Cop2 - digital artifacts

for my essay i decided to create some drawings of how i think game characters should look now considering how many years they have been going so i went on to make my own version of mario and i started to age him so that in his final pic i have him in a wheel chair looking older and a lot less like himself so that it would come across from my essay in that thats how i think games have changed over the years by having the main charter change ever so slightly and then yet they still look young so when i came about making this happen i wanted it to look more real to the character iteself.

OUDF501 - Cop2 essay

How video games have changed through the years

This essay will be exploring the way in that game industry’s have changed and developed there ways of making and marketing styles through the years where its has become more widely open now for people to be playing games than in was back in the early days so whilst reading though I am going to try and explore both sides of the argument and then rationalise with both forms and then come to my own conclusion in where I think it is going and then where have believe it could go to make it a better system for the years yet to come when this point started to circulate in my head it was going around and around that I had to try and prove it in my own words how I think what is happening in the game industry today.

In the living room today game consoles are now a common thing but back when games started in  (1971). They only appeared in a few houses but now they have started to develop games consoles with a more sleeker look that can make it fit in with anyone’s living space like the Xbox one in there advertisement they state that the new next gen console that arrived in November 2013 in a lot of their press conferences also on E3 they mention that the new system will be able to fit and look more suitable for any household an that the new system will be more quitter than the Xbox 360 I believe this to be a marketable thing because that’s what consumers are wanting to get out of the modern day console so they have tried to give what’s the people want to them and this in my eyes has been done very successfully and its something that their rival company Sony had tried to do with the PlayStation 4.

The effect I think it has had on the games recently during the past few years games have been on a constant increase in price and then during the last year they have rocketed to £60 for most next generation games they are the only ones that can be played on the new consoles and this I feel is far too much if the economy is in a bad place at the moment why would the company’s charge so much yes it takes a team of at least 200 to make a game over a 4 year time period but this is far too much in my eyes they don’t need to be demanding this much off customers for their products id say if they could validate why it is worth this much then yes have people buy them but with how much they are earning compared to prices of games when they first arrived they where never as much as they are now the consoles where not as good and as high graphic content but its still far too much for people to be paying. 

What’s going to happen with games in years to come is I think that at some point they will be put up too high and then no one will be bale to et them so the company’s will suffer from not being able to sell any but then on the other hand they also have the trade-in section at stores where they will be sold for a lower price and that sometimes can help out company’s with things because the money they receive can go to the next load of triple A titles they have in the works but that all accounts for some of it they will have to make sure that when the time comes they can branch out into other forms of advertising so then it makes then get more publicity for their product they are selling.

When games started to immerge they where mostly implicated towards boys in there younger years such as playstation 1 and then on the other hand we had Xbox and this was all done by the marketing system’s used to make them more appealing for the younger boy generation and this came across really well in how they did this and how they made the games for instance when they made the games like tomb raider which came out in 1996 this game had a lot of mixed reviews where people where stating that Lara the main character had a lot of de feminising views on her that the creators had made her more of a sex icon than a actual woman in a game but what they people didn’t know at the tie this was the only way necessary to be able to make her look because at the time the 3D software that was used it make her look how she did wasn’t that compelling in how it could be used to create things yes you was able to make simple structures such as square buildings and then formations but everything at first had to be developed with that standard square then changes from like extruded so that you could manipulate the object in any way or form so you had the free range to make what you wanted but in the playstation one days it was very limited to what could actually be created and that’s why Lara croft came out how she did but in later renditions of her the 2012 version where you see Lara crofts new form she has came along a lot in how she has ben developed and crafted to look a lot less de feminising and lees like a sex icon for the younger and older generations of guys.

‘’Since her inception in 1996, Lara has been an action heroine who explores, solves puzzles, and yes, even kills. But she’s done so with over-endowed mammary glands and no hint of a good support bra’’ this is one statement made by carol pinchefsky in the article she reviews on tomb raider with Lara croft being a feminist icon she explains how in her eyes she has changed and been developed over the years to come out looking more and more different each time so that in the eyes of the viewer she isn’t seen just as a sex icon for people

Mario is a prime example of this and how I can show this is because how the games have portrayed the game theme that a damsel in distress has to be saved by the male lead role e.g. Mario this has been done in many games throughout the years and this has been done to an effect where it has become common in games for them to use it in games such as Spiderman or other Nintendo games there always seems to be a damsel in distress and this has been commonly used in films todays and it will be constantly used throughout the years Mario at first was seen as a guy game because of the sinarios that occur in the game where you the hero have to go though the odds to constantly save your princess from the dangers of death and this occurs in  all of the levels where you have to constantly get to the end of the level an you find out that the princess has been moved to another castle this is used to still have the archetype them running along in the story but Nintendo have done this still even in the recent releases of Mario brothers they still have the theme running along where you the hero have to travel many distances to save your princess from imminent danger but on the other hand this was done in the comic books as well over the years there has been many hero’s that have had to travel though and go through the odds to save their loved ones from danger and they are also hero’s such as batman and superman but they to also go thought the same type of danger. But when the games first arrives they where just seen as something fun but when you look closer at them you suddenly realize that they are all the same type of game that have been going since 1971 when they started to immerge when Mario bros first came out in 1983 it was seen as just an ordinary game where you the player have to jump over odds to get the damsel in distress but when this was used it came to good effect and is still used today in modern games and films of this era takes films for instance where the main lead has to go though the odds to save the world from instant peril and deaths but this is constantly used in movies like Hollywood blockbusters use in the lasts marvel film Thor  where we see a god have to go thought a lot of turmoil to save his realm and then to save his beloved planet earth from imminent destruction from the dark elder this was done to a really good effect by them showing a lot of angles in the story and plot from thors side and then the evil dark elders side.

Then again when we have games they also started to introduces blood and gore to them in games like mortal kombat that where more suitable for younger boy and older male generation but when they came out they didn’t specify that they had to be of a certain age group but this should have been done because eventually the game got banned because of how much blood and gore and violence was in the game people started to think that the game itself was responsible for kids and teens acting out at people and then they believed that s started to make then go dangerous things in society but we know that this cannot be the case because it has been proven that games do not cause people to act out how they do its something to do with how they are being told and thought . But then when the games started to introduce the age limit on them they started to make sure that only a certain age group could play them to ensure that if there was violence in the game only 18 plus aged people would be able to play them and this was done to quite a good effect on the marketing style of them because it make adults know that they shouldn’t be purchasing games that have the age limit on them fro their younger children yet it is still going on mums and dads are still buying games that are meant for the adult and children now a days ive seen people buying call of duty modern warfare for a child that was at least 9 years of age and yet the game retailers let them buy it and this shouldn’t cured in the world today games have a age limit on them for a purpose and this should still be kept to that purpose but people don’t use it to the right means necessary and this has to be kept at the right age group for the society we live in.

 Games that have used transmedia in them are using the game knowledge to the right effect like assassins creed they are being able to develop their story and much it in a lot more directions than they could if they where just making an ordinary game by doing this they can branch out to a lot more different means of telling it like films, games, comics, or their books they didn’t this really well after they realised the assassins creed 2 game they stared development in the ways of making the story last longer and they did this by having the games main story branch out into novels and then different games itself they made assassins creed 3,4 and soon to be released 5 but on the other hand when they do this it could be used to a better effect by having the games just stay how it was they could have made better alternatives on how to ensure it went on more with an audience today.

The game industry today have made sure that they have a lot of means to have people playing of all age group and also they have made sure they target both female and male players because when they had started it was mostly just a male audience but now with games such as just dance that’s mostly targeted at a female audience and younger teens its been made because they want to have people of all ages and also to have both male and females playing this has also been done well in the newest game grand theft auto 5 and how they did this was by having in the online part of the game being able to have the player choose if they want to either be a female online character by making sure this can be done it ensure that both players can have un and interact with the game itself and it should be used in more games because if they had the advantage of not just guys playing their products it would have them benefit more on the other hand rather than just having a guy audience playing it but when they do this it should make the game business move along at a lot more better pace than it has done in past years like with the recent console yes they did tremendously well at the first few weeks of sales but now they are having to slow down the pace and not a lot have been selling recently.

Then when we talk about games consoles we have the intend wii which is a great use of the fact they have ages of all groups playing it its been marketed not just to a male console but a family one where you can have people of all ages playing it’s a simple yet east console where you have a game sensor on the TV and the player has a remote of some sort and all they have to do is move it accordingly to what the game tells you and considering that games only used to be just hand held this was quite a really big jump forward yes the graphics of the games may still be abit behind but it is still a good part of using the family to a good effect of games don’t just have one person playing have everyone playing and joining in on the fun that you could have rather than just have it be one person have everyone in on the action at least.

In the end I believe that games and the consoles have changed a lot over the years either it be how they have used different marketing strategy’s or either it be how they have pushed to have all the family in on the game it will still be changing over the years to come and this is a good thing that it is getting developed further we don’t want to just have one person plaing it has to be a full family ordeal and not just for the males in the world like when they started developing games for women as well this was a big leap forward in gaming because it meant that it isn’t more of a guy thing an that was sexist in my view its good where we can have the whole family coming in to have fun and play and then join in so that the whole family can enjoy what’s happening plus when they start developing further this will mean that we have better games and also better consoles even one day we might have a console just for the female player I hope that this essay has maybe changed your view on how games and everything type of marketing style has changed over the years in games and also characters as well this was done by having a knowledge of what’s happened and will be happening in the days yet to come.

Bibliography

http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolpinchefsky/2013/03/12/a-feminist-reviews-tomb-raiders-lara-croft/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Bros.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassin's_Creed_II

www.google.com