25th October 2012

The Video Game Industry

Industry structure – The key businesses within the industry are publishing, development, distribution and hardware manufacturers (console makers Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft). The key issue to be aware of when looking at the industry is the complex interactions of the various companies. A company focused on one of these areas may also be active in others. Publishers often own all or part of a development or distribution company and the hardware manufacterers all act as publishers for their own 1st party products. This means that an independent development company seeking to do business with a publisher may actually be approaching the owner of one of their main competitors.
In addition the international nature of the industry means two publishers who compete in one territory can end up working together (one may distribute the others games) in another territory. Because of this it is very important to understand the existing global relationships when doing business within the games industry.

 

The 5 Most Important Computer Games Ever

5) Call Of Duty 4 Modern Warfare- i have chosen this game at number 5 because it was the first Call Of Duty game that really took off and that everyone had to have. Released in 2007, the game was available on all consoles such as Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii. The game recieved a score of 94% from Gamerankings and Metacritic making the game a big succes, it also became the best selling game worldwide for  2007, selling 7 million copies by January 19th and 13 million copies by May 2009.

4) Donkey Kong- This arcade game was released in 1981by Nintendo, the game is an early example of a platform game genre as the gameplay focuses on maneuvering a main character onto various platforms whilst dodging various objects. the 'jumpman' (since renamed mario) has to rescue a damsell in destress (since renamed pauline) from a giant ape named donkey kong, mario and donkey kong have become 2 of the most popular nintendo characters.

3) Street Fighter II- This game sold 200,000 copies and made the gross revenue the company made was 1.5 billion in 2 years. It was originally released in 1991 and is the sequal to an arcade street fighting game that was released in 1987. It ran on CP System Arcade Hardware. By 1994 the game had been played by at least 25 million Americans either at home or public arcades.

2) Space Invaders- This arcade game was released in 1978 and sold 360,000 hardware copies which made a gross revenue of 2.702 billion up to 1982. The game was designed by Tomohiro Nishikado and the aim of the game is to get through waves of enemies by shooting them down. When designing the game, the designer drew inspiration from popular media Star Wars, Breakout and War Of The Worlds.

1) Pacman- Released in 1980, this arcade game sold 400,000 hardware units causing a revenue of 3.5 billion up to 1999. Designed by Namco, the arcade game was first released in Japan on May 1980. Pacman ia often crdeited as the lanmark in video game history which makes it number one in my countdown of the top 5 most important computer games ever.

Upcomoming Video Game To Be Released

Call Of Duty Black Ops II

Ready to be released on the 13th November 2012, Black Ops II is the next game in a series consisisting of the highest demanded first person shooters. This game looks like is has focused on what was Black Ops biggest selling point, the Zombies, which to be fair is a good idea because it is what most people buy the game for. Treyarch look to have moved away from the original nazi zombies also, with the zombies just wearing standard rags. The storyline has been brought into consideration also, probably to cure peoples boredom after getting to round 30 and just killing themselves because there was nothing left to do, watching videos it look as though you complete some tasks in one area then hop on a bus to a different area to do more tasks which should keep people happy and keep them guessing as to what to do, also the fact that players can play 8 person zombies is an exciting new feature because although more players means more firepower, at the same time there might be such a thing as too many players to get in each others way or to hinder strategies.
         After watching the online multiplayer video, i can only really think of positives to it as it looks like the developers have thought of everything.... they have even included not using a primary weapon for the knifers out there. the new class layout gives us something to get our heads round and new gun attatchments means there are lots of variations to differenct Call Of Dutys. We even got a sneak peek at killstreaks which look to have more detail added with new killstreaks brought into the game. And before you ask, yes Treyarch have brought back the 'dive to prone' feature.

The Effect Of Changing Technology In The Game Industry

The obvious examples of changing technology are the Xbox Kinnect and the Playstation Move, and it looks like microsoft have had more success than sony in that department. The playstation move and xbox kinnect never really looked to take off because it meant doing something that most hardcore gamers arent used to doing, exercise, so microsoft and sony turned their attention to targetting the family market for their new products in hope for more success but i have to say i dont know any families that have purchased one so maybe new technology is not needed in the gaming world? maybe we dont need any new technology until it gets as advanced as to just thinking what to do so it does it on a games console, until then, i think gaming is as advanced as it could get.

14th October

The following is is my re-done worst paragraph on my recent essay about sexuality...

The director parts to show contrasts of the two sexualities for example at the start of the clip when the two women are stood together, the mirror that the women are looking into is very dirty which could connote the unclarity of maudes sexuality as she does not know if her feelings are a phase or if she has real feelings for the other woman. Also the different camera cuts throughout the clip fade into each other when Maude is on the screen whilst there are quick cuts whilst the man is on the screen, this connotes that Maude is very soft, calm and gentle whilst the heterosexual are very aggressive which shows the contrast. When Maude is painting the other woman, the point of view shot of Maude staring at her breasts connotes her desire to touch her but she cannot.

7th October 2012

Re-written essay on movie clip- Spartacus


There is a clear divide between the upper class and lower class even at the beginning of the scene, for example, the roman guards are dressed well whilst the poor men are dressed in rags. The only person that talks through the beginning of the scene is the soldier, could this mean that the poor feel like they don't have the right to speak? The poor men are all in a single file whilst being shepherded into the 'cage' which is implying that the poor men are dangerous when in face they are not. Also the fact that they are forced into the cage shows that they are treat like animals. The scene then goes on to the upper class people, and it shows them sat in relaxed positions whilst one of the men is playing with his jewellery which was a sign of how much money you had whereas the poor men had nothing which shows the divide between the two classes. The camera shot of the cage door opens shows just how the divide between the classes works, the poor men were in the cage in rags, the soldiers were stood higher than them from a low angle shot showing they are more important than the lower class while the upper class are all at the top of the screen in relaxed positions showing their importance. During the time they are fighting, the fighters have a lot of exposed flesh which shows their vulnerability of being lower class. The first death is built up with a massive climax of music such as drums and trombones, and when the man gets killed the climax has been and gone, a lot of tension has ended and the upper class just clap politely at the end which shows that they do not care about the lower class as they are treat as animals and objects. The protagonist in the scene has a shit of him through the black mans net which shows his vulnerability and the fact he is trapped. The two men are fighting for their lives whilst the upper class are talking amongst themselves which shows how they don't care about the lower class. During the second fight, the black man is shown to have more power over the protagonist in the fight as he has a bigger weapon, also the black man has a trident and a net which were typical fishing tools of that time which was a stereotypical poor mans job so the weapons connote the lower class lifestyle.when the black man wins the fight but rebels, the upper class shout at him to kill the protagonist, this connotes that the upper class expected the lower class to do everything they say. As the black man is climbing up the wall it is almost as if he is climbing through the social classes to get to the upper class however he is stopped as he is killed and to tie it up, the rich man stabs the black man with a dagger which backs up the assumption that we don't like the upper class.
The camera shots that are used in the scene show the divide between rich and poor because they show the poor through a different view, for example at the beginning the men are shown from a shot through a cage which connotes their helplessness and vulnerability. The divide between the two classes is shown when the camera cuts from the four poor people to the four rich people, we then can see the difference in clothes and facial expressions. Throughout the scene the camera is shown to stay with the protagonist a lot so we know who he is and what situation he is in, and also to show the fact he is lower class and how he is treat. We also see a shot through the eyes of the protagonist to show that he is the main person we are focusing on. There is a high angle shot from the rich looking down on the arena to show that the men in the arena are inferior to the rich people watching them fight, we are also always looking up at the rich, or down from the riches point of view so we understand their importance.
The sound in the scene also gives us clues to the status of the people involved, at the beginning the men are walking to the cage and we hear low trumpets which can signify war or loneliness which is how the four men would be feeling at the time- lonely. The music builds tension in the fights which connotes the fight that the lower class people have to go through to survive. There is also a change in music genre when we cut to the upper class, it becomes more of a melody rather than a tension builder.
The editing has been done to make the poor seem inferior for example they are always shot from high angle shots to make them seem less important and they have not been given decent clothing to wear as they 'do not matter'

3rd October

This is after we have finished our preliminary, we received constructive criticism from the other groups and the only real point that was put across was our obvious continuity error which we already knew about which in our eyes is a great success. One thing that sir did pick up on is that in our middle scene of Sav sitting at the table, our camera shot was a bit long so in the future we will aim to add more variety of shots in. I think we did 90% of things well as it all flowed, the music fit and I think our storyline worked well so we will also look to do a lot of things the same as we considered it to be a great success