This article looks at how GTA has spent so much money they spent on the game, marketing and how much they made through sales. the release of GTA would make £1 billion in the first sale, but this was all due to the clever marketing and when it was marketed. GTA released the trailer to the game 2 years before the game was released, this was unusual as games are usually released a couple months or a year max before it is released, but GTA did something totally different.
Using the hashtag #GTAV, Rockstar started posting links to their website where they revealed the logo for the game, styled like a banknote, so as to give fans the first clues to the bank heist theme. The following day they posted a countdown to the trailer that was to be launched on 2nd November 2011. It was through small hints and clues like this that allowed GTA to get so many sales, whereas if they released the game without warning, they wouldn't have made as many sales as not many people would of known about the game.
MM40 - pg.12
This article looks at "Play, Pleasure, and Panics" of gaming and films, reading the article it showed that there is a lot of explicit, violent, and sexual content across these platforms. This has been evident through games such as Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. They have a range of different violent aspects such as killing, vast amounts of blood shown, torture.
For example, a shooting in Holland in April 2011 was linked to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and a French man retaliated against an in-game stabbing by actually stabbing his gaming opponent. Many research studies have been undertaken in this field. Some findings appear to suggest that games can heighten violent traits, normalise violent acts and can be a catalyst for violence when combined with other factors – personality disorders, environmental pressures etc. Ferguson’s study in the area states that media texts have a weaker level of influence than the other factors cited whereas Kooijmanns gives more credence to the direct influence of gaming on behaviour. Some see gaming quite differently; and there is an argument that violent games can relieve stress and dilute violent impulses as the player acts them out in a safe, non-destructive environment.
Dyer’s Utopian Solutions the first theory worth bringing to bear in unlocking what video games offer is Richard Dyer’s utopian solution theory. This has a relatively simple premise: entertainment texts offer audiences a utopian or perfect ideal that they can access through media consumption. This ‘utopia’ is in contrast to the imperfections and difficulties audiences face in their own social lives. In short, escapist texts offer quick wins and rewards that fix the gaps in our social and emotional needs. In real life, clear rewards are rare and much harder fought for.
Dyer’s Utopian Solutions the first theory worth bringing to bear in unlocking what video games offer is Richard Dyer’s utopian solution theory. This has a relatively simple premise: entertainment texts offer audiences a utopian or perfect ideal that they can access through media consumption. This ‘utopia’ is in contrast to the imperfections and difficulties audiences face in their own social lives. In short, escapist texts offer quick wins and rewards that fix the gaps in our social and emotional needs. In real life, clear rewards are rare and much harder fought for.
According to Dyer, the predominantly male audience is offered an energetic escape from the sedentary lifestyles that most males are involved in their place of education or work. Likewise this allows male audiences a means of asserting dominance upon a virtual battlefield with their tactical movement and skill in handling virtual weaponry. The rewarding of this dominant and physically capable behaviour is a means of the audience becoming the most masculine male they can be. This is a form of masculine self-actualisation.
Rockstar’s Manhunt was banned in Australia, New Zealand and Germany for the charge of sensationalising violence and indulging torture – but what authorities missed was the game’s Orwellian temper, with an omnipresent dictator (an ex-film director) forcing the player through a series of ‘scenes’ for his snuff film. The repugnant acts of violence, rated on a 1-5 scale for audience satisfaction, is clearly mocking of a Big Brother culture, and the game’s bleak social commentary means that the violence is supposed to be barbaric – our emotional investment depends on it. Largely misunderstood, the game was even removed from UK GAME shelves in 2004 when it was implicated in the murder of Stefan Pakeerah – recalling the earlier blame of Child’s Play 3 (Bender, 1991) in the torture and murder of James Bulger.
Rockstar’s Manhunt was banned in Australia, New Zealand and Germany for the charge of sensationalising violence and indulging torture – but what authorities missed was the game’s Orwellian temper, with an omnipresent dictator (an ex-film director) forcing the player through a series of ‘scenes’ for his snuff film. The repugnant acts of violence, rated on a 1-5 scale for audience satisfaction, is clearly mocking of a Big Brother culture, and the game’s bleak social commentary means that the violence is supposed to be barbaric – our emotional investment depends on it. Largely misunderstood, the game was even removed from UK GAME shelves in 2004 when it was implicated in the murder of Stefan Pakeerah – recalling the earlier blame of Child’s Play 3 (Bender, 1991) in the torture and murder of James Bulger.
All of the above articles are from Rockstar Games, Rockstar Games are the company that are also behind GTA, as they have been part of many games that have had a negative or have been very explicit in what they show, could show a trend between the violent games that are released and who is releasing them. On the other hand, as Rockstar Games have been a successful business for so long they know what their customers want in games, thus they have reason to release, such as GTA and Manhunt.
MM40 - pg.28
Conventional media theory such as Blumler &Katz’s uses and gratifications theory provide rather broad ideas about how fictional texts offer escapism for their audiences, transporting them to a different emotional place and diverting them from the mundanity of their real lives.
When the experience is taken online, players can take their virtual selves online and achieve real-world dominance over their friends in a virtual environment. One of the reason why computer games are popular with the parents of gamers is the safety of masculine expression it offers their children, compared to the dangers of old fashioned group play from days gone by – boys used to play 20-a-side football in the street back in the 1950s – it’s nothing new. In this way, online play is offering communal activity in an increasingly fragmented society.
Maslow’s Hierarchy a second theory that offers insight into the needs of video game audiences is the consideration of the human needs of the audience as outlined by Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs. In Western society most of our ‘lower order’ needs are met: we have food, shelter, we are healthy and we have the support of our families. However, the upper two categories of self-actualisation (becoming the best we can be) and the resulting self-esteem and praise by others can only be met by individual action and achievement of socially recognised goals. As we explore each genre of games in turn, we will see how computer games offer audiences ways to access these needs easily through play.Now we have some tools to use, we can apply these to the experiences offered by some of the most successful gaming genres that have dominated the market over the last few years.
MM40 - pg.28
Conventional media theory such as Blumler &Katz’s uses and gratifications theory provide rather broad ideas about how fictional texts offer escapism for their audiences, transporting them to a different emotional place and diverting them from the mundanity of their real lives.
When the experience is taken online, players can take their virtual selves online and achieve real-world dominance over their friends in a virtual environment. One of the reason why computer games are popular with the parents of gamers is the safety of masculine expression it offers their children, compared to the dangers of old fashioned group play from days gone by – boys used to play 20-a-side football in the street back in the 1950s – it’s nothing new. In this way, online play is offering communal activity in an increasingly fragmented society.
Maslow’s Hierarchy a second theory that offers insight into the needs of video game audiences is the consideration of the human needs of the audience as outlined by Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs. In Western society most of our ‘lower order’ needs are met: we have food, shelter, we are healthy and we have the support of our families. However, the upper two categories of self-actualisation (becoming the best we can be) and the resulting self-esteem and praise by others can only be met by individual action and achievement of socially recognised goals. As we explore each genre of games in turn, we will see how computer games offer audiences ways to access these needs easily through play.Now we have some tools to use, we can apply these to the experiences offered by some of the most successful gaming genres that have dominated the market over the last few years.
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