Sheldon Media A level exam blog - Mr Bush

  1) Videogames: Henry Jenkins - fandom and participatory culture 2) Videogames: The Sims FreePlay - Language & Representation 3) Videogames: The Sims FreePlay - Audience & Industries 4) Learner response: OSP assessment 5) Videogames: Women in videogames & Further feminist theory 6) Videogames: Horizon Forbidden West - Language & Representations 7) Videogames: Horizon Forbidden West - Audience & Industries

 Your index should include the following: 1) OSP: Clay Shirky - End of Audience blog tasks 2) OSP: Influencers and celebrity culture 3) OSP: Taylor Swift CSP - Language and Representations 4) OSP: Taylor Swift CSP - Audience and Industries  5) Baseline Assessment learner response 6) OSP: Postcolonial theory - Gilroy and diasporic identity 7) OSP: The Voice - blog case study

 Audience Look at this YouGov blog on the console gaming audience and answer the following questions: 1) What statistics can you find for the number of male / female players for the major consoles? 71% for  male and 29% for  women for PS5 and 68% male   for Xbox and 32% for Women  2) What is the difference between 'hardcore' and 'casual' gamers - and which do you think would play Horizon Forbidden West? the “hardcore” – those who say they take video games seriously, or play competitively – are a minority, and one with the highest representation on the PS5 (19% ) and Xbox Series X|S (20%) . Casual gamers are most common on the Nintendo Switch ( 45% ), and the PC, where half of players identify as casual ( 51%) 3) What are the different reasons YouGov researched for why players play games? Which of these would apply to Horizon Forbidden West? dedicated gaming platform, and has other functions: while some will play graphically demanding titles like Red Dead Red...

 Language Introduction Read this review of Horizon Forbidden West in the Financial Times (should be non-paywalled but you can read the text of article here if needed). Answer the following questions: 1) Why does Guerrilla Games have 'a serious case of bad timing'?   it released its fantastic 2017 open-world role-playing game Horizon Zero Dawn than it was overshadowed by Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which launched a week later and turned out to be an all-time gaming great. Now just as it delivers an excellent sequel, Horizon Forbidden West, another phenomenon arrives on its heels to suck away all the oxygen, Elden Ring 2) What is the narrative for the original game Horizon Zero Dawn?  The games take place a thousand years after rampaging machines have wiped out most of humanity. Survivors have clustered into tribal communities who view relics of technology as objects of either suspicion or religious reverence. The dramas of warring clans are narrated alongside the tale ...

 Part 1: Background reading on Gamergate Read this Guardian article on Gamergate 10 years on. Answer the following questions: 1) What was Gamergate?  one of the first fronts of the modern culture wars, driven by social media, misogyny and the weaponised disaffection of young men. 2) What is the recent controversy surrounding narrative design studio Sweet Baby Inc?  people beleived Sweet Baby Inc is secretly forcing game developers to change the bodies, ethnicities and sexualities of video game characters to conform to “woke” ideology. They think that Sweet Baby has written and controlled almost every popular video game of the past five years. 3) What does the article conclude regarding diversity in videogames? Nobody is forcing diversity into games. Part 2: Further Feminist Theory: Media Factsheet Use our Media Factsheet archive on the M: drive Media Shared (M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets) or here using your Greenford Google login. Find Media Factsheet #169 Further...

 Audience Read this App Store description and the customer reviews for The Sims FreePlay and answer the following questions:   1) What game information is provided on this page? Pick out three elements you think are important in terms of making the game appeal to an audience. The category of the game - Tells potential audience what game type it is and what to expect. ages- shows how sophisticated or the tone  of what the game is going to be like  ratings/reviews - what other audience members think of the game  2) How does the game information on this page reflect the strong element of participatory culture in The Sims? It has the game review section at the bottom where fans can share what they do and don't like about the game  and what improvements need to be made  allowing  a new fan  to understand the game  system better or if the game is worth it or not. 3) Read a few of the user reviews. What do they suggest about the audience p...