Areas of Study 5 -The Future of Gaming

• Gaming is a rapidly fast-growing industry where innovation is vital for the survival of businesses in the industry. This rate of development looks set to maintain over the next decade and nobody knows the limits to what stage gaming will be at. It is expected that the amount of gamers will increase due to woman and older people being introduced to gaming.
• I believe that we will see a large increase in the amount of online players and if marketed correctly, I think that Second Life and other MMORPG's could become daily activities for a large percentage of the population.
• I think that companies will develop games based on evolution where the player is in complete control over their universe and their species. This will give the player a completely personal experience. I also think that virtual reality will come into play more. We have started to see motion sensing but I don't think that it will be too far in the distant future that we will be strapped in having a virtual fight in our living room.

Areas of Study 4 - Issues

• Features on offer have made gaming a daily activity in many of our lives. This has been critisized by some as the reason as to why the western world is so unhealthy. We are inside all day playing sports virtually when we should be outside playing them physically.
• Many games feature a 'hero' figure. This is critisize by some as the figure is often a physically able male. This leaves little appeal for women as they do not wish to play as a character they do not look up to, whereas males naturally look up to figures of power and ability.
• Violence is an issue that has been raised. Games like GTA have been critisized for promoting the use of violence and illegal activities. Some crimes have been put down to the influence of games such as GTA, where your character roams round freely with the ability to brutally kill other characters.

Areas of Study 3 - Audience

• Modern gaming offers a lot of relatively new ideas to the audience. Online, they get the chance to live out an alternate life whilst playing various MMORPG's. This is becoming increasingly popular, and makes games like 'The Sims' look old-fashioned.
• Portable gaming allows the audience to play games on-the-go. They can even play their console games on their portable device and then plug it in when they return home. An example of this is 'Animal Crossing'. In modern society, gaming is a very popular activity and staring at screens is a large part of our lives.
• Newer games offer higher levels of interactivity. Games like 'Guitar Hero' allows the player to play a guitar in time with the notes on-screen. The Nintendo Wii also gives huge levels of interaction on golfing games and other sports games.

Areas of Study 3 - Audience

• Modern gaming offers a lot of relatively new ideas to the audience. Online, they get the chance to live out an alternate life whilst playing various MMORPG's. This is becoming increasingly popular, and makes games like 'The Sims' look old-fashioned.
• Portable gaming allows the audience to play games on-the-go. They can even play their console games on their portable device and then plug it in when they return home. An example of this is 'Animal Crossing'. In modern society, gaming is a very popular activity and staring at screens is a large part of our lives.
• Newer games offer higher levels of interactivity. Games like 'Guitar Hero' allows the player to play a guitar in time with the notes on-screen. The Nintendo Wii also gives huge levels of interaction on golfing games and other sports games.

Areas of Study 2 - Institutions

• Companies are converging their products with other NMT's in today's society. Gaming companies make their products compatable with the music industry as well as the film industry.
• Games based upon films are also available on new products. This appeals not only to gamers but to fans of the film wanting to play the game based upon their favourite film.
• This is also similar in the music industry, where games such as 'Singstar' and 'MTV Music Generator' allow the player to show their musical talents.

Areas of study 1: Technology

• Gaming has changed dramatically in recent years. Games consoles are not only Game playing devices any more. They consist of various features and the DVD and CD compatability are almost taken for granted in this day and age. However, the newer consoles are even compatible with Blu-Ray and HD discs, which haven't really kicked off yet.
• Gaming has a target audience of males under the age of 30 generally. However, in recent years, females have started to be targetted by the industry. This is enforced by the introduction of online play and some femenine games released on the gaming devices, such as 'Nintendogs' for the 'Nintendo DS'
• Gaming is a fast growing industry and at this rate, new innovations have to be consistently developed to keep up with the demand of the general public. There is more to see from the gaming industry.
• The market is dominated by Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, each with a home entertainment system in the current market. However, Sony and Nintendo are the big players in the portable gaming industry with Nintendo currently having the most popular device on the market.

Public Expectations

The gaming industry has got itself into a bit of trouble with introducing new ideas so rapidly in the last few years. The new aspects of gaming have become an expectation within the public. The gaming companies have set a very high standard due to their innovative ideas and now the public has a taste of new gaming techniques, it will want to see more and more of these new ideas as soon as possible. This means that the major companies will have to spend a lot of money investing in innovating new ideas for the public which could potentially be risk-bearing and even loss-making. The standard is set high and it is important for this high level to be maintained.

Impact of gaming on the industry

The rapid improvements and innovation in the gaming industry is coming at a huge cost to some of the companies involved. Currently, every console sold, hardware makers are losing hundreds of dollars. Keeping the public happy along with developing new games and ideas is coming at a very expensive price to the companies involved. New original ideas are often not profit making and the companies are having to rely on repetitive games as a good source of income. This leaves no room for profitable innovation within the industry.

The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar

The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar is the latest MMORPG to hit the shelves. It requires a subscription to play and is similar to other online social networks but with more of an objective. As with other MMORPG's, one can customise their avatar and other aspects of their user and interact with other online players. However, there is a more competitive edge to this MMORPG as players set out on quests for rewards such as titles and objects within the online network.
There are moral issues raised about the use of this game, such as an increase in anti-social behaviour and the health of the population. The subscription is also set to be questioned as over the period of a few months, the total cost could total a lot more than some are willing to pay.
It is popular belief that this game will be very popular and have a lot of subscribers due to the massive popularity of the books and films that this game is based on.

Gaming Terms

Microsoft
Nintendo
Sony
XBox 360
Wii
PlayStation 3
HD (high-definition)
Blu-Ray
MMORPG (Massively multiplayer online role-playing game)
EDi (Electronic Distribution initiative)

Key Terms

Linear/Non-Linear
Software
Hardware
Democratisation
Digitisation
Digital Divide
Technophobe
Technophile
Convergence
Push Technology
Pull Technology
Interactivity

Second Life

'Second Life' is an online society based MMORPG (Massively multiplayer online role-playing game) which has become mainstream in 2006 despite its release in 2003. Its 'Residents' are able to live a virtual life using their customised 'avatar'. The user becomes part of a world-wide social network in which various aspects of life can be lived out virtually. The users can explore, interact, trade items and take part in activities with other online users. Second Life gives people the chance to escape from the troubles of real life and live out their virtual life where they are in control in the comfort of their own home.
Second Life says that it doesn't cause anti-social behaviour but gives the opportunity for online interaction within the worldwide social network. Second Life also gives the opportunity to make profit from advertising online.
There is however the controversial issue that questions whether games like this contribute to obesity and that it doesn't help social interactivity in a face to face situation. Some also claim that living this 'Second Life' only adds stress to those who are facing stress in their real life.

Playstation Home

PlayStation Home is an in-built feature of the Sony PlayStation 3 console which offers players the opportunity to have an 'online life'. It gives the opportunity to live out various aspects of real life virtually and a chance to meet new people who are playing out their 'virtual lives'. The console allows the user to create their own 'avatar' with personalised features modified to the user's specifications. There are various aspects of real life in PlayStation Home, for example, every user will have a house to live in which they can decorate and make adjustments to as they please. Then there is the social part of PlayStation Home where one can meet other 'Home' players who are online and have a virtual conversation with the use of text boxes.
A question as to whether young players social skills will be affected by this feature has been raised. It is thought that this online social interaction will be the way young learn to interact as opposed to meeting new people in person and interacting face to face.
This is also thought to be yet another step towards one ultimate home entertainment system. This is the idea that with all the features available on one console, one has little need to leave the house, which is potentially very damaging to society and highly damages social skills. Some even blame the revolutionary new media technologies as a chief reason for increased obesity worldwide.

New Games

In these times of very capable entertainment systems the games that are being released are starting to become less compatible with all three major consoles. This is because of the new innovative ideas of the new consoles makes it harder to produce a game that can be played on both the Wii, due to its motion sensing unique system, as well as the PS3, where the graphics are far superior to the Nintendo Wii. Generally games are now released exclusely to a console, such as Zelda to Nintendo Wii using the motion sensing remote as a key part of the game, there is no way to make an equivalent for the other consoles due to the motion sensing being so vital. Due to some games only being released on one console, the price of the game may have to account for the lack of potential sales. The game only appeals to one console as opposed to more so the price will have to be set at a higher price to maximise profit. This exclusiveness about each game raises the point that people will have to own possibly more than one console, which would result in a large amount of money being spent.

Convergence in NMT's

Sony Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii now have the ability to play live radio. This shows the convergence of NMT's in modern society. Gaming consoles are becoming more like all-round entertainment systems. This potentially makes other technologies redundant as many features can be accessed in one Hardware package but the issue of spiralling costs will arise. For a working class citizen, the money expected to be forked out for one of these consoles is very costly indeed.

Consoles updating

NMT's need to keep updating their features in order to keep getting more and more sales. They normally do this by innovating and releasing new additional features to existing pieces of technology. These features can be all sorts such as new forms of compatibility to wireless controllers. A recent example of this is the XBox 360, who have released an XBox 360 HD DVD Drive. They have predicted that there will be a future market of high definition DVD's so the release of a new HD DVD reading drive to use with the XBox 360 is aimed to attract potential buyers trying to keep up with new technology. Microsoft made a calculated decision to release this Drive separately as it meant that consumers just wanted the hardware for gaming purposes wouldn't have to pay a significant more amount of money for features they don't specifically want. Sony have opted the alternative option of including the Blu-ray DVD Drive in the overall package. However, this meant the price of the console was a lot more, and ultimately, makes the console out of a lot of potential buyers price bracket. Decisions like this make a huge difference to profits of the company.

Portable Gaming

Portable gaming is a market where the main players are Nintendo and Sony. Nintendo have dominated the market for years with variations of the 'GameBoy'. However Sony now have The Sony PSP (PlayStation Portable) on the market. The latest portable technology from Nintendo is called the 'Nintendo DS'. The PSP is widely known to have superior graphics and compatability features that the DS doesn't include. However, Nintendo have developed a unique product in that there are two screens, one of them being a highly sensitive touch screen. Its the touch-screen feature amongst others that makes the DS dominate the market over the PSP. The unique touch-screen design could be compared to the motion sensor remote on the Wii, in that they have hit the market with a different idea and it seems as though it has payed off for Nintendo. Modern day hand-held consoles include the Wi-fi connection feature allowing players to play and contact other players within a certain radius, or in some cases, anywhere in the world.

Nintendo DS
Released: March 2005 in UK
Release date price: £100
Units Sold: 40.3 Million

Sony PSP
Released: September 2005
Release date price: £180
Units Sold: 24.7 Million


Other less popular handheld devices include: Bandai Wonderswan, GamePark GP32, SNK NeoGeo, Sega Game Gear, iRiver G10