Comparison of 2 games

Dark Souls and Skyrim

Dark souls and skyrim are both Action, role playing games but with many differences, the differences in both games is what makes them lovable and still on of the greatest games to be played today. One notable difference that people love about each game is that you can redo a level or mission in skyrim and make it appear like you first went into that level again but in dark souls if you fail or die from a certain mission (or boss) the game remembers and takes all of your souls (experience) and humanity (lives) and the NPCs you attacked will constantly will attack you. This is why both games are loved because people love the hard difficulty that dark souls comes with even from a simple enemy where you may let your gaurd down and skyrim if you made a mistake or massacred a town you can just re load the game to your last save point.



Dark Souls                                                                                                    Skyrim



 As you can see from both games have a soldier as a front cover of both game cases but the differences in both is that one is a more nordic time (skyrim) and the other is a medievil knight (Dark Souls). From looking at the dark souls cover if you have played the game and aquired either the armour set or sword/shield of artorias you can see that the knight in this cover is him whilst the dovakin is the cover of skyrim. On the background of dark souls you can see souls of other knights who may be a very important part of the overall story and because they look like souls is a reference to what you collect in the game (souls). On the skrim cover it is the nord dovakin on a rock with a trail of faint mist and a dragon tail rapping around him what this could mean is that he is the only one who can stand against the dragons as he is the only one in that cover image.

  As you can see from looking at these two players who are controlling the main character dark souls players sword is positioned differently to that of Skyrim as the sword is either in his hand but at his side or over his shoulder. The shield is positioned the same way as it looks as if none of the weaponry or shields are completely in his line of sight that skyrim seems to be sporting when in first person view. Skyrim has both 3rd person and 1st person and when in 3rd person you can see the dovakins weapon either to his far right (as seen in the image on the right) which can't possibly be seen as well as it does in first person, when you are in first person you can see your hands right in fron of you as if you have your hands in front of your face. The same is said when you have a weapon in hand and instead of having your arm resting with your weapon by your side either in battle or a casual stroll instead you have your weapon right in front of your face where a normal persons hand would get exhausted from holding a weapon in tyhat angle if you haven't taken a battle stance as first person view doesn't seem to support instead it saupports as if you are standing perfectly straight up. In dark souls when in battle or on a casual stroll through zombie/ demon lane you are always sprting your weapon either at your side and over your shoulder no matter what weapon you have minus the crossbow and bow. Dark souls has no first person view but only when you use binoculars (even though it is best not to use them in battle) so I can't really compare the full battle systeem of first person view on that part exept that even though skyrim was made using motion capture for a lot of the game including the battle system they didn't get the full effect for first person view as the camera is in a still motion and dark souls even though it was mostly made mostly on PC animation it has captured the full effect of real life terror and a real life battling as most people with swords with be sporting thier shield more than a sword to protect themselves from eminant death or failure.

The way to go about things in skyrim and dark souls is completely different as when you first start in skyrim you have to first start by doing a few of the main quest missions before fighting any dragons and getting the words of power and you need to be a certain level to start other quests or covernants. In dark Souls when you first start the game you can pretty much go anywhere you want and take any shortcut you want which means completely missing most of the main quests and also jumping into big boss fights at level 1. Skyrim does not have cutscenes or any form of cinematic the only thing it does have to get close to a cinematic is a animated character talking to you or moving somewhere that is part of the story and corisponding with your question/answers. Dark Souls has got cinematics/cutscenes when you meet certain boss fights, when you start the game and when you end the game, when you talk to the NPCs they will be animated just like skyrim and corispond by what you said and what you do aswell.

Skyrim is influenced by the viking era such as the clothing, the icy mountainous plain, the way they interact and talk, the taverns, the bards and many more bits to link it to the viking era. Skyrim has many attributes of the elder scrolls franchise bult into it aswell such as the start classes of nord, dark elf, breton and so on.
Dark Souls is a game that was insperated from the medievil times and that of undead zombie myths as those undead that lose their mind go crazy and kill on site either it be with there bare hands or witth the medievil theme with a sword or bow. Dark souls is more insperated from Demon Souls (its predicessor) as that game is simular to the medievil zombie apocalypse that is namco bandia soul series.
Dark Souls and Skyrim are both in equally as fantastic as each other and are both played as regularly as each other but a lot of people don't enjoy dark souls as they do Skyrim because in Dark Souls you die and die again over and over because of these over powered bosses or because you let your guard down on a simple enemy and then you lose all of the souls you created and the item called humanity that gives oyu your human form with skyrim if you die it is simply game over and then you are asked to load to the point you last saved oyur game and dark souls has no such function as Dark Souls wants you to live with the mistakes that you have caused. the simualries is only in 3rd person view as dark souls has no first person and they both have the same type of attack patterns when the main character is concerned and they both have character customizations along with changing the armour set as much as you want. The audiance that appeals to Dark Souls are those that have patience and enjoy the mysteries that the game brings whilst people who play Skyrim dislike that and prefer to rush things and have the information given to them in all sorts of layouts either it is from the main menu screen or from a character telling you.

Criteria 2+4 game review

Dark Souls Review



PRAISE THE SUN!!!! Dark souls a dark, mysterious and a wondrous game in terms of beauty where you traverse the land known called lordran as you must full fill an undead prophecy to light the bonfire and bring the light back to lordran before the darkness consumes all. 

Then this game first came out the developers said that you will prepare to die when facing the horrors that lie in store for you within the game and those who got this game before the UK release drowned in their horror as those who had online on their Xbox or PS3 had to face a level 711 NPC phantom that invades your world every so often until the release date of dark souls was finally upon them.

Dark souls has many lores and quests and even questions that this game would like you to find out for yourself except for part of the mission such as ring the bells, get the lord vessel and eventually defeat the lord of the sun. The problem which some players may get annoyed about is that the game doesn't tell you where to go or who to kill such as after ringing the first bell people don't know where to go to ring the second bell. The game prefers it to be like this as it gives you more freedom to explore and learn all on your own and come across new ways to get to certain areas. There is a bigger story to this game however as you come across certain people who give you very useful information to the story and even the layout of a lot of envirements tells a story of what happened to a certain god or how this person may have died.

As you come across certain characters such as Solaire of astora (who is the most important NPC who some people would say) you will be able to find their summon mark in a certain area near a boss battle. What these summon marks do is allow you to bring an NPC to your side to help defeat a boss. Even this online feature has allowed the player to put down their own summon sign for other players to see in their world and to summon you to help in their dilemma  When you have online and you just want to play around in lordran you may come across a blood stain or 2 and this blood stain will allow you to see how a player died in that spot and I have got to tell you there has been some really funny deaths and even suicides. As solaire would say

• "We are amidst strange beings, in a strange land.
• The flow of time itself is convoluted; with heroes centuries old phasing in and out.
• The very fabric wavers, and relations shift and obscure.
• There's no telling how much longer your world and mine will remain in contact.
• But, use this, to summon one another as spirits, cross the gaps between the worlds, and engage in jolly co-operation!"

• "Of course, we are not the only ones engaged in this.
• But I am a warrior of the sun! Spot my summon signature easily by its brilliant aura.
• If you miss it, you must be blind!"

The game mechanics such as swinging your, using a bow and using your magic is very intriguing as you put the characters weight into how he strikes such as a heavy and light attack to deal with certain enemies and how you you need to think on your toes whilst doing these attacks as the enemies tend to follow on with their long range, heavy attacks with even greater force especially if you are out numbered. 

The magic system has 3 types of magic users pyromancers (who wield all kinds of fires with their gloves), Sorcerers (who wields staffs to cast their sorceries)  and those that still have faith in the gods (who wield the magic of the gods in a.... doll made for children....).

The weapons in the game come in all kinds of varieties such as Daggers, Straight swords, Great swords, Ultra Great swords,  Curved swords, Katanas, Curved great swords, Piercing Swords, Axes, Great axes, hammers, Great Hammers, Fist weapons,  Spears, Halberds, Whips, Bows, Great bows and Crossbows. 

During gameplay you can make a type of role play character from different games, anime/manga or any other such character you may know and because you can make your own character to maybe even resemble him in character creation you have tons of weapons to choose from and what manner of spell caster you wish to be. You can even if you so choose to make the story as you go along such as you could become the furtive pygmy and play as him through out the game simply by dressing as him and using his type of magic set thanks to the Artorias DLC which adds in more magic for you to use in both pyromancy and Sorceries.

The character designs even though a lot of them are actually in armour, or a cloak are very well done as a lot of thought has gone into a lot of them such as the elite knight armour as it shows a lot of colours and shows a lot of detail and especially the ornstein armour with its marvellous lion helmet to the theme of the colour to resemble a lion.  

 Some people who first play this game sometimes give up on the game because it is either stupidly difficult with the bosses (I would know because I was stuck on the first boss for a month till the patch came out), some don't like the storyline as it seems to know have one layed out for you and that just leads to random roaming without knowing what to do. After the patch 1.02 came out for dark souls everything got a bit more easier for players even though it is still a game for you to prepare to die in as most bosses, enemies will still surprise you in certain areas even if you have played the game over and over again. 

The graphics of the game is absolutely spectacular especially when you aquire the binoculars as you can see the beauty of the city of anor londo or other areas that have awe inspiring beauty. The graphics of the game really brings it to life either you are in a dark cave or in the suns brilliant gaze as this game in on both the xbox 360 and pS3 graphics card (also the Ps3 Blue-ray feature) really boosts the quality and allows the makers of the game to add more detail as they have done for this game. 

The music track of Dark souls such as the nameless song( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvvFnR0kJFw ) really makes this game worthwhile to play as nameless song really works in certain areas   and the rhythm of the song makes you want to listen for as long as it is played. the ornstein and smough battle music( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nsps0I58yUM ) is especially thrilling as you fight this boss battle as it works in synch on how this boss battle is played such as this song is rather fast past and quite edgy as is the fight against these two bosses.

My entire thoughts on dark souls from the graphics, the soundtracks, gameplay, animations and storyline is pretty good as it has shown to make people think more on their toes and not have people give them the answer such as the quests, storyline and your main objective objective which also means that the developer wanted the players to be more free to do as they please within the game. The animations I believe may need some work as for one their arn't many animations in the game except to walk and run and also attack (which is understandable as everyone in the game is either a hollow or a monster). The storyline I rather enjoy as I like to both re-enact a dark souls character role as I play and find the hidden stories such as the broken pendant and the true identity of the god of war. 

My verdict of dark souls is a 9/10 as it may have a few flaws it is still a great RPG game to play and to role play in so as they say have fun and join in.....

crit 4 Be able to respond to media products

Genre

GTA: Is a action/3rd person free roaming shooting game and driving catagory.

Games are devolping and changing to multiple genres to better fit and to better get more costomers to play and buy the game so they come up with new genre mixes such as an RPG/Sports game, Action/adventure, action/first person and many other combined genres.

Classification has always been a bother since man became more creative in music, gaming, artistic style of clothing and even how one would speak. Even though a lot of us do classify each other as different we also classify a person on thier nature such as how they project their personality and their attitude towards others and to yourself.

When people buy a game they normally would just buy role playing games or action games and others such as myself don't bother with Sports games such as the Fifa series or an NFL game. I do like racing games but they are the only sports game i do like same for other people aswell as they may hate sports games but only buy the FIFA series because they may like football but that is it.

as i stated in the second paragraph games are now becoming more genre based as i play an RPG game and it may contain a new type of sports game of their own such as final fantasy 10 has blitzball which you can play any time along through the game. If a person heard you play a certain game or if you play a second installmant with out playing the first installment such as if you played dragon age 2 and not dragon age 1 than people will think badly of you or say that you are a complete idiot for not starting with the first installment.

Task 2-genre

Objective- to devolop your understanding of indentification of generic types and to apply this to examples.

What to do

Pick between 3-5 games- Prince of Persia series , Final Fantasy series, Call of Duty series, Dark Souls and Tomb Raider series.

for each think through the narative structure, how you control your avatar and how the game handles- In the Prince of Persia series it is a third person view game with a linear system with a lot of acrobatic traveling for the main character and to me the game handles as awesome as all the other prince of persia instalments but for the animation it was on low fps with a slower clock speed which was improved as each installment came out.

Final fantasy first started as a 2D game with a over head camera as all 2D games but when final fantasy 7 came out it was introduced as a third peron view 3D game along with the later installments. Final fantasy 7 and above usually have a battle screen, over world map and field map which you can switch to at random times. How the avatars are controled are different in all three screens as you just simple run around overworld map until either battle screen or field map, in battle screen you click on certain words such as attack, magic, summon and item which will either attack them or go into another analogue box for you to choose which magic, summon or item to use. In the field map which is a town or place that the avatar is visiting you again just run around pick things up and even talk to people. Final Fantasy handles the same from final fantasy 1 to 6 which is the 2D version and final fantasy 7 to 13-2 handles the same way aswell.

Call of duty is a first person viewing shooting game which is mostly used for online gameplay but also still has a storyline aswell. How the avatar is controled is by moving the avatar from one destination from one location to the other and also shooting one person from the next as you go along with an array of weaponry. How this game handles is with

Dark souls is a third person view Role Playing/Action sandbox game where the character/avatar has to play the role that all undead must play. The controls of the avatar of dark souls is open world where you can both travel and fight on the same screen.

Tomb Raider is a third person action adventure game where the character plays her role by discovering new tombs and uncovering new mythological civilisation such as thors hammer to king arthurs excalibur. The avatar or lara croft is handled just like most other action adventure game as lara croft can jump, run-sprint and everything else most action/adventure games do. How Tomb raider handles is exactly like its predecessors

Then work out how it fits into different genre "boxes" by thinking about the key reference points of time, location, iconography and how you actually play the game. use your notes on classification and genre to help you do this-

narative   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLaCmCxb4tA
Dark Souls

• The idea i got from the Intro is how the game began and came to the conclusion from where you start. This Intro to me seems more like an inigma as it only talks about the begining on how the gods began and formed the world in thier image and the point on what caused everything to fall apart.
• The function that the begining narative has on the entire game is what are these lord souls, who has these lord souls and what the world will be like before you come into the gameplay and what it is you start off as.
• The main narratives of this game is quite complex as the only characters in this intro are characters you never see except for when you defeat them .At the end of a cutscene you see a woman hovering over a dead corpse who people speculate (the corpse) as the main character you control. After the speculating cutscene you see the main character being in a jail sell for a strange reason with chained up zombies and a key is trown into your cell by an unknown knight and once you meet up with this strange knight he tells of the story that all undead must take to save the world and bring fire back to the world (which this game is specualting to).
• The main agents for this cutscene are the three first named gods that came from the flame; nito the first of the dead, the witch of izalith and Gywn the lord of sunlight as the narrator says there name in this cutscene and also insinuating that they have some importance to the story.
• From watching all of the cutscene again and again and watching other programs that try to be mysterious it has made me think that dark souls intro is original and not a formula as no other program such as doctor even dark souls predicessor Demon Souls can't even compete at being mysterious or an enigma as Dark Souls.
• Looking at the structure in more detail it details how the three gods changed and formed the world to how they wish but soon lose everything they have made to the darkness even at there attempt to re kindle the flame but fail and when some humans die they come back as a undead zombie but with their humanity intact. The reason why i think the introduction cutscene is structured this way is because it wants you to think and figure out the plot of the story as the cutscene plays on and what type of era you will be set in and the type of enemies you will and won't come across.
• The narrative is being presented in an episodically way as it first starts off saying how the dragons ruled the earth in darkness, then it goes to talk about the flame that sprouted and the gods who were born from it, then it goes to how the gods defeated the dragons and became the rulers of the earth and how the world is back to being in darkness and the undead that come in it's wake.
• There is only one narrator in this story and the narrator is also very important to the story so that is why only one is displayed throughout this opening cutscene.

Semiotics

Rose:
Conatation- When I see a rose I think of beauty as you smell the brilliant scent that the rose gives off and that of a brilliant combined colour of red and green that seems to makes girls tremple with happy emotion.
denotation- a rose is a red soft flower with a green thorny stem that can easily prick you if you are not careful.
signify- A Blood red flower with a perfume like scent but with thorns that can easily prick you
signified- A rose means love and romance as it is normally added in with relationships and romantic partnerships

Rainbow:
Conatation- What the rainbow makes me think is that with 2 opposite and different weathers merging into one you can get something as beautiful as a rainbow as it shines in the brilliant sun and dense rain.
denotation- A rainbow is an amount of colours that shine in a low oppacity when it rains and the sun are out simultaneously. The colours in a rainbow is red, yellow, pink, green, orange, purple and blue.
signify- A combination of coloured lines can represent a rainbow. the multiple coloured look also is a sign for the gay pride march
signified- A rainbow can represent good fortune and beauty with the cobination of the rain and the rays of sunshine

Peace sign:
Conatation- What the peace sign makes me think is that it is a backwards swear sign so since it is a backwards swear sign it makes me think it has something to do with peace or happyness.
denotation- The peace sign is someone who gets there two fingers closest to there thumb and using the palm side of your fingers to show that you come in peace.
signify- A hand sign symbolising peace and victory as winston churchill started the meaning of and the hippies changed it to peace in the 1970s
signified- What the peace sign signifies is that of surrender and that of a peaceful transaction between two individuals as they talk for a peace treaty.

Alan wake poster:
Conatation- What the alan wake poster makes me think is that a man must brave the darkness and seek the light as he battles the dark forces that lur within.
denotation- This poster is of a man at night time in a forest with a brilliant shine overlapping him and making the man in the forest appear as nothing but a shadow. in the name of Alan Wake it shows as if it is a lightsource and in the A part of wake you see the same man as a shadowy figure holding a torchlight whilst it is switched on.
signify-A man walking away from the light and into the dangerous dark forest with his torch in hand as he finds the mysteries within.
signified- What this signifies is that Alan Wake has to brave the darkness and understand what has happened and what is going on as he uncovers truths and secrets buried deep in the darkest place.

Lego indiana jones poster:
Conatation- To me this looks like a childrens version of a man going around the lego world universe whilst he uncoverse the truth and secrets of the world as he looks like a type of adventurer.
denotation- This poster shows of a 3D lego character holding a whip in a type of stance and as a background is a world map with the description below stating all three films all in one game.
signify- A lego version of indiana jones showing his whipping skills with a world map background
signified- What this signifies is that Indiana Jones has been turned into a lego version for 3 years and above to play and enjoy the lego filled world.

Bioshock poster:
Conatation- When I first look at the cover of Bioshock 1 I get the feeling and idea that there is a type of longing or of some sort of bond as you see 2 hands trying to either claim each other or something else. The clock gives me the idea that time is of the essanse and not much time is left till you-save the world- so to speak.
denotation- this poster shows of 2 hands one looking younger and another older trying to grasp something and the background is that of a semented wal that looks stained and worn out by years of dampness with a clock situated in the middle.
signify-  two transparent hands trying to reach for each other as one is a small childs hand and another is an adults hand in a dank and dreary place.
signified- What this signifies is that the main character has to save that girl from her fate as she is to play a dangerous role of collecting peoples blood whilst there is danger nearby.

Criteria 3 Understand how media audiences respond to media products

Effects Theory

Finish for Homework

Explain what the effect theory is in your own words

explain in your own words what the hyperdemic needle model is give examples

Explain what the cultivation model is and what it is ment by desensitisation give at least one example where desen to violent games has been mentioned in the media maybe in relation to a violent game

The effect theory is that of media control such as subliminal messages in say a love song such as Joe Longthornes:the end of my world, where you would put a hiddeen message such as i love you from Jacob Murphy hidden in the song and when a person listens to the song they pick up the hidden message like a lost signal and it would manipulate them into say loving them back. The other type is if a hidden message like long live america in a cartoon such as mickey mouse "disney" and all children watching it would be more subseptable to the influence and be warped to thinking that america is the best country in the world.

Hyperdermic Needle model is a term used for those that control the masses via media broadcastings such as the news could give false information that can lead the listener to believe what the news is saying to be true. One event that this happened is in ciria during the war with Iraq where the broadcaster was saying that they where winning the war and there is nothing to fear but un known to the broadcaster the US military was driving through the streets. The other known person to do this is Adolf Hitlar where he warped everyones mind to that of children and that of the adults by giving theme media information that hitler gives to his people in germany that they are perfect, they are the best and above all other humans on the earth.

A cultivation model is a term used social theory that examines the effects that television either it is a film, program or even a video game could effect people if they watch something for so long they may believe it may be true, make people immune to fear and horror or in some cases make people kill others as seen in horror films like SAW or as stated on the news a game called Manhunt made a teenager kill a man with a farming syth because he used such a weapon and killed a person on there exactly the same.

Activity

which factors influence weither you buy a game or not

advertisment

word of mouth

expert reviews

choose a game you think you might like

look at adverts for that game and explain why they might make you want to buy the game how they are influencing you

then discuss the game with your friends how might it influence you what do your friends say? is it possitive or negative?

read a selection of expert reviews of the game, what do these tell you how do these influence you?

finally how does the three factors Have influenced you the most and why?

Hitman apsolution

The first Trailer for the new hitman game called hitman apsolution wasn't much of a helpful tip to how the game would go except for the makers of the game saying that the game is played in a new sort of way thanks the the playstation 6 axis which you can tilt the pad to activate a function for agent 47. When the later trailers came out it showed gameplay that is better then its predicessor blood money and the graphics are more realistic as it is now  CGI graphics which made the game more attractive and the stealth and the different versions of stealth kills are more grand and accessable even in certain levels where .

After talking to some friends about the new hitman which are like me a fan of the hitman series they have talked about how great the gameplay is and how the story will continue.

After looking at both IGN and Gamespot reviews I have looked at have shown me that hitman is just how I remembered it from its previous titles such as blood money and silent assassin. IGN and Gamespot have also mentioned that the graphics are of a realistic CGI animation which makes the game even more spectacular and more impressive to play.

These three factors have influenced me to seek this game out and play the game for weeks on end over and over again because looking at the expert reviews videos of the new Hitman the CGI to me is breath taking, the gameplay is a good as its predecessor. Just like my friends I would like to see how this story takes place from its last predecessor (blood money) and see how the characters lives play out. Since I only have an Xbox 360 and not a playstation 3 i can't use the 6 axis control as the xbox 360 pad has no such function but instead the same function will be on a different button or option. 

 Uses and gratifications

This is the oppsite of effect thoery The difference is that we treat the audiance is active instead of passive so people have difference answers for different information.

during the 1960s it has become apparent that audiances made choices about how and when they consumed media texts. far from from being a passive mass, audiances were made up of indevidials who activily consumed

Diversion- escape from everyday life such as video games, books, television and even handing out with friends.

Personal relationships- using the media for emtional and other interactions such as soap operas

Personal Indentification- contructing thier own lives from characters, in media texts, and learning behavour and values.

surveilance- information gathering e.g educational programs, weather, sports, financial news and holiday bargains.

this can be broken down further

Information

Finding out about relevent events and conditions

seeking advice

satisfying curiosity and general interest

Learning

self education

confidence through gaining knoledge

Personal identity

finding reinforcement for personal values

finding models for personal values

finding models of behaviour

identifing with celebrities

gaining insight into oneself

Intergration and social interaction

gaining insight into circomstances of others

identifing with others a sence of belongng

findind a basis for conversation and social interaction

having a substitute for real life companionship

helping to carry out social roles

enabling one to connect with family, friends and sociaty

Entertainment

Escaping or diverted from problems

relaxing

getting intrinsic cultural or aesetic enjoyment

filling time

emotional release

sexual arousal

Activity

Think of examples of instances where the following have applied to you when playing games

Diversions- escape from everyday life, problems and routine

Personal relationships- using the media for emotional and other interactions e.g substituting soap operas for family life

personl identity- contructing their own identity from characters in media texts and learning behaviour patterns

survieliance- information gathering e.g educational programs, weather reports, financial news, holiday bargains.

The diversions that help me to escape is RPGs (role playing games) only because of the story, myths and legends as it always intrigues me along with actual myths and legends and stories of some histories. My other diversions is watching Computer Generated Films such as how to train your dragon, MegaMind, Matrix trilogy  Shrek, Beowulf, Wall-E, the incredibles, Tron, dragonheart and many more CG related films.

I don't really have a personal relationship when media or games are involved but i would say that a series of games that I like I would be passionate about such as Final Fantasy, certain games and animations such as Digimon and pokemon. There are other games I would say I am passionate about such as dark souls, god of war and certain RPGs because of the amazing back story and lore you come to find out or learn when doing other stuff.

My person identity i would say has been influenced by Gaming characters (varies) and film characters (three muskateers) such as my main character as they fight for good and portray a ideal nature such as "always be honourable", "always be truthful", "always stand up for what you believe". I have even been influenced by anti-heros such as the punisher who does evil for the benifit of good.

when survielance is concerned i love to collect information on certain historic events such as i found world war 2 to be quite informative from the valkrie project of the german rebelions and also Hitlers love for the paranormal and supernatural. I also love to collect information and watch other peoples theories and ideas on the myth,legends and lores within the gaming world and the real world because it helps to form your opinions on the subject of lore, legend and myth such as the myths of the Mesopotamians myth of Gilgamesh building his ark to house 2 pairs of animals and Noah ark in the catholic bible and also the Mesopotamians beginning of life which is enuma elish (4 days of creation) and the catholic belief of the world being made in 7 days (a week) by there god which makes scholars believe that a lot of Catholics stole a lot of stories from other religions or that there where more than one person who was influenced to make an ark to save the animals and people.

Reception Theory

Reception theory is how different people interprite a game or theory such as in a game called dark souls there are a million theories on who is the god of war and if he is connected to a man who acts like the god of war or a simple blacksmith and even games such as Elder scrolls. Research Theory is also on a persons perspective if they like a program and another doesn't like the same program.

David Morley has studied the policy of the living room - the idea that the media is just part of all the different things that may be going on in your home. In a typical family it can also be a subject or a symbol of power, this is something you may be familiar with!

The nationwide study

In 1980 david morely conducted a very detailed audiance study, observing how many different social groups read the same media text. He discovered that there are three main types of reading for any media text.

Dominant- the reader shares the programes code (it's meaning system of values, attitudes, beliefs, and assumptions) and accepts the preferred reading.

Activity 2- Think of at least one example where you are reading of a game has been inline with the dominant (or hegemonic) reading.

there are a lot of things about the three Musketeers that I respect and agree with such as there code about all for one and one for all which says to the audience that it's best to get things done as a team and not on your own. The one I more respond to is the always tell the truth even if it costs you your life as I find that lies are quite boring either you are the one lieing or the one being lied to as lies don't really accomplish much except for making the person lieing feel safe. I find that the truth is more effective to either hurt a person but still be known as a truth teller and of the end result as lieing always seems to backfire when people have found out the truth. 

Think of at least one example where your reading of a game has been a negotiated reading.

Dark souls is all about debate as it has a 100 types of speculations over just one person or a place and timeline as the creators of this game made multiple characters or events that speculate to make you think that this certain man is the god of war, he had this certain weapon and power whilst another would think that the fallen god of war is now a simple blacksmith you meet in the game with no special perpose within the game at all. 

Think of at least one example where your reading of a game has been an oppositional (counter hegemonic) reading.

Again like in Dark souls people may make an argument about a certain person being the god of war or that this certain information is right and that doesn't confirm with me as the certain information doesn't fit properly with all the other pieces of information such as people believe that the father of the abyss is the forgotten pygmy who is the one who created all of mankind and some like me believe the pygmy is dead as it states he obscured from both the history and reality when he blended in with the humans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 







 



Criteria 1

Unit 6: Critical Approaches to Media Products

1.     Understand how media producers define audiences for their products

Psychographics classifies an audience by there lifestyles, attitudes and values or “tribe” rather than income and social class.

It is Important to understand what the audience wants by getting them to try out demos, at a game convention for new players to determine how well the game or product is. By determining their age, by country (such as Call of Duty being against a country), religion.  Mainstream, Alternative and Niche audiences. The most mainstream games out there are the Final Fantasy series, Call of Duty 4 and above plus Grand theft auto san adreas and GTA 4. An alternative game would be Naughty Bear.

Suceeders : People who are successful and self-confident. They tend not to buy aspirational products and follow their own ideas of what is a good product. 

There are a lot of games that people see as a suceeder game like for me its games that has lore in them. The types of games are what people see as a good game in thier own right such as for me i like a game with a good lore e.g dark souls, Final Fantasy etc.

Reformers: Creative, caring, altruistic, not bad conscience

The type of games that would appeal to a reformer are easy going games like ville series of games,
 

Aspirers: People who want to get on.
 

Mainstreamers: The largest segment, Conformists who buy safe big brand products.

Hipster: Someone who likes something before others.

Strivers: people who are influenced by money, wants to be noticed in sociaties

Alternative: the opposite of mainstream

Niche or specialist: special interest groups                                                                                                     The niche games that people are into would be the pokemon game series which is exactly like the manga and cartoon but you get control of the character

My type of game

The type of games that would appeal to me are games with a lot of lore and myth which is part of the story but also something you need to find and discover for yourself such as the summoner series, dark souls, fallout, elder scrolls, Final Fantasy series  and more.

Summoner 1 is about a man who lives on a farming village till an army comes and kills all who lives there and whilst the army checks the dead peoples arm for the mark of the summoner he escapes tand bumps into his old teacher and then goes on a quest to find the rings and save the realm and become the god urath. http://www.youtube.com/watchv=tAIcjIZLmaE                                                                                             Summoner 2 is about a queen who goes on a journey and finds runes all over her kingdom and beyond and her mission is to quell the darkness that killed her past self which is the goddess laharah from corrupting the world as it did urath and laraha in the past.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjEny8w5Npc

Dark souls is about an undead who has been imprisoned for roughly 100 years with more undead until a man in a suite of armor comes and throws him the key for him to escape when he bumps into the knight in the prison he gives him a tale about an undead who is taled to put an end to the darkness and bring forth the flame. When the undead escapes he goes on his journey to ring the bells and kill the lord of sunlight from his corruption and become the new lord of sunlight. All the way through the game you find out how the light and darkness are both a lie and that maybe the tale of the undead bringing back the light is a lie since the land of lordran is full of undead hoping to be the saviour themselves and that a primordial serpent is the only one part from the knight who tells you the tale and a bit extra that the dark lord is the one who made the human race to prosper and succeed the gods. When you kill each and every important NPC you get a piece of their armour and that gives you a lore and tells you more about who they really are. This is a man who has found and put together all the lore and put it in each video about the lies and truths to the backstories and he is still finding out more lore since the new lore (myths and legends) have been discovered thanks to the new DLC.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4825DBA198EBE9B9&feature=plcp

http://darksoulswiki.wikispaces.com/Lore

Fallout series even though it’s only an abandoned wasteland from nuclear war has quite a few lores like how it all started what each and every main character did to save the world or ruin it. http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline

The Elder Scrolls lore is an infinite amount if you combine all the games into one from the rise of the 8 divines how a dragonborn became the 9^th divine how the ninth divine gave birth to the empire before his rise to grace and my favourite lore of the deadra which are from another dimension called oblivion and there gods known as princes. The lore is also about each and every main character aswell from the hero of tamriel to the hero of summerset isle and the dragon born and so on. http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Daedra

http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Nine_Divines

The Final Fantasy lore has many lore’s to fit each game such as in a millennia before Final Fantasy 8 began there was a sorcerer called Lynn who made the human race and the land known as earth but the human race started to fear their creator and turned on him and found a way to kill him but before they even got the chance the sorcerer Lynn separated himself and his power into the bodies of woman (hence why only people who can possess magic are woman. In Final Fantasy 10 a 1000 years before the beginning of the game a war started between to advance countries called Bevelle and Zanarkand so all the summoners where sent to the front line to face the oncoming threat but lost the war against bevelle so one lone man used the last resort that was left to him he became a final summoning itself and became out of control after he destroyed all of bevelle and so his daughter Yunalesca took his fathers research on the final aeon and turned her husband on his own volition into a final aeon and destroyed Yu Yevon who is now known as sin but over time after sins death sin was reborn as it took control of the latest final summoning and became whole once again to wreak havoc for 1000 years.     

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Sorceress_(Final_Fantasy_VIII)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Characters_of_Final_Fantasy_X_and_X-2#Yu_Yevon

Because of my love for the back story in games that has made me to be a suceeder because of the above information which has made me love the game more than the gameplay or anything else in general and it is because of the gamespot and IGN information that has told me about the stories in these types of games which led me to buy these games.  

Demographics

 Demographics is used widely in public opinion polling and marketing.  Demographics are also used for gender, race, age, disabilities, mobilities, home ownership, employment status and also location.  

Geodemographics

Geodemographics is all about where you are in the world/where you live.

If you live in a poor area may not be able to afford a game such as Egypt, Africa, 

Those that can are mostly from the U.K, U.S.A, Spain, France, Holand, Japan and China. These countries are mostly Westernized unlike the poor countries.  This is helpful to target countries  (marketing, Languages and if the content is right for them). Certain religions and certain speech (Language) will be taken into account. Best to know certain areas of a country such as in England there is Manchester and in Manchester there is partington, sale, trafford and so on.

My geographic Profile

 My Name is Jacob Murphy I am 22 My Birthday is 26^th September 1990, I am from Sale, Racecourse in Manchester, England. I am a middle Class person who loves finding truths in things such as the stories in games,

Profile of the class
In my group was Ben Seager, Casey White, ciaran McMillan and Jordan Bland, I had to find out what type of profile they are such as if they class them selves a a heavy music lover (aka Mosher, rocker, Raver), chav (AKA skinhead),

what have you found to be the most unifying factor between the people you profiled ( for example, age, race, gender)?

When did you profilestart to narrowdown and become more defined?

What did you find difficult about this activity?

Geodemographic profile of a country

http://www.gapminder.org/world/#$majorMode=chart$is;shi=t;ly=2003;lb=f;il=t;fs=11;al=30;stl=t;st=t;nsl=t;se=t$wst;tts=C$ts;sp=5.59290322580644;ti=2011$zpv;v=1$inc_x;mmid=XCOORDS;iid=phAwcNAVuyj1jiMAkmq1iMg;by=ind$inc_y;mmid=YCOORDS;iid=phAwcNAVuyj2tPLxKvvnNPA;by=ind$inc_s;uniValue=8.21;iid=phAwcNAVuyj0XOoBL%5Fn5tAQ;by=ind$inc_c;uniValue=255;gid=CATID0;by=grp$map_x;scale=log;dataMin=282;dataMax=119849$map_y;scale=lin;dataMin=12;dataMax=83$map_s;sma=49;smi=2.65$cd;bd=0$inds=;example=75

This link shows all the income going back from the 1800s to the present day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banned_video_games

This link shows all the banned games in every single country that plays games

Japan- Japan is the most successful countries in the world as they have the number one gaming companies in the world and there technology is more advanced in the way of midia as they have devoloped actual human sized mechanical robots and Holograms. Japan mostly deal in Role Playing Games or Action-shooting or Action Adventure even though they do tend to ban or edit some scenes in games out such as fallout 3 since one of the weapons is called FATMAN which is a weapon which was used against them in world war 2 which over there is called the nuka cola blaster. Other games which have been edited for too much blood and gore is Resident evil 4 and above, call of duty black ops, bulletstorm, gears of war 3 and dead island.  

China- From the 1800s going 100 years to the 1900s the life expectancy rate of china didn't really improve but from 1920 going to the present day the life expectancy rate rose all the way to the top as they gained more and more money as they are one of the biggest tourist atractions of this modern age. China is quite sensorship when it comes to games as it blocks certain games such as the Fallout series because the game shows a lot of refrences to certain bombs that was used against them back in world war two and takes out blood effect in all games that they make or is puplished to there country. They have also banned football manager 2005 because the game shows Tibet as an independant country.

USA- USA has more highly gaming companies such as EA Sports, Blizzard, activision, electronic arts, Rockstar games, Sony Gaming, squaresoft and warnerbros. The USA is another international country but not as much as Weastern Europe as they have many religions all over the states of America.

Western Europe- Weastern europe is another country that rarely bans games except for the exeption of games with sexual content but that was dismissed as the responsibility is held by BBFC. Weastern eaurope is a country with many religions as this country is more international as western europe has all people from many nationality as part of the british society even though this country is mostly worshoping the vengful and so called merciful god of the eastern land known only as god through catholicish or prodistantism.

Iran Iran is a part of the Eastern part of the world and is one of the poorist countries in the world but not so poor to have video games. Iran like a lot of the eastern part of the world namely bans American made games such as Call of Duty, Battlefield and other war type games. The reason for this is because these games tend to have a lot of voilance namely in Iran, Iraq or any other Eastern country.

Germany Germany is a country that insticated two world wars thanks to Frederick William Victor Albert of Hohenzollern and Adolf Hitler of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. even though world war 1 was won by power alone thanks to the alied forces world war 2 was won by Hitler having to divide his army by spliting his army in 3 directions and also the major blow from within the country as even a big fraction of hitlars germany did not support his actions and tried to assasinate him at each turn. Germany mostly just bannes games with high gore and voilance rating as it tends to have a bad impact on those who play the game. Germany mostly hates games that show a lot of Nazi refrences such as Wolfenstain, KZ Manager, mortr. The Darkness both comic and video games have been banned as they have a lot of world war 2 nazi themes to represent the evil that is called the darkness.


Greece Greece is mostly weasternist as Rome is the Home of the Pope and of god himself. Greece before it was weasternisted was a worshopper of the greek gods such as Zeus, Athena, Aphrodiety and so on but when the country became weasternised by a religion based on angels and a god (very closely resembing that of the norse religion of Odin and his winged Valkeries). Greece In 2002 banned all Electronic Arts games simply because they promote Gambling and that is something they try to ban in thier country.

Saudi Arabia is a country in the middle east like Iraq and Iran and was founded by Abdul-Aziz bin Saud but also known as ibn saud. This country was founded in 1902 as Saudi captured his ancestral home of riyadh. Saudi Arabia is the second largest oil reseved country in the world. Saudi Arabia has banned a lot of games namely do to the religiousqoutes of god.

2.     Understand how media producers creates products for specific audiences

 

3.     Understand how media audiences respond to media products

 

4.     Be able to develop responses to media products