COMPUTERIZED ENTERTAINMENT
AND CLASSIFICATION
CHAPTER 2!
October 22, 2012
TODAY’S AGENDA:
Your Book
 Talk about Life Cycle of Entertainment
 Finish your Chapter Question
 Finish your Review Question for Fruit Game
 Start you Driving Course Game/Page 142
 Tomorrow: Marketing of your Video Game!
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(Bring back your books)
OUR BOOK! TITLES FOR EACH SECTION:
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What makes a Video Game?
Audio/Visual Effect
Experimental, Mainstream, Obsolete
History
The Television
Computer
What are Video Games?
Game Play
Graphic Display
User Interface
Digital Toy
Marketing Your Video Game
Demographic Segregation
Marketing Tools
Unique Selling Point
WHAT MAKES A VIDEO GAME A GAME?
Three main categories of Computer Software
Entertainment:
Audio/visual effects
 Video Game
 Digital Toy
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AUDIO/VISUAL EFFECT
Audio  means something you hear.
 Visual  means something you see.
 Together, audio/visual effects are any
entertainment that you can be seen and heard.
 Examples:
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Screen savers
 Movies
 Cut scenes
 Presentations
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This type of entertainment is simply enjoyed and
has no user interface.
WE HAVE:
Experimental
Media
Mainstream
Media
Obsolete
EXPERIMENTAL
New
 Innovative
 Few users
 Not very popular
 Just becoming popular
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MAINSTREAM
Is the Norm!
 Many users
 What we use today
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OBSOLETE
Was popular
 Few users
 Replaced by something better
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HISTORY????
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How has technolgy been linked to media
experimentation and becoming obsolete?
Let’s take a look at our History!
ANCIENT TIMES
Art! Was the NORM...it was popular...it was the
Mainstream Media.
 Examples:
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Brilliant paintings
Sculptures
Architecture
Songs
Frescos
ANCIENT TIMES
Greeks Introduced Theater!
 It was Experimental Media
 Romans not use to Theater.
 It was consider a fanciful activity
 Little following
 Not popular
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LAST CENTURY
Experimental Media
was the invention of
Motion pictures!
 Had no sound
 Short films
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People dancing
 Baseball players
hitting a ball
 Children dancing
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LAST CENTURY
Another experimental media is the RADIO!
 Invented by individuals who wanted to talk to
each other over distances.
 Amateur radio operators built their own devices
in their basement.
 Very Expensive!
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RADIO BECAME MAINSTREAM!
As the cost of the technolgy for a Radio dropped people
began to embrace the Radio!
 People would gather around the family radio to listen
to voice drama, rock and roll, Jazz sounds and lyrics,
shows, plus much more.
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THE TELEVISION!
Began to show up in homes in the 1940’s
 Shows were black and white
 Just one or two shows a day
 Television was in the experimental stage!
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TELEVISION
Moving to Mainstream in the 1950’s
 Rapidly becoming the preferred media of the day.
 ½ households in America has a TV set.
 TV Shows:
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Flash Gordon
 Father Knows Best
 Rin Tin Tin
 Dragnet
 Zorro
 Wonderful World of Disney
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CURRENT TIMES – TODAY!
Television is still Mainstream!
 Moved from audio/visual entertainment to
Interactive Entertainment Media!
 Video Games!!!
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NEWER TECHNOLOGIES
Is the computer!
 Was Experimental Technology
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Few people using it
 Very expensive
 Not popular
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Today  Mainstream!
You see a computer everywhere
 Very, Very, Very Popular
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Takes on many forms.
COMPUTER
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Opens a world of:
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Movies
Games
Books
Magazines
Museum Art
Internet!
Plus much more....
WHAT ARE VIDEO GAMES?
Is an electronic software
product that has all of the
elements of a game.
 It is played by combining a
computer generated game
evironment with a graphic
display and a user interface.
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WHAT EXACTLY IS A GAME?
An activity organized by rules.
 With an objective, goal, or victory condition.
 In a game environment that enables play or
pretending.
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Victory!
Rules
A Game?
Game Envirnment
GAME PLAY
Is what the player experience during the game
as a result of the core machanics and structure of
the game.
 Includes:
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Set of challenges and obstacles
 The action a player can take to avoid and overcome
those challenges or obstacles.
 Everything the player does and how the game is
played.
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TODAY’S VIDEO GAME
Game play can exist in multiple gameplay modes.
 Such as:
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Multiplayer mode
Advanced mode
Easy mode
Quest mode
Online play mode
Changing characters with different skills
GRAPHIC DISPLAY
This is where the game is shown.
 It can be a:
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Television
 Computer Monitor
 Hand-held device (Game-boy and/or cell phone)
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Is a pinball machine a video game?
USER INTERFACE
Is any device used to input information from the
player into the computer running the video game.
 They are:
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Game controllers (wireless, motion based controllers)
 Keyboard
 Mouse
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TYPE OF GAMES
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Games can be put into different catagories:
Examples:
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Action
Board/card/quiz
Educational
Fighting
Music/party
Puzzle
Role Playing
Shooter
Simulation
Sports
Stragtegy
Toy
Themes  are games that have similar characteristics
DIGITAL TOY
Does not meet the criteria of a game.
 Why?
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Does not have a structured set of rules.
Has not objective or game play goal.
No challenge
No purpose for playing
No Victory condition
No points, no levels
No mission objectives
DUE TODAY:
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Finish your questions for chapter 2.
(Look at the back of your worksheet!)
On a sheet of paper, answer the following questions for the
reading above:
1.
Define audio/visual effect.
2.
What is mainstream media?
3.
Describe the process by which an experimental media becomes
mainstream.
4.
List the three criteria for an activity to be classified as a game.
5.
_______________ are used to create the challenges, goals, and
victory conditions of the game.
6.
The term used to describe what the player experiences during
the game as a result of the core mechanics and structure of the
game is ___________________,.
7.
List three things that can exist in the game world that do not
occur in the real world.
8.
What is user interface?
9.
How is a genre different from a theme?
10.
Describe why a digital toy is not a video game.
ALSO DUE TODAY:
Need to finish the Review Questions for the Fruit
Game.
 Who needs a worksheet?
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FOR TODAY:
If you are finished with the questions,
go get a workbook!
 Turn to page 142 and start working on our next
game – Driving Course.
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MARKETING YOUR VIDEO GAME
October 23, 2012
MARKETING YOUR VIDO GAME
Step 1: You need to know your Theme!
Step 2: Need to identify your target market.
Step 3: Unique Selling Point
MARKETING YOUR VIDEO GAME
Each theme has a certain number of followers.
 These are your customers!
 People who purchase a game in a certain them
are likely to purchase more games in the same
theme.
 Need to identify your target market!
 Tarket market  is the segment of the
population on which you will focus your attention
and resources to attract a buyer.
 These are your potential customers.
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DEMOGRAPHIC SEGREGATION
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Use of characteristics, such as:
Age
 Income
 Gender
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Helps determine the most likely potential
customer.
MARKETING TOOLS
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Are any device or action that draws attention to
your product.
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TV commercials
E-mail blast
Product website
Free Trials or demos
Brochures
Game packaging
Billboards
Computer Screen Savers
Demonstrations
Booths at trade shows
UNIQUE SELLING POINT
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Is simply what your product offers that other
products do not.
It can also help target potential customers.