MILLAN FMP: RESEARCH

THE DECLINE OF GAMING - SECONDARY RESEARCH

"things aren't like they used to be" - Perry Gresham.
from the blog i found during research, (including my own beliefs) gresham believes that the decline in gaming is directly linked to an increasing desire and greed for money. A prime example of such can be shown in a developer studio called "rocksteady". Released in 2015, Batman: Arkham Knight was a strictly single player game with minor and cheap cosmetic microtransactions which were received very well by the public alongside the game itself, here is one of the reviews "The technical aspects are not only eye-popping but they’re also quite stable. The graphics are slick, the sound is stellar, the control is rock solid, and the gameplay variety is downright tremendous."

The game was said to be made with love and passion and as having played it before, it felt like a true Project and not a creation made for "work". Now with that being said, the same company were given a IP (intellectual property) to work with. The Suicide Squad. This title was to be set in the same story verse as their previous big hit so the task at hand wasn't too difficult. As the release date came closer creeping into 2024, gameplay tests and trailers started to drop and cash grabs were written all over the place. The game featured a live service, paywalls everywhere and so on. If gameplay was top notch this wouldn't be an issue, but that wasn't the case. "Warner Bros. has lifted the NDA around Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s closed alpha, in what is likely an attempt to drown out the negative tone of the press previews"

A snippet of the dozens of negative reviews on their new title

One title does not involve cash grabs = passion and quality goes up

One title involves plenty = poor quality across the board, passion seems to decline.

CALL OF DUTY

Another prime example of this can be the Call Of Duty franchise. Their past 4-5 releases have been heavily talked down upon for having their games riddled with purchases and microtransactions all the while caring very little about the quality of their games. Their most recent installment had sub 5 hours of single player content going as far as to charge a whopping £70 for the entire game which had minor differences from the game prior.

Seeing as the franchise is classed as Triple A, behaviour like this shouldn't be taking place but money hungry developers will be money hungry developers. In previous years, their releases have become more and more lazy as their greed for money increases. This has harmed the single player community greatly as all their focus has been on the multiplayer side (the money maker) while completely ignoring what call of duty was built upon, its campaign. Their latest release only offered a measly FIVE hours of gameplay time compared to the 10+ hours of campaign content in their older releases.

coming from their horribly received title Modern Warfare 2 MW3 was seen as an overpriced fix on every issue wrong with MW2, despite complaints being about minor changes to their game, they held out on those fixes and landed a 70 dollar price tag on the face of it.

"Underbaked, rehashed, and cobbled together from multiplayer parts, Modern Warfare 3’s single-player campaign is everything a Call of Duty story mode shouldn’t be" - IGN

ANALYSE A SIMILAR PRODUCT

GAMES AREN'T FUN ANYMORE

This video consists of the creator "asmongold" reacting to a video about the topic of gaming.
every now and then he'll use cuts to switch from his main camera speaking to his audience back to the video he's reacting to. every now and again he'll add his own input on the topic.
the cuts allow the video to retain engagement from the viewers and can make the video easier to follow enabling the audience to know whos talking to who.

just skate

This documentary aims to educate and inform people about the history of skateboarding and how its influenced our youth.

The genre of this documentary is advocacy. They speak on a well known activity that has grown and evolved into a culture and uses this opportunity to educate others on its history and present times.

This doc features the observational mode. They show hundreds of people doing, learning and enjoying the topic at hand during which there are minimal to no cuts.

The conventions in the doc consist of testimonials and footage to back up the topic. The director interviews a dozen of people who skate and their age groups vary which shows how skating has spread far.

i think it could've been improved with less talking and dry or longed out spots in the documentary.

it got the message across well, but most of the interviews were the same things

HAPPY A Mental Health Documentary

This documentary falls in the genre of interviews and the sub-genres Performative and participatory. This is reinforced by the narrator/ director is taking part in the documentary themselves seen in 10:40-11:40. Evidence of the Performative strand is shown throughout the documentary as they reach for an emotional response and construct or convey social truths.

The conventions used are talking heads(interviews), Voiceover narration and real people. These in combination with the sensitive topic at hand helps push the authenticity and sensitive atmosphere of the documentary. Using real people suffering from the Real social issue gives the documentary a boost in its authority so to speak

Me personally, i feel like the pacing, sound lighting and narrative fit perfectly with the topic at hand. in a way i felt like things were planned out slowly with lesser edits to maybe materialise the feeling of depression in the documentary.

FREE SOLO

The filming of Hannolds climb or to even go through with the idea in the first place isn't morally incorrect but in some people's eyes the idea seems crazy. The circumstances being that any small mistake could cost him his life changes the entire dynamic of the filming process as at first they weren't aware they were filming this death defying stunt. One of the film crew quoted "it’s like participating in an Olympic sport, but if you don’t get the gold, you die." At the risk of his own life he pulled off a feat no one had done before.

If i were the filmmaker, id have immense doubt at first but eventually id give in but probably with a racing heart. There's a bunch of things that could've gone wrong and in addition to alex himself, the film crew would have lost their lives.

The mode falls under the perspective mode as you can see, alex's climb and his POV throughout is the main focus. The aim for this documentary was to demonstrate risk taking and fearlessness which is what alex strives for as a solo climber. The doc has no story, no narrative, just a journey and thats what i like the most about this documentary. To conclude, i think this documentary falls in the ethical books, it marked history.

BLACKFISH

OVERWATCH 2

is another well known title that steered down the same lanes as the two previous games but worse landing itself at the number 1 spot of the worst rated game on steam which is a world wide video game distribution software used by many big developer studios across the globe with over 100,000 games on there. Overwatch was initially a paid live service game with optional but unnecessary in game purchases such as coins which could be used to by skins that can be unlocked for free. The first game was received well by many even going as far to win game of the year in 2016. Regular content drops, new heroes, cosmetics and events.

Halfway through its life cycle, Blizzard, the devs of overwatch made a promise about a PVE inclusion into their second game. but was later scrapped and watered down behind a £20 paywall alongside many other issues, the game became free with no ways to earn the cosmetics and the inclusion of an ingame store with plenty of overpriced rates and horrible changes to every corner of their game and with no coincidence, this is yet another downfall after introductions of money generating factors.

overall, the games direction is currently headed towards greed and lesser fan consideration.

This chart displays peoples interest in games over the last 12 months from last year and overwatch was one of the bottom contenders.

JUMP FORCE

Was a 3D arena fighter inspired by hundreds of different IPs (INTELLECTUAL PROPERTIES) bringing them all together in a huge mashup. Nearer to release date questions started to arise about the gameplay itself as all that was capitalised on was the concept of the game and not the gameplay itself which is what matters. Upon release however, heads were turned the opposite direction as gameplay was nowhere near up to standard.

Reviews stated choppy frames, horrible animation, poor balancing and overall bad story writing. It became clear that the only driving force for this game was the predicted revenue the concept of the game would reel in. As standard, the game rolled out with paid downloadable content (DLC) . 14 extra characters to be exact which fans were displeased about their performance, or how well they perform in fact. Despite the outcry from its community, nothing was changed in order to keep revenue flowing.

Currently the game is sat at a 6.3/10 - IGN

And a 56%/100% - METACRITIC

PEER FEEDBACK

Leon

Jayden

Joshua

What you see above is feedback from three of my friends which I asked for each of their honest opinion on my documentary and project as a whole. A common theme was a good taste for my topic and how I dived into it. I also asked a few of my teachers about my topic and they all shared the thought that it was a very interesting and perceptive topic. Going off of the feedback I got, if I had more time I would continue to tweak aspects of my post production meaning sound, edits and much more.

PRIMARY RESEARCH - INTERVIEW

I asked a few of my friends to give me 3 titles each to try and find a pattern between the two types of games to figure out the quality alongside the style of given.

CONTEXT: IGN is a worldwide known game informer company.

multiplayer-microtransactions
single player- no microtransactions

From the people i asked on their favourite titles, 8\12 were highly rated single player titles from pre 2018. From this small survey i already saw a pattern. Single player games with no online integration whether it be micro transactions or cash grabs were the most liked out of the group.

My own personal favorites consist of...

The infamous series
God Of War Ragnarok
Sekiro Shadows Die Twice
Spider-man (1-2)

These are no surprise, single player story driven games with zero microtransactions, passion and the audience in mind.

I then asked each of them individually about what they think of in game purchases and microtransactions in gaming and the effect it has on the quality. My final results were more or less the same. They all didn't like the idea of spending for more content in a game they already paid for in FULL and liked immersive content packed story games over live service style games.

JOSH