Video Game Regulation

How is the video game industry regulated and by whom?

(USA) - ESRB , Entertainment Software Regulation Board. They regulate and categories games into ratings such as C , E , E+ , T , M and A (Childhood, Everyone, Everyone +10, Teen, Mature 17+ and Adult 18+)






(Europe) - PEGI, Pan European game information, independently regulates games into ages ranges like 3 , 7 , 12 , 15 and 18. They also put games into categories and groups such as violence to file them into age ratings.









What are some effects video games are seen to have on players?

Positives: Boost memory, Improve hand to eye coordination, Improve social skills, Improve multitasking, Improve problem solving, Improve maths skills, Improves concentration.

Negatives: Increased aggression, Violence increase, Increase of Neglecting other people.

How is Minecraft regulated?

VSA distributes the PEGI age rating and classification regulation for the Pan European Game Information to independently review the game and choose the rating for it.

Minecraft Essay

Why and how was Minecraft a commercial and critical success?

Minecraft was originally created by Swedish game designer Markus “Notch” Persson in 2009 and released its first version on 17^th May 2009. It was made as a small open world 3D building game with a blocky aesthetic. By 2017, Minecraft has sold 125 million copies. The small indie game that was made as ‘online Lego’ has become a pop culture sensation and a hit all over the world. How did Minecraft become and stay a critical but more importantly, a commercial success?

As Minecraft released, it slowly gained a small but devoted following as they premise let the user’s imagination run wild and let them create whatever they wanted with a selection of blocks, gaining it the term ‘infinite Lego’. By June 2010, Minecraft has passed 20,000 sales and attached a small fee for playing, €10.00. By January of the following year, it had passed 1 million sales. By July of the same year, it had increased to 10 million registered users. Minecraft had blown up, because of 6 key reasons.

Firstly, it has infinite replay ability, meaning everyone will keep going back to it time and time again and encouraging people to play it as you can’t get bored by it. Secondly, it has a very strong and vocal community who would never turn their back on the game. Thirdly, it is platform agnostic. This means it isn’t locked to one platform, it started out as pc exclusive but very quickly branched out to all major consoles, phones and soon even smart TVs. The fourth reason is that it was aimed at a family market, meaning parents would be happy to buy it for their children, increasing sales. It also had no limit to genre, so you could make the game whatever you wanted it to be and you could play the game however you wanted to play it. Finally, Minecraft let you bring order to a wildlife driven and chaotic land, fulfilling the human instinct to bring balance and peace to the world.

Minecraft did not need big budget TV adverts or huge billboards to expose the game and make it a phenomenon, all it needed was word of mouth. Minecraft had a devoted following on YouTube which showcased what the game had to offer and what you were able to achieve in this limitless game. This attracted the younger demographics who actively watch YouTube, 8 – 13-year olds to try the game out. This demographic also jumped at the opportunity of merchandise for Minecraft like toys and books, events focussed around Minecraft like Minecon and game add ons such as skin packs and texture packs for the game. Through this vocal demographic, Minecraft started to spread like wildfire and became a commercial success.

By September 2014, the game had been released on every single major console with dedicated servers used to keep the game working and keep an active community happy and hooked every day. By this time, Minecraft had got too big for one little indie company, Mojang, to run and keep going. Therefore, on September 15^th, 2014, shortly after the Xbox one and PlayStation 4 versions of the game had been announced, Mojang and Minecraft were acquired by Microsoft for $2.5 billion dollars. This created even more buzz for the game and increased sales yet again as it encouraged users who had stopped playing to start to see what would change under the ownership of Microsoft and drew in fans of Microsoft who hadn’t yet played it to try it out to see if they liked it. Under the ownership of Microsoft, Minecraft became even larger, creating spin off games from the main game like Minecraft story mode, created by Telltale games, merchandising to a much larger scale as Microsoft has the platform and size to merchandise all over the world, and even increase the size of their annual events and conventions, making Minecon larger and announcing Minecraft related projects like the Hololens at Microsoft E3 presentation in 2015. In 2017, Minecraft continues to grow, and the audience gets larger every day.

In conclusion, Minecraft became a commercial success through word of mouth advertising, marketing the most profitable demographic, the kids and family groups and the eventual acquisition by Microsoft in 2014. Minecraft is a critical success from the millions of copies sold over its 8-year life span and its very pleased and enormous fan base.

Production, Distribution, Technology and Circulation of Minecraft

Notch Article

Minecraft Timeline

Minecraft Terminology

Introduction to Minecraft

Minecraft developed as online lego
Multi-platform
Open sandbox world
Started as an indie game
Critically + commercially successful
125 million copies sold , from indie to mainstream

6 reasons why Minecraft is so popular:

Infinite replayability, strong community, platform agnostic, kids love it (family game), not limited by genre and fulfills the human instinct to bring order.

How does Minecraft attract and maintain its audience?
Word of mouth, Adverts, Social media, interviews, Events, merchandising, spin offs, dlc, minecraft magazine and Mods.

Intertextuality - featuring nods to minecraft in different games and media forms (TV and films etc)

Production and Distribution of Radio

BBC Radio 1 Breakfast show playlist of the day 26/02/2018 : 

         

BBC Radio 1 Playlist of the week 24/02/2018 :     

 

From these two playlists, we can see that the playlist of the week gathers all of the frequently played music from the playlists of the day in that specific week and put them together into a playlist that the majority of people will enjoy. This caters for the mainstream audience but doesn't cater for the niche audiences , which playlists of the week B and C mainly focus on. 

How Radio 1 is targeting audiences and encouraging audience participation

Radio Podcast

·         What are the different responsibilities of presenters and producers?

Will Foster (producer) -

Fiona Hanlon (assistant producer) - Eyes on the equipment, making sure any callers in know what to do and what is expected of them. Constantly learning and needs a bit of guidance.

Nick Grimshaw (presenter) - Needs to be a relatable and nice guy, otherwise people wont connect with him

·         What preparation that goes into each programme?

Alarm at 4 am, In work by 5, The previous days work will be ready for todays show, looking through all the topical and up to date news, script made for each half an hour , a loose outline of what to talk about

·         What's most challenging and most enjoyable about working on the show?

Asking about guests or asking if we can get them onto the show. Celebrities asking if they can come on the show. Difficult guests can be boring, they don't leave the on for long

·         What are the team dynamics like?

Everyone has to get along and understand each other, good to have new members of the team like new producers as they bring in new ideas nobody has thought of before. Cant be hostile and has to have good vibe for it to succeed. Trust is absolutely key. WhatsApp group to remember stories they well talk about

·        How can you break into radio?

Exposing yourself to radio, seeing how it works , student radio, communication work and skills, directly approaching people already in the industry and asking them about things. Just keep at it if you get rejected at first by email. Get yourself exposed and get yourself out there. Get some experience. Figure out what you like about presenters on the radio and bring that into your work.

Radio 1 Timeline

Radio Research Task

Slide 16 :
Who was the first ever breakfast show presenter on Radio 1:
Tony Blackburn

List some other DJs who have presented the show:
Noel Edmonds, Dave Lee Travis, Mike Read, Mike Smith, Simon Mayo, Mark Goodifer, Steve Wright, Chris Evans, Mark and Land, Kevin Greening, Zoe Ball, Sara Cox, Chris Moyles, Nick Grimshaw

Find out a little bit of biographical information on Nick Grimshaw:
Radio and TV presenter who became known for his broadcasting work on BBC Radio 1 as host of The Radio 1 Breakfast Show. He began hosting the 10 p.m. to midnight shift on BBC Radio 1, where he was noted for his nightly feature 1000 Albums Everyone Says You Should Listen To But We Only Have Time To Play One Track So Here It Is.

What are the current listing figures for the Radio 1 Breakfast show:
The show recorded 4.93 million weekly listeners between July and September - down from 5.5 million last quarter.

Who is the controller of BBC Radio 1:
Ben Cooper

How is Radio 1 funded:
Its work is funded principally by an annual television licence fee which is charged to all British households, companies, and organisations using any type of equipment to receive or record live television broadcasts and iPlayer catch-up.

How does Radio 1 try and be distinctive:
Radio 1 tries to be distinctive as they try to connect to a younger audience and a younger demographic rather than the typical middle aged radio listener.

What is the difference between BBC Radio stations and commercial stations:
Commercial radio stations have many advertising breaks to garner revenue and monetary gain and broadcast radio shows to gain money however BBC radio get their money from the TV licence and follow their 3 key terms -  Inform, Educate and Entertain.