Video Games

 The video games industry

Cover work for lessons 26/1/22 & 27/1/22

In what ways do videogames represent a specialised industry? How do they differ from other media?

-Interactivity ( Almost completely always interactive, Offers audiences many uses, and gratifications and pleasures)

- Huge expenditure of resources ( huge amounts of  money going into setups, significant amounts of talent, specific roles involving specialities)

- Much higher RRP (Recommended retail price, video games tend to be expensive products that often vary (AROUND £40/50))

•  Significantly longer length (Can spend long hours on the game, and spend lots of time and effort into the game, which then justifies the higher RRP)

- An assumption of a dedicated 'core' audience (Assumption that people who plays videogames are nerdy, core specific audience )

- Specific hardware or multiplatform ( Can only play certain films on certain devices, some games are multiplatform, able to play on a range of different devices.)

Video game production: How are video games typically produced and marketed by major studios?

Pre production - Every that happens before the video game is made 

Concept art:

Illustrations of what the game will end up looking like.

In order to inspire the designs

Design:

Gave development book is made containing notes

Games design document will include sketch's, notes , complete descriptions of locations and characters, complete rundown of the plot/narrative from start to finish. So that everyone working on the game can work from the same rulebook.

Production 

Coding:

Game consists of coding, games are made after spending long hours behind a computer

Testing:

Testers are employed to make sure there are no bugs, and that the game works properly 

Alpha and beta builds

The alpha cut is the rough cut of the video game containing bugs

The beta build is the one were all the bugs have been corrected

Post Production

Patching and maintenance:

Thanks to digitally convergent technology it is possible to patch video games after they are released. They will make changes and updated on different devices to make the game better.  

Marketing and promotion

Electronic entertainment expo, is a huge industry event that gives an opportunity for major develops to promote their new game.

Indie game development and marketing

WATCH THE FOLLOWING VIDEO AND MAKE NOTES ON THE MARKETING CAMPAIGN FOR ASSASSIN'S CREED VALHALLA. IN PARTCULAR MAKE NOTES ON HOW UBISOFT HAVE MAXIMISED PROFIT

• Assassin's creed Valhalla is ranging at expensive prices £50
• It is an commercial industry
• They will use a pretty effective marketing campaign in order to get audiences to buy the product.

David Hesmondhalgh - It is essential for industries to minimise risk and maximise profit.

The trailer uses:

• High production values, - makes the game look more appealing and justifies the price
• Paradigmatic features of film trailers, - uses genre conventions of a film, no hints that it is a video game, has a soundtrack. This allows the trailer to target audiences in new and exciting ways.
• A clear narrative, provides to the mass audience that there is something exciting that they can hang onto in terms of narrative
• Intertextuality - Makes reference to other assassins creed video games, high production value, exciting historical settings. References to Lord of the Rings, and other popular fantasy films through the exciting action scenes. Intertextual references to Game of Thrones franchise, an extremely popular TV series with huge fanbase. Indicates to mainstream audiences that it involves themes that they find pleasurable, and encourage them to want to buy. 

Each Assassins Creed Game has a USP 

USBISOFT RESEARCH

 

• Ubisoft is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mande with development studios all across the world
• It video game franchises include: Assassin's creed, Far Cry, Just Dance, For Honor etc.
• They were founded in 1986 by the Guillemot family, 5 brothers Christian, Claude, Gerard, Michel, and Yves

Accusations made against Ubisoft:

-Ubisoft has been the subject of harassment and misconduct allegations since June 2020, with claims of abuse by powerful men at the company in offices in France, Canada and Singapore that had gone unpunished for years

- The head of Ubisoft's editorial team has been accused of misogyny, homophobia, and attempting to drug teammates.

- Three senior executives at Ubisoft have been accused of sexual misconduct

- Many employees have stated that the work environment is 'mafia like'. Key members are protected and employees that try to file complaints are forced out - but Ubisoft say departures are voluntary

- In the anonymous survey of nearly 14,000 employees, one in four respondents said that they had either witnessed or experienced workplace misconduct themselves in the past two years, and one in five said that they didn’t feel “fully respected or safe in the work environment.” 

- In 2020, amidst a worldwide call for racial equality, the company incited controversy for misusing racial symbols. The game's trailer used the raised fist symbol synonymous with the Black Lives Matter movement as the fictional Umbra's emblem. The community's reaction was swift, and Ubisoft apologised on Twitter, admitting that the symbol's inclusion was "insensitive and harmful." Ubisoft removed the content from all versions of the game two days later.

Lesson 31/01/23

• Assassin's creed games are generically Similar, to appeal to their existing audience 

How significant are economic factors?

• Ubisoft are a major company, that are aiming for growth and to maximise profit.

How significant are economic factors in the videogame industry? Refer to the Assassin's Creed franchise in your answer.

Economic factors refers to the financial status of an industry. All media industries exist to make money while maximising profit. In this essay I shall argue that economic factors are significant in the assassins creed franchise. The Assassin's Creed franchise is a series of AAA action videogames developed by Ubisoft, and appealing to a wide audience.

Assassins creed liberation: My Research

- It was originally released on the PlayStation Vita

- It was released in 2012

- It is the fourth spin-off instalment in the assassins creed series

- The original release of Liberation received mixed reviews from critics, who praised its setting and protagonist, but disliked the narrative's execution and certain aspects of the gameplay

- Liberation explores the life of a second 18th-century assassin in Colonial America who operated during the end of the French and Indian War within Louisiana, during its Spanish occupation; an Afro-French woman named Aveline de Grandpré

Assassins creed liberation: Class Research

• Released in 2012
• Published by Ubisoft
• Originally released on PS Vita 
• The PS vita wasn’t particularly successful, as consumers decided that action games didn’t work on a small screen
• Released for a variety of consoles across a variety of generations
• This was in order to minimise risk and maximise profit 
• A black female main character may potentially appeal to a larger audience 
• However, a big criticism of the representation in this game involved the fact that the black main character played a slave, and was also highly sexualised, and could flirt with guards to achieve goals. This was criticised for being highly stereotypical

Ubisoft and allegation made against them 

• Accusations of both sexual misconduct toxic management

Ubisoft are a French video game conglomerate.

Specialised in publishing as well as developing video games.

Ubisoft: key facts

• The fourth largest publicly traded game company in the Americas and Europe 

• Established in France in 1986

• A horizontally and vertically integrated media conglomerate with a number of studios and subsidiaries 

• Focus on the production of ‘AAA’ games with vast budgets and high production values

• Publishes and develops a range of games in different genres, targeting vast and wildly different audiences

Mario and rabbits appeal to a younger target audience and fans of the Mario series.

Skull and ones appeal to a teenage target audience

Rock Smith -

Avatar Game - Appeals to a huge audience

Just Dance - Contains hundreds of artists songs, licensed music that is extremely expensive to make.

All of the games have high production values. Ubisoft publishes such a wide range of video games. In order to minimise risk and maximise profits.

Diversification is were an industry branches off and does different things.

Ubisoft tried to make a film and it didn't work.

Lesson 2/2/23

The video game industry

Power and media industries - Curran and Seaton

Ubisoft do a range of things over and over again

How diverse is Ubisoft' output?

By focussing on mainstream, big budget development, Ubisoft arguably offer a standardised and generic product.

Since 2018, Ubisoft's studios have continued to focus on its core franchises, including Assassin's Creed, Tom Clancy's, Far Cry, and Watch Dogs, but found itself starting to trail its rival publishers Electronic Arts, Activision, and Take Two.

As reported by Bloomberg Businessweek, while Ubisoft as a whole had nearly 16,000 developers by mid-2019.

 the net revenue earned per employee was the lowest of the four due to generally lower sales of its games. - Example of market saturation.

Ubisoft have realised that they are dong too many games of the same sort, which means that their audiences get bored.

Issues with aggressive conglomeration 

• Limits creativity

• Limits competition

• Limits diversity

Explain how ownership shapes media products:

Definition• Use Hesmondhalgh to explore the way in which cultural industry companies might attempt to minimise risk and maximise audience

• Ubisoft is a major company, meaning Assassin's Creed has a high budget
• Because Ubisoft is a major company Assassin's creed is multiplatform, it is available to be played on a range of different devices, such as the Xbox PlayStation.
• Highly circulated
• Diversification

How will Assassin's creed be successful?

- Different settings

- Same type of style of the same, familiar character with hood

- Same action-adventure style game

Further Notes:

- Fans want more of the older stuff, giving the fans more of what they want

- This game is the prequel to Assassin's creed Valhalla

- Isn't released until 2023 which further incites fans.

- Detailed textures, show that the game was good quality.

- Pre order editions will incite hardcore fans

- Set in Baghdad, like Aladdin and The Prince of Persia, further making intertextual references to other games.

- Demonstrates what we call generic hybridity, a combination of two or more genres.

- Repeat what made Assassin's Creed popular before

- Comes out on the next generation of consoles as well as the current ones.

Amazon's Bestselling games in 2022:

- Pokémon Violet Nintendo Switch

- FIFA 23

- God of War Ragnarok

REGULATION OF VIDEO GAMES:

PEGI regulates the video game industry. Some video games are also regulated in the UK by the BBFC.

This leads to an extremely complicated system

Sonia Livingstone and Peter Lunt argue that due to digital media technology the regulation of video games is very ineffective.

The video game industry is not regulated well. Parents can by their young children 18+ video games.

Types of regulation:

Consumer based content regulation

“Pan European Game Information (PEGI) is a European video game content rating system established to help European consumers make informed decisions when buying video games or apps through the use of age recommendations and content descriptors.”

Self regulation

For example a ‘code of conduct’ followed by digital distribution services such as YouTube.

The effective regulation of media products is largely impossible due to digitally convergent technologies!

The browser Tor allows the access to other sites.

Audience and video games - Lesson 7/2/23

The media brainwashes the audience

Albert Bandura - A psychologists who did a number of experiments called the effects model. Violent media makes people violent.

The Bobo Doll experiment:

Tested children, this reduces the reliability because children are less intelligent.

The cultivation theory

• Being exposed to repeated patterns of representation over long periods of time can shape and influence the way in which people perceive the world around them (i.e. cultivating particular views and opinions)
• This process of cultivation reinforces mainstream hegemonic values (dominant ideologies).

What problematic ideologies are cultivated through Assassins Creed Unity?

• Violence. Unavoidable, exciting, enjoyable, somewhat realistic violence.
• Either kill or be killed. The player is forced to kill NPCs, otherwise there is a game over. Reinforces the ideology that violence is compulsory.
• The use of parkour (climbing stuff) could encourage risky behaviour. Simply pushing RT and up allows the audience to climb huge walls with no consequence. 'Dying' in a videogame is simply a matter of reloading and respawning.
• Realistic graphics realistically represent blood, gore and violence. Arguably exposure to realistic and 'cartoon' violence can desensitize audience. Audiences may decided that violence is not an issue, which shifts and shapes their worldview.
• English accents and English language present a strong cultural bias. It is a powerful example ethnocentrisms, and reinforces the ideology that British people are more important

Alternatives to the effects model:

Stuart Hall - Reception theory, audiences negotiate media products based on their own culture, background and understanding

George Gerbner - Cultivation theory - audiences are manipulated through repetition of ideological perspectives (cultivation)

Henry Jenkins - fandom, audiences can use or take pleasure from media products in literally any way they want, even if this completely contradicts the dominant reading.

Stuart Hall - Reception theory 

Assassin's creed ideology: Kill the bad people, save the world.

You cannot kill civilians within assassin's creed. In some cases murder is good. 

Preferred reading: the player will kill the bad guys and not feel bad about it. 

Oppositional reading: The player will not kill anyone

Assassin's creed origins, there is a mode where you can't kill anyone ad instead run around and explore.

Negotiated reading: Even though we know violence is wrong in real life, its fine to do in video games because its not real. 

Assassin's kitten