Long Road Applied Media Diploma

For this AO - you have to describe how games from your choice of genre is structure.

This is how we are going to do it:

1) Choose a game from your genre that you either know very well or there is a lot of information online to allow you to research.

2) Look at one level/chapter/mission and explain the structure to it in the following terms:
Name the game and the level you are going to study. 

Then identify and explain the following things.

 - Objective: what is the point of the mission/chapter, how do you know what to do and where to go?
 - Preparation: in terms of equipment/levelling up/finding resources
 - Early stages of the level: what do you need to do, how do you are successful
 - Final stages of the level: is there a boss? Does the game become more difficult?
 - Level completion: what did you need to achieve to finish the level/mission? How do you know you have finished the level/mission?

Use screenshots and youtube videos to help you illustrate your answer.

3) Using the same game - describe and explain the structure of the whole game - how is it structured? Is it levels, chapters, character development (RPG), story?

If you can find online guides/maps to illustrate your description - please use them.

NOW - Analyse it as best you can - is it linear (can you only go on way)? Is it is open-structure (there is no defined ending)? Are there multiple endings? Can you complete the game - if not is there a natural ending to the game.

For instance:
The Sims: This is an open game with no clear identifiable ending - but there is structure. The early part of the game is about developing skills, earning money and making relationships. The game continues in the same way but you can chart your progress interms of material wealth and the development of your Sim.
The ending is either when you're content/bored with the characters you've created or they die.

Or you have a game such as Gears of War - where there is a very defined structure in terms of levels it is explicit in terms of what you need to do to progress - kill all the baddies, get to the end of the level.

Choose one game from your chosen genre. Find a decent clip of gameplay from youtube (no commentary, 3-4 mins of interesting gameplay). Embed this on your blog - and caption the clip saying which game it is and what year it came out.

COLOUR - what pallette of colours is uses - vibrant, bright, dark, washed out 
IMAGERY - what content do you see on the screen - location, bad guys, pick-ups etc
MUSIC/SOUND - how does the music create atmosphere, what language is used
HUD - what information is the player given on screen (health bars, ammo count etc)
EFFECTS - what happens when you die or get shot? How do you know you're doing well? How is the feeling of speed generated?

The MEANING will be different for your game:
Survival Horror - fear, loneliness
Driving - speed, glamour,
Action - danger, damage, suspense
Life sim - happiness, romance 

Write a paragraph (or more on each of the elements), use screenshots to help, annotate in Prezi or Photoshop if necessary. HOWEVER PLEASE TALK ABOUT HOW THESE DIFFERENT ELEMENTS INTERACT - perhaps as well as the seperate paragraphs take one key moment and describe how they work together. For example:

"For this particularly brutal death all the elements interact with each other. There is a combination of diegetic and non-diegetic sound: the diegetic being the rev of the chainsaw, the sound of cutting, the scream of the victim and the spilling of blood. This is on top of a haunting echoey soundtrack the fades into sinister restful refrain as the message 'You're Dead' appears on the screen.
The imagery is graphic, bloody and brutal as we can a high angle shot of the chainsaw tearing into the victims neck complete with spray of blood. Once the attack is complete, the victim's body falls to his knees while the camera stay at the high angle so we can see the bloody stump. The choice of colours is interesting as the blood - while vibrant compared to the rest of the autumnal shades of the village, is quite washed out.
As well as the final 'You're Dead' message we see the health bar in the bottom right start to flash red and empty as the attack begins. The flashing EMPTY informs the player that they are out of ammo adding to the desperation of the situation. In terms of effects there is a slight camera shake which emphasises the violence of the attack."

STEP 1: REPRESENTATIONS

1. Create a post name it UNIT 01 - AO4: Discuss the effect of representation in media products on target audiences/consumers

2. Write up your notes to demonstrate your understanding about representation, stereotypes and objectification from last Wednesday's lesson.

3. Select two female characters and 2 male characters from your chosen genre. Post a picture of each one, caption it with their names, the game they are from and the year the game came out.
Then analyse and describe with reference to the following areas:
Role within the game - (hero, victim, bad guy, friend, damsel in distress etc.)
Appearance - physical, clothes, animation style
Background - brief bio
Strengths/Skills
Weaknesses
How do they compare to other women/men in the game. 
Mention if relevant - hyper-sexualised characters, objectification, used of stereotypes, misrepresentation of a certain social groups. If you can - think about the reference of the representation (the reality it's recreating), preferred, negotiated and opposed readings. 

Behaviourism
Albert Bandura developed a theory of how we learn from modelling types of behaviour. His experiment used children learning aggression from adults. He broke the stages of learning down to the following:

Attention - to absorb knowledge

Retention - being able to remember

Reproduction - duplicating the action

Motivation - positive in the form of reward, negative in the form of punishment for not doing

If we apply this to videogames we can see that this structure of learning is often in place - you're taught how to play, you must remember the controls, you reproduce certain moves and activities and you're rewarded or punished accordingly.

Apply this theory to your representation of your chosen key ASPECT (happiness, violence, crime etc) from your chosen genre. If we learn behaviour from games (as Bandura theory suggests) what would be consequences of learning from your chosen ASPECT?
It could be - aggression solves problems, crime pays and is glamorous, happiness can only be achieved by attaining money and items.

For this Assessment Objective you must do the following

Explain the legal and ethical constraints of the the regulatory body for videogames - which is PEGI.

In terms of marks scheme, this is what the examiners are looking for:
Candidates give an explanation with examples of legal and ethical constraints and describe a range of functions of the regulatory bodies and describe how they affect the media products.

To answer this question well I suggest you do the following:

1) Write up a history of PEGI.

2) Describe their ratings system.

3) Explain what self regulatory means and suggest reasons why.

4) Explain the role of BBFC had in games classification.

5) Find an example of a game that was banned in the UK and explain the reasons why it was banned.

6) Write up argument for and against the influence of videogames violence and explain how the role of PEGI is supposed to protect consumers.

Suggested reading:

PEGI wikipedia

PEGI homepage

Legal loop hole

BBC report on PEGI here and here

Manhunt 2, Carmaggedon

Reports on videogame violence - here,here and here.

REMEMBER:
READ AS MUCH AS YOU CAN OR YOU FEEL YOU NEED TO BEFORE YOU START WRITING.

MAKE YOUR RESPONSES INTERESTING WITH LINKS TO DOCUMENTS, IMAGES AND RELEVANT VIDEOS. 

UNIT 01

A05 - Compare distribution channels and ownership patterns for your game genre choice.

Here you have to show understanding of how the games industry in terms of who owns what, how they make their money and how products gets to the consumers.

Select three games from your genre - (preferably three games from the last five years so nothing too old). Make sure they are significantly different in terms of scale of production and distribution model.

For example:

1. One big-budget very successful game that uses traditional models of distribution to reach consumers.

2. An iphone game that uses Itunes and downloading to distribute and maybe freemium way of making money.

3. A flash game created by an indy developer that you can play on a PC.

Suggestions:
Life-Sim
The Sims - Farmville - Iphone game?

Survival Horror
Resi 6 - I Am Alone - Slenderman

Sandbox
GTA4/Red Dead - Minecraft - Castor/Payback

MMORPG
WOW - Parrallel Kingdom - Guild Wars 2

RPG
Runescape - Mass Effect - Final Fantasy 3 (Iphone)

Racing
Cube Runner - Trials Evolution - Forza

3rd Person Shooter
Shrapnel (iphone) - I am Alive - Gears of War

For each one find out the following:
Ownership - the developer, the publisher and which formats (games machines) it is released.
Does the publisher own the developer?
Who owns the format?
How much does it cost to release a game on that format?
Is the game based on another licensed product (movie, sports personality, car)? 

Distribution and Exchange - how does the products get to the consumer and how does the company make money from it?
How do you get hold of the game - are their multiple ways of doing it?
Do you get the whole game or do you have to pay more for the full content?
Do you pay upfront for the game or pay in other ways?
Is it free? If so how do the company make money?

Then write a summary paragraph comparing the different models that you have discovered discussing the advantages and disadvantages to both the company and the consumer.

E.g. Angry Birds - Free to download, then paid for the Premium version:
The Fremium model is good for consumers as they get to try the product before they buy, however, they to pay more to get more content. It's a risk for the company as they have to build up a big user base to make money and there's the risk that no one will buy the premium version.

As ever, make your blogs looks exciting with images and embedded videos. Also include the PDFs if you want - just download them and put them on your post.

REMEMBER TO LABEL YOUR POST UNIT 01

This is the level of work that got the last years group a Merit

Candidates should name the chosen media products and identify their genre.  They should explain using examples how the genre has: 

• changed in style 

• changed in content 

• changed in audience/consumer 

• been changed by new technology  

• met changes in sales and funding for production. 

YOUR RESPONSE TO THE ABOVE IS TO BE DONE ON YOUR BLOG AND MUST BE TAGGED 'UNIT 01'.

1. Choose the genre of videogame you wish to study. It has to be a clear and appropriate choice of genre so FPS, handheld, platformers, sims, strategies, survival horror, beat-em-ups, racing games are all good choices. Mario games, CoD, 'games with Zombies in' are not genres so you can't just study that.

2. Get researching. The most obvious thing to do is to type in 'History of...' into to Google and a recommend you do just that as the net is teaming with stuff about games. Whatever information you need, some fanatic has uploaded it for you.
Read the articles you find - but follow links (especially if you use Wikipedia) so you can get information from a number of sources.
As you read - make notes, build up the information so you know what to include and what not to. 

3. Structure your response. My suggestion is that you break-up your response historically - videogames are only 40 years old so you could split your research in the 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s, present day. 
Then select key games (you should be thinking around 3) that are significant in development the genre. They could be signifcant for various reasons:
- The most popular of the time
- Led they way in terms of use of new technology
- Attracting a new audience
- Different content or style
- Led the genre in a new direction
Then in your own words explain why they are significant and how they developed the genre. 

4. Make it interesting to read: you're telling the story of how a game genre has developed so if there are any interesting personalities or anecdotes - include them.
Illustrate your work with relevant videos, pictures and hyperlinks.

5. Make it detailed - so for each game mention who made it, which year it came out, which machine it was playable on.

6. Try hard - the better you do it, the more chance you have of getting a disnction. Do the bare minimum and you risk not passing one of the mandatory Units.

Example of last years Merit work: