HA3 Task 3 – Genre Deconstruction

GENRE DECONSTRUCTION

The way they look.

The way in which they play.

Content (what do they look like and how are they styled - words, images, colours, fonts?).

League of Legends: The normal map in league of legends is very green with trees and grass all around also there is two rivers that go across the map and also the two teams have their own color which either blue or red depending on which side of the team you are in.
SMITE: SMITE is quite a colourful game and it's maximized by the first person game play  because when you play you are behind the character you are playing so when using their abilities you see the effects well and how the move.
Dota 2: In Dota 2 the characters you play with are colourful based on the powers that they have like if they have the power to control ice then the natural colours to use are likely to be blue or/and white the environment however is quite dark even though i don't play it i know this from the videos that people upload on YouTube.    

Construction (how are the games built, what is the story and interaction?).
MOBA games like my three chosen ones usually are usually a mix of strategic play and role play they will always have objectives of destroying something from the enemy team like some kind of structure and if they destroy it successfully they will be the victors of the game but within the game's usual time span they will have mini side quests to do like kill monsters.

   This is a gameplay trailer of the game SMITE

As you can see from the video above it shows what you to expect if your going to play it and like i said before you will have to destroy a structure of some kind in the heart of the teams base to win but in this game you would have to destroy or "kill" a giant statue of a centaur.  

Codes and conventions (what do you expect to happen in such games and what symbols are used?).

In games like these you should expect to see a lot of characters to play and a lot of fighting between both teams also there will be a lot of effects and maybe some flashing light's so if your epileptic then you should be careful like for instance in SMITE you play in 3rd person perspective so when you fight the effects are relatively close and when this happens there are usually a lot of things happening and it gets trippy.     

Modes of address (how do the games talk to you?).

MOBA games usually have a kind of aggressive tone to the announcer in the game and by this i mean the voice that is already installed in the system to say things when you have done something important like killing a character  

Target Audience (who are the games aimed at?).

League of Legends: 22 people have voted on what the target audience for League of Legends should be and as you can see from the image below it shows that the number is even between the two options of 12 and up, and 16 and up with this information we can determine that League of Legends target audience should be for teens but with the two options having equal numbers we can see that it's also played by 12 year olds.

  
SMITE: As you can see from the image below the age rating for the game SMITE is 16 and from the "what parents need to know" on the bottom left rates how bad the contents are like violence for example it shows that the violence out of five is a four and also but the sexual content doesn't seem so bad as it only has two out of five so i think that the age rating for this game is just about right.  

Dota 2: Unfortunately i couldn't find any proof what the age rating of this game is but from what i have seen it's most likely the same so about from age 12 - 16.  

Constraints (what is stopping the developers creating exactly what they want?).
League of Legends: 
SMITE:
Dota 2:

HA3 Task 2 – Identifying Target Audience

MOBA Games

As you can see from this graph taken from The Internet Advertising Bureau's report, Digital Britain, it shows that only 6% of the games played are MMO games and the majority of people that play them are male.

Target Audience: 

League Of Legends: The target audience for League Of Legends ranges from 12 and above to 16 and above based on people's vote on the image below it shows how many people voted and how many of them voted for each of the three options given to them. 
   

http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=454807

SMITE: I think that the target audience of SMITE would be for teens and above because the contents of the game include blood and violence and maybe some sexual contents

Dota 2:  I think that Dota 2 would most likely have the same Target audience as the  two other game's as it does have the contents of blood and violence but the actual age rating for this game is 12+.  

    

HA3 Task 1 - Game Genre and Game Profiles

Game Genre: Multiplayer Online Battle Arena  

I chose this genre because it is the genre i relate to the most because the genre of the game that i am addicted to is in this genre. This game genre allows you to play with other players online hence the word multiplayer.
Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), also known as action real-time strategy (ARTS), is a subgenre of the real-time strategy (RTS) genre of video games, in which often two teams of players compete with each other in discrete games, with each player controlling a single character through an RTS-style interface. It differs from traditional RTS games in that there is no unit construction and players control just one character. In this sense, it is a fusion of action games and real-time strategy games. The genre emphasizes cooperative team-play; players select and control one "hero", a powerful unit with various abilities and advantages to form a team's overall strategy. The objective is to destroy the opponents' main structure with the assistance of periodically spawned computer-controlled units that march towards the enemy's main structure via paths referred to as "lanes". Notable examples include Defense of the Ancients (Dota), League of Legends (LoL), and Smite.

3 of my examples are:

• League of legends: is a strategic multiplayer online battle arena video game set in a fantasy world. To win you must destroy the enemy teams' Nexus (heart) which is protected by towers in the centre of their base.

• which has over 100 characters you can play as. the maximum level you can get is level 30 but when your playing with your character the maximum level you can get is level 18. When you start your account will have nothing at level 1 and as you progress to level 30 they will allow you to unlock spells which your character can use in game at level 4 they will give you 400 RP which you have to buy with real money but you don't have to. you can choose 1 map out of 3 to play in in one map you can only play as a five and on the other you can only play as a three in the map there are lanes, Top lane, Middle lane and Bottom lane but there is another called jungle but it's more of a job than a lane. 

This is a cinematic trailer for 2014

                                       

This is a game play of the champion called ashe

• Smite: is a third person action multiplayer battle arena (MOBA) video game. In Smite, players take on the visage of a mythological god and take part in arena combat, using powers and team tactics against other player-controlled gods and non-player controlled minions.

• Players are formed into two teams, with three to five players to each team. All players begin at opposite sides of a map at their team's 'fountain'. Before the players enter the map, they are granted an amount of gold (usually 1,500) to buy starting items. These items grant SPECIAL BONUSES or abilities that enhance the player's god. There are one to three continuous 'lanes' running from one side of the map to the other. Each lane is defended by a 'Phoenix' which is accompanied by a pair of extra defensive towers. Phoenixes and towers deal a large amount of damage to any enemies that come too close. The goal of each game is to destroy the opposing team's Phoenixes and the Titan, a giant warrior who must be defeated to win the game. The players are accompanied by 'minions', small soldiers with a weak attack; these minions spawn at the Phoenixes every thirty seconds and run along their lane until they meet opposition and attack immediately. Minions will attack not only players and other minions but also towers, Phoenixes and the Titan; in fact, their presence is required for players to deal full damage to these objectives.

This video is a First look video showing you how the game is played.

• Dota 2: Dota 2 is a 2013 multiplayer online battle arena video game. Dota 2 is played in discrete matches involving two five-player teams, each of which occupies a stronghold at a corner of the map. Each stronghold contains a building called the "Ancient", which the opposite team must destroy to win the match

• Dota 2 is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game in a three-dimensional environment, presented from an oblique high-angle perspective. The player commands one of 110 controllable character "Heroes". Each Hero begins the match at level one and becomes more powerful by accumulating experience points through combat, thereby leveling up to the maximum level of twenty-five. With every level gained the player either selects a new ability for their Hero to learn or enhance their general statistics. Each Hero's method of combat is influenced by its primary property: Strength, Agility, or Intelligence.

This is a short game play video of Dota 2

This is a full game play video of Dota 2

I chose Smite and Dota 2 even though i haven't played because their genre and game play was the same as my the game that i know by heart. 

LINKS

Smite logo: http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Ffr.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FFichier%3ALogo_Smite_2013_.png&h=0&w=0&tbnid=cqs0Sv-F3JNk9M&zoom=1&tbnh=130&tbnw=387&docid=0YWrexV7YksMzM&hl=en&tbm=isch&ei=hfVZVLLhM-vdsATbv4KoDg&ved=0CAcQsCUoAQ

Smite info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smite_(video_game)

Dota 2 info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dota_2

HA2 - Task 1 – Construction Analysis

Genre (what type or category of games are they?).

The Last of Us: Survival, Horror, Action-Adventure.

Just Dance: Illuminating, Rhythm, Simulator, Entertainment.

 Content (what do they look like and how are they styled - words, images, colours, fonts?).

The Last of Us: Inhabitable due to a virus overrunning the city, the buildings are in ruins, dark because it’s genre is horror.

Just Dance: Bright and colourful so it’s eye catching, the title is bright so it gets a lot of attention.

 Construction (how are the games built, what is the story and interaction?).

The Last of Us: 3^rd person game, smooth and clear, follow story.

Just Dance: Mimic, you copy the dance moves, shallow, interactive.

Codes and conventions (what do you expect to happen in such games and what symbols are used?).

The Last of Us: Emotional, cut scenes, drama

Just Dance: gain XP by successfully executing dance moves, on demand

Modes of address (how do the games talk to you?).

The Last of Us: Informal/ intimate, puppet master, narrative story line.

Just Dance: Informal, guide/ interface,  

Target Audience (who are the games aimed at?).

The Last of Us: 16-25 or for people that are into horror.

Just Dance: young people or for people who like to dance or people who want to lose weight

 Constraints (what is stopping the developers creating exactly what they want?).

The Last of Us: PEGI 18, there is a lot of violence and gore and blood

Just Dance: PEGI 3 

HA1 Task 2 - Applying Research Techniques

Quantitative research 
For my quantitative questionnaire i asked 20 random people about the Latest GTA 5 it gave me demographic results because the questions asked them where they lived and my results show's that half of the people i asked were female and half were male.  

Qualitative research

For my qualitative research i asked 10 people, 5 males and 5 females the questions asked what they like about the game, who their favorite protagonist is and why and what they would do to improve the game.

Conclusion

What did you find out from the exercise?

From my quantitative questionnaire i found out that 50% of the people i asked were casual gamer's, 10% were non-gamer's and only 40% were hardcore gamer's. For the first question 50% answered male and 50% answered female also by asking them where they live i got demographic results and as expected Northwest got the most percentage out of the other ten choices.

From my qualitative questionnaire i found out that most of the people that i gave the questionnaire to thought that the look of the game is good and for the third question where it asked who their favorite protagonist were most people wrote Trevor purely because of his background.   

Were you surprised by any of your findings or did they turn out as you thought they would?

I actually wasn't surprised for the results because in this generation anyone can basically play any game they want even if they are not of the right age. But i was surprised by how many females answered that they like the freedom of killing people for question two. I expected that most of the people would like the game because it's fun to play and it's got violence also you get to choose over 3 characters to play with and the missions you get for each protagonists. Also another reason was the fun that they have shooting people and not get chased by the police, well at least not in real life.  

Would you have changed the way you worked if you were to do it all again?

If i was to ever do this exercise again i would properly explain to people what they have to answer on that question, for example the first question it asks "Do you like the look/style of the game?" most people only said yes and no and i only got one proper sentenced answer which said "The look of the game is OK i suppose" if i want more answers like this if i was to do it again i would ask people "why do you like it?" because then i would more answers in sentence's.  

HA1 Task 1 - Research Techniques

Research Techniques

Quantitative Research:

This type of research gives you numbers for example if your doing a questionnaire the types of question's that would give you quantitative data are closed questions these questions only give you limited answers like yes or no, a question that gives you no freedom to answer in your own words. There are many methods to obtain quantitative data like surveys or questionnaires or phone pols

This is an example of a type of audience research this site shows how many people play it and the percentage of the gender. The image isn't very clear so here's a link o he site where i got the information from 
http://www.iabuk.net/blog/10-uk-video-game-audience-stats

this type of research would definitely be useful in the game industry because if they need to make a new game hey would want to know what people want but in a numerical and statistical point of view like for example if they were to ask people which game genre they prefer more this type of question would give them numbers and they will be able so see that 70% of the people they asked preferred fantasy over action. 


Qualitative Research:
This type of research gives you words instead of numbers it is the opposite of quantitative research if your doing a questionnaire the questions it would ask for your opinion questions that ask for your opinion are open questions. There are several ways you can obtain qualitative data you do a questionnaire or set up game discussions sometimes they also do focus groups like the video below. The focus group below shows that several people specifically mothers are being questioned about what they think about the game Dead Space 2.

I think that this type of research is very useful for both media and games industry because after releasing a game they would want to know what people think about the product they have released and they get the data they need through game reviews and questionnaires. This process goes through out the whole production process like for example at the start  of the process they would want to know what people would like in the product that hey will be releasing.



Audience profiling:
What is audience profiling? it is a task that that all media institutions need to do when the are creating a new product that will be launched in the market it can be a magazine, film, album, website and etc. When defining an audience, the factors that will have to be considered are:

Age, Gender, race and sexuality

Education.

Occupation.

Annual Income.

Disposable income.

The NRS social grade or National Readership Survey is to classify readers, but are now being used by many organisations for wider applications and are mostly used for market research. They were developed 50 years ago and they got widespread usage in 20th century Britain. 

The grades:
these qualifications are based on what the head of the household has got. There are 6 grades and along with it are 6 social classes or status's

Psycho-graphics is the study in Personality, Values. Opinions, Attitudes, Interests and lifestyles and the market is divided into these 6 social class groups. Whatever the type of product or brand that an individual purchases it will reflect on that persons characteristics and living pattern. The grid below is a list of different types of people.      

Geodemographic is creating an audience profile for a specific geographical location. Like for example London being a busy city with more people and financial district may enjoy games like COD and Fifa more than those people living in the rural countryside.

Audience profiling is useful to games publishers and developers because through geodemographics this they will be able to find out which Games are popular in which area of the country so then they will be able to make games based on the games that are played more in that location and also by using psychographics the games company can set the prices and where the games will be displayed based on what living pattern and characteristics most people have, demographics describe who your customers are and psychographics describes why your customers act as they do.