HA3 Task 3 – Genre Deconstruction

Action/Adventure Overall


1) Content (what do they look like and how are they styled- words, images, colours, fonts?) Can be colorful, bloody or dark. also some of the content that game designer's use, would mostly be eye catching to customers which then would be similar to how  movie's are promoted. Here is an example of what content game designers put into their games to promote or sell them..

http://www.hdwallpapers.in/walls/assassins_creed_unity_poster-wide.jpg
As you can see, there are many similarities that this poster has compared to that of a movie poster. It has the main character at the front, friends or allies beside him and a blurred background that would occasionally revival the location of where the game or movie is set.

2) Construction (how are the games built, what is the story and interaction?)- the story can be full of adventure or open world missions, that are included in the popular Action/Adventure video game Grand Theft Auto V. They could also be full of fighting with minor adventure such as the game Uncharted. Below is an example that shows how unique, detailed and exquisite the world is, on the video game GTA V, and how the interaction of the action/adventure genre has been built in the video game Uncharted..


http://assets.vg247.com/current//2013/08/GTA-5-082313-2.jpg

The image above is a good example of how the construction of a video game can turn out.

Here is a good example that shows some of the action that can be involved in the action/adventure genre of a video game.



3) Codes and conventions (what do you expect to happen in such games and what symbols are 
used?) - Different countries, secret locations, bad guys, fighting, weapons etc. some of these codes and conventions would likely be involved in action/adventure video games. Furthermore, during gameplay game designers could occasionally put things such as health packs and collectibles into the world, so that the character can find these in order to regain health or get rewards.


4) Modes of address (how do the games talk to you?) - they could be from a narrator, or by the protagonist. furthermore  giving you tutorials and clues on playing the game. modes such as 3rd person or 1st person can also be modes of address as 1st person is looking from the characters perspective and 3rd person being that you control the character while visibly looking at his or hers or its model.


5) Target Audience (who are the games aimed at?)- mainly 15 or above, as the most popular of  action/adventure genre video games are too mature for children.



6) Constraints (what is stopping the developers creating exactly what they want?)- too mature, often too violent for a younger audience etc.

HA3 Task 2 – Identifying Target Audience

Target Audience for Action/Adventure

The target audience for action adventure is mainly 15+ because some of the action that is used in these genres are too mature for a younger audience which is the main reason that action/adventure is often PEGI 15 or 18.

for instance the 3 games I have chosen for my genre are all 15 or over.
                                                                               
http://moodle.salfordcc.ac.uk/pluginfile.php?file=%2F34315%2Fmod_resource%2Fcontent%2F0%2FGaming%20Britain%20%28web%20version%29.pdf



The image on the left called Digital Britain: a nation divided by digital play, shows us the overall percentage of what people like to play in the UK. for instance 23% of people who play games, play the action/adventure genre. furthermore, 27.6 million adults (16-65) like to play video games, whereas only 5 million kids (8-15) play video games. Meaning that action/adventure would most likely need to be mature as more adults play video games than kids.





Here are the games that I've chosen and its PEGI rating, as an example of action/adventure games mostly being rated 15 or over








http://img.365games.co.uk/pc_and_video_games/games/ps4/assassins_creed_unity_4_raw.jpg











http://media.ign.com/games/image/object/020/020587/GTA-V_EU_PEGI_x360UK_boxart_160w.jpg













http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51GWR3a%2BebL.jpg








As you can see, all of the games above that I have chosen are all PEGI 16 and 18, and that all three are of action/adventure genre. This also shows people that even the most popular of action/adventure games are too mature for kids.

here is the NRS social grade..


http://i41.tinypic.com/dgmh4j.png

In terms of purchasing a game, the NRS social grade tells us which classes of social status would likely often buy games. For instance classes from B to D would probably often buy games as they are not too dear nor to cheap.


http://www.slideshare.net/leannacatherina/audience-profiling-powerpoint

As you can see, the Cross Cultural Consumer Charactersation shows us who would likely play video games and in my opinion I believe that Mainstreamers, Aspirers, Succeeders and Explorers would play video games whereas Resigned, Strugglers and Reformers wouldn't play them.

HA3 Task 1- Game Genre and Game Profiles

Action/Adventure

The reason I have chosen action/adventure is because some of my favorite games are this type of genre and the meaning of action/adventure is where the element of adventure, full of exploration and is held in geographic locations, is combined with the action element, full of physical challenges. By combining these two elements we get the genre 'action/adventure'.

1. Assassins Creed Unity












http://cdn3.dualshockers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/ACUnityArno-1.jpg?eaa32f


Assassins creed is one of the popular action/adventure franchises, where the player is made to control an assassin during a certain time in history. And then do missions that involve violence, which is classed as 'action' in certain city's. for example in assassins creed unity, the game is set in Paris, where you control an assassin called Arno.

Here is some game play below that shows of the action/adventure concept of the game.

2. Grand Theft Auto V

http://geekleakdotnet.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/gta-5.jpg

GTA V is another popular action/adventure game as it made a record holding profit of $800 million from sales in the first day. the game is set in a fictional Los Angeles city called Los Santos. it is about three characters who want to achieve big by pulling heists around the San Andreas county.


Here is a trailer below that shows off GTA V on next gen platforms.

3. Batman Arkham City 

http://media1.gameinformer.com/imagefeed/screenshots/BatmanArkhamCity/1BatmanArkhamCity_Hero_07_picnik.jpg

Batman Arkham City is inspired by the Batman comics and is a action/adventure game on Xbox 360 and play station 3. it came out in 2011 and involves the player taking control of the Batman, as he try's to learn the truth as to why Arkham City was built. Throughout the game you will encounter familiar faces as you take one step closer to finding out the truth about Arkham City.

here is a trailer below that shows of the action/adventure that is involved in the game.

HA2 Task 1 – Construction Analysis

The Last Of Us 

http://www.notactualgamefootage.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/the-last-of-us-wallpaper.jpg

1. Genre (what type or category of games are they?)- Action/Adventure, Horror/Survival.
2. Content (what do they look like and how are they styled- words, images, colours, fonts?) - Realistic, unnatural, dark and scary, emotional music.
3. Construction (how are the games built, what is the story and interaction?)- 3rd person.
4. Codes and conventions (what do you expect to happen in such games and what symbols are used?) - horror, zombies, weapons, objectives, story.
5. Modes of address (how do the games talk to you?) - puppet master, informal, intimate.
6. Target Audience (who are the games aimed at?)- 16-35, M+F.
7. Constraints (what is stopping the developers creating exactly what they want?)- PEGI 18, violence, blood.

The video to the left shows off some of the story and gameplay that people can expect to see in the game.

Here is another clip that shows more of the gameplay that is involved in the game. this was shown at a E3 Event in 2012, some time after the game was first announced.













Just Dance 

http://86bb71d19d3bcb79effc-d9e6924a0395cb1b5b9f03b7640d26eb.r91.cf1.rackcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/just-dance-2014-songs-list.jpg

1. Genre (what type or category of games are they?)- Simulator, rhythm game.
2. Content (what do they look like and how are they styled- words, images, colors, fonts?)- Colorful, bright, vivid.
3. Construction (how are the games built, what is the story and interaction?)- On demand, interaction
4. Codes and conventions (what do you expect to happen in such games and what symbols are used?)- XP, clear physical instruction.
5. Modes of address (how do the games talk to you?)- informal, have to dance
6. Target Audience (who are the games aimed at?)- all ages, M+F.
7. Constraints (what is stopping the developers creating exactly what they want?)- PEGI 3l.

The video on the left shows off what the game is about and what people can expect to see.

















Here is another clip that shows some of the gameplay footage, and what the game involves.






Overall the two games are different in many ways, for instance one is about survival and horror and is also more mature, whereas the other is kid-friendly and is more of a family game for everyone to enjoy.

HA1-Task 2-Applying Research Techniques

Quantitative Research Results

Q1: What is your sex?

Q2: What is your age?

Q3: What category of gamer are you?

Q4: Are you in:

Q5: Where do you live?

Q6: Have you played GTA V?

Q7: Which console did you play it on?

Q8: GTA is a great game.

The research above shows the overall percentage in a pie chart of each answer that people have given me for my tick sheet. Also the results I got from the pie charts were not surprising as I mostly asked people that I knew and had an idea of what they would likely put. Furthermore for the layout I placed each question from the questionnaire and put the results in a pie graph underneath the answer.

The image above shows how I collected my information and converted it into pie charts.






Qualitative Research Results

Do you like the look/style of the game?
Yes- because it is 3rd person and a RPG game
Yes- the vast range of colors give a realistic look to the game
Yes- because it is realistic
Yes- large amounts of detail
Yes- the environment is largely detailed

What aspects of the gameplay do you enjoy most?
Killing pedestrians
The large open world and its free roam
racing
The story
Customizing cars

Which is your favorite protagonist, Trevor, Franklin or Michael and why?
Trevor- because he is mental
Trevor- because he is funny
Michael because he is the richest
Trevor because he has anger issues
Franklin because he’s the best out of the 3 at driving

What would you do to improve the game?
Better story
More accessible buildings
Bigger story mode
Driving mechanics
More things to do


When I gave my questionnaire sheets to different people, I got feedback that described what features they liked best about GTA 5 and what they could do to improve it. Some of the feedback I got, I have displayed above.
Some of the things I needed when giving out questionnaire sheets was to get an equal amount of males and females, but unfortunately I was unable to get enough females to give feedback. Also the overall feedback I got back, mentioned that everyone I gave the questionnaire to liked GTA 5. This wasn't surprising considering pretty much everyone I asked was a boy and liked to play video games. Furthermore it was not surprising that everyone I asked to do my questionnaire, lived in the north west of the UK considering I asked people in the region.

HA1 Task 1-Research Techniques

Quantitative 

Quantitative research is including surveys and customer questionnaires. it also helps small firms to improve their products such as games, and services by enabling them to make informed decisions. it also provides future interest for games that are currently in development. quantitative research would be useful within the gaming industry because it helps record stats for designers. For example it would record the total amount of profit from every game yearly.

http://www.bl.uk/bipc/resmark/qualquantresearch/qualquantresearch.html

 here is an example of quantitative research within the global games market.

http://www.newzoo.com/wp-content/uploads/Newzoo_Global_Games_Market_PerRegion_2013E_tn.png

Qualitative

Unlike quantitative research which relies on numbers and data, qualitative research is more focused on how people feel, what the think and why they make certain choices.

http://www.bl.uk/bipc/resmark/qualquantresearch/qualquantresearch.html

http://phdtalk.totallyvidya.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/MakingSenseQualR.png

For example, if you are thinking of changing your branding you would carry out qualitative research to see what emotional reactions people have to the new identity and what they associate with. Qualitative research also is largely led with discussion around certain concepts or ideas with open questioning. attendees are encouraged to explain or describe their reasons for having certain responses which can reveal underlying motivations, associations and behavioral triggers.
 http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=258wj5u&s=5#.VClTAfldXTo

Some examples of qualitative research in gaming is when people are asked what is their opinion of a certain game they maybe have and some people may use that information to decide whether to buy a game or not. Sometimes people may disagree with other people when asking for their opinion of the game.


Audience Profiling

Audience profiling is when you find out the profile of your audience, so that you can put your message across to the right people in the most effective way to produce the best result. psychographics helps inform your marketing strategy and is all part of the developing buyer personas. geodemographics is the description of people according to where they live, derived from the study of spatial information.

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080929075444AAPJwsK

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK_lZKV9eH7_DdIhW6BbX_VH-ryITUkIkfaFhHMZBwUIC5wmZurZZHxS1MzMOB3ZZ37tKVN6fOHT2JVsO_EKvnN_jp8pbFxNcryTNJ0u0D1CZ2F93QxRePJh0wrnjfCkKrlBfx97WsmUY/s1600/Picture3.jpg

NRS social grade
The image above shows the NRS social grade and is split into 6 groups and lettered A-E, each individual group is labeled in classes, for instance A is labeled 'upper middle class'. It also mentions the NET income of CIE and shows the total amount of income that each of the groups have achieved. Furthermore it gives examples of each class by mentioning their likely profession.



 phychographics
This is a way of describing an audience by there behavior and overall personality traits, this is all part of the developing buyer personas. it also helps inform your marketing strategy, and paints a picture of who your overall buyers are and what they are likely to do.

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/what-are-psychographics-faqs-ht

The image below helps give a better example of what phychographics are about..
 http://coleshillmediasite.weebly.com/uploads/4/6/0/1/4601434/4610787.jpg?840



geodemographics

Geodemographics provide a means to classify people by each neighborhood and any other area according to peoples characteristics. neighborhoods can then be categorized from peoples similar characteristics of the population.

http://www.thewendovergroup.co.uk/cms/data/geodems/74-geodems

Here is an image that is a good example of a geodemographic map..

http://www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/casa/events/images/gg1.png

Audience profiling can be used within the gaming industry because it would give designers and company's certain ideas from what to expect from the audience. also it would help designers choose a genre that fans would likely enjoy, for instance using phychographics would judge whether fans would like violent games due to their behavior or lenient games.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiovPdbOPT7PJ4DIYnTH3luUbRJn53OszhZYjWBhkUvLyXj7XrwYN8kf7_M2j63PArje0K3Dc_Ff2GkyGIfPJ3W0hMtlQxRUiZ6u3m7W3hSGf-aQ6mC4c4RF2bwo43R9EOBOg-gLmQfqAv-/s400/Game+classifications.bmp