Video Games & Audiences

Applying theories to audiences.

Bell Activity

OGet your Video Games

Presentations Ready.

OOnce they are done we’ll take

two lucky presenters before

moving on to explore games and

audiences in more detail.

Today you will LEARN:

To research and develop a focus on the

importance of Audience in Video Games.

Why ? To improve your research and presentation skills and reflect on your knowledge of a key concept relating to the games industry.

You can …….evaluate the usefulness of your research into audience theory when selecting material to plan an essay response.

.

Progress will be demonstrated by showing

You can …….research and identify the key features of audience in relation to contemporary video games.

You can …….evaluate the usefulness of your research into audience theory in creating your own sophisticated written response to the genre / games issue.

Game - Target Audience?

• Who do you think the target audience is for your chosen game?

• Jot down a quick profile of the audience.

• Consider gender, age, ethnicity, socio-economic background, personality type.

• Consider the following Audience Theories, try to apply them and see if you can make your audience profile more ‘sophisticated’.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Where does buying & playing

Video GamesFit into

Maslow’s Hierarchy

of Needs ?

Audience – Social Value Groups

social value group characteristics

self actualizersfocused on people and relationships, individualistic and creative, enthusiastically exploring change, 'in a framework of non-prescriptive consideration for others' .

innovatorsself-confident risk-takers, seeking new and different things, setting their own targets to achieve.

esteem seekersacquisitive and materialistic, aspiring to what they see are symbols of success, including things and experiences.

striversattaching importance to image and status, as a means of enabling acceptance by their peer group, at the same time holding onto traditional values.

contented conformers

wanting to be 'normal', so follow the herd, accepting of their circumstances, they are contented and comfortable in the security of their own making.

traditionalistsaverse to risk, guided by traditional behaviours and values, quiet and reserved, hanging back and blending in with the crowd.

disconnecteddetached and resentful, embittered and apathetic, tending to live in the 'ever-present now‘.

Mainstreamers

Early Adopters

Audience – Social Class

social grade

% Pop. social status occupation

A 4 upper middle classhigher managerial, administrative or professional

B 23 middle classintermediate managerial, administrative or professional

C1 29 lower middle classsupervisory or clerical, junior managerial, administrative or professional

C2 21 skilled working class skilled manual workers

D 15 working class semi and unskilled manual workers

E 8those at lowest level of

subsistencestate pensioners or widows (no other earner), casual or lowest grade workers

Audiences & Consumersor Media Effects

• Hypodermic Needle Theory• In the 1930s the Payne Fund Study

proposed the Hypodermic model which said that the mass media has a very direct and extremely immediate effect on the general public, who accept the injected messages without question due to their passiveness.

Hypodermic Theory (cont.)• This theory tended to be applied to

products such as day-time soaps, tabloid newspapers, rap music, men’s lifestyle magazines, video nasties. These are produced by the ‘mass media’ and can affect lots of people.

• Some people react strongly against this ‘corruption’ and ‘moral panics’ ensue about the effects on the unemployed, mothers at home, children, poorly educated etc.

Uses and Gratifications Theory

• More recently Uses & Gratifications theorists Blulmer & Katz argued that people's needs influence how they use and respond to a medium.

• The same media text may gratify different needs for different individuals. Different needs are associated with individual personalities, stages of maturation,

backgrounds and social roles.

Uses & Gratifications (cont.)• This theory / model tells us that the

audience is using the media rather than being used by it. The consumer selects a particular piece of media to satisfy a particular need, be it escapism in a game, find out information, form relationships or daily gossip.

• Some people consume particular media to be identified with peer groups, or they are fans of a particular film or product.

Uses & Gratifications:Categories of Audience Appeal

Audiences tend to consume media for one, or more of the following reasons:

• Diversion / Escapism / Pleasure

• Surveillance / Information

• Personal Relationships (wasn’t X good

last night?)

• Personal Identification (oh that’s like me!)

Utopian Solutions (Richard Dyer)• Media Academic Richard Dyer expands on the Uses

and Gratifications theory and notions of escapism by suggesting that entertainment texts offer us Utopian Solutions.

• Utopias are perfect worlds.• Through films and games we can experience an

idealised world where we can see and do what we are denied in our real lives.

• Implicit in this is the notion that we all enjoy different forms of escapism.

• In some instances this is inverted. We play in dystopias to realise our world is in fact utopian by comparison.

Reception Theory (Stuart Hall)

• Context is key to our understanding of the message. Different people react to different texts differently. A viewer’s age, gender, social class, ethnicity, nationality all impact on our understanding.

• Dominant (Hegemonic) Reading – the preferred reading of the film / text, or what the author intended you to take from the film.

• Negotiated Reading – the viewer accepts much of what the film says, however, they negotiate certain elements of the text, not blindly taking all the message in.

• Oppositional (Counter-Hegemonic) Reading – the viewer rejects the message or ideology of the text. This is usually the case when the viewer is from a different background to the producer of the text.

Two Step Flow Model

• Katz and Lazarfeld developed a theory about Communications.

• First Step: Opinion Leaders (Film Critics etc) get information about a text from the mass media.

• Second Step: These people pass on the information and their opinion to others. Word of mouth carries this on.

Audiences by Age (Games)• PEGI 3

The content of games given this rating is considered suitable for all age groups. Some violence in a comical context (typically Bugs Bunny or Tom & Jerry cartoon-like forms of violence) is acceptable. The child should not be able to associate the character on the screen with real life characters, they should be totally fantasy. The game should not contain any sounds or pictures that are likely to scare or frighten young children. No bad language should be heard.

• PEGI 7Any game that would normally be rated at 3 but contains some possibly frightening scenes or sounds may be considered suitable in this category. PEGI 12Videogames that show violence of a slightly more graphic nature towards fantasy character and/or non graphic violence towards human-looking characters or recognisable animals, as well as videogames that show nudity of a slightly more graphic nature would fall in this age category. Any bad language in this category must be mild and fall short of sexual expletives.

• PEGI 16This rating is applied once the depiction of violence (or sexual activity) reaches a stage that looks the same as would be expected in real life. More extreme bad language, the concept of the use of tobacco and drugs and the depiction of criminal activities can be content of games that are rated 16.

• PEGI 18The adult classification is applied when the level of violence reaches a stage where it becomes a depiction of gross violence and/or includes elements of specific types of violence. Gross violence is the most difficult to define since it can be very subjective in many cases, but in general terms it can be classed as the depictions of violence that would make the viewer feel a sense of revulsion.

Audiences by Age (Film)The classifications, as published in the BBFC guidelines, are as follows:

• U – Universal, suitable for all.• PG - Parental Guidance (general viewing, but some scenes may be

unsuitable for young children)• 12 and 12A - Suitable for 12 years and older. No-one younger than 12

may see a 12A film in a cinema unless accompanied by an adult. No-one younger than 12 may rent or buy a 12 rated video or DVD. Responsibility for allowing under 12s to view lies with the accompanying or supervising adult.

• 15 - Suitable only for 15 years and over. No-one younger than 15 may see a 15 film in a cinema. No-one younger than 15 may rent or buy a 15 rated video or DVD.

• 18 - Suitable only for adults. No-one younger than 18 may see an 18 film in a cinema. No-one younger than 18 may rent or buy an 18 rated video or DVD.

• R18 – Restricted. To be shown only in specially licensed cinemas, or supplied only in licensed sex shops, and to adults of not less than 18 years.

Target audience - Recap

• After looking over these slides about a variety of audience theories, could you now give a more detailed profile of who you think the games’ target audience is?

• Please write up your profile.

• Compare your thoughts on games audiences to the articles ‘The Great(est) Escape’ by Steve Kennedy & ‘Dangerous Games Play, Pleasure and Panics’ by Steph Hendry.

• What similarities and differences did you discover?

Games & Audience Question

Qu. “Explore the different ways your three main texts target their audiences.” [30]

• Think which of the various audience theories makes most sense to refer to.

• Which of the four broad areas makes most sense to refer to:

• Construction / Marketing / Distribution / Consumption?

Games & Audience Question

Most answers will focus on the merits of the games’ construction:Narrative Genre Characters Stars/celebrities Language and mode of address Visual, technical and audio codes Links to websites

Some may look at how the INDUSTRY not text targets audience via marketing :Trailers Viral marketingMagazine features Social networking sites

Others may wish to look at how the games “sell themselves” because of the different models of consumption:Solo playCo-operative playMultiplayerCasual play

Few would make reference to the distribution of the game as it has little reference to the text with the exception of advertisings being built into online sales platforms which is institutional more than text based.

Games & Audience Essay

• Essay Question:

“Discuss the audience appeal of your three games in comparison to other game texts.”

• When answering this question try to bring in points about the games’ genre, the target audience, and include wider audience theories as possible.

• You may also want to consider any marketing strategies that you know your game producer has employed.