Narrative

Narrative

The majority of mainstream computer games have strong narrative elements and through this created many new genres. Most popular games have a linear storyline however will have a broken narrative where an optional or bonus level will exist which perhaps isn’t very important to the story line.  In some games , peoples actions can directly affect the story line.

Generally the structure to a game will follow a basic story arch. For games to be popular and immersive they cannot follow the same story structures to films, novels or television series. They can be similar in terms of following a hero’s journey, where the protagonist will suffer some sort of loss, making them relatable and fragile. This loss could be in the form of many things for example loss of freedom: In Portal (game produced by Valve released in 2007) the protagonist Chell wakes up in a facility and is ‘tested’ without an option to leave; A friend, family member or love interest being kidnapped – There are many examples of this scenario, the most obvious is the Super Mario franchise where princess Peach is kidnapped. A hero’s journey often follows the story arch of suffering a loss and the protagonist overcoming and growing. Again this scenario surfaces in many forms as they can physically change in order to achieve the resolution or have to grow mentally and learn. A good example of this is heavy rain (Psychological Thriller game released on Playstation 3 by Quantic dream in 2010), it is almost a murder mystery and the player, through the characters, has to learn and find clues to discover the killer. The last stage in this story arc is the resolution, where the protagonist will use their new skills and overcome their suffering or retrieve the loss.

Here is the ‘classic 8-point story arc’ as voted by GamingLives gaming blog:

1.       Stasis

2.       Trigger

3.       The Quest

4.       Surprise

5.       Critical Choice

6.       Climax

7.       Reversal

8.       Resolution

 

As these may not automatically seem to relate putting it into another form : Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.’  This definitely makes the story arc more clear.

Following this rule it is easy to see that is a common basis for many story lines for games, movies, novels and television series. Especially more linear games where the player cannot meander from the main storyline and although there is an  illusion of freedom there are there is one sequence of scenarios that the player has to follow in order to progress through the game. A game where the player cannot control where they are going but only their actions (like shooting) is referred to as ‘On Rails’. An example of this is Time Crisis (a light shooter arcade game released by Namco in 1995) where walking around is not a mechanic option in the game, it follows ‘rails’ once a level is completed.

Games can only have a similar story arc to movies, novels and television, not exactly the same because of the interactive element to the medium. It needs to be stimulating in a different way whilst following a parallel story arc. For example a movie will be only one or two hours long whereas a game will have a lot more. Therefore the elements to the story arc will need to be stretched, mostly the hero’s development and growth. Also where films can concentrate on character development games would be a little boring if this happened in the same way, as players can get to know and relate to characters as they play and grow with them during their time of crisis. Games will often have a short cut scene at the beginning of the game setting the scene and introducing the characters. For example is: Jak and Daxter: The precursor Legacy (released on Playstation 1 by Naughty Dog in 2001), the first cut scene explains the problem or loss already occurred and the game play and story line consists of working towards the resolution. However in the form of a movie it would be a little tedious. Therefore games can follow a similar story arc to other mediums however they have to be executed in an entirely different way in terms of time lapse. The game Portal was lightly based on a film called A Space Odyssey 2001. In the movie there is a small introduction with the protagonist and enemy, it slowly delves into the problem of the computer taking away the freedom of the astronauts, then the resolving and final confrontation is quick, whereas in the game, it could be said that the whole game is the resolving of the problem and also has a quick confrontation at the end. So the arc is pretty much the same but the time is which they take to happen is very different. So although the story is the same (bar the acid trip at the end) it is executed different over different mediums.

 

http://www.gaminglives.com/2012/12/28/best-of-2012-10-games-and-their-classic-8-point-story-arcs/ [16/05/2013]

 

http://www.pixartouchbook.com/blog/2011/5/15/pixar-story-rules-one-version.html [16/05/2013]

 

2D Animation Techniques - Development

Paper animation and cut out animation are both techniques similar to stop/start animation. They involve stopping and starting the animation and moving bits of coloured paper/card/drawings slightly to make it look as if it were moving.  Stop motion animation usually consists of using 3D objects and slight movement however the same idea goes for paper animation except the bits of paper are moved around on a set background and obviously 2D. Some well known examples of cut out animation are South Park and Monty Python. Although now it is digital animation the characters were originally paper cut outs which were used to make cut out animations the slow painful way.

 The earliest 2D animation techniques started with strange contraptions which created illusions of movement. Using a combination of light and images the moving pictures would create an animation.

http://www.fuesslin.de/uploads/pics/thauma_01.jpg

A Thaumatrope was invented in Greece in the early 19^th century. It was an illusion created when two images were on each side of a piece of paper, when spun the images combined and looked as if they were together. It visually blends the images together creating a very basic 2D animation and from this sprung ideas in various places creating a basis for various 2D animation techniques. The centre of the pieces of paper was where the animation was most clear as it’s where the eye is drawn.

http://courses.ncssm.edu/gallery/collections/toys/html/exhibit07.htm

The First device invented to create an illusion based animation was called a Phenakistoscope (spindle viewer). It was invented by a Belgian physicist in 1832 called Joseph Plateau. It was made up of two disks, one with images gradually changing and the other with a hole. They would spin in opposite directions and create the illusion of movement. The inspiration for the idea came from an English scientist called Michael Faraday who created an electromagnet from which the Belgian physicist created the Phenakistoscope. As its quick-to-come successors were much more effective the Phenakistoscope was sold as a toy. There are obvious similarities between the Thaumatrope and the Phenakistoscope, with the circular and rotation elements however the idea was developed by using more images to make a more complex animation. The more images and the faster the rotation, the smoother the animation would be.

The zoetrope was invented by William Horner it 1834. It was originally called the ‘daedalum’ which translates to ‘wheel of the devil’. It became more popular in the mid 19^th century; an American developer renamed the device a zoetrope meaning ‘wheel of life’.

http://www.exeter.ac.uk/bdc/young_bdc/animation/animation4.htm#

The zoetrope is a device placed on top of a spindle so that it spins really fast. The viewer looks through the small gaps as it moves and the graduating pictures create an illusion of a moving image.

 A well-known artist called Edward Muybridge was famous for a picture animation he created of a horse using a zoetrope. He famously proved with the zoetrope that the horse could fly, pinpointing the moment where none of the horses feet were on the ground.

The zoetrope uses the light as the illusion, the faster the zoetrope spins the smoother the image looks almost as if it was real. Our eyes cannot detect a flicking light as once it is a tenth of a second; our brains believe it to be continuous. Therefore the faster the Zoetrope would spin the smoother the animation would be and the less our brains would be able to recognise the flickering as multiple images rather than a moving image.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lanature1882_praxinoscope_projection_reynaud.png

The praxinoscope is a development of the zoetrope, invented by Charles-Emile Reynaud in 1877. It kept many of the features of the zoetrope; it had a strip of pictures around the inner cylinder however it replaced the small viewing holes with mirrors so it could be projected. The image on the mirror appeared smoother and gave a better more fluid illusion of movement.

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Kinetoscope.jpg

The Kinetiscope started American cinema, it was conceptualised by the inventor Thomas Edison in 1888 however mostly developed by his counterpart William Kennedy Laurie Dickson between 1889 and 1892. It worked in a similar way to the zoetrope and praxinoscope in the way that it used strobe lights to convey a continuous image, except a film real is used to show the images. The Kinetograph was a camera designed to take motion pictures to ‘photograph movies’. The animation was viewed through a small hole in the top of the box and the device was revolutionary for film making.

Rotoscoping is another 2D animation technique; it was invented by Max Fleishcher in the early 20th century. The technique was simply tracing over film footage frame by frame as to turn it into an animation. It is called rotoscoping because of the projection equipment used to make the animation. The live action film frame-by-frame is projected onto frosted glass where it can be traced. This obviously was a technique required after live action films were being made. The idea was to make an animation longer and more similar to a movie, which was more achievable with the film footage.

As cinema was progressing so was animation, pioneers like Walt Disney, Hannah Babera and Warner brothers, each are still very successful in terms of 2D digital animation to this day. Walt Disney and his brother Roy O Disney founded Walt Disney pictures; between 1923 and 1928 they released two animation pictures called silly symphonies and Mickey Mouse. Mickey Mouse mostly was they are famous. Walt Disney most likely used a process similar to rotoscoping, using sprites and drawing movements gradually and produced many more well known picture animations. Hannah Barbera is another American animation corporation formed in 1957. The animation directors are William Hanna and Joseph Barbera who are in partnership with Columbia pictures with live action director George Sidney. They produced many well known animations such as the Flinstones and the yogi bear show. Warner Brothers are another American 2D animation company they were founded in 1903 – 1925. Their first major motion picture was a remake of a Broadway play called ‘The Gold Diggers’. All of these companies were founded around the same time, when 2D animation was starting to become popular and easier to achieve. Also they all happen to be very successful organisations.

The word pixel comes from the term picture element; it is the smallest unit on a display device.  Image resolution refers to the amount of pixels in a digital image, the more pixels in an image means the resolution will be higher and generally the higher the resolution of the image the larger and better quality the image is. The intensity of the image indicates the brightness in a way.  Image gradient is used to measure the intensity of the image; it refers to the gradual blend of colour and light. If a pixels intensity is high the colour will be bright, if the intensity is low the colour and brightness will be dark.

There are two types of digital graphics and those are vector and raster images. A raster image is made up of lots of pixels and is generally more commonly used; they often are JPEGs and take up little memory. A vector image is made up of lines or path curves, a vector image can be used for something quite large like a billboard advertisement and can equally be used for a small logo on a letter head without losing quality or getting distorted.

A file extension tells your computer which type of file it is so that it can open up the correct programme to support it without crashing or experiencing any problems. The file extension is the 3 or 4 letter abbreviation at the end of your chosen file name for example :(.JPEG, .PSD etc.).  Generally for digital images computers will not display the file extension as pictures or word documents (or anything) will also have an icon for the user to recognise was the file is.

The two types of file compression are called lossy and lossless. Compressing a file means to make it smaller to save memory, eliminating redundancies that are not needed. Lossless compression is where any repeated information is sorted into patterns and temporarily stored in the RAM. Lossy compression different and is often used for bitmap images, an algorithm seeks out redundant information (like small variations of colour) and deletes them permanently. The difference is small and not noticeable however if an image goes through lossy compression too many times the image becomes blurry and pixelated.

Digital images can be captured with a scanner, digital camera or drawn with a graphics tablet. image capture devices read the light and colour balance to create a digital image and transfer it onto your screen. Scanners use a ray of light, digital cameras uses a different process but equally uses to light to capture the image. Graphics tablets on the other hand are transferring direct drawings into Photoshop (or any other application) and turning it into a digital image made up of pixels.

Image optimisation is making sure that an image for whatever purpose is at the necessary quality and size.  Target image output is understand the purpose of the digital image, whether it is for an advertisement on the side of a bus or a logo on some packaging. Image bit depth refers to the colour of singular bits in a bitmap image, generally the higher the bit dept the better quality the image and the better the colours will blend.  Image Dimensions is also talking about the size of the image but in a different way, In terms of Photoshop it means you can scale the image to A4 etc.

The Relationships Between 3D Computer Game Elements

Understand the relationships between 3D computer game elements

-Dynamic elements in game engines: animated assets, player characters, NPC, objects, entities (pickups), doorways

.A dynamic element of a game is one that is kinetic; it moves around or can be moved if the protagonist or another character interacts with it. This also includes assets that have animated textures for example a television, scanning devices or a disco floor; this is simply a flat surface with a video/flick book texture. A dynamic element is changeable is some way of not interact able.

.A dynamic elements could also be another character, whether they are there as an ally, opponent, friend or passerby. A character could embody itself in any form whether that’s an animal or humanoid/human creature. This could also be an opponent which you interact with in a different way and could affect game rules in terms of scoring or health etc.

.Using dynamic objects in a game more often than not involve solving a problem if not they are simply there to make an environment more realistic.

.Dynamic elements are usually obligatory to completing a problem and/or completing the game.

-trigger objects

-animated models

-player character / NPC

-pickups – ammo health packs etc.

-maps

-water

-snow

-vehicles

-physics

-particles

-magic

Blood

Lighting

 

- Static elements (3D models): environment architecture, foliage, buildings, unmovable assets,

. A static element is one that cannot be affected, in terms of game play it is something in the environment or is the environment itself and can’t be interacted with. These parts of games are extremely necessary as they usually set the scene and create a scenario.

.A lot of indie games consist of a dominantly static environment and where the main character/protagonist uses few mechanics and choice of movements to solve puzzles and conquer obstacles. For example ‘Thomas was Alone’ uses very simple mechanics to complete the game however is still very captivating and entertaining.

.Foliage is a great example of how static elements are needed to set a scene. Trees bushes and grass are not usually required to be interacted with.

-buildings

Foliage

Vehicles

Floor

Statues

Rocks

Edge of map

 

-Relationships between game elements: game rules, balancing game play, ending conditions (win/lose), how 3D elements relate to one another in a computer game.

.Dynamic and static elements combine to make a fluid environment in which all the necessary things are able to be interacted with.

.The combination and balance of both static and dynamic elements usually increases the complexity of the game. The more interactive elements in a game generally the more realistic and complicated it will become.

.Completing/ winning a game may involve a specific sequence of movements which involves a blend of both dynamic and static elements to signify an illusion of choice, but at the same time directing the player to a series of movements which will complete a task.

-consequenses / changes in gameplay

 

Do Violent Games Make Violent People?

DO VIOLENT GAMES MAKE VIOLENT PEOPLE

Many games as we know glorify crime and let us live out our deepest darkest messy alter egos. There is a strong public opinion voicing that video games cause people to be more violent and that they encourage crime. However, within the argument that games like the Grand Theft Auto series should be banned due to encouragement of violence, arguably, there is a fine line between what kind of video game violence is acceptable and which isn’t. Games like left 4 dead and grand theft auto are not based real events and both have necessary age ratings – restricting the games from affecting children’s development to think that this kind of violence is okay. However another game produced by Rockstar – Manhunt received a lot more controversy after a murder involving a young boy was blamed on his obsession with the game. The game itself is a series of brutal murders one after the other.  Pacifying the real trauma that could take place after a murder the protagonist stays pretty numb and calm about it all.

We have a double standard when it comes to violent games. It’s ok to shoot and kill in Grand theft auto but it’s not okay to suffocate someone with a plastic bag in manhunt. It’s alright to beat a zombie nurse to death with a mallet in silent hill but left 4 dead 2 is banned in Germany and Australia ‘because of high impact violence and cruelty’.

I feel that people are exploiting gaming as a new medium, by creating offensive gestures like the super Columbine massacre RPG. As soon as a violent game links to real events suddenly being the shooter doesn’t seem so desirable.  Super Columbine massacre RPG combines 16 bit graphics with real images from the media, the game is a re-enactment of the 1999 college shooting in Colorado. Obviously the game did not get a positive reaction; it was made in 2005 by an Australian student who meant the game to represent his own feelings on the event and show how the media de sensitised the effects of the shooting. The title was criticized as trivializing the actions of two murderers and the lives of the innocent; it is one of many extremely offensive re-enactment games. Some others include another college shooting in Virginia 2007 called V-Tech rampage. Another called JFK reloaded is a game where you play as JF Kennedy’s shooter from different angles and situations, and you have to assassinate America’s most renowned president to this day.

Considering the intensity of violence, in my opinion, is one of the hardest production constraints, whether making the violence realistic and gory will offend the audience or simply make the game for effective. It comes down to the kind of audience the game is attracting,  do they want their experiences to be realistic or are they just trying to escape to something fictional for a couple of hours?  

Certificates of 18 restrict what kind of games are advertised in the daytime and where they are advertised however for some games, production companies know and accept the fact that a younger audience enjoy the games and play them. For example Halo 4 is certified a 16 or ‘M’ for mature. However there is a wide franchise of Halo toys sold in various toy stores, suggesting that although the certificate advises minors not play the game, it is well known that parents ignore the warning.

I draw the line at sexual violence; in my research I have found that any game with outrageous sexual violence is commonly only sold in Japan. Clearly their sexual decadence is a lot stronger than anywhere around the world.  A company called Illusion Software make many games series involving forced sexual encounters, rape and sexual abuse. One game specifically, called ‘Rapelay’ where the aim of the game is to stalk, black mail and rape a family of three women (a woman and her two daughters).  One of which, looks as if underage! The game at one point was being sold everywhere but didn’t attract any attention until 3 years after its release (April 2006), where now it is banned for ‘graphic depictions of glorified sexual violence’.  In japan it is illegal for genitalia to be shown uncensored, even in hard-core pornography. Resident Evil 4, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Bullet storm, Gears of War 3 and Dead Island were edited for high impact violence, yet sexual violence in games is acceptable(if the genitals are censored out) and can be bought easily from the internet- exclusively only in Japan. The game lacks any hint of lawful consequence and if anything promotes and demonstrates the easy lengths that can be made to be a sexual predator.  Other pornographic games like ‘Bonetown’ people claim to be equally offensive. Bone town is a grand theft auto – styled adult video game where the aim to have sex with as many women as possible. Although it is fairly offensive the game involves consensual sex between two adults. Which is not illegal or disgusting, only the characters ‘slutty’ outlook on life.

Oscar Wilde writes that ‘life imitates art far more than art imitates life’.  This expresses the theory that humans no longer act under instinct. We copy what we see, we learn from everything around us. Considering Gaming as an art form conducts another theory that what we experience in the game turns into lessons or morals. The interactive element in games creates an emotional attachment to events and happenings. This being said are we more affected by the violence in video games than we think we are?

 

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://www.siliconsisters.ca/

Silicon Sisters Interactive is the first female owned and run video game studio in Canada. Founded and staffed by industry veterans with decades of hands-on experience, the company is committed to developing high quality, inspirational games with a decidedly female focus: games made by women and girls, for women and girls. Silicon Sisters’ first two projects are currently under development

http://www.slidetoplay.com/story/women-in-gaming-an-interview-with-brenda-bailey-gershkovitch

      - Interview with silicon sisters CEO (Games Company who make games for women)

http://fatuglyorslutty.com/ - A website composed to reveal the abuse women receive whilst playing online

http://extra-credits.net/podcasts/sexism-in-gaming/#discuss – Live forum about sexism in gaming

 #1reasonwhy – Twitter trend to reveal problems that women have whilst working in the gaming industry

http://www.gamingangels.com/2012/11/french-sony-vita-ad-shows-woman-with-four-breasts/

   - Sexist PS vita advertisement

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhgPh5zLZ5o- Interview with Anita Saarkesian about abuse over online play and YouTube 16x9

http://www.notinthekitchenanymore.com – Feminist gamer blog

http://femlegaltheory.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/misogyny-in-video-games.html- Feminist blog

 

http://cogweb.ucla.edu/Abstracts/Wilde_1889.html- Oscar Wild’s writing expressing the death of lying

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5VmbcYsCN4 - top ten most offensive games

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

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

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhunt_(video_game)#Controversy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-Tech_Rampage

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Columbine_Massacre_RPG!

http://www.columbinegame.com/

The art of video games – Chris Melissinos & Patrick O’Rourk

Anita Saarkesian

Black History Month – Anita Saarkesian                                         Alexandra Bruce 25^th Oct

After scouring the internet for a female game character I could relate to, I started to notice that within these characters an offensive consistency in their behaviour, clothing and overt sexuality and materialization.  When searching ‘Female game characters’ the first three links Google search engine gave back to me were lists of 50 HOTTEST FEMALE GAME CHARACTERS, 40 HOT BUT FORGOTTEN FEMALE GAME CHARACTERS, 25 HOTTEST FEMALE VIDEO GAME CHARACTERS. I noticed that women in video games (holding maybe one or two) are ‘manic pixie dream girls’-(Anita Saarkesian), useless/ non-existent sidekicks, background decorations, damsels in distress or evil, sexy and demonic villains.

However amongst my disappointing search I found a woman called Anita Saarkesian.  Anita reviews pop culture and makes a blog video series about how warped our minds are, so much so that we do not notice the mass of misogyny and racism around us in the media.  Her blog series tropes vs. women explore the consistency of tropes in Hollywood and the gaming industry. In this blog series she explains how an aspect or characteristic that is often repeated is turned into a very misinformed and ridiculous stereotype- ‘A trope is a common pattern in a story or a recognisable attribute in a character that conveys information to the audience. A trope becomes a cliché when it is overused. Sadly some of these tropes often perpetuate offensive stereotypes.’ Her blog series not only investigates games but also films, television series and music videos. Demonstrating how offensive stereotypes are widely enforced and ignored.

Going through the games I have now and looking at all the women misrepresented as sexpot-objects and how astounding it is that all of this goes unnoticed and unpunished. There are very few organisations that reach out to gaming companies and express the unnecessary misogyny being wired into the majority of homes (ones that own a gaming console and/or a PC).  Up until recently gaming has been a very male orientated community and the games are simply made to attract that target audience.  I feel I can relate to Anita Saarkesian because we share the same attitude towards women being misrepresented in pop culture and how easily it can be changed. Although the gaming industry is one that is slowly changing to be all rounded and not just male orientated, I think it is essential that people are aware of the kind of miscommunication and twisted characteristics of women portrayed.

 It could be argued that gaming is a form of escapism and just a make-believe alternative reality for people to run away to. To some where they are aware of the distortion to reality and that in some of these worlds women are overtly attractive and could be better associated with an object than a human being. However, this information once communicated multiple times starts make its way into the unconscious mind where the viewer has a warped sense of reality and picks up some of these characteristics and relates them to real life. I am not saying that people who play games expect the apocalypse, futuristic scenes and monsters and apply them to real life, but take the characteristics of games like the behaviour, appearance and attitude to one half of the population of the world and apply this to the real life.

Overall I feel that these games could be easily altered without affecting the storyline, coolness or overall gameplay. Why can’t Lara Croft put on some trousers? Why does Mario always have to save Princess Peach – why can’t she be a capable woman who can overpower Bowser with her wit and intelligence? If women in games were depicted properly it would be one massive part of the media that isn’t pounding negative portrayals and misleading images into our minds about the female half of the population. 

 

 

 

Search engine results from ‘Female Game Characters’

 www.google.co.uk

 

-http://www.complex.com/video-games/2012/06/the-50-hottest-video-game-characters/

- http://www.complex.com/video-games/2012/05/40-hot-but-forgotten-female-video-game-characters

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CEgQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.afterellen.com%2Fcolumn%2Fgood-game-25-hottest-characters&ei=Vje3UMqkH-Kv0QXstoCwDA&usg=AFQjCNHaa3PKnpSpwbucEZMhQowat07Y8g&sig2=nz9tzEgfalvyUhxyFJq5BA

 

Anita Saarkesian’s website - http://www.feministfrequency.com/2011/03/femfreq-on-kpfks-feminist-magazine/

Video series - https://www.youtube.com/user/feministfrequency

-          I have taken quotations from the video blog series

Evolution of Game controllers

EVOLUTION OF GAME CONSOLES

 

Games platforms have evolved so much over the past 20 years. From 80’s arcade to modern high end gaming computers. One of the most important stages was the transition from cartridges to discology. When Nintendo opted to create the first new amazing consol with a disk drive, Nintendo had the leading, best selling consol at the time (SNES).

Sony were to make a disk drive for the new Nintendo consol, however complications occurred and Sony branched off a long with some games developers and created the next best thing – the Playstation. Nintendo the stuck with the cartridges and didn’t bring out another consol until the next generation; at the same time as the playstation2, Microsoft Xbox and the Dreamcast.

The evolution with controllers was pretty interesting as most of the leading consol making companies evolved the shape and feel of the controller to make game-play experiences more comfortable and easy. From the start Playstation had the classic control, and kept to the same shape as the next generations of consoles came out. The same for Xbox as it had a general shape that stayed the same and for each company the controller became a bit of a trademark.

Nintendo on the other hand never stuck to one design, each controller with each new consol was a new shape with different buttons.

When the Playstation 2 was announced standards were set with the new analogue sticks, Playstation 2 sold the most consoles (to this day) worldwide selling over 155 million. Today the leading console making companies are Nintendo, Microsoft Xbox and Sony Playstation. Both the Playstation and Xbox have evolved in terms of controllers and general features to be very similar.

Nintendo went into a more interactive and unique direction and developed the Wii, which had a completely different controller and method of interaction.  The Wii meant holding a controller and the game reacting directly to the gamers movements, this console advertised to families and widened the target audience for the next generation of consoles making gaming more of a family activity. Obviously this caught on as extensions for Xbox and Playstation. They both released add-ons to the consoles which had similar features to the Wii without creating a whole new console however neither were as successful as the Wii.

 

The Playstation move and the Xbox Kinect both had very similar features to the Wii. However Microsoft went a step further and just made a receiver without the need of a controller. However Playstation pretty much released a Wii with a different shaped camera and slightly transformed controller.

As well of the development of new features and improved controllers the overall aesthetic of the consoles themselves over the board transformed into sleek shiny boxes rather than the various shapes and textures they were before.

Gaming Demographics - ASL

Gaming Demographics

Stereotypically if someone asked me the age and sex of a typical gamer, the answer would most likely be a male between the ages of 14-18 years of age. However I cross referenced some websites looking into gaming demographics, the variations in age, sex, marital status and earnings; and the results were not what I expected.

From studies taken in 2012 generally there were more middle aged women playing games than teenage males. Furthermore the average ‘gamer’ is 30 years old and has been playing games for 12 years. The misconception for this stereotype most likely spawns from the types of games played by each gender and how often they play. Women make up nearly half of the gaming population and still my first thought was the typical gamer was a teenage male.

A twitter trend which started in 2012 called ‘#1reasonwhy’ was about women either in the gaming industry or women gamers, expressing any abuse or sexism they have experienced whilst playing online or received in the workplace. Abuse online is more common because there is an option to be anonymous, so people are less afraid to be named and shamed. Therefore they can express their opinions about how women are unwelcome gaming online without any consequence.

Buying habits springs from advertisement and publishing, some of the main culprits for the lack of female protagonists are game publishers, under the impression that a gaming audience is a dominantly male audience, games are generally advertised for males.  Perhaps publishers feel that female game characters will not appeal to the majority of consumers and that they will not be able to relate to them.  Meaning the target audience is only really half of the gaming population.

 

Bibliography

Digital Buzz. (2012, July 15). Infographic: Sociam Gaming Demographics 2012. Retrieved May 16, 2013, from Digital Buzz Blog: http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/infographic-social-gaming-demographics-statistics-2012/

Entertainment Software Association. (2013). Economic Data. Canada: ESRB.