1. Promotion of Video Games 2014 Examination Topic

2. Facts The examination will be held on Wednesday June 11th 2014 The pre-release material will be issued on Monday May 12th 2014 The examination is worth 40% of your final grade It lasts 1.5 hours There are 4 tasks / questions to complete Each task is worth 15 marks 3. Key Concepts - LIAR Language the words you need to use Institutions the companies and organisations that are relevant Audience the consumers of video games and the promotion of them Representation how people, places and events are portrayed in the promotion of video games 4. Language - genre What would you call the genre of each of these video games? 5. Language - genre What would you call the genre of each of these video games? 6. Language - genre What would you call the genre of each of these video games? 7. Language - genre What would you call the genre of each of these video games? 8. Language - genre What would you call the genre of each of these video games? 9. Language - genre What would you call the genre of each of these video games? 10. Language - genre What would you call the genre of each of these video games? 11. Language - genre What would you call the genre of each of these video games? 12. Language - genre What would you call the genre of each of these video games? 13. Language - genre What would you call the genre of each of these video games? 14. Language - genre What would you call the genre of each of these video games? 15. Simple genres Puzzle Rhythm Sports Music Shoot em up / shooter Role Playing Game (RPG) Adventure Hack n slash Fitness Strategy Indie Platformer Beat em up 16. Genre prefixes and suffixes Prefixes: First-person Third-person Indie Action Stealth Puzzle Retro Suffixes: shooter beat em up action platformer adventure puzzle RPG 17. Genre conventions How do we recognise different genres? 18. Franchises A franchise is when a single game becomes a series or elements of it are licensed for use in other products 19. Franchise activity Choose a video game franchise and come up with one product idea that could be sold Mind map the product, target audience and USP (unique selling point) of each product 20. Brand Design, Images, Shape, Colour. DISC 21. Brand select one game and mind map how it constructs its brand using DISC 22. Brand mind map how the two games create a brand using DISC 23. Narrative What narrative or story can you see being told in the following promotional texts? 24. Text 1: Amnesia Trailer (2010) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1nY_5- UrY4 25. Text 2: Professor Layton and the Unwound Future trailer (2010) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAB6QbsY mrU 26. Text 3: Metal Gear Solid V Trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRSZy12E OSs 27. Forms and conventions Using a venn diagram, compare the print and video adverts What are the conventions of each media form? 28. Forms and conventions writing task Compare the print advert and video trailer for either Just Dance 2014 or Dark Souls 2 How are the conventions different between the media forms? How does each text try to attract its target audience? 29. Institutions 30. Gamedevmap.com This site shows you the location of game developers around the world Developers are people who design and create games 31. First and third party First party developers: Sony Nintendo Microsoft Third party developers: Infinity Ward (CoD series) Bethesda (Elder Scrolls, Fallout series) FROM Software (Dark Souls 1 & 2) Mojang (Minecraft) 32. Ownership and subsidiaries 33. Institutions task Produce a diagram tracking the institutions involved in the following games: Battlefield 3 Just Dance 2014 Skyrim Candy Crush Saga Farmville FIFA 14 34. Advertising campaigns Mind map the promotional campaigns for Call of Duty: Ghosts and Candy Crush Saga Show how each game campaign uses a variety of media forms and platforms How are the campaigns similar and/or different to each other? Consider: Pre-order bonuses Tie-ins with other media, e.g. music Video Print Websites Blogs Social media Merchandise 35. Some facts and figures Call of Duty: Black Ops II Approximate cost of development and marketing: 250m Approximate revenue: 660m Profit (before tax): 410m (you could buy NUFC and SAFC for this) 36. Some facts and figures Minecraft Approximate cost of development and marketing: 10,000 Note: initially Minecraft had no marketing budget at all, it spread through word of mouth or Two-step flow theory Approximate revenue: 30m Profit (before tax): 29.99m 37. Ratings Bodies PEGI BBFC 38. Regulatory bodies The Advertising Standards Authority apply the codes of practice to adverts The Committees of Advertising Practice write the codes of practice 39. Banned Wii U advert http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMVfIe536 J0#t=32 Why do you think this advert was banned? 40. The reason? 3.1 Advertisements must not materially mislead or be likely to do so. 3.2 Advertisements must not mislead consumers by omitting material information. They must not mislead by hiding material information or presenting it in an unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely manner. 3.10 Advertisements must state significant limitations and qualifications. Qualifications may clarify but must not contradict the claims that they qualify. 41. Banned (pre-watershed) CoD: MW3 advert 42. The reason? 32.18 Violent or sexually explicit material must not be advertised in or adjacent to programmes targeted particularly at audiences below the age of 18. 43. Banned Soul Calibur V advert 44. The reason? 4.1 Marketing communications must not contain anything that is likely to cause serious or widespread offence. Particular care must be taken to avoid causing offence on the grounds of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability or age. Compliance will be judged on the context, medium, audience, product and prevailing standards. 45. Question grid Is? Did? Can? Would / could? Will? Might? What Where When Which Who Why How 46. The reason? This was seen by the ASA as possibly condoning and glorifying real violence. 47. Question grid Is? Did? Can? Would / could? Will? Might? What Where When Which Who Why How 48. The reason? The ASA said the slogan, combined with images of a car that seemed to have crashed at high speed and a burning tyre, could be seen to condone dangerous driving and anti- social behaviour. 49. Question grid Is? Did? Can? Would / could? Will? Might? What Where When Which Who Why How 50. The reason? The Advertising Standards Authority has banned a UK TV advert for Midways John Woo Presents Stranglehold which it considered was likely to be seen as encouraging and condoning violence. 51. Audience 52. Casual or serious? 53. Serious 54. Casual 55. Starter are these games / franchises casual or serious? Call of Duty Super Mario Legend of Zelda Candy Crush Saga Professor Layton FIFA The Sims Battlefield Metal Gear Solid Dark Souls The Elder Scrolls Angry Birds Temple Run Minecraft Worms Assassins Creed Just Dance Singstar 56. Casual or serious? Create a Facebook profile for a casual or serious gamer Compare and contrast the ways in which promotion and advertising is used to appeal to them 57. Gamer? 58. Video game audience stats Source: www.iabuk.net Who plays games? 82% of 8-65 year olds Over 27.6 million adults Over 5 million 8-15 year olds 59. When do people play? 60. What do they play on? 61. Gaming is social 72% of adult players play socially, either in person or online 96% of children play socially 62. Writing task What three conclusions can you draw from the statistics you have been given? e.g. Whether the audience plays video games is not dependent on their gender as 49% of gamers are female, and 51% male. 63. Games are about social interaction 72% of players have played with others 81% have played with others in person 54% of social network players have played with others over a network 41% of browser games are played with strangers 64. Bioshock Infinite moroboshi The cover is generic, boring, has nothing to do with the game, and is artistically bankrupt. Its the very definition of design by committee. Levine should never have allowed something this ugly to see the light of day. Posted on Dec 8, 2012 | 6:43 PM 65. Ken Levines response 66. Representation 67. Gender How is gender represented in video games? 68. Mass Effect 69. Super Mario 70. Soul Calibur 71. Ninja Gaiden 72. Candy Crush Saga 73. The Legend of Zelda 74. Metal Gear Solid V 75. The Last of Us 76. Assassins Creed / Tomb Raider / Uncharted 77. The gaming experience How is the experience of playing being represented here? 78. Choose two contrasting games Thinking about: Maslows Hierarchy of Needs The Uses and Gratifications Theory Explain what kind of experiences are being promised to the audience Uses and Gratifications: To be informed, to be entertained, to escape, to socially interact, to relate to characters 79. Choose two contrasting games Thinking about: Maslows Hierarchy of Needs The Uses and Gratifications Theory Explain what kind of experiences are being promised to the audience Uses and Gratifications: To be informed, to be entertained, to escape, to socially interact, to relate to characters 80. Question grid Is? Did? Can? Would / could? Will? Might? What Where When Which Who Why How 81. Question grid Is? Did? Can? Would / could? Will? Might? What Where When Which Who Why How 82. Question grid Is? Did? Can? Would / could? Will? Might? What Where When Which Who Why How 83. Question grid Is? Did? Can? Would / could? Will? Might? What Where When Which Who Why How 84. Question grid Is? Did? Can? Would / could? Will? Might? What Where When Which Who Why How 85. Question grid Is? Did? Can? Would / could? Will? Might? What Where When Which Who Why How 86. Question grid Is? Did? Can? Would / could? Will? Might? What Where When Which Who Why How 87. Question grid Is? Did? Can? Would / could? Will? Might? What Where When Which Who Why How 88. Failed promotional campaigns Why did they fail? 89. Context John Romero Co-creator of the hugely successful Doom and Quake series of games. Doom was ranked in the top 20 games ever by Edge magazine 90. Daikatana In 2000, John was about to release a new game called Daikatana. The marketing department of Eidos came up with the following magazine advertisement 91. Question grid Is? Did? Can? Would / could? Will? Might? What Where When Which Who Why How 92. PSP White In 2006 Sony were about to launch a white version of their PSP console 93. Question grid Is? Did? Can? Would / could? Will? Might? What Where When Which Who Why How 94. All I Want for Christmas is a PSP Also in 2006, Sony launched a fake viral video that was represented as being created by a fan 95. Question grid Is? Did? Can? Would / could? Will? Might? What Where When Which Who Why How 96. Sony later issued this apology Busted. Nailed. Snagged. As many of you have figured out (maybe our speech was a little too funky fresh???), Peter isnt a real hip-hop maven and this site was actually developed by Sony. Guess we were trying to be just a little too clever. 97. Question grid Is? Did? Can? Would / could? Will? Might? What Where When Which Who Why How In 2002 Akklaim offered parents $10,000 dollars to name their new-born child Turok. 98. Two years later Akklaim went bankrupt in 2004 99. Dantes Inferno In 2009 EA staged a protest against their new game Dantes Inferno outside their headquarters 100. Question grid Is? Did? Can? Would / could? Will? Might? What Where When Which Who Why How 101. The same year Genuine Christian groups actually protested against the protest; they said that it portrayed Christians in a negative light 102. Resident Evil 6 In 2012 Capcom opened a human meat shop in London 103. Question grid Is? Did? Can? Would / could? Will? Might? What Where When Which Who Why How