GTA V campaign questions

1. How long before release did the GTA V campaign begin? Two years.
2. How did the institution want existing GTA fans to react to the early trailers? Rockstar wanted to focus primarily on the hard core fans to 'drum up the hype' about the release of the trailer, which shows that Rockstar wanted fans to rapidly spread the news through word-of-mouth.
3. How did the steady release of trailers build excitement and hype about the game? The trailer allowed hard core fans to actively hunt for information on the internet. Also, trailers were reported on the world's press including The Guardian and The Metro. Furthermore, this creates synergy between the two trailers due to Michaels unique voice.
4. How was the launch used to generate news coverage? Rockstar promised additional content, a prize raffle and merchandise for those that pre-ordered their game. Also, on the midnight launch, fans queued since half past nine and by the time midnight approached, the queue stretched right outside into the streets.
5. What effect did the strict embargo have on the audience? This removes the mystique surrounding the game; fans can now confirm or deny on the internet what vehicle features are available etc.
6. In your opinion, why was the campaign for GTA V so successful?

Star Trek Tasks

1) Pick out the five most significant aspects of the Star Trek campaign from the list above and explain why they were important in creating a buzz about the game.

Release date announced: This enabled the audience to look forward to the game.

‘Making of’ video released: Geeks will be interested in these types of videos (most of the target audience).

Game play footage on YouTube: YouTube users will be able to watch how the game is like.

Pre-order promotional boxes arrive in stores: Game available to be pre-ordered.

Interview with Brian Miller released: Information about the game is revealed.

2)Watch the following YouTube trailers and explain why they might appeal to an audience:

• Teaser trailer - Its showing different characters and settings from the movie.
• Xbox teaser trailer - Same as the above as well as a lot of action.
• Full trailer - Shows in-game action, flying space crafts as well as grotesque monsters.
• Comedy trailer with William Shatner - Has humour, showing the original Star Trek and stimulating music.

3) How many views did these trailers receive in total? 185,765

4) Why did the Star Trek video game publisher develop the marketing campaign over such a long time? So fans of the movie will know that a game will soon exist as well as be informed of any new information of the game slowly and the interest is slowly building up.

5) What other examples can you find online from the Star Trek marketing campaign? Print? Reviews? Broadcast? E-media? Do you feel the campaign as a whole was successful? I feel like the campaign was somewhat successful as a lot of thoughts been into it but the product and trailers were bad so the game was in the end unsuccessful. 

Final Case Study Research

Name of game: Flappy Bird

Release date: May 24, 2013

Institutions behind the game (game studio/publisher): Developed by  Nguyễn Hà Đông and produced by .GEARS Studios

Gaming platforms it is available on (e.g. PS4, PC, Wii etc.): iOS, Android

Print

1. What print adverts were used to advertise the game? Find examples and post them on your blog.

  

1. What key conventions of print adverts can you find on the example you have chosen? Product name? Font? Slogan? Central image? Colour? The name of the game as well as the logo can be seen. These are not print adverts as I could not find them but these are screen grabs of the game and they show the game studios name as well. The central image is clearly the logo of the bird.
2. Find three reviews for your game that were originally published in video game magazines. Are they positive or negative about the game? Copy and paste one quote from each review. 

Positive: To me, Flappy Bird game never felt like it was difficult by design. That's what makes it so markedly different from really hard games.

Positive: This is totally my new favourite game of all time. From now on when I think of fun, I think of this game. It's so addicting and playful and just great. The controls are as simple as they come, but non the less perfect. I love this game. One day I'll be aiming for a legit high score.

Negative: With derivative visuals, no sense of progress, no stats beyond scores, no challenges except Mario Bros-like tubes and no sense of real fun, Flappy Bird is cheap entertainment

1. Did your game feature on any video game magazine front covers? Find examples and explain why a front cover feature is so successful in promoting a game to its target audience.

Yes Flappy Bird has been featured in the magazine the Rolling Stone in an article named 'Flight of the Birdman'. The article featured exclusive detail of the creator Dong Nguyen and this was successful as nowadays Flappy Bird fans can have an idea of why it was taken down as well as information whether it will ever come back or not. The front image is;

Broadcast

1. Did your chosen game use a TV advert to promote the game? Embed it from YouTube if it did and explain how it fits the key conventions of a TV advert. Flappy Bird did not use a TV advert to promote the game.
2. Is there a game trailer on YouTube? Embed it on your blog and explain why it is effective in promoting the game to its target audience. The trailers on YouTube are fan made and are simple gameplay.
3. Can you find any other broadcast features on the game - interviews, launch party events, video reviews, clips of the gameplay on YouTube etc. Write about how they effectively promote the game to its target audience. 

This video effectively promotes the game even more because it shows the viewers how the game is played as well as the fact that the guy who made this video is 'Pewdiepie,' the most famous game commentator on YouTube which means that there are a lot of people watching his videos (over millions).

E-media

1. Visit your chosen game's official website. How does it attract and maintain the interest of its target audience? The official website for Flappy Bird is: http://www.flappybird.com/ This website maintains the intrest of the audience as it keeps them informed with the so called successor of flappy bird flappy john and tells new players all about the game.
2. Are there any creative or interesting aspects to the game's official website? There's a trailer to Flappy John as well as a link to download the game from.
3. Does the game have a YouTube channel? No.
4. Can you find any examples of user-generated content on YouTube that players have created and uploaded from the game? Embed any examples on your blog. 

1. How does user-generated content such as gameplay videos help to promote the game? The millions of viewers on YouTube watching that gaming video will see the YouTuber they like watching playing it so they might try it and even tell their friends about it.
2. How many 'likes' has your chosen game's Facebook wall had? 68,152 likes.
3. Choose five of the posts on the Facebook page's wall, screengrab them and explain how they appeal to the game's target audience.

1. What is your chosen game's Twitter hashtag? #flappy
2. How did the campaign use Twitter to promote the game? Flappy Bird was promoted by Twitter as there are so many hashtags for the game other then #flappy which thousands of people talk about such as; 

#flappy #android #flappybird #ios #ennuie #jeu #pire #horrible #2048 #me #we #bird #ı #record #they #new #you #happy #flybird #nice #tardis

1. Can you find any other creative uses of e-media to promote the game? This might include hashtags, competitions, Instagram, user-generated campaigns or anything else that is designed to draw attention to the game. There are a lot of users worldwide who make games similar to Flappy Bird like Flappy John for example to try to copy the game but they can't. This promotes the game as all of these fan-made games relate back to Flappy Bird.

Pre- and post-release

1. What was the game's release date? May 24, 2013
2. What is the earliest reference you can find to the game before the release date? Was it announced at a gaming conference (such as E3)? How did the publisher get a potential audience excited about the forthcoming game? There wasn't as the game was intended to make a few hundreds a month by the producer in Vietnam. It was only in early 2014 when the game had a sudden rise and topped the free charts in the US.
3. How did the institution promote the game after it was released? Word of mouth was the biggest aspect in Flappy Bird as people started to tell the friends which increased its promotion.
4. Does the game have any way of making the publisher additional income post-release (such as in-game purchases)? Yes as adverts in the game gave the developer even after post-release more income a day, in 2014, he got $50,000 a day before it was taken down on the 10th of February.

Other

1. Who do you think is the target audience for this game? Make up a potential target audience demographic and explain why you think it fits the game. What psychographic groups would be attracted to this game? Ages 18-40, both male and female, mostly Mainstreamers.
2. What else can you find from the marketing and promotion of your chosen game? A launch event? Stories appearing in newspapers? Celebrity endorsement? Scandal or controversy? There are no launch events for Flappy Bird but Kanye West did have his own version of Flappy Bird. However, there are many stories appearing on the news such as "Flappy Bird Game Withdrawn by Developer" or "Flappy Bird to return, says creator Dong Nguyen."
3. How does the campaign make an emotional connection with the audience? What is the audience appeal of the advertising campaign? The biggest emotional connection is that the game is super addictive. Players around the world have been seen playing 8 hours+ non-stop just to reach new high scores. This appealed to the audience as they had that feeling that they wanted to succeed to reach the highest score and to keep trying. 
4. Can you find any images of how the game was promoted in-store - displays, point-of-sale promotions, window displays etc.?

There aren't any images of how it was promoted these ways as this game is a mobile game but I found these:

 

Phone and tablet gaming: Candy Crush

1. How much money is Candy Crush Saga estimated to make each day from its users? Worldwide, Candy Crush Saga is estimated to make £610,000 ($1,000,000) per day from its users, according to App-data.
2. How does it make this money? It is one of a growing number that is free to download but generates extraordinary revenues by nudging addicted players into paying more to get gizmo's that help them progress through difficulty levels.
3. How many people are estimated to have installed Candy Crush? 500 million people have installed Candy Crush
4. Where do people play? Way to work, on trains, during breaks, afternoon tube etc.
5. When was the game released? April 2012 on Facebook.
6. When did it reach 500 million downloads? November 2013: Reaches 500 million downloads worldwide
7. Who is the typical Candy Crush gamer? The typical Candy Crush Saga player is a woman aged 25-45.
8. What percentage of gamers have spent money on Candy Crush, buying in-app purchases etc.? 25% of players have spent money on Candy Crush
9. What percentage say they are addicted to the game? 30% say they are addicted to the game
10. What is your own experience of playing Candy Crush? Have you played it? No I have never played Candy Crush but a lot of my friends do and I am interested in trying it out sometime soon.

Due to the Daily Mail article about Candy Crush addiction, it is clearly seen that the target audience for the game is for sure women aged 25-55 as seen by the following statistics taken from their article;

Women aged between 25 and 55 are the demographic most loyal to it

Lucy Berkley, 44, calls it 'crack candy' because she's so addicted

Jenni Weaver, 40, plays for eight hours a day

Steph Brophy, 37, said: 'It's taking over my life'

Women blow £400,000 a day playing Candy Crush, the most addictive online game ever

Planetside 2

1. What is Planetside 2? PlanetSide 2 is a free-to-play massively multiplayer online first-person shooter published by Sony Online Entertainment and released on November 20, 2012.
2. What genre does the game belong to? Massively multiplayer online first-person shooter game
3. Planetside 2 developer/publisher: Sony Online Entertainment 
4. When was it launched? November 20, 2012
5. How does the gameplay work? PlanetSide 2 is a re-imagining of PlanetSide, featuring the same world, factions and taking place at roughly the same time period. As in the previous game, it features territory control in an open-world, large battles featuring up to 2000 players per continent on foot or in land/air vehicles. The territory system differs greatly from that of the original, being more free-form and based on a hexagonal territory control system. SOE has been taking into account balance issues from the first game. As stated by creative director Matthew Higby, they reward combatants on lower population empires through mechanics such as proportionally increased advancement rates and resources to aid the balance of overall empire saturation on each server as much as possible without force-restricting players from being able to play with their friends.

1. What are the six different player classes in the game? 

• The Infiltrator is a sniper class with special abilities of cloaking and hacking, and can use sniper rifles, scout rifles and submachine guns to deliver a devastating effect.

• The Light Assault class is a scout who uses carbines, submachine guns and shotguns. The Light Assault's special ability is Jump Jets, which allow them to fly through the air for a short period of time.

• The Combat Medic is a healing class. Their weapons include assault rifles, shotguns and submachine guns. The Combat Medic's special abilities allows them to heal and resurrect other players.

• The Engineer class has the special ability of repairing vehicles, turrets, and MAX Units. The engineer also has the ability to build anti-infantry and anti-vehicle turrets. The Engineer's weapons include carbines, shotguns submachine guns and battle rifles.

• The Heavy Assault class has light machine guns, submachine guns, shotguns, batte rifles, and also Rocket Launchers, which are effective at destroying enemy vehicles. They also have the special ability of shields to help them endure heavy fire.

• The MAX class has a mobile armored suit that allows them to take significant damage before dying. However, due to the suit they are also the slowest class. They have access to anti-infantry, anti-vehicle, and anti-air weapons. Max units cost resources to use.

      7. What is the story or narrative to the game?  PlanetSide 2 is a science fiction massively multiplayer online first-person shooter set approximately 300 years after the discovery of Auraxis, although the chronology of the game universe starts a few years before. After the Earth has nearly come to ruin following a devastating war, the world's governments came to a consensus and united under one banner: the world-wide Terran Republic (TR). Some time later a wormhole, one which scientists fail to explain, appears and then disappears without a trace. Ex-President of the Terran Republic, Tom Connery, believes that the wormhole is a sign of existing extraterrestrial life and launches several space expeditions.

Business model

1. How much does Planetside 2 cost to play? PlanetSide 2 is free-to-play and includes a cash shop for players to purchase in-game convenience items and cosmetic changes using real money.
2. What does a subscription offer to players? The game also offers a subscription which provides players with increased experience, cert points, and extra resources, which are used to acquire things such as grenades and medical kits.
3. What can the in-game currency be used to buy? Increased experience, cert points, and extra resources, which are used to acquire things such as grenades and medical kits.
4. Why do some players dislike games in which users can buy additional weapons or health? No denying it. Is that 'buying power'? Well, that depends on your definition.

The three factions

The Terran Republic: The Terran Republic is obsessed with the preservation of law and order through violence, and are thus seen by some to be an oppressive force.

The Vanu Sovereignty: The Vanu Sovereignty believes that only through the mysterious power of ancient technology can humanity truly evolve its next state of existence. They are an advanced and cunning faction, employing powerful alien technology on the battlefield. 

The New Conglomerates: The New Conglomerate is unwavering and prepared to achieve freedom from oppression by any means necessary. Their colors are blue and gold.

Planetside 2: Target audience:

70% Male 30% Female, 16-40, BC1 class, lives in the city, has some qualification.

The Terran Republic: 25-35, A-levels qualification

The Vanu Sovereignty: 20-30, GCSE qualification 

The New Conglomerates: 18-30, Still in university or no job and no school

The Terran Republic: Mainstreamers

The Vanu Sovereignty: Explorers, Reformed, Succeeder's

The New Conglomerates: Resigned, Strugglers

Marketing Game 4: Planet of the Damned

I think that this game is aimed at young adults, ages 18-35 and mostly male (75%). The platform will preferably be on PlayStation or Xbox as well as the PC. The game will not be a never-ending game such as Planetside 2 because that will not be unique.

For Planet of the Damned, I will create marketing materials such as; prints in magazines, rent a channel point-of-sale in different game selling shops (HMV, Game etc.) in well-known places such as Westfield when the game is first released and send direct media to the people who have Amazon accounts for example and would like to receive information on new releases. Furthermore, I will have social media accounts like on Twitter and Facebook pre-release of the game as well as release trailers on YouTube. TV adverts will also be advertised during football breaks as the target audience will be similar, and billboards on the side of buses. On addition to the channel point-of-sale, I will also try to rent channel circulars on the Amazon homepage. 

To attract and inform the audience of Planet of the Damned, I will release trailers with three months gap from each trailer starting at nine months before the release of the game. Near the time the game is released, I will release three additional trailers featuring previews, in-game shots, an overview of the story, keywords to trigger an interest to the target audience as well as a scene with a lot of action going on.

As generating interest. I will stimulate the audiences desire in two ways, one is through the trailers becoming more and more near the release of the game. Another way is through screen grabs in social networking sites of in-game scenes of the game. This will allow the audience to have an idea of what the game is about.

I will promote audience action through specifically word of mouth. This is because out of the promotion methods, word of mouth is what I personally believe to be the most effective. I will use unique trailers and screen grabs as well as launch parties to arouse the interest in the target audience so they mention Planet of the Damned during there conversations with other people who have or have not heard of the game.

Wii Party Case Study

General research

When was Wii Party released on the Nintendo Wii?

July 8th 2010

Which developer/institution created Wii Party?

Nd cube. Nintendo SPD

How many copies has the game sold since release?

230,000 units 

Broadcast

What are the key conventions of a videogame TV advert? What would you expect to see in most videogame TV adverts?

homely scenes is the atmosphere of which the game is played at

How many of the key conventions you have listed above appear in the Wii Party TV adverts? List them with specific details from the Wii Party TV adverts.

The key conventions the advert is the use of music appearing along with a voice over.

What is the typical setting for Wii Party TV adverts? Why is that setting used?

The typical setting for the wii party is either an apartment or a family home.

How might the setting appeal to families?

This appeal to families because it represents all family members as a nuclear family; seeing as the 'perfect family'

What celebrities do the adverts feature? the use of JLS gives a sense of promotion to the fans

What do you notice about the celebrities' costume and make-up?

They're all wearing casual clothing which goes along with the theme of it being a homely setting that attracts to everyone.

Why do you think those particular celebrities were chosen?

because it appeals to different audience members of the fans of the celebrity 

What do the celebrities suggest about the Wii Party target audience?

They suggest that the target audience want to have a game to play with their family so they can interact and spend time with one another

What else can you learn about the Wii Party target audience from the TV adverts? Suggest a demographic profile: gender, age, social class etc.

The target audience's age varies from 5-55, therefore it appeals to both young and old people because its basic and fun for everyone to contribute.

What audience pleasures do the Wii Party TV adverts offer to viewers? Refer to Blumler and Katz's Uses and Gratifications theory when answering this question.

The audience pleasures the game offers the viewers is a source of entertainment, and being able to interact with other creating a common interest within the families; this goes along with what theorists such as Blumler and Katz created.

What examples of branding can you find in the Wii Party TV adverts - either for the game itself or Nintendo Wii?

The wii party is only made for the nintendo wii therefore it promotes the console, and encourages more people to buy it 

Do you think the TV adverts were effective for promoting the Wii Party game?

Yes because it allows you to reach out to a broader audience and make people who are not on any sort of social media aware of the game, and what sort of game is out in the market for them to appeal to it more.

Print

Find a Wii Party review from a magazine or newspaper. What does the review suggest about the target audience for the game?

www.nintendolife.com/reviews/ - suggests that the game is a 'huge hit in the house' for a 

family home.

Is the review positive or negative about the game? Copy and paste one quote from the review

to support this view. 

Positive - "Wii Party is more than a reason to get out your Gamepad."

Do you think magazine reviews are effective in promoting the game to Wii Party's target 

audience?

Yes, this is because magazines are read and purchased by people of all demographic features.

E-media

Visit the Wii Party website. How does it attract and maintain the interest of a Wii Party fan?

It is brightly

What do you notice about the people in the scrolling central image featured on the website?

Gender, race and ethnicity varies across all people across the photos.

How many times can you find the words 'friends' or 'family' used on the official website? Why do you think the website emphasises this aspect of the game?

http://wiiparty.nintendo.com/overview/ - The website wants to reiterate that the game is one which is playable by all audiences. 

What is the colour scheme for the website? What does this suggest about the target audience?

Pink and white are the primary colours and other featured are mainly bright versions of each colour. This could suggest that the target audience is more primarily of a younger age and maybe female, despite the videogame being playable by all ages and gender. 

Look at the 'Video Gallery' on the official website. What do the 'Invitation' videos suggest about the Wii Party target audience?

The target audience is likely to have plenty of disposable time. 

How many 'likes' has the Wii Party/Wii Party U Facebook wall had?

115 likes

 Wii Party does not have such a strong presence on other social networking sites. Why do you think this is?

Because it aims to appeal at a targeted market which doesn't involve on social networking sites too much, for instance, children and the elderly. 

Which platform do you think is strongest in promoting Wii Party to its target audience - broadcast, print or e-media? Why?

E-media because it remains to be the most accessible and flexible way for the target audience to receive promotional material which would interest them.