Industry questions
These focus on how the videogame industry is structured, and how it is a specialised industry and differs from other media industries. These kind of questions are asking for cold, hard facts, and in-depth knowledge and understanding of the industry.
An example of an industry question is In what ways does the videogame industry use specialised forms of production? Make reference to the Assassin's Creed franchise [12]
Audience questions
These questions will either focus on how producers target and position audiences, or how audiences can respond to media products.
An example of an audience question is In what ways do the producers of videogames address the needs of both mass and specialised audiences? Make reference to the Assassin's Creed franchise [12]
In both instances, you will have an excellent opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of how the industry works, and this post/lesson will give you the means to include this.
What makes games a specialised industry?
Videogames, like any form of media are totally different from any other industry. They are a specialised industry, and they exist to make money in the most effective manner possible.
-interactivity
they ask the audience to interact with the product, video games often start with this screen to completely break down the fourth wall from the start. when you watch a film you identify and observe the main character, when you discuss them you say 'what did you think when they...' 'i liked when they said this...' but in video games there's a very different approach 'i got to level three last night' 'i got lost and had to look at a walkthrough'
this offers audiences many uses and gratifications.
-huge expenditure of resources
AAA games use huge amounts of money, workers and talent to be made, even finding and employing these takes casts expenditures of money, the biggest video games productions are huge business risks for companies.
-much higher RRP (recommended retail price)
as a direct consequence of the huge expenditure of resources video games have a much higher RRP.
this game is pretty much more expensive than any other media product, and most other video games are. you're looking at paying approximately £50, but the pricing sinks down fairly quickly.
they're expensive because of the huge expenditures, hours of play you get and the fact it's always been expensive- you used to have to buy cartridges and hardware.
-significantly longer length
a series of the sopranos are in total 10 hours long, a film is anything between an hour and a half and two hours long. but you can hundreds of hours of a game.
-a dedicated, 'core' target audience
there's a perception that video game players are hardcore and skilled, there's a huge stereotyped audience. with other forms of media much broader assumptions are made, everyone watches films, everyone watches tv.
-games developed for specific hardware or released multiplatform
This makes video games different from pretty much any other industry. there's current generation consoles (PlayStation 4, Xbox one, Nintendo switch). You can't play a PlayStation game on an Xbox. you see this slightly in the film/tv industry- Netflix, prime, Hulu. a lot of games released particularly more recently are multiplatform but if you want to play gears of war you need an Xbox one, or if you want to play persona 5 you need a PlayStation 4.
E3 and the role of trade shows in the videogames industry
Videogame production
how videogames are typically produced and marketed by major studios.
in what ways do videogames represent a specialised industry? how do they differ from other media?
The production of every media product can be split into three basic sections; pre-production- before something is made, production- when it's actually made, post-production- final editing and tweaks.
With video games there's much less distinguishing between each phase but there is difference.
Pre-production
concept art
Often one of the very first things done in video game pre-production is concept art. the purpose is to sinpire the designers when they actually start making the game, it creates a shared vision within the studio. back in the 80's the concept art would look completely different from the final game, but these days it's actually closer.
design
often studios will have a game development book or a development bible, it can be a few pages or hundreds pages worth of content. it will often include notes, complete descriptions of every location and character, the narrative from start to finish. this allows everyone working on the game to work from the same rulebook, so it's very important- it allows consistency.
Production
coding
coders put together various forms of computer language to add the mechanics of the game into the game. video games are made by people doing very long hours behind computers using complex maths
testing
you need fresh eyes on the game, testers are employed by video game production companies in order to rake through video games and make sure there are no bugs. testers look for bugs and issues and go though the code to show what needs to be fixed.
Alpha and beta builds
the alpha build is the rough cut of a video game, where there are issues and things don't always work. the alpha build is one that can be tested and played, and after the bugs have been eliminated they can move onto the beta build.
the beta build is the one before the final build, where everything has been fixed and it's pretty much polished, but there might just be a couple more issues. often the beta build is the one sent to journalists.
sometimes, if a game is particularly anticipated, the beta build is leaked which is a huge issue as it doesn't reflect the full quality of the final product.
there can be years of difference between the alpha build and the beta build.
Post-production
patching and maintenance
after a video game has been completed, it doesn't stop there. developers used to just release it and if there was an issue that was that- there's a couple of examples of very high profile games with huge issues.
but now, thanks to digitally convergent technology, it is possible to patch video games after their release, developers can make adjustments based on data and player feedback. they will adjust the game balance (difficultly level) and it can be released on a patch which people download and add. this leads to a situation called 'day one patches' where games are shipped basically unfinished and players will have to download a massive patch. patches often become a necessity with video games working to extremely tight deadlines.
Marketing and promotion
electronics entertainment expo (e3)
after the video game has been made it needs to be marketed and promoted, possibly the most famous form of marketing video games is the electronics entertainment expo, it's a major industry event and to go you have to be involved in the video games industry to go (ideally as a journalist), lots of trailers are shown and reviews are written by journalists attending. e3 is an extremely competitive environment, there are huge audiences, screens and props.
the videos released to e3 are assumed to be incredibly big news and people will stream the event etc to see them. Assassins creed trailers shown at e3 make or break the game. the whole purpose is to build hype around their games- links to fan theory.
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