Media Studies Mest 4 - Media CI Essay Draft 1

In media I have asked to critically investigate a certain topic area that I am deeply interested in, the topic that I have chosen to interrogate is the topic of gaming. I am particularly interested in this topic because gaming over the years have become a major part in our lives and the way it has developed over the years on the platforms that it is based on is quite extraordinary in terms of its historical contexts. 

My CI is asking the question, ‘Is our generation of 21^st century gaming a reflection of different realities?’ and for this question the two main texts that have a deep involvement in this question in terms of reality is Call of duty and Grand theft auto, the reason why these two texts is a perfect example is because these two games are the ones that stand out in terms of realism.

Grand theft auto is a playstation franchise that goes way back over the years, the game is based on the concepts of mainly crime, but as each of the games developed through the years it has introduced to the audience the key themes of love, loss, status, power, betrayal, family, friendship, and as these key themes have been involved within the game, the audience have come to love the storylines the way that they see it.

Call of duty itself in comparison to grand theft auto also goes has a significant historical context behind it, the games are set in world war 1 and 2 and in the today’s location of modern warfare, the game is entirely based on survival, teamwork and strategy, using real life weapons and locations throughout the game. For each call of duty games that has been released, infinity ward has improved and delivered, and as of now there has not been one call of duty game that has disappointed in terms of the content and the quality.

 The concept of gaming has become increasingly involved in our everyday lives, we play games for a number of reasons, to entertain, to test our brains, to compete against other people, so as these are the key factors we play the games we love more than we realize, and for the developers of the games, they have to consistently keep the quality of the their games to our satisfactory, in order for they sales figures to increase, and for them to earn money.

Each of the grand theft auto games has a different storyline, in which the audience can play a different character, and the next grand theft games always improve so the audience can get to experience and do different things, things that perhaps couldn’t do in the previous game. Mostly the storyline of grand theft auto is linked to a particular character trying to find their place in the world and being accepted and starting a new life.

For the call of duty games it focuses on the armies and infantries of America, and each storylines different except for the modern warfare trilogy, which is all, linked together. The storylines of each game has a part to play in the realness of the game and how each reflects a part of reality that the audience can see and interpret.

Each franchise maintain contents such as DLCs which are side stories of the main game, they also contain multiplayer and CO-op also, but depending on the game, some games have more contents than other, but for these games that I have focused on the contents are extremely important and links in a lot when talking about my critical investigation.

The Multiplayer for example in both of these texts is huge in terms of the audience figures on average that plays these multiplayer games. The purpose of these multiplayer games is that it gives a chance for the audience to play and experience the games with other friends, and as the multiplayer format is worldwide the audience can compete with people from around the world, no matter what country that you are in.

In the multiplayer for grand theft 4 the audience can do a range of stuff, from free roaming, to races, and even death match also in which you have to eliminate the other characters, the audience is also allowed to customize their own personal character, which is also good, the multiplayer format for grand theft is reflected through e-media which consists of a website in which the audience and the fans of the game can get information and tips in which they can get the best out of the game. 

For the call of duty franchise the multiplayer format is a gaming phenomenon, the multiplayer format across the games is more preferable than the storyline itself, it allows the fans to get the real experience of the game and interact with friends, using strategic game play and real life weapons so it makes the audience feel like there are literally in the experience.

The DLCs of the games are put into place as side stories to the games, it please the audience in the terms as, if the game may have seemed to short and the audience didn’t get enough of the game, then they can play the side stories to lengthen their experience of the game.

Linking the concept of media theory to my CI investigation, there is range of theories that have an involvement, these theories are; Postmodernism, feminism, Vladimir propp’s theory of the 8 characters.

Postmodernism is the main theory that links to both of my texts, outlining what postmodernism is, postmodernism is when a media text is reality based but certain parts of the texts is set up for our entertainment purposes, this theory has a major part to play in the two texts that I have focused on and could be the only theory that answers my CI question. Feminism is another theory that I have researched that links to my CI question, for call of duty text there is a lack of femininity, the gender demographic for this text is dominiated by males, due to the violence and blood content into the game, call of duty wouldn’t seem like a game that a female would be particularly interested in., due to this occurrence it can be said that as call of duty have more of a male demographical audience then it creates this masculine ideology to the idea that if boys had to see or hear a girl excessively speaking about call of duty then it would be seen as weird, whereas the grand theft auto game the femininity is balanced within the game, and the audience also. In grand theft auto 4 there are female characters that have a dominant role in the game, by doing this rockstar makes it fair to each gender, so the game doesn’t seem like it is being to sexist.

Vladimir prop’s theory also applies to CI in terms of my two texts, but not as straight forward as the theory is brought across, grand theft auto is a game that you can see what each character is and what they represent but in each of the games there are some happy endings, and there is not and the games are far from a fairytale. The way in which the Vladimir prop theory is applied to the grand theft auto game is that, for example in grand theft auto 4 the characters in the game fits the roles of the fairytales, e.g. niko bellic is the main character of the game, therefore for what he does in the game he would class as the hero, his cousin roman would be classed as the accomplice, as he is with the main character throughout most of the game, and so forth. For the call of duty franchise, the game is more open, and doesn’t follow a set structure in which each character poses a certain role-play. As the game is mostly about warfare it creates the ideology of blood and violence and fighting on the frontline, and also the way the institution of infinity ward has designed the game, the audience is allowed to play different characters, in different situations as you progress through the game.

The postmodernism theory would be the theory that would answer my question of if our 21^st century gaming is a reflection of different realities, because of the things that the audience can do within the game, and the content of which the game contains, the settings and style of both of the games also has a part to play in the realness of the games also, these two texts also follow the conventional structure of every game also, the fact that games are put into motion to entertain and intrigue the audience, giving them something to talk about and remember in the long term.

The question that is the most important that will answer the question is ‘what type of realities does these two games reflect?’ as these games reflect the postmodernism theory there are stuff in the games that can be mimicked in the real world, and this can have a both positive and negative effect on the audience, but it mostly have a negative on the audience, in my research I uncovered that grand theft auto: vice city was to blame for a man stealing a car and killing witnesses that was involved, for the institutions of the games this is not a good sign, if these games like grand theft auto is supposedly making people do these kinds of things then what kind of example is the game setting for the audience. The type of reality that the grand theft is bringing across is the reality of crime, power, love, loss, status and reputation, and it is these key themes that is brought into reality and that are present in our everyday lives.

With call of duty the game reflects the realty of warfare and conflict, a topic that is extremely present into today’s reality and something that is definitely on going, but the way that the game portrays the warfare and the media language that it maintains, that is what makes the game postmodern.

For both games that is being focused on it is important that all the media platforms is being addressed throughout, e-media, broadcast and print, and for my research as I addressed all three of them, M.I.G.R.A.I.N is a key thing to include when doing so, giving a overview for the call of duty franchise in terms of M.I.G.R.A.I.N, the media language that the games includes is that firstly the game is set in first person, which makes the audience feel as if they are part of the game, the camera shots vary throughout the game as from time to time it shows in different angles, the institution  that is involved in the text is the developers of the game which is in infinity ward, this institution has made most of the call of duty games, on the terms of the media platforms, institutions such as face book, YouTube, IGN, Gamescom, are involved with the info on the game and what the audience can expect from the game, these are the institutions I focused on in my research within the media platforms.  The genre that is being focused on is gaming, and in relation to my CI call of duty and grand theft auto is the main focus.  The representation that is being brought across to the audience is that of violence, heroism, and dedication, the game is based on war and the result of that in my research these themes are being shown. The target audience for call of duty is preferably teenagers but adults can be seen playing the game also, mostly the male demographical audience is the conventional audience for this type of game. The ideologies of call of duty are brought across as ‘being a hero’ and fighting for your country, while playing the game you feel as if you are doing your duty, and you are somewhat committing yourself to what you do and that is another factor that adds to the realness of the game, finally the game brings across a cinematic narrative, the mise-en-scene of parts of the game is quite shocking, so that adds intrigue to the audience.

For the grand theft auto franchise the M.I.G.R.I.A.N differs, the media language of the game is a variety, as an audience you it allows you to change the camera angles of the game in which you want to play it in, and in each game you play in third person, so a player of the game the audience can have full control of the character. The intuitions that is involved in the game is Rockstar which is the developers of the game and have been since the beginning, on other platforms, the same intuitions that are involved in call of duty is also involved with grand theft auto also. The genre of grand theft is also gaming and focuses entirely on that, the representation that the game brings across is that of status, power, reputation, control, love, loss and revenge, this is another factor which reflects the reality of the game. The ideology of grand theft differs from very game but the one that stays the same is the idea of the ‘American Dream’, this is what I uncovered in my research. And the narrative of the game is also cinematic, with the cut scenes that the game contains.

The historical context of each game is also important, the audience can pick up on how the game has grown up with our generation and as each game improves is it reflecting reality more and more?  Each of the franchises has gone way back and the audience of today can have a nostalgic feeling and reminisce how the first game use to be and by this a comparison can be made wit the first game and the latest game and we can see hoe these game has improved over the years.

In conclusion and basing these two game on my CI question I believe that in our generation of gaming, games are reflecting reality more and more, what you can do in the games and the way the game s are brought to the audience is evidence that it is. I generally think its is good thing and a bad thing that games like these are becoming more real, a good thing because it attracts more of a wide-range audience and the games are more enjoyable and realistic, but bad because depending on how real it can set a bad influence on younger people such as teens, but it’s the consumers that can choose what they do with the games they play.