Audience computer games

Qs
B2. How effectively is your selected industry
regulated? Refer to your chosen texts in your
answer. [30]
B4. Most media texts target a range of different
audiences. How true is this for your chosen
texts? [30]
B1. Explore the different ways in which
audiences and/or users respond to your chosen
texts.
B3. Explore the different ways your three main
texts attract their audiences. [30]

Questions to consider:
Who is the target audience for this game? Has it changed
from the previous games in the franchise?
Is it gender biased?
Does it provide a positive female/ male role model?
Does the user identify with the main characters?
Does it sexualise (Lara) in order to appeal to men?
What is the preferred reading?
How much of the games success is due to its
groundbreaking 3D graphics, audio, challenging strategy and
game-play?
How has the marketing of the game targeted its audience?
Gender split:80/20 male/female
Age certificate:18

Obvious Appeal For all

Is the interactive opportunities
Immerse themselves in a virtual world of
the game (link to graphics updates).
Tomb Raider is presented in third-person
perspective, and the player takes control
of the main protagonist, Lara Croft.
Free roaming
READ Game play

 Grand Theft Auto Vis anaction-adventure gameplayed from either

afirst-person orthird-personview.
the online multiplayer modeGrand Theft Auto Onlinewas conceived
as a separate experience to be played in a continually evolving world.
Up to 30 players freely roam across a re-creation of the single-player
world and enter lobbies to complete jobs (story-driven competitive
and cooperative modes). The Content Creator toolset lets players
create their own parameters for custom jobs, like racetracks
anddeathmatchweaponspawn points.Players may band
together in organised player teams called crews to complete jobs
together.Rockstar Games Social Clubextends crews formed inMax
Payne 3's multiplayer mode to that ofGrand Theft Auto Online.
Players can create their own crews and join up to five total. Crews win
multiplayer matches to earnexperience pointsand climbonline
leaderboards. Richard Dyer Community

The Last of Us
is played from athird-personperspective; players
use firearms,improvised weaponsand stealth to
defend against hostile humans andzombie-like
creatures infected by a mutated strain of
theCordycepsfungus. "Listen mode" lets players
locate enemies through a heightened sense of
hearing and spatial awareness. Players can also
customize weapons and items using items
scavenged from the environment.
In the game'sonline multiplayer, up to eight
players engage in co-operative and competitive
gameplay in recreations of single-player settings.

Immersive worlds
In The Last Of Us, it is the surrogate father/daughter bond
which evolves between Ellie and her protector, Joel, which
makes the game memorable.Example?
Joel is almost exclusively with Ellie. The result of the
constant, intimate interaction between these two characters
is something most games rarely achievecharacters the
player actually cares about. The environment provided by
the post-apocalyptic world allows for powerful and
emotional situations becausedeath lies around nearly every
turn. Padded between these intense moments are subtle
interactions between Joel and Ellie as they make
small conversation about things you encounter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S96iEZUAC2o

The Last Of Us (One of the most emotional cut-scene)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
6Csw8G6yruE
Joel: You have no idea what loss is.
Ellie: ...... You're joking, right?

Immersive worlds
GTA 5 Players complete missionslinear
scenarios with set objectivesto progress
through the story.[12]Outside of missions,
players canfreely roamtheopen world.
Composed of the San Andreas open countryside
area and the fictional city of Los Santos, the
world ofGrand Theft Auto Vis much larger in
area than earlier entries in the series. The world
may be fully explored from the beginning of the
game without restrictions, although story
progress unlocks more gameplay content.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=eQ5Ko-WMhEg
E3 2012 - Tomb Raider Interview with Karl Stewart
Global Brand Director for Tomb Raider talks to
Machinima about rebooting the classic Tomb Raider
series for today and taking the series into the
territory of M-rating games for the first time ever.
How does Tomb Raider (2013)fit theconventions
ofthe franchise?
How does it represent a reboot?What has changed?
Are there any significant advances in game-play,
technology, or the story?
How might it appeal tonew and existing fans?

Genre theory

Gamers dont want to play as female characters,

right?

At least, thats the popular marketing

theory. Over the course of this
generation the console market has
been awash with muscle-bound
blokes shooting things. There are three main
playableCharactersi
nGrand Theft Auto V;
Michael, Franklin Trevor
ALL MEN!

TOUGH GUISE
(Earp & Katz, 1999)

Relationship between
males & violence in the
media
THE MEDIA HELP TO CONSTRUCT
VIOLENT MASCULINITY AS A CULTURAL
NORM (EARP AND KATZ, 1999)

The study into male

representations in the media
reveal:
A WIDESPREAD & DISTURBING EQUATION OF
MASCULINITY WITH PATHOLOGICAL CONTROL & VIOLENCE
Media is responsible for a
Steady stream of images which define manhood as
connected with dominance, violence & control.

Common Masculine
Representations In The
Media:
The Action Hero
Strong, often angry, aggressive in the
extreme & engages in violent behaviour

Official Xbox Magazine asked Chris

Parma
Apparently, games that star women
just dont sell.
Official Xbox Magazine asked Chris
Parma, the art director at Epic
Games, if a lady could ever be the
star in its Gears of War series. He
said: If you look at what sells,
its tough to justify that.

 Naughty Dog, the developer of The

Last of Us, told VG247 had been
asked to push Ellie the games costar to the back of the box art.

Lara Appeal to women

Uses and gratifications (personal identity) For the
female game player, these complex andvisceral
experiences may provide further opportunities for
the gratification of fantasies of omnipotence and
may allow for empathic experience of the pleasures
of exploration and adventure which are absent in
the real world (Richard Dyer)
But men But in many ways Lara was designed by
men for men. Much like Bayonetta or the stars of
Dead or Alive, she was a character created partially
totitillate a male audience. uses and grats sexual
arousal (entertainment)

But Tomb Raider reboot, developer Crystal Dynamics

has set out to create a believable, more relatable Lara.

I dont feel I consciously opted for a female

character,
it is just the story I wanted to tell that drove the
decision. Whether the main protagonist is a male, a
female,a plastic toy or a blue alien, it doesnt matter.
The only thing that matters is to get the audience
emotionally involved, and there is absolutely
no restriction regarding characters in order to do
that. David Cage,Quantic Dream

 The reboot isnt really about

appealing to a specific gender,
and its not really about being
female its about an origins
story, its about being human,
and the fight to survive: we hope
to have a broad appeal as a
result.

Tomb Raider [NA] The Final Hours #1 - An Icon Reborn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=
310&v=lXD6VRSrUxQ
Why the change?
How does the new style of real
Lara fit the reboot?

Appeal to emotions
Women are more demanding with
entertainment than most men: men
can enjoy any game as long as there
is a gun and someone to shoot at,
Cage concludes.
Women want a story, characters,
something that can resonate with
them. They easily find that in films
and TV, more rarely in video games.

 The box art for the game

was revealed in October
2012. "As [Lara]
contemplates the long
journey ahead, she knows
she will be forced to
overcome her darkest fears
in an epic fight to survive."

Analyse the box - What

does it tell us about the
game? How does it
target an audience?

PlayStation Informer (Mag)

https://playstationinformer.wordpre
ss.com/2010/12/07/tomb-raider-reboo
t-gameinfomer-scans/
What does the article tell its
reader?
Try to pick out items of interest
for new and existing audiences
of the game.
See handout

Use Trailer Tomb Raider 2013 - The Making of

Turning Point (EN/JP) | OFFICIAL | HD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t
=339&v=HdmNeFEzNdQ

Appeal Genre
Expectations of genre but also
difference = pleasure.
Genre theory blog!

Appeal games websites

 Websites (official) offer other

interactive opportunities to engage
with the world of the game as well as
extended info about characters and
gameplay
Give examples

 Direct address!

AUDIENCE POSITIONING
The audience is positions to respond with
Lara Croft as the audience are always
following her from behind and looking at
the action over her shoulder. The audience
are also positioned to relate to Lara Croft as
her well being determines whether or not you
continue in the game, as if Lara dies you have
to restart from the last checkpoint. (SAME OF
ALL 3)
What is the preferred reading?

Audience response
Literal response
Or Stuart hall response theory
Preferred constructed in order to elicit a
particular mode of game play from the player.
The gamer will therefore accept the preferred
reading encoded by the games producers.
Oppositional Link to controversial content of
games, this is often from those who have not
actually played the game but have been
influenced by opinion leaders (Alan tichmarch)

Parents response
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/g
ame-reviews/grand-theft-auto-v/use
r-reviews/adult
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/ga
me-reviews/the-last-of-us/user-revi
ews/adult
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/g
ame-reviews/tomb-raider/user-revie
ws/adult
SEE THE SAME SITE FOR KIDS
RESPONSE

Tomb raider
Audience response to increasingly gratuitous artwork and commercialisation
was negative and Lara Croft has undergone many changes due to fan
pressure. They were unhappy with the less clothing and bigger breasts
character
Fan sites / Fan fiction / Chat Rooms / Web Forums Need to find these
Uses and Gratifications How can different audiences have different
experiences of the same game?
Preferred Reading -The new Lara Croft game has rebooted the almost twodecade-long series, with its realistic graphics and gameplay.
Negotiated Reading -The audience can see that there has been a huge jump
in computer graphics which is good for the game. However, the new Tomb
Raider is departing from the original Tomb Raider format that people enjoyed.
OppositionalReading -The graphics are uncharacteristic and not like previous
Tomb Raiders and bringing out this game was just a reworking as an attempt
to revivethefalling sales
Usesand Gratifications -Education and entertainment

The last of us
Preferred Reading -
Negotiated Reading -
OppositionalReading -

GTA
Preferred Reading -
Negotiated Reading -
OppositionalReading -

The last of Us
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