Representation of Race

Mad Men is a TV show that aires on the AMC network. It explores the inner workings and complexities of several men and women who work at an advertising firm in New York City in the 1960s.
What is notable is that a number of African-Americans have weighed in on the “Mad Men” phenomenon. Earlier this summer, there was a piece of the popular website “Double X” entitled “Why Mad Men Is Afraid of Race?” written by cultural critic Latoya Peterson that took the 60s styled drama to task for being hesitant to address the history of American racial conflict. Several days later, another journalist, David Swerdlick, a frequent contributor to The Root web site responded to Peterson’s column arguing that the show was very realistic in how it addresses the marginalization of people of color.

PEGI Ratings System

PEGI (Pan European Game Information) is a rating system that advises European customers, mainly parents, to what is acceptable for a certain age range and content is included in a game. Here are the age ratings and their content:                                                

                                                       

Suitable for ages 3 and over. May contain some violence in a comical context (ie. very mild cartoon slapstick), but otherwise should be age-appropriate for young children.

Suitable for ages 7 and over. May contain occasional violence to non-realistic fantasy characters or elements that could frighten younger children.  

    

Suitable for ages 12 and over. May contain course language, violence in a fantasy setting, mild sex references and innuendos, or gambling.

Suitable for ages 16 and over. May contain explicit violence, strong language, sexual references or content, gambling, or drug use.

Suitable for ages 18 and over. May contain graphic violence towards defenseless people, scenes of a sexual nature, drug use, or gambling and discrimination.






For developers, the result of these changes is that they now know what age rating their game is likely to attain before they submit it for rating. This allows them to adjust or alter content accordingly. Also, in the past, retailers treated PEGI as if it was legally enforceable, – even though they were only advisory – but sometimes this presented problems for retail as an awkward customer who could demand a PEGI rated game be sold to him even though he might be under the age restriction on the packaging. With the new law, all the PEGI 12, 16 and 18 ratings become legally enforceable, which means those games must have a PEGI rating to be sold legally. And just like games that required a BBFC classification in the past, it remains illegal to sell those to someone younger than the rating indicates. That is not new, but it includes a larger group of games.

Game Distribution Task 1

1.Who will be the distributors for GTA V?
The distributors for GTA V will be Take Two Interactive which is an example of vertical intergration

2. Who are the distributors for Skylanders Giants?
XPEC Entertainment are the distributor for Skylanders Giants

3. Who were the distributors for the original Angry Birds game on iPhone?
Chillingo were the distributors for Angry Birds

Top 20 Game Chart

This chart shows the top 20 games platform games. As you can see, EA and Ubisoft dominate the chart with three games each, Activision, Nintendo and Bethesda Softworks have two games each whilst all the other publishers have one game. It shows the Ubisoft and EA rule the roost when it comes to gaming because they have 3 games between them in the top 5. Assassins Creed III has the top spot this week. I think part of the reason it is number one is because it is an established franchise and in result would sell more. 

Synergy and Symbiosis

Synergy is the merging of companies that work together to benefit each other rather than working individualy. The word is used quite often to mean that combining forces produces a better product.
The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects. Cooperative interaction among groups, especially among the acquired subsidiaries or merged parts of a corporation, that creates an enhanced combined effect.

Symbiosis is when companies work together to create different products for a lot more profit. For example, Rovio created Angry Birds for the Ipod and they would then distribute it to another company so they can make Angry Birds toys e.g. Hasbro. They would share profits.

A good example of symbiosis is the way Mountain Dew have brought out a design that coincides with the release of Halo 4. The bottles look like they belong in the Halo universe because of the luminous design. Here is a picture:

Skylanders Giants

Skylanders Giants is going to be the biggest kids game of the Christmas season because it has everything that a child ever wanted in a game. It has fun, excitement, cool and inventive characters and it has toys. Lots of toys. The way it works is that you buy the toys and then you import them into your console using a base that has an illumines circle in the middle. You put the toy on this and it has imported onto the game. It is a wholly original idea and a fantastic one too. 
Giants brings some new things to the party though. Firstly there are eight new Giant Skylander characters that are physically larger toys, light-up when on the Portal and offer new gameplay mechanics. There are eight new normal Skylanders that have a Wow-Pow and switchable upgrade paths. There are eight light-up Skylanders that glow like the Giants when on the portal and have a special Smart Bomb attack when brought into the game. Finally, there are 24 returning characters from the first game that also have a Wow-Pow and switchable upgrade paths.

Zynga and Social Games

Zynga was founded in April 2007 by Mark Pincus. Zynga's first game, Texas Hold'Em Poker, now known as Zynga Poker, was released on Facebook in July 2007. There are 333 million users and 72 million daily active on the games that Zynga create.

How Does Zynga Make Its Money?

Zynga makes money in many ways. They sell what is called 'virtual goods.' For example, if you were on Farmville and you wanted more land, then you would buy this land using the online store to purchase it with your credit card. Another way they make money is advertising for other companies. There are three ways to of advertising: banner ads, video ads and product placement.

Banner ads usually surround the page. They are the biggest part of advertising revenue for the social gaming industry because the games generates so many views. They have a CPM of about $2.

Video ads are the ad format with the most revenue per view. They are priced either by a CPM of $35 or cost per completed view.

Product placement is were a brand places itself into a game somehow. For example, McDonald's had included in-game goods. Starbucks had an in-game quest which was to collect all the ingredients to make a Frappuccino. 

My Gaming History

My Gaming History

I have been playing games since 2005. My brother (who is 18) got a ps2 when he was 10 but I didn't really play on it. There was a game that I enjoyed watching him play which was called Sly 2: Band of Thieves. I got a Nintendo DS when I was 10 which was fun. I got Mario Kart, Super Mario Brothers and Animal Crossing. Good times.
I actually didn't get a proper console until Christmas which was the Nintendo Wii. It came with Wii Sports that I played for a bit until I got Mario Kart with the wheel that you play it with. I couldn't get fully used to it so I just used the controller and the nunchuck. I also got Super Smash Brothers Brawl and Animal Crossing: Lets Go To The City which I played for roughly ten hours a day. I also got Super Mario Galaxy which is probably one of the best games I've ever played.
My brother got an Xbox 360 in 2007 and xbox live a year later. The first game I got in to was Halo 3. I completed the campaign on legendary which was an achievement (in both terms). The multiplayer was a completely new experience for me because obviously I'd never been on it before and the possibilities that it opened up for online gaming was amazing. I did play Call of Duty but only online, not the campaign.
The next game I got in to was Halo Reach. It was kind of the same but it had more advanced multiplayer and graphics. I still play it because there is nothing else to play.
I forgot to mention I had Nintendo 64. Again, I only played Mario games because nothing is as good on nintendo.

Rockstar Studios

 - Rockstar Japan - started in 2005 and still exists today, this is responsable for localisation of rockstar games and products in Japan.
 - Rockstar Leeds - started in 2004 and still exists today, this was formally known as Mobius Entertainment, based in Leeds, England. Specializes in handheld games and was also responsable for the microsoft windows version of L.A Noire
- Rockstar Lincoln - started in 1999 and still exists today, previously known as Tarantula Studios, based in Lincoln, England.
 - Rockstar London - started in 2005 and still exists today, took over the production of Manhunt 2 when Rockstar Vienna closed
 - Rockstar New England - started in 2008 and still exists today, based in Massachusetts, developed Xbox 360 and PC Ports of Bully
 - Rockstar North - started in 2002, based in Edinborough and previously known as DMA design, famous for the Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt Franchises
 - Rockstar San Diego - Started in 2003 and still exists today, previously known as Angel studios and is responsable for RAGE system featured in Red Dead Redemption

Introduction

My name is Liam and this is going to be my AS Media blog