Preparing for the Magazine - Component 3

Magazine Prep.

• The name of my artist is 'nadiya'.
• The artist represents the social group of young women and thinks that this type of representation is important.
• The artist doesn't like to think of themselves as a star, just a regular person who makes music.
• They are going to wear indie makeup and clothing similar to the music video.
• The artist is targetting a niche audience of 18-34 year olds, all genders and who enjoy indie rock, they will do this in the magazine by 
• The magazine interviewing the artist will be a hybrid genre of music and entertainment, it will be an independent magazine.
• The lexis and mode of address of my artist, will be casual and sometimes formal because again, they see themselves as a regular person.
• The intertextuality the artist will reference is those seen in the music video.
• The artist's ideological beliefs which they believe everyone shoud follow is being your own person and independent.

Research 

• Using abstract cover and double page spread.
• Using perhaps a film style imagery inspired by indie music videos.
• Using inspiration and references to the music video, by location or props.
• Adbusters.

Videogames 10 - Playing games: alternatives to the mainstream

Playing games - Alternative

Alternative games that are different to the Assassin's Creed Franchise:

The Silver Case 1999

• The genre of the game is an adventure visual novel and psychological thriller videogame.
• The narrative of the game is perhaps confusing at first to the audience, fans of the game may join forums and interact with other people to dicuss what the narrative is about.
• The audience interacts with the game firstly by entering their name into the game, at first the mode of address can be confusing as you are unsure of who you are meant to be and where you are.
• The game appeals to a niche audience, the videogame is indie and alternative, on metacritic it is quite low in score based on reviews of mostly mainstream media compared with a high score of users.
• The preferred reading of the game is perhaps someone who is the oppositional or negotiated reading of most AAA videogames, as niche videogames can create a different style and feeling to the audience and may be more intersting to them.

Mushihimesama 2004

• The genre of the game is an arcade, shooter videogame.
• The narrative of the game is levelling up , with increasing difficulty, there isn't much of a large story to follow. 
• The audience interatcs with the game by when the videogame was available in the arcades, the audience would go to the arcade and play, perhaps with other people such as friends.
• This game appeals to a niche audience as the game is indie and alternative, this game was originally in arcades so people who played it in the arcades will get nostalgia for the game and be interested.
• The preferred reading of the game is people who enjoy arcade games and may remember playing it in an arcade.

Pathway 2019

• The genre of the game is Strategy-Adventure videogame.
• The narrative of the game is forming groups and go across Morocco and North africa to defeat Nazis, the game is set in 1936.
• The audiences interacts with the game by picking the team they want to make and what path they want to travel down.
• This game appeals to a niche audience as it is an indie and alternative game, as well as people who enjoy playing strategy games we can further see this in the metacritic score that is quite low with mixed reviews.
• The preferred reading of the of the game is using strategy and being challenged, they may also prefer the simple pixel art style compared with the more realistic AAA videogames.

AER Memories of Old 2017

• The genre of the game is Adventure and open-world videogame.
• The narrative of the game is playing as the a girl named 'Auk', going on a pilgrimage with the ability to turn into bird exploring the floating islands.
• The audiences interacts with the game by being able to roam freely through the islands.
• This game appeals to a niche audience as it is an indie and alternative game, as the metacrtic reviews are quite low and mixed, some people may like the simple style of the game and storyline.
• The preferred reading of the game is someone who enjoys more of the visual and ambience of a videogame.

Videogames 9 - Fandom and active audience theory

Fandoms and active audience theory in videogames

Double mode of address - 

when a media product targets two different audiences at the same time.

                An example of this is the videogame series, 'Dark Souls', some fans will enjoy its                    difficulty and atmosphere and not care about the 'story', whereas other players who                 are seen as more 'hardcore' fans will analyse every aspect of the game such as fan                 videos to explain the 'narrative' and meaning.

• The video made by 'VaatiVidya', has made a techniqually accomplished and extremely well researched video because he is part of the audience of the double mode of address who are part of a fandom and are 'hardcore' fans of 'Dark Souls' who will analyse every aspect of the 'narrative' and meaning, this links to the Fandom theory by Jenkins, audiences can re-purpose the media product, in this case create the narrative which the game has no clarity of.
• The video addresses its audience as if he is telling a story, as he creates a narrative, the editing he uses is a voiceover clips of the game to anchor his explanations and story.
• The target audience of this video are fans of videogames and the 'Dark Souls' series, majority of the audience are perhaps other young men, as videogames are usually mostly targetted towards them.
• The video, 'Dark Souls 3 - Lore of the Main Bosses' by 'VaatiVidya' has almost 7 million views, the target audience aren't just videogame fans and 'Dark Souls' fans, it is also fans of the channel who will watch.

Henry Jenkins and fan theory

An active audience theory, fandom refers to a particularly organised and motivated audience of a certain media producer franchise, they aren't just an audience they are active participants in the construction and circulation of textual meanings. They then construct their social and cultural identities through borrowing and utilising mass culture images, may use this 'subcultural capital' to form social bonds.

Textual poaching - where the audience 'takes' what they want from a media product.

Multiple interpretations, multiple experiences in a media product like videogames.

Fan labour - often fans work extremely hard to produce professional quality material with no real remuneration, this may consider them no longer a fan to perhaps even a producer.

Manifestations of fandom - let's plays, fan edits, subreddits, cosplay, forums, fanfiction.

Online communities - audience/producer convergence, where audience members may produce stuff with the media product and interact with each other such as reddit, discussing about the media product such as videogames and show their art work or cosplay.

Participatory culture - where audiences 'get involved' with a media product through their own organisation and efforts, in a way which does not financially remunerated the owner of the media product.

Manifestations of the Assassin's Creed fandom

Videogames 8 - Assassin's Creed and reception theory

Assassin's Creed - Reception theory 

and the encoding/decoding model

Staurt Hall's Reception theory 

• Producer uses media language to encode messages and meanings within media products.
• Dominant or preferred reading
• Negotiated reading
• Oppositional reading
• The audience may agree or disagree with the ideology of the producer, mostly, audiences will negotiate the ideolgies and agree with some aspects but reject others.
• An active audeince theory.

The ideological perspective of the producer is encoded in every media product through media language, this demonstates a mediated perspective, which is a negotiated perspective, on reality and shows biases and assumptions of the ideological goals of the producer.

Unlike passive theories of audience such as Bandura's effects model, the reception theory argues that the audiences are active and can decode media messages in a variety of different ways, the audience may agree with the ideology (preferred) of the producer or completely disagree (oppositional). Some audiences agree with certain ideological aspects of the media product, while disagreeing with others - common reading (negotiated).

• The dominant ideological perspectives of the Assassin's Creed Franchise - violence is justified used to further a political or ideological cause, violence is an acceptable and enjoyable activity to stimulate in a videogame.
• The negotiated reading would be finding violence acceptable in some cases but the depiction of violence is very upsetting.
• The oppositional reading would be finding the videogame absolutely unacceptable in the depiction of violence.

• Ambient reading - when the audience completely misses the point of the media product. They may not see AC as a videogame and think it's real, or use it as a way to commit violence in the same way the videogame shows.

The issues with reception theory:

• Do all media products have a dominant ideology?
• Gauntlet (identity) and Jenkins (fandom) both suggest that audiences can largely ignore intended dominant ideological perspectives and interpret the media product in any way they want.

Negotiating the Assassin's Creed Franchise

• The ideological perspective of Ubisoft seen in the Assassin's Creed series are seen through the messages encoded, demonstrates to their audience about violence and looting being okay to do and fun in which you can interact with. The ideological perpspective of history being interesting to the audience and being able to interact with this.
• The preferred reading of the game would be someone who thinks that it is fun to kill and fight others on the game and agree with the ideological perspectives of the videogame.
• The oppositional reading of the game would think that the violence is unnecessary and and will completely disagree with the ideological perspectives of the videogame.
• The audiences can negotiate the ideology of the games by agreeing that you may have to commit acts of violence acceptable sometimes but the depiction of how violence is commited can be something they disagree with.
• The audiences may use this game in a way that Ubisoft may have not fully intended by pick and mix ideologies that suit them such as the history aspect of the game or the fighting, fans of the game may interact wth each other through other media.
• In gameplay videos, they are a negotiated reading as the audience can decide whether they want to play the game or not, and what aspects of the game that they like and don't like.

Videogames 7 - Videogames and effects model

Videogames and the effects model

The effects model - Albert Bandura - media has a direct effect on us, an assumption would be that representations of violence can 'model' or demonstrate violent behaviour and audiences 'copy' violent and socially unacceptable behaviour they see in media products. 

A flaw of this theory would be that there isn't much evideince that videogames causes violence or the direct cause of violence.

• When we consume a media product, we 'absorb' the ideolgies of the producer and change our own ideology and actions.
• This could be argued that this idea comes from WWII, with the Nazi Propaganda depicting Jewish people to be 'evil', perhaps making the Nazis have more reason to do horrible things to them.

• Bandura's theory can be proven from the 'Bobo doll' experiment which is when a child watches an adult hitting the doll in front of the child and the child will do the same. An issue of this experiment is that it is a doll, without much of a human shape, another issue is that the experiment was on children who are very easily impressionable, other vulnerable groups could be people with learning difficulties and people with mental health issues.

• AC presents a threat to the audience, both target, secondary and unintentional could be different to each audience, the game isn't realistic as you can see the speed you're going and text telling the player what you are about to do, perhaps younger impressionable audiences may see actions such as jumping from a high height and may do the same, however this links to a flaw in the theory.
• A flaw of the theory would be that it's highly unlikely that a person will go out and become an assassin, as the game is usually set in a historical period, it won't be as accurate from what they've seen.

• An example of a videogame is 'Doom' from 1993, which is a first-person shooter game where you shoot at demons, at the time of release there were a lot of criticisms of the game at the time and that the game was polluting the minds of the children however how would we know that it is suitable for children to play. This videogame caused moral panic as they worried people will become violent, with few criminal cases the game has been invloved in such as The Colombine Massacre in 1999, which the game was balmed for causing this. However this could be debunked as millions of people have played the game and this only represents the small number meaning that there must be other explanations.

• The issues with the effects model.
• Although videogames are resolutelty violent in depiction and problem solving, there is arguably no evidence that media products have such a direct effect on audiences, not including children and vulnerble people.
• The 'Bobo doll' experiement whicch this theroy is based upon is flawed as it uses children after watches an adult and not the relationship between media products.

• Alternatives to the effects model in which criticises it.
• Staurt Hall - reception theory - audiences receive media products in different ways in which they negotiate based on background.
• George Gerbner - cultivation theory - audiences are manipulated through repetition of ideological perspectives.
• Henry Jenkins - fandom - audiences can use or take pleasure from media products in any way they want, even if itcontradicts the dominant reading.

Videogames 6 - Repetition and difference: How will Ubisoft ensure that Assassin's Creed Valhalla minimises risk and maximises profit?

Ubisoft and AC Valhalla: minimising risk and maximising profit

The repetition and difference and the importance of genre in videogames.

• Neale - Genre theory - different types of genres, in order for a media product to be successful would be to repeat certain genre conventions to create familiarity, in this case the Assassin's Creed series, but also should offer something different to the audience can distinguise each game in the series easily.
• Hesmondhalgh - Cultural industries - videogames do things at minimum risk, knowing that it will gain maximum profit.
• Curran and Seaton - videogames are controlled by ownership, which is driven by power and profit.

AC Valhalla, will be successful.

• It makes intertextual references to other successful games
• Skyrim.
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
• Both these games are successful, and have Nordic settings and mythology.

• It demonstrates generic fluidity.
• It is open world and will include an aspect of multiplayer aspects, maximising profit as this is successful.

• It will repeat what made previous Assassin's Creed games popular.
• A niche AC audience who enjoy the historical aspect of AC, and has been praised for being accurate.

• It will come out on the next gen consoles and current gen consoles.
• Such as Xbox One and Xbox Series X and PS4 and PS5.
• Planned obsolete, in order for people to keep playing games.

Key Assessment 4

Key Assessment 4

Music videos - MEDIA LANGUAGE

Explore how the combination of media language creates meaning for the audience in the video to Riptide [15]

·       DAC -> D – audience A – media language creates meaning for the audience C – Riptide

Feminist theory, semiotic codes, camera angles and shots, lighting, generic conventions, intertextual reference, post modernism, representation.

PEA – representation of women – how the video represents a break-up.

In music videos, the audience are important as the producers try to create and advertise a meaning to a media text, and the media text is usually heavily influenced by the audience. One-way producers create meaning for the audience is using media language, in this case I will be looking at the music video, ‘Riptide’, sang by Vance Joy and released in 2013 under the genre of indie pop.

In the music video, ‘Riptide’, the video creates a meaning to the audience about women in the media, we see various women in the music video being sexualised, objectified, and made vulnerable, using various media language. In one scene, we see a woman tied to a tree with rope in a forest, this has the generic conventions of horror as she is made vulnerable with low-key lighting. A way in which we see the sexualisation and objectification of women is through the scenes where we see a woman walking but we only see her legs, this links to the Feminist theory by Zoonen about the objectification of women in the media. We also see another woman being both objectified and made vulnerable, in the scenes where she is under a spotlight singing, in each scene she has make up even more smudged and she begins to sing the words wrong creating irony in lyrics, ‘you gone and sang the words wrong’, with text saying, ‘you gone and sank the worlds wolf’, showing that she is fearful, in one scene she is holding her neck which has been cut however some scenes are jumbled showing the post-modernism theme of the music video. Overall, the music video creates the meaning to the audience about the representation of women in the media and in general by creating a hegemonic ideology.

Another way in which the music video, ‘Riptide’, uses media language to create a meaning for the audience about the artist’s break-up. We see hear this in some lyrics, in the video there is a scene with someone pulling two ice lollies apart with binary oppositions and a symbolic code and polysemic reading of a relationship being broken in the lyrics we hear, ‘and they come unstuck’. Another way in which we see this meaning being conveyed towards the audience is when we see tarot cards which are commonly used to predict the future, we see a narrative withing the cards, showing a joyful beginning, feeling trapped which could also link with the woman that was tied to a tree, ‘The Moon’ card meaning of confusion and making sacrifices and ‘The Hanged Man’ meaning the end. Overall, the media language used conveyed the meaning to the audience about the singer’s break-up.

In conclusion, the music video, ‘Riptide’, has used various ways in media language to create a meaning for the audience about women and their representation seen in the video and about break-ups.

 

Video Game industry - INDUSTRY

In what ways has ownership shaped the media products you have studied? Make reference to the Assassin’s Creed franchise [15]

·       DAC -> D- ownership A- profit and power C- AC Franchise

PEA – cultural industries – power and media industries

In the videogame industry it is common for a media product to have ownership which is a multinational conglomerate that develops the game. However, ownerships are usually driven by profit and power and can shape many of its media products to be not be truly diverse as they are targeting a mass audience. I will be looking at the Assassin’s Creed Franchise, a AAA videogame game franchise with an ownership of Ubisoft, a transnational videogame conglomerate which produces and develops Assassin’s Creed.

In the Assassin’s Creed Franchise, the owner, Ubisoft could be argued that their games have diversification with a range of games of different genre, however, their games target a wide and vastly different audience. Theorist, Hesmonghalgh, says that cultural industries will minimise risk and maximise profit, by making the games target a wide audience they are minimising the risks of having a niche audience and maximising profit of targeting a mass audience. This is seen in the Assassin’s Creed Franchise, they target a large audience of young adult men, despite with an 18+ PEGI, teen boys also play, with it becoming easily accessible from multimedia integration due to Ubisoft being a large conglomerate of maximising audience and profit. Overall, Ubisoft has shaped Assassin’s Creed Franchise to be high profit and low risk videogame by targeting a mass audience.

Ubisoft, the owner of Assassin’s Creed Franchise has shaped the game to be mass profit and minimising risks, this reflects the issues of ownership and aggressive conglomeration. Theorists, Curran and Seaton, says that media is controlled and driven by profit and power, this is seen in the Assassin’s Creed Franchise as in the past 13 years, Ubisoft has released 12 games in the Assassin’s Creed series. This will create issues of limiting the creativity and the games could be seen too repetitive, it also limits competition with only a few massive conglomerates which also limits the diversity of AAA videogames, with not much competition, Ubisoft may not strive to make higher quality games. Overall, the Assassin’s Creed Franchise has been shaped by its ownership, Ubisoft, to be standardised and generic with no risks and mass profit, saturating the market.

In conclusion, Ubisoft, the owner of the Assassin’s Creed Franchise, has shaped its product for the purpose of maximum profit and power, with minimum risks by targeting a mass audience, creating the problems of repetition.

 

Advertising - AUDIENCE

Explore how the WaterAid advert you have studied appeals to its target audience(s) [15]

·       DAC -> D- target audience A- adverts appeal to their target audience using … C- WaterAid

PEA – binary oppositions, showing the opposite of what the audience is used to seeing – direct address

In audio-visual adverts, the advert will usually appeal to its target audience, this is important because using a target audience will mean that the advert will respond positively towards that audience as producers of the advert will understand how to get attention from them. The advert I will be mentioning is the audio-visual charity advert for ‘WaterAid’ called, ‘Claudia Sings Sunshine on a Rainy Day’ in 2016 which uses different ways such as binary oppositions and direct address to appeal to its target audience.

In the ‘WaterAid’ audio-visual advert, it uses a scene in the beginning of something the audience will relate to and that is a stereotypical rainy day in Britain with modern technology of the radio, it then switches and there is an immediate contrast with dry grass and sunny weather with no modern technology laying music we hear humming instead. The advert has used binary oppositions by theorist, Levi-Strauss, by showing how different Claudia is living compared with the audience. This is further seen in the clothing and living conditions with no technology or modern buildings, Stuart Hall’s reception theory is used as the advert represents Claudia to live in poverty and lacking resources which Britain has, this may even make the audience feel guilty for taking what they have for granted. Overall, through using binary oppositions and representation it has appealed towards its target audience by perhaps guilt and comparison.

In the ‘WaterAid’ advert, the target audience are appealed using direct address, this makes the audience feel like they are being directly talked to. Near the end we see a scene where everyone is happy to be drinking clean water, Gauntlett’s identity theory is seen as the audience will see what difference they can make when they donate to ‘WaterAid’, anchored text, ‘650 million people don’t have access to clean drinking water’ telling the audience that their hep is still needed. The audience will also see, ‘Text Sunny to 70555’, the lexis is not vague and is not giving an option to the audience, if they want to text the number or not.

In conclusion, the audio-visual advert for ‘WaterAid’ uses various ways to appeal to their target audience by using binary oppositions and direct address to them how different their lives are with Claudia and are directly being talked to.

 

Magazines - REPRESENTATION

Liesbet van Zoonen argues that representations of gender are encoded through media language to position audiences and to reinforce dominant ideological perspectives. In what ways do the producers of Woman use representations to position their audiences? [15]

·       DAC -> D- representation A- media language C- Woman

PEA

Feminist theory

Front cover, adverts, article

In magazines, they use representation, which are constructed by the producers to reinforce dominant ideological perspectives and positions the audience to believe in these ideologies of the group being represented. However, the producers of a magazine will use a range of media language to reinforce these ideologies to the reader. I will be looking at the magazine, ‘Woman’, a magazine for women from the 1960s, I will be particularly looking at the 1964 23^rd to 29^th August edition, I will be looking at how they represent the gender group of women to conform to their stereotypes and their hegemonic ideologies.

In, ‘Woman’, you can see that the dominant ideological perspective of women is following the stereotype and gender role, which positions the audience to believe that they should do what the magazine is reinforcing. You can see this on the front cover of the magazine using a pink background, and calligraphy font masthead suggesting its feminine and for women. The masthead, ‘Woman’, it does not put women into a collective group, this suggests the magazine only shows what every woman should look like and do, with a dominant ideology, showing how patriarchal society was at the time. On the front cover, the model is the main image with direct eye contact and smile, making her look friendly and inviting, directly to the audience; she looks young and put together, reinforcing the hegemonic ideology of an ideal woman and what beauty is. We further see this hegemonic ideology of women further in the coverlines, ‘Alfred Hitchcock British women have a special magic’, the lexis used is a hermeneutic code for the pull-quote, which creates anchorage with the main image. The magazine reflects the insecurity of women which it has created, making women wanting to improve their lives to fit the ideology of women, ‘Seven star improvements for your kitchen’, ‘lingerie goes lively’, ‘Are you an A-level beauty?’, the use of lexis and rhetorical question uses superficiality of the representation of women, John Berger’s theory seen in ‘Ways of seeing’ of men acting and women appearing. Using various media language, the representation of women reinforces hegemonic ideological perspectives of how they should appear, positioning the audience of primarily women to believe this.

In the magazine, ‘Woman’, you can see the dominant ideological perspectives of gender in the advertising in media language, positioning the audience to believe in them and feel aspirational towards them. We see in the ‘Max Factor’ advertising to follow a woman putting on a makeup product and a man walking towards her. We see both hegemonic ideologies of men and women, the man is seen to be wearing a suit and looks like his wife is waiting for him after work as men were seen to be the breadwinner and the woman is wearing and putting on makeup to impress her husband and maintain her beauty and mostly femininity; this all reflects the patriarchal hegemonic representations especially seen in the 60s. Another advert seen is a ‘Breeze’ advert for soap, in which the woman is sexualised with only bubbles covering her, the lexis used is also suggestive with the ideology that women should be sensitive and gentle as well as being ‘all over feminine’. We also see patriarchal terms of lexis, ‘darling’, a colloquial term of endearment which sounds like a husband addressing his wife. Throughout the magazine, Feminist theory by Zoonen is seen from the objectification of women and being weak, the lexis in ‘Max Factor’, ‘softly and in ‘Breeze’, ‘kindly’. Using various media language, the representation of gender is seen through stereotypes and hegemonic ideological perspective positioning the audience to believe in these ideologies.

The article featured in ‘Woman’, uses dominant ideological perspectives to reinforce the representation of women and perhaps how women should appear. The article talks about the ‘mystery of British women’ and believes the ideology of women to look or act a certain way, ‘prowess as a cook never wavered and I’m convinced that one of the first signs of indifference in a wife is when her cooking suffers’, representing the housewife ideology of the 60s. Women are also seen as objects, ‘Perhaps it’s because I’m such a happily married man that I can look at women quite objectively, without emotion clutter up the view’. This links to Zoonen’s Feminist theory. Using primarily lexis in media language, the presentation of women is seen through the dominant ideological perspective of how women are seen and ow the audience should see women.

However, you could argue that in one of the articles about the kitchen, there is imagery of a mother teaching a boy to cook, which would go against the hegemonic ideological perspective of the wife and women cooking for the household.

In conclusion, the magazine, ‘Woman’, uses media language to encode the representation of gender, mostly women, in which the producers reinforce dominant ideological perspectives that position the audience of primarily of women to believe they should look and act a certain way, using Zoonen’s Feminist theory.

Exam Prep 1 - DAC intro

Exam Prep

• The introduction - DAC - definition, arguement and context.
• Underline key words in question.
• 'Knee jerk reaction' - decide on an arguement/ point of view.
• Plan. Write down all concepts, theories, ideas and examples to include.
• The introduction should sum up the answer you are about to give.
• When writing the definintion, if it's very simple like 'audience', then explain why it's important.
• When writing the arguement, state your p.o.v of the question.
• When writing the context, state the examples and their differences.

• The paragraphs - PEA - point, evidence, arguement, (theory).
• Final paragraph - 'however' paragraph, provide an alternative view towards your main view, but shouldn't be the main arguement and then centre your main arguement into your conclusion.
• The conclusion - no new information, it only sums up your arguement and re-state the arguement you've been making.

To what extent is the regulation of the videogame industry effective? Make reference  to the Assassin's Creed franchise.

regulation, PEGI, videogames, Livingstone and Hunt, BBFC, digital convergence

When regulating the videogame industry, the videogame industry needs to follow a set of rules and legal guidelines when setting an age rating, in which the audience decides whether it is appropriate for them or someone else, this is usually set by mostly PEGI. Regulation is effective in providing warning labels of what the videogame contains, however, I will argue that it is largely ineffective due to advancements in technology that games are now available digitally with easy access, making the videogame industry regulations not very effective. I will be using the Assassin's Creed franchise as an example as they also fall into having regulatory issues of an audience of young impressionable players and the videogames in the franchise having an age rating of 18+.

Videogames 5 - Regulation of the Videogame Industry

Regulation of the Videogame Industry

• Regulation of the videogame industry is largely ineffective, due to convergent technologies.

Regulation

• One way videogames are regulated are by PEGI icons of warnings of things such as, sex, drugs and violence. There are some icons which are vague such as bad language and fear. This usually makes the parent decide whether it is suitable for their child to play the game, they are usually the main consumers.
• Previously regulation was more vague, in Britain, the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) in 1989 regulated games, there were age restrictions and include some information of the game. It was usually up to the creator of the game to say whether the game was for adults or children could play too.
• In 2003, Pan European Game Infromation (PEGI) was introduced, it is similar to the BBFC but somewhat different. The age labels and content descriptors are warnings for maturity and how offensive the game is, this allows the parents to decide whether it is suitable for their child to play, there are no obligations on age restrictions and it is ony the advisory, the person working can decide whether to sell the game to the child or not.
• The BBFC would also used to sometimes regulate videogames if it had FMV (Full Motion Video), not every game featured FMV so some never gained an age certificate. For example, 'Resident Evil 2' from the 90s gained a BBFC certificate of 15 as it features FMV of scenes that could be harmful however 'Silent Hill', a psychological horror game include adult themes but doesn't have a certificate but ELSPA 18+ but would be considered more harmful than 'Resident Evil 2', also shops at that time would sell videogames to anyone who may be younger than the restriction however with the BBFC rating it would not be sold to anyone younger.
• Livingstone and Hunt - Regulation - Increasing power of global media corprations with rise in technologies and transformations in production, distribution and marketing of digital media, have placed traditional approaches to media regulation at risk.
• Consumer based content regulation - PEGI - informed choices of what it contains for audiences with age recommendations and content descriptors. This makes the consumer make a decison.
• Self regulation - For example, 'code of conduct', in digital distribution services such as YouTube, different form of regulation as it's an American company will be different to how it is in the UK, very ineffective such as a pop up box asking if you're 18+, anyone can click yes easily.
• The effective regulation of media products is largely impossible due to digitally convergent technologies such as piracy, the issues of legality and ethics, the revenue is taken away like copyright. Another issue is the issue of regulation not in just piracy but digitally downloading videogames from places such as Steam, where there are either no age restrictions or strict regulations.
• Regulation is important to protect people vulnerable to certain adult themes.
• Assassins' Creed - raises regulatory issues for the series as it includes violence and is based on murder and assassination being acceptable for usually a political goal, the game series uses a mixture of PEGI and BBFC ratings usually 18+. The regulation is then not effective with confusing ratings of a game in the AC series with a BBFC rating or PEGI rating, it also doesn't stop younger and impressionable audiences from playing the games such as digital convergence. The implications of this is regualtion of the videogame industry in the UK is highly ineffective.

Preventing harm

• Reguations are needed for protecting intellectual property or copyright and prevent harm.

Assassin's Creed: Odyssey - gameplay

• The material in the game that is likely to harm or offend an audience is the acts of violence especially it is seen more detailed in cutscenes such as the beginning, we see stabbings.
• I believe this game deserves an age rating of 18+ because the acts of violence can be seen as quite gory.
• I further reached this conclusion when you have to find and talk to the character 'Markos', in which you fight him and then kill him along with others in the area.
• Being an interactive videogame affects the potential harm and distress the game may cause as the audience or player controls the game and you have to assassinate and commit other acts of violence.
• The game tries to be inclusive and accessible to audiences from being available on multiple platforms such as Xbox, PlayStation, PC either in a physical copy or downloaded digitally.
• I believe the target audience of the game is young men, ages of 18 - 20s, however I could see young teenage boys playing it with regulations not being very effective from a middle class socio-background.

Videogames 4 - Ubisoft, media diversity, and economic factors in the Videogame Industry

Ubisoft, media diversity and economic factors in the Videogame Industry

Ubisoft and media diversity

• Ubisoft is a multinational (transnational multimedia corporation) conglomerate videogame developer.
• Ubisoft produces and distributes Assassins' Creed series and other triple-a (AAA) videogames.
• David Hesmonghalgh - cultural industries - media industries seek to minimise risk and maximise profit. Vertical integration - when a conglomerate owns more than one sector of  the industry. Horizontal integration - when a conglomerate owns more than one subsidiary in the same sector. Multimedia integration - using digital technologies to combine previously seperated industries. Ubisoft is both vertically and horizontally integrated, with a number of studios and subsidiaries.
• Ubisoft is the 4th largest publicly trade game company in Europe and the Americas.
• Established in 1986 in France.
• They publish and develop a range of games in different genres, targeting vast and wildly different audiences. They do this because it minimises risks and maximise profit.
• The game, 'Rayman', 1995, is a platform game, the USP was it was a high production quality game for a 2D game. This made Ubisoft more well-known as the game became popular.
• The franchise, 'Just Dance', is another popular game of Ubisoft with the USP of not having to be good at playing videogames, it is fun casual game targeted at families. Large range of music, usually popular, with regional pop music to gain a larger audience.
• Diversification - A media practice where an organisation will seek to produce a diverse or different media products to help them target a range of different audiences.
• Ubisoft has not only diversified in videogame genres but has vertically integrated into Ubisoft Motion Pictures, they have created such as Assassins' Creed film. It can create the audince of their existing players and fans of the franchise watching it but also create and target audiences which they haven't targeted before.
• Curran and Seaton - power and media industries - the media is controlled by a small number of companies primarily driven by profit and power. They argue that this creates a problem of media concentration that limits variety, creativity and quality, this is why more socially diverse patterns of ownership is needed to create more varied and adventurous media productions. Ubisoft's output and its diversity is arguably offers a standardised and generic product with a focus on mainstream, big budget development. No risk, and profit. This saturates the market such as releasing so many games in the AC series.
• Stagnation and reorganisation - Ubisoft has stated in Janurary 2020, to reorganise its editorial board to fundamentally create more variation in its games from weak sales and games becoming too repetitive and stale.
• The issues of aggressive conglomerisation, Ubisoft has pushed to gain mass profit by mostly minimising their risks such as releasing 12 games in the AC series in the past 13 years. This limits creativity, with releasing primarily similar games, it limits competiton as Ubisoft is so massive only the few massive conglomerates are the only competiton and also limits diversity, Ubisoft does release a variety of games however it targets mostly mainstream and large audiences.

Ubisoft - game examples

Rayman (1995)

• Platform game.
• Available on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation, MS-DOS, Sega Saturn, Atari Jaguar, Game Boy Color. Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DSi, IOS, Android.
• Target audience - Kids.
• The critical reception is seen as good, becoming a very popular game.
• The commercial successes include being the best selling Playstation game of all time in the UK and was awarded 'Best Music in a CD-ROM Game' and 'Best Animation' in Electronic Gaming Monthly 1995 Video Game Awards.

Far Cry (2004)

• First-person shooter game.
• Available on Micorsoft Windows. PS3 and Xbox 360.
• Target audience - 16 to early twenties, primarily men.
• Critical reception, metacritic score of 89.
• The commercial successes include selling over 730,000 units within 4 months of release and has released more games compiling a series.

Watch Dogs (2014)

• Action-adventure game.
• Available on Microsoft Windows, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U.
• Target audience - Men 18 to twenties.
• Critical reception, metacritic score of around 80.
• The commercial successes include selling 4 million copies within the first week.

Assassin's Creed: Unity

• The premise is set in Paris during the French Revolution.
• Available on PS3 and Xbox.
• Released in November 2014.
• It took 2 years to develop and costs around £25.
• The studio which developed the game was Ubisoft Montreal.
• The commercial success of the game was selling 1.59 million copies within the first week, probably making almost $50 million in sales in that week.
• There are special editions, a Bastille Edition, a Collector's Edition, Notre Dame Edition.
• RRP - £25.
• Critical reception, metacritic score of 70.
• The merchandise of the game include posters.