearly a game - it doesn't look like a fight - subtitles show this (ludonarrative dissonance) - it's not actually real
- it's not gory and fake - it doesn't look real and doesn't look like a film
- arguably video games aren't that bad and there are plenty of films that are equally as violent
Stuart Hall - Reception Theory
Preferred reading of Assassin's Creed III Liberation = the game is fun and exciting and the violence is necessary within the game, normal and the answer
Oppositional reading of Assassin's Creed III Liberation = disagree with the ideology of violence - to win this game you have to kill a lot of people but stealthily = they are an Assassin (there isn't a lot of difference between Doom - the game that was said to be behind the columbine shooting - and this game)
Negotiated reading of Assassin's Creed III Liberation = people are morally correct and are offended by the violence of the game but enjoy the narrative behind the game.
Aberrant reading of Assassin's Creed III Liberation = find distaste in the fact that the main character is black and a women
The Silver Case: The 25th Ward
- Grasshopper Manufacturer - 2018
- Visual Novel
- extremely boring, not fun and appeals to a very niche audience
- it is deliberately torturous - there are no interactions in the game, it is just dialogue but when there is interactions, it is deliberately bad
- someone would play this because it is subversive (shows that video games don't need to be fun) - makes it stressful to play, it's not enjoyable
- narrative is about architecture and how it can influence us, gender identity, online message boards etc. not good vs evil like a lot of video games are.
- this game is not for everyone - some people are fan's
Henry Jenkins - Fandom
- fandom is NOT the same as audience - fandom is active - they dont just watch and forget, they get involved
- appropriation = fans will take something and make it their own = textual poaching - when you steal something (we dont just see it and do it, we take things out of the text)
- fans can talk about things with their friends, can buy merchandise (can buy assassins creed hoodies, lunchboxes, backpacks, figurines)
- fandom gives people new ways of enjoying a media product - gives us social interaction and friends.
"Pony's Creed Sisterhoof" - EXAMPLE OF FANDOM - should mention this in exam
- it is an example of textual poaching
- Producer's of Assassin's Creed never expected fans to do this because it isn't the preferred reading at all - taken My Little Pony which has a target audience of little girls and mix it with target audience of Assassin's creed
- high quality - not much money made off it
- They've done this because they have enjoyed it but also because it's what they want to see in an episode - they think Assassin's Creed needs horses
- in the comments there are a lot of people who thought it was real and wanted to play it
- almost has a million views
Roland Barthes - Semiotics of codes and conventions - proairetic, hermeneutic and symbolic
- the audience creates the meaning
"the death of the author" - the producer is no longer creating the product - it doesn't matter what they intended anymore because the audience will make it their own = CLAY SHRIKY THEORY "END OF AUDIENCE"
- we as the audience are no longer passive - we interact with media products in an increasingly complex variety of ways
- can post on social media about it - we are now producing because we are spreading our ideologies about a media product
- issue with the theory = it's not very specific, the producer has to actually make the product in order for the audience to become the producer - it's not true, commenting on a media product on social media doesn't make you the producer - the company who made the tv show are still the producer - people who make social media accounts on media products are advertisers, they are promoting the TV show
criticise the theory in the exam!!!!!!
Stuart Hall's reception theory is useful for Women but NOT for Adbusters.
Also criticise Bandura's theory, Shirky's theory etc.
DATA DISCS - excellent example of fandom
- they sell the soundtracks and music from video games - this is something only true fans would do - offers fans the opportunity to buy vinyl tracks from their favourite video games
- some fans don't want to listen to the music on the megadrive - they would prefer to listen to it in a better way = this is a way audiences can use the video game however they want
Death Stranding - game released in 2019 - trailer released in 2017
- offers the audience unanswered questions - they want to play it to find out the answers - there was a baby in his stomach = the producers included this in the trailer to get people talking about it so then the game would be spread around through word and mouth
- hermeneutic code = setting, low-key lighting, mise-en-scene of the slow rising products, man starts stabbing himself in the stomach (this is also proairetic code because whatever he is about to face must be worse than death)
- this trailer was released in 2017 so people were trying to make sense of the trailer for a long time before they could play it
- people analysed the trailer in order to discuss their opinions on what could happen and creates a discussion between fans
_________________________________________________________________________
- it is deliberately torturous - there are no interactions in the game, it is just dialogue but when there is interactions, it is deliberately bad
- someone would play this because it is subversive (shows that video games don't need to be fun) - makes it stressful to play, it's not enjoyable
- narrative is about architecture and how it can influence us, gender identity, online message boards etc. not good vs evil like a lot of video games are.
- this game is not for everyone - some people are fan's
Henry Jenkins - Fandom
- fandom is NOT the same as audience - fandom is active - they dont just watch and forget, they get involved
- appropriation = fans will take something and make it their own = textual poaching - when you steal something (we dont just see it and do it, we take things out of the text)
- fans can talk about things with their friends, can buy merchandise (can buy assassins creed hoodies, lunchboxes, backpacks, figurines)
- fandom gives people new ways of enjoying a media product - gives us social interaction and friends.
"Pony's Creed Sisterhoof" - EXAMPLE OF FANDOM - should mention this in exam
- it is an example of textual poaching
- Producer's of Assassin's Creed never expected fans to do this because it isn't the preferred reading at all - taken My Little Pony which has a target audience of little girls and mix it with target audience of Assassin's creed
- high quality - not much money made off it
- They've done this because they have enjoyed it but also because it's what they want to see in an episode - they think Assassin's Creed needs horses
- in the comments there are a lot of people who thought it was real and wanted to play it
- almost has a million views
Roland Barthes - Semiotics of codes and conventions - proairetic, hermeneutic and symbolic
- the audience creates the meaning
"the death of the author" - the producer is no longer creating the product - it doesn't matter what they intended anymore because the audience will make it their own = CLAY SHRIKY THEORY "END OF AUDIENCE"
- we as the audience are no longer passive - we interact with media products in an increasingly complex variety of ways
- can post on social media about it - we are now producing because we are spreading our ideologies about a media product
- issue with the theory = it's not very specific, the producer has to actually make the product in order for the audience to become the producer - it's not true, commenting on a media product on social media doesn't make you the producer - the company who made the tv show are still the producer - people who make social media accounts on media products are advertisers, they are promoting the TV show
criticise the theory in the exam!!!!!!
Stuart Hall's reception theory is useful for Women but NOT for Adbusters.
Also criticise Bandura's theory, Shirky's theory etc.
DATA DISCS - excellent example of fandom
- they sell the soundtracks and music from video games - this is something only true fans would do - offers fans the opportunity to buy vinyl tracks from their favourite video games
- some fans don't want to listen to the music on the megadrive - they would prefer to listen to it in a better way = this is a way audiences can use the video game however they want
Death Stranding - game released in 2019 - trailer released in 2017
- offers the audience unanswered questions - they want to play it to find out the answers - there was a baby in his stomach = the producers included this in the trailer to get people talking about it so then the game would be spread around through word and mouth
- hermeneutic code = setting, low-key lighting, mise-en-scene of the slow rising products, man starts stabbing himself in the stomach (this is also proairetic code because whatever he is about to face must be worse than death)
- this trailer was released in 2017 so people were trying to make sense of the trailer for a long time before they could play it
- people analysed the trailer in order to discuss their opinions on what could happen and creates a discussion between fans
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Square button on playstation = punch = shows that games are violent
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