Reflection on Final Presentation

After completing the presentation, I had a look through it again and found a few things that could have been improved or added, such as conducting interviews with people to get a thorough perspective in gameplay. Maybe using two females and two males speaking about their gaming habits will give a less vivid take on things which is what just a questionnaire does. We never specifically asked any females the main reasons why they didn't play console games and therefore leading on to what would appeal to them and what types of games do they want to play.

Other issues that I thought would have gave a better understanding as why male gamers are a lot more common is the type of characters used as I said in the previous blog. Females tend to play games with characters that are not life like as many games are. Also females on games are portrayed as the less important character or a sexy busty female. This also contributes to the factor of how many females chose lack of interest as a reason why they don't play.

There is also a technical side of lack of females engaging in gameplay. Whenever I am around my friends and we decide to play on the Wii, none of them know how to connect it to the television. This could be a reason why they don't play as they don't know how to set up. A popular answer to other games they play was Facebook games and mobile phone apps. These do not require any set up any downloading is simply going on to a website.

The prediction we made before the questionnaire came out the same as our results. This was a good start and set us off to start the presentation. We did get clear results and from the results came up with major points is lack of time and interest and the fact that the Nintendo Wii proved to be extremely popular.

Results from Questionnaires and Presentation

The results from the questionnaire came out pretty much how the group predicted, much less females play console games to males, females aged 15 and under are most popular with consoles games, females mostly chose the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS as their chosen console game and most popular game type was dance, adventure and platform. Males chose Xbox or PlayStation as their chosen console and sport and shooting games as their favourite.

We decided to concentrate on why Nintendo is so popular compared to any other console amongst females.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/multimedia/display/20091126143501_Nintendo_Wii_is_the_Most_Popular_Game_Console_Among_Women.html

This link shows that 80% of females in the US prefer the Wii against any other console; it also says how it was deliberate from Nintendo as they wanted to expand the market. They also did this by how they advertise the franchise, using people of all ages and both genders in their advertisements as well as how it is a way of bringing the family together.

This link;

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngaudiosi/2011/08/07/females-spending-more-real-cash-on-virtual-goods-in-video-games-than-males/

shows how more females spend more money than females on online social gaming. This was definitely a factor of interest but not as relevant as other points as the majority of these style games are websites.

We found a diverse range of adverts for console games and seeing how different they are from the actors used to music to colour. This advert here for the PlayStation 3 uses males as the main subjects and also the main character is a soldier. The colours used a very dark and grim. The male on the picture at the end is referring to a PlayStation user, who happens to be male.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdWkKKSckNk

The Nintendo Wii is using a totally different approach using brighter colours and concentrating on people talking and giving opinions how much they enjoy the Wii. Also uses a variety of range and occupation implying that anyone can play.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhoipFy-_NE

Getting Into Groups

After the class had seen all three briefs we had to choose one brief to answer. I knew it was the Rebel Play brief I wanted to do and luckily was able to do it. When we got into groups we spoke a little about what message we are trying to get across to Rebel Play and where do we start. So we came up with a questionnaire;

Questionnaire

1.       Gender                                                Male                      Female

2.       Do you play console games?                       Yes                         No

-          If Yes

3.       How often do you play (per week)?        Every day            3-6 days               1-2 days

4.       What games console(s) do you play?      Wii          Xbox      Nintendo DS      PlayStation

5.       What type(s) of game do you play?         Sport     Racing/driving   Shooting              Platform                                                                              Other(Please specify) ______________________

-          If No

6.       Why?                    Lack of time        Lack of interest                 Too expensive                  Other(Please Specify) __________________________________________________

7.       Do you play any other types of game? (iPhone apps, online games, facebook games, etc)

_________________________________________________________________

The reasons we chose these questions was they are simple and get to the point so, age, gender, if they play console games or don't, what they do play and reasons for why they don't. To make it a little more specific, we divided the questionnaires into three, 15 and under, 16-25 and 25+. This will make it easier to differentiate the trends in age as well as gender when it comes to what their preferences are to gaming. Our next step was to get the results and analyse the results. From the results we will chose how we want to answer the brief.

BBC Children

BBC Children came in asking this question, 'How can we create a safe environment for children online without discouraging participation?' This question quite tough as the BBC wanted the children on their website to have their own profile in which they can discuss and play games with one another. What came to mind was anybody can join the site and pretend to be a child. Another issue was to get the children to be motivated to create a page and log in, therefore I think there should be incentives for this such as, creating your own avatar, saying what your favourite TV show is and having extra footage or games for specific particular shows that interests individuals.

I have a lot of nieces aging from 1-9, I thought they would be great to ask as they hit the perfect age group fitting BBC's brief. The online game that seems popular amongst them is Moshi Monster, they are so eager to log in. Moshi Monsters is a website where a child can create a monster, name it and care for it. They also can grow crops in the garden take them shopping, like a virtual world for them and their new pet.

This format reminds me a lot of the famous Tamagotchi. This was like worldwide big, I remember how badly I begged my mom for one, and when I go it I was never off it. It is similar as it is like having you own pet which you can care for and is your responsibility. Children like these types of games as it gives them a new friend and essentially a responsibility making them feel achievable and caring. This is much more personal than having the typical adventure or puzzle games.

Rebel Play

Rebel came in asking this question, 'Do media platforms and genres have specific gender appeal? Why don’t more women play console games?' As soon as I seen this question I was quite drawn towards it being a bit of female gamer myself, not that I'm a hard core gamer, just occasionally maybe. I think this has been a struggle in most major and smaller gaming companies. On the other hand I know that certain games and consoles have been proven popular amongst female’s particular Nintendo consoles.

It is easy to say the gaming industry is largely dominated by males. From the way advertisements are portrayed to having male family members who love to play games. Sexism came to mind when I saw this question as the most popular games have male characters as the main or if it is female, the character is made to be really attractive and wearing skimpy clothing. Here are some examples.

  

In the Tomb Raider cover Lara Crofts face isn't even in the shot, just her body, chin and lips. This is portraying her as the body, athletic and fit, like her face doesn't even matter. The Grand Theft Auto cover is just 'gangster' looking men with buns, cars and women, these are all largely associated with men, like the Call Of Duty cover. It's just male characters in a warzone, again mostly men are in the army therefore will attract males rather than females.

My approach to this would be to find what age amongst females is most popular and find reasons why they do not engage themselves in gaming as much as males do.

Although Nintendo do have games like the ones above, it is largely based on a universal scale, approching the interests of people of all ages and gender, and now particularly families and advertising it as a social activity rather than being isolated.They also use many celebrities attracting a younger audience and mainly female as they use people such as Beyonce and the Saturdays.



Hurricane Films

Hurricane Films came in asking this question, 'How can you engage an online audience in storytelling? How do you encourage users, especially those from an older generation to participate? ‘My initial thought was, the older generation don't really use computers. I think is definitely the most difficult question that was asked as technology has advanced in the past decade making the younger generation computer literate, but the older generation not.

I did really enjoy the concept of the new approach, a great way of bringing people together. The first place that came to me for finding people of the older generation was a bingo club. This may sound odd but still a great place to interview people and hear their thoughts and stories. Most bingo goers are people from around the local area and mostly regulars. Each having individual stories to tell as well as sharing them together.

If I chose this question to answer I would definitely ask the people in my local area if they are interested in http://www.peoples-stories.com and if they could make an input into the concept. I live in Toxteth Liverpool which has a great history behind it, especially that it borders the city centre and the Docks. Like I said lots to talk about in Toxteth, maybe hear some thoughts on 'Welsh Streets' which are 11 streets in the Toxteth are which will be soon demolished, this caused somewhat of an up roar amongst locals in the neighbourhood as well as people around the world as it is the birth place of Ringo Star. Here is a picture of fans stood outside Ringo's former home;

Anyway, a little off point now. So a few ideas I had to engage an older audience was to use a more traditional format such as having a radio station or even a slot of a radio show. I had a quick look at the People's story’s website and it is very simple to use and clear to read, but maybe make it a little more social and each member having like a profile for themselves.