avg-week2

Week 2 - Games in the Media


 * Augmented reality - Edge & metro (nothing), Edge is rather poor for ?, Metro covers news/celebs/films/music/theatre/sport,
 * general - Herald can't handle games, Shortlist covers film/tv/music/tiny bit of games, Daily Mail
 * Daily Mail v Call of Duty - shock, horror, stupid parents/children, evil companies; DM hates other things too
 * despite games outselling most other entertainment products
 * how typical are gamers? - changing demographics
 * decline in newspaper circulation
 * BBC - games = 'trash', can BBC people understand games?, different terminology, cannot match stage sets to gamers expectations
 * websites - metro.co.uk links to otehr people's coverage,
 * radio 1 - mid-day coverage potentially good
 * **mismatch between trad media coverage and gamers (demographics)**
 * Star, Record and Sun cover games a bit but regularly
 * Gruaniad - does various levels of games coverage, but it covers everything; perhaps the best games coverage, Charlie Brooker, handle games well as games as it is a liberal newspaper
 * why is 12A game sex 'terrible' compared to 12A movies?

People talk to their audience? Or ...


 * interweb -newspapers/BBC are the same online, but general tech is better, no regular games reviews, credibility gap with gamers,
 * trustworthy to gamers - other players, specific websites, more anarchic, safe sources to cite (not used by general press)
 * general press like to control, plus legal controls
 * IGN has comments (prob unmoderated) versus the BBC has heavily moderated comments, IGN bases ratings on comments
 * BBC covers casual games better, Wii is good, why? visual, family-friendly; iPad better
 * journalists lie and its hard to lie about games
 * games are percieved as geeky and journalists lose peer cred by covering games

Shops -
 * games sold like booze/fags, but not so with movies
 * stores always challenge, companies don't sell to minors, games are not percieved as being as serious as movies by buyers

games are interactive
 * are movies more immersive than games as you identify more strongly with the main character?
 * are movies more real
 * compare fast cars driving with sitting-in-car - the second is worse
 * psychology of games - are movies more disturbing than games violence
 * sociology of games - are gamers different, with different experiences, different norms; do people who read the Daily Mail *not* buy games; games are escapism & realism may have limits
 * physiology of games - ([|Caroline Leaf]), some very positive stuff (e.g. [|Scottish Tech show at SECC])

new laws required?
 * virtual war crimes?!?!?!
 * virtual [|adultery], [|rape], [|theft], ...
 * already covered by existing laws

Therefore ...

 * reports on games are generally - poor, masochistic, weird, dumbed down, rare, negative, shallow, we would say they are biased, inaccurate, sometimes laddish/unprofessional, Edge is pretentious
 * who are they for? - non-gamers, is anybody listening or is it just Phil Airtyme/Phillipa Slott, Edge is for people who want to like they are cool
 * OPSMag are spokesmags for publishers