Tuesday 13 May 2014

Dead Space 3

Names: Dead Space 3 
Release: 5th February 2013 
Publisher/Developer:
It's out on PlayStation3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows 

Print: 


The poster shows a robot person holding a weapon, this shows that their target audience is for boys 20-23 and this game is a shooter game which mostly boys play. The planet in the background is faded but the robot person isn't which makes it stand out more as there isn't too much on the poster. They also show the who published the game on the poster which helps the audience look at any other game they have published and they can see if they like any of their other games. 

Reviews: 
"The opening hour of Dead Space contained more scares than the entire eighteen-hour running time of Dead Space 3." 
This is a negative response to the game as it's saying that it isn't even scary anymore and they haven't stuck to their horror roots.

"It delivers an uncompromised, high-quality horror game."
This is a positive response to the game as it says it functions wells and it is still a horror game. 

"The game has transformed from mid-paced horror into an action shooter with an eye."
This shows that the game hasn't stuck to it's genre and has changed which means its target audience might change as it's changed from a horror to a action movie.




These covers are successful as it shows the weapons which is what the audience want to see and it shows the mask that they have which makes the audience wants to have it.

Broadcast:


This trailer is effective as it targets the audience as it shows explosives and guns which help as their target audience is for mostly boys (80/20). It also shows the players shooting the aliens and it shows the game footage from first person point of view which helps them feel like their playing the game themselves. 



This is a video review which has someone talking about the game and it also tells the audience what's new in the game and what's changed and how the gameplay is different. This effectively promotes the game as it has someone talking over while showing the gaming video. 

E-Media:
The website is very plain and simple which creates synergy with the poster as that too is plain and is white and faded, they also only have one picture which is bold and stands out so the audience see it first and makes it catch the reader's eye. 
On the website it also has trailers of the different gameplay, this shows the audience more parts of the game before they buy it which helps them decide more. 



This shows the audience the gameplay and it shows what the person thinks of it and it's not only a review it's showing the audience what's actually good or bad about the game. This helps to make the audiences mind about the game as they have the person going the mission talking about what's happening. 

They have 43,345 likes on Facebook. 
On Facebook they interact with the audience as they ask them questions about the game and ask them what they prefer and also they said they wanted to give away a prize so they asked the audience what they wanted which shows that they are involving the audience with any choices they want for prizes. 

Pre-Post Release: 
The release date was the 5th February. 
In September, a video was poster on IGN suggesting that Dead Space 3 was in production.
In March 2013 Dead Space 3's first downloadable content was released on all platforms.
A limited addition of the game was released before which has two bonus stuff in it and has to be bought in a shop. 

The target audience for the game is mostly males (80/20) who are in education or employment and are working class. They are mainstreamers as the game is about playing as a team and working together to fight the other team.
The had a launch event for the game just before it came out to which took place in Game in Swansea Morfa Retail Park. 
Dead Space 3 was the top selling game in the UK and USA in February. 

Tuesday 6 May 2014

Target Audience: Planetside 2

Planetside 2
Planetside 2 is a free to play massively multiplayer online first player shooter game. The genre the game belongs to is males a bit more as it is a shooting game which is more likely to be played by men. Planetside 2 was developed and published by Song Online Entertainment. It was released on November 20th 2012. Planetside 2 is a re-imagining of Planetside, with the same world and it takes place around the same time. 

Different player classes:

1) The Infiltrator 
2) The Light Assault 
3) The Combat Medic
4) The Engineer 
5) The Heavy Assault 
6) The MAX

It's a science fiction shooter game set 300 year ago after the discovery of Auraxis. After the Earth has nearly come to ruin following the war, the world's government made the world-wide Terran Republic. A wormhole came then went so people thought it was extraterrestrial life. 


Planetside 2 is free to play. A subscription offers players increased experience, cert points and extra resources. Some people dislike games where users can buy additional weapons and health because it makes them overpowered. 


Factions:

Terran Republic: Obsessed with the preservation of law and order through violence, and are seen by some to be an oppressive and dictatorial force, but many view the TR as the only hope for the lasting security of Auraxis. 

New Conglomerate: A loosely organised band of highly effective freedom fighters, lead by outcasts, industry titans and pirates, the New Conglomerate are prepared to achieve freedom by any means necessary.

Vanu Sovereignty: They believe that only though the mysterious power of ancient technology can humanity truly evolve its next state of existence. They are an advanced and cunning faction, employing powerful alien technology on the battlefield. 

Target Audience:
Boys (60%) Girls (40%) 
Between the ages of 20-25 
Social class - Working class
Location - Cities 
Employed 

Terran Republic Target Audience -  Resigned
Boys (75%) Girls (25%) 
Ages - 17-22
Social class- Working/lower class
Location - Cities
Employed

New Conglomerate Target Audience -  Succeeders
Boys (65%) Girls (35%)
Ages - 20-23
Unemployed

Vanu Sovereignty Target Audience - Explorers
Boys (70%) Girls (30%)
Ages - 23-25
Employed 

AIDA - Marketing a new game

Game 1
Children might want to play it as it has simple instructions. They could play it on a phone as their parents could download the app.

A: How will you create marketing materials that attract audience attention to the game?
Some marketing material that can be used to attract the audience's attention to the game is to use TV adverts (on children programmes) because children watch TV instead of going on social networking sites. Also, they could put adverts in children's magazines so they could ask their parents to download it. 
On the games they could have the advert for the game pop up so they can see it. 

I: How will you generate audience interest?
To keep in mind the audience's interest the adverts will have bright colours, happy music in the back ground and children being seen playing on it.

D: How will you stimulate audience desire to buy the game?
Say the game is only out for a certain about the time so this would make the kids want it more by saying they have the game and telling their friends.

A: How will you promote audience action?

The game could be made from the makers of another game (e.g candy crush or doodle jump) which could advertise it on the screen when people play their game and it could show a short advert about the game and how you play it.

Advertising Agencies

W+K Amsterdam
1. Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam 
2. Nike, Facebook, Coca Cola, ESPN, Honda, Microsoft etc.
3. Social media sites because they show the tweets 
4. Fifa
5. They do the adverts for Fifa (We are fifa 14)

Rokkan
1. Launched in 2000 from a living room in New Jersey
2. They are based in LA, Chicago and New York
3. Fancy Feast, Chipotle mexican grill, Sharp, Well Point, General Mills etc.
4. They leaked a cinematic trailer for it 
5. Bethesda Softworks

PEGI
1. PEGI does the age rating for games and it's based in Europe 
2. PEGI uses a combination of content declaration and game review to determine the appropriate PEGI rating for each game 
3. 16,17, and 18
4. 
5. PEGI Online is an addition to the PEGI system. Upon joint PEGI online companies must sign up to a code of conduct, thus indicating that they manage the online game features of their products in a responsible manner

ASA
1. They act on complaints and they proactively check the medai against misleading, harmful or offensive advertisement
2. Their values are to be: 
 *  Consistent and proportionate 
 *  Reliable and ethical
 *  Accessible and helpful 
 *  Fair and respectful to all 
 *  Intelligent and through, but also timely and proportionate
 * Open and accountable
 * An excellent team

Complaint: 
Company: Beko plc
Why someone complained: "The UK's bestselling home appliance brand":
Was misleading and could be subs tainted, because they understood that the claim was based on a subset of the home appliances product group and not the entire range of home appliance products.

Was upheld and the advert couldn't be shown anymore

Institutions

Developers and publishers

Rockstar Games
Background: Formed in 1998 and it's based in New York City
Owner/founder: Take-Two interactive
Most successful games: GTA series
Interesting facts about the institution:
Rockstar games develop and publish 
Rockstar games titles have shipped over 250 million copies (GTA - 157.5 million)

EA (Electronic Arts) 

Background: Formed in 1982 and is based in California
Owner/founder: Trip Hawkins
Most successful games:
Interesting facts: 
Responsible for action-adventure, role playing, racing and combat games 
EA developed their first game in 1987

Zynga

Background: Founded in 2007 and is based in California 
Owner/founder: Mark Pincus
Most successful games: Farmville 
Interesting facts:
Zynga is a provider for social game services (work on mobile phone platforms) 
Their games are used on Facebook 

Nintendo

Background: Founded in 1889 and is based in Kyoto, Japan
Owner/founder: Fusaijiro Yamauchi
Most successful games: Super Mario Bros
Interesting facts:
Nintendo translates to 'leave luck to heaven'  in Japanese 

Sony Computer Entertainment

Background: Founded in 1993 and is based in Tokyo, Japan
Owner/founder: Andrew House and Shuhei Yoshida 
Most successful games: 
Interesting facts: 
Sold over 400 million PlayStations 

Wii Party case study

Wii Party

General research:
It was released in 2013 and was developed and published by Nintendo. It has sold over 7.94 million copies worldwide.

Broadcast:
What you expect to see in a videogame advert is celebrities, clips of the game, people having fun, seeing people playing the game, healthy and attractive people etc.
The Wii party advert have a celebrity family playing the game, they also show themselves playing the game and they also have slips of the game so people can see how it looks like. The house if very open and lit up which links to Wii's colour scheme of white.
The typical setting is a open house/apartment and very lit up with windows etc. This creates synergy between the game and the room and the game is always white. 
The adverts feature celebrities with a family that includes young children. The celebrities are dressed casual and they hardly have any make up on as they have to make it look like they are playing it at their house so they wouldn't be dressed up to play at home. This make it not look like an advert. These celebrities are chosen because they are well known and they have a family with young children. The celebrities suggest they target young children with young parents.
I think the game is targeted at boys and girls equally (50/50) between the ages of 3-12. I think it's targeted at middle/working class.
I think the tv adverts are effective as they show the family playing the game and enjoying the game, it also shows clips of the game so the audience can see it.

Print:
The reviews suggest that this game isn't good if you're playing by yourself.
"With two or ideally more players, Wii Part comes alive" 
I think magazine reviews are effective in promoting Wii's target audience because they target young families so if the reviews say that the games aren't good for little children because it's too hard to understand how to play it for example then they wouldn't want to buy the game. They help people to see if they would be interested in the game by reading what other people with similar interest of theirs think of it. 

E-Media: 
Wii attracts and maintains their fans because they target people with young children so they have bright vibrant colours with cartoon people, which makes it look childish which attracts their target audience.
They people in the scrolling central image are all people with children and they are all smiling while playing the game which makes it look more fun and interesting, and they don't look bored. 
They emphasis on the words 'friends' and 'family' because it's for loads of people to play and compete with each other and also because their target audience is people with young children so they include 'family' a lot of times in the website to show the audience that their game are for families to play and enjoy.
The colour scheme are bright bold colours which suggest that i's for young children and also because there isn't a lot of writing on the website either.
Wii Party have 11,220 likes on Facebook. Wii Party comment on new things that the game has and this tells the audience if there is anything new.
They don't have a strong presence on social networking sites because their target audience are families with young children, so they won't have any social networking sites with a lot of followers/likes.

C.O.D:Ghost

C.O.D : Ghost
Print


For COD ghost they had an actual advert for the game and they information about it, and they had another advert which tells the audience that they is a teaser trailer that is coming out before the game comes out. This catches the audiences eye as they want to find out more about the trailer so they would want to see the teaser trailer so it's effective.
The advert posters are very effective in targeting the audience as the colour scheme are all dark colour which could represent them needing to camouflage in with their surroundings when playing the game other wise they're going to die. This also links to the central image which is of a man that's face is hidden which could also represent them needing to hide and blend in with their surroundings.

Reviews: 
"Campaign is not as good as black ops 2, but mulitplayer is fresh and very different" - Metracritic 
"A few things that are great, and a lot that feels worn out and ripe for change" - Eurogamer
"It's a shame the graphics aren't up to snuff" - Usgamer

These reviews show a negative review on the game and this makes the target audience not want to buy the game as a lot of people are saying that the graphics aren't good and that things haven't changed and that it's still boring. The only think that Metracritic liked was the mulitplayer which shows that they have changed it and made it new and better.


This is a magazine cover of COD ghost which is on a xbox magazine, this targets the audience as it has a man holding a gun which attracts their audience as they like guns and shooting things. Also they stick to the colour scheme of dark colours to keep to the idea of them hiding and fitting in with their surroundings to give them an advantage over the other players. 

Broadcast:

This is an advert that shows the multiplayer game mode from a first player view and it shows the new guns and kill streaks. It also should all the map deigns and how they improved it which shows the audience how it changed from black ops 2. The advert also has Eminem which is a famous rapper's song playing in the background, which shows that COD sponsors Eminem.
They have also added DLC's maps, guns and voice overs of famous people, the voice overs are yet to come out which makes the audience carry on playing until they see whats new.
Instead of players being able to unlock stuff by paying it, they now need to play games and earn squad point to unlock guns and squad members.


This shows a video clip of the game footage taken by a youtuber that videos him playing COD. This shows him using the new snipers to kill the other players. This is effect because the audience want to know how good the gun is before they unlock it and it also shows the audience a preview of the map and find out his review on the game and he has a lot of followers that play COD and wait for his review on it.


E-Media:
Call of duty's website is effective in catching the audiences eye as they have kept to the colour scheme of dark colours. It also has tells the audiences about the new maps and guns and things they can unlock which shows that they keep them up to date with anything that new and makes sure they new of anything new as they have a lot of space that is reserved for new things that are about to come out. 
This is a video that has the youtuber talking through his experience of the game and it shows the in site of the game and guns through a first player view.
This helps to promote the game as they help to give the audience a view on what they games about and what they think is bad about the game, what has changed/improved and what has stayed the same. This helps the audience get some more information of the game that they didn't get from reviews or from the advert or website so this helps them decide on on if they want to buy the game or not.

Their facebook channel has 23 million likes and their twitter channel has 1.87 million followers.

These videos are effective as they show trailers of a new map and it shows what extinction is about and the story behind it. This is important as the audience need to feel like they are kept up to date with whats new with the game and this is also important to tell the story behind extinction as the audience might be wondering why they done aliens and not kept to zombies.

COD used twitter to tell their follower about the game and to tell them about the teaser trailer which makes the audience want to keep going back to the sites and see if there's anything else that's been leaked or if any information has been given out. This also made people spread the news of the new game as people were tweeting it and using the hastags which made the news spread by using word of mouth.

Eminem wrote a song that his well known that is associated with the game and they had people doing a voice over to the game. COD let people pre-order versions of the game to give them an idea of what's going to be included in the game and what's new.