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.