Homework on Minecraft

1. According to the writer, why might autistic children such as his son, be attracted to Minecraft?

Through Minecraft, autistic children could learn easy and basic skills, that could expand their wider knowledge.

2. Which feature are included in the education version of Minecraft and how useful do you think they might be as an educational tool?

Education version of Minecraft allows teachers to set up classroom servers, where students can build scale models of their own towns, this means they can learn about geography, agriculture, architecture and physics. 

3. Why does Bergensten suggest, have copycat versions of Minecraft been less successful?

The copycat versions have been looking for ways to expand on what the game offers, and some have fared well, but nothing was close to Mojang's vision. The copycat versions tended to have added a lot of visual information to the textures, which is what makes it less successful as Minecraft is more blocky and has a low resolution. 

4. What is meant by the 'modding' community? 

Modding means users can add different types of designs into their game, such as texture maps, items, creatures and even new stories and adventures. They can easily access these mods online and put the files into Minecraft. 

5. How important is the "sense of ownership" cited by Bergensten, for the audience of Minecraft? 

Even though Bergensten heard about the 'sense of ownership' the players have, it seems that he never really minded it because that 'sense of ownership' helped the players in different types of ways, they made up their own rules, own structures and how to interact with others. It even helped an autistic boy as he had a plan of his new school on Minecraft, and later when he actually started to attend the school, he knew exactly where he was going. So, this 'sense of ownership' was beneficial to the audience of Minecraft. 

6. How has Minecraft extended its brand beyond gaming and into other products? 

Minecraft extended its brand through other items not just through games, for example, they even have a huge merchandise, where they sell a lot of Minecraft printed products; 

Minecraft

Gaming

There are many gaming genres, and most of them are similar to movie genres.

• Action adventure games
• Shooter games
• RPG
• MMO
• Sandbox rpg - Minecraft; A world that involve lots of free-roaming and freedom.
• Simulation: The Sims games.
• Strategy - World of Warcraft
• Sports - Fifa

Case study of Tera:

 

• MMO - massively multiplayer online role-playing game

• Tera is aimed at a demographic audience of 16+ and can be played by both genders. The audience can vary from different countries, doesn't really matter, the audience are mostly from the US and the UK. Social classes doesn't really matter either, because the game doesn't specify for which type of people can play it, it can be played by working-class or upper-class.

• The game appeals to the audience because of it's different structures, for example, the graphics in the game is quite attractive and of high quality, which would therefore attract the audience and would want to make them play the game. Further, the character customization, again, is quite good, but it'd only attract certain type of people because the character customization doesn't have much choice in what the player can choose their character to look like e.g hair, so it'd only attract the type of people who aren't too fussy as to how their character would look like. The questing in the game is also quite good and pretty straight forward, making it easy for the audience to interact with the game.

• The game can be consumed through PC, you can also get it through Steam, which is a programme that allows people to buy games from. However, if you are a dedicated player, then you may spend your money on it e.g when you want to buy your character armour and weapons.

The Film Industry: Hollywood

Hollywood is a mentonym = a word, name, or expression used as a substitute for something else with which it is closely associated. For example, Washington is a metonym for the US government.

Hollywood:

• Plastic Surgery
• Movies
• Rich people/actors
• Art
• Stars
• Red carpet
• Theatre
• Flashing lights
• costumes
• 
  

How was hollywood invented?

Film was invented in France, but the Hollywood studios started to become all powerful by the 1920s. The studio built up their power by following what is called "Fordist" economic model and establishing a system of vertical integration.

vertical integration - the combination in one firm of two or more stages of production normally operated by separate firms. Production, distribution and consumption.

"Fordist" - the use in manufacturing industry of the methods pioneered by Henry Ford, typified by large-scale mechanized mass production. Named after henry ford, a very efficient way of producing goods like cars based on 1. standardising the product
2. assembly line production


20th century fox: For many years, 20th Century Fox claimed to have been founded in 1915, the year Fox Film was founded.
However, in recent years it has claimed the 1935 merger as its founding, even though most film historians agree it was founded in 1915.

antitrust laws - in the late 1940s the US government brought an end to the vertical integration system 
and forced the studios to sell off their cinemas

Hollywood now, The Big Six:

1. Disney
2. Universal
3. Warner Brothers
4. Fox
5. Sony
6. Paramount

Media plurality- is about the information that people consume on a daily basis, which informs their views and perspective on the world. 'Media plurality' means having a diversity of viewpoints available and consumed across the media.

Disney wants to buy Fox because of Netflix, They are going to start up their own version,

If they own Fox they can put way more content on things because they'll own it.

In contemporary hollywood, individual independent production put together a production-the studios then 'buy into' the film, offering money in exchange for distribution rights and possibly leasing ut facilities (the studio in which to film)

Average budget for a major films $60-100 million,

budget spent on:

• Cast
• story rights
• producer + director fees
• VFX
• music rights

Distributors will acquire a film for a fee and gain the rights to sell it (normally on all platforms)*

A % of box office will go back to producers (after they get back all the money they spend)

They will pay for the marketing of the film.

This marketing budget can vary massively. The last Transformers film cost $210m to make and $200m to market. Low budget horror films like The Purge were cheap to make (under $5m) but costly to market (more than $20m)

Marketing of the movie IT: IT left around creepy red balloons in Sydney;

Newspapers and Politics (revision material 2)

• In the UK, “the press” is free, and most journalists believe this is fundamental to a democratic society. This means that newsmakers should seek out and circulate news, information, ideas, comment and opinion and hold those in authority to account. The press provides the platform for a multiplicity of voices to be heard.

• This means that newspapers are allowed to express opinions, and this includes political views.  After the 2011 phone hacking scandals involving a range of newspapers, a major report was published, by Lord Leveson.  As a result, a new press regulator, IPSO, was set up.  The aim was to ensure the press was more tightly regulated, which might have meant less freedom than under the previous system, where the press regulated itself.

• Historically, newspapers have had well-established links with political parties.  Sometimes owners give substantial donations to parties they support.  In the lead up to a elections, newspapers have openly supported and criticised parties.  

• News Corp is a UK newspaper group and it is part of a much bigger global conglomerate.

Left and Right wing: 

You will often hear people talk about ‘left wing’ and ‘right wing’ - but what does it mean? It means what people believe a country should do for its citizens.

In the UK, left wing politics are those traditionally aligned with the Labour party, and right wing are those traditionally aligned with the conservatives.

The Daily Mail is right winged; The right wing is against the idea of benefits because they believe people should be more independent and pay for themselves. Right wing beliefs value tradition, they are about fairness, survival of the fittest, and they believe in economic freedom.

They typically believe that business shouldn’t be regulated, and that we should all look after ourselves.

Right wing people tend to believe they shouldn’t have to pay for someone else’s education or health service.

They believe in freedom to succeed over equality.

The Guardian is left-wing because left wing beliefs are usually progressive in nature, they look to the future, aim to support those who cannot support themselves, are idealist and believe in equality.

People who are left wing believe in taxation to redistribute opportunity and wealth - things like a national health service, and job seeker’s allowance are fundamentally left wing ideas.

They believe in equality over the freedom to fail.

Comparing The Daily Mail and The Guardian pt ll.

Comparing The Daily Mail and The Guardian.

• They are immediate and up to date. When something happens, users can access the news and get regular updates:

The Guardian is up immediate and up to date; 

The Daily mail is also up to date;

• They offer more immediate interactive opportunities, for example there is access to audio-visual clips and opportunities to blog or email opinions. The Daily Mail which has a high percentage of female readers, has had particular success with its online version of female with its diet of fashion and gossip:

The Guardian:  It shows that the users can interact by watching audio-visual clips such as the one below, and beside the video, we can see that there are options of how the users can reach the Daily Mail, we have the Facebook option, the Twitter option and the option to email. 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/08/new-york-firefighters-respond-to-blaze-at-trump-tower

The Daily Mail: Also shows that users can interact by watching audio-visual clips and below it also has the sharing options users can take. The Daily Mail also has a side section for female users who can view all the gossip about celebrities;

• Apps for several newspapers are available for mobile phones and tablets

These apps are very useful to people in their everyday life, having newspaper apps is greatly significant because it means people can view the news on the go, especially when they're travelling to work. There are many newspaper apps, such as:

The Film Industry

Genres:

• romance
• horror
• thriller
• action
• drama
• sci-fi
• fantasy
• historical
• crime 
• adventure
• surreal 
• comedy
• fiction
• documentary
• international e.g russian movies
• psychological
• musical
• sports

Why genres? We need genres because there are different types of movies that appeal to someone; people have their own preferences. 

Steven Neale: Popular cinema relies on audiences finding pleasure in difference and repetition i.e recognition of familiar elements and the way those elements are linked in an unfamiliar way or the way that unfamiliar elements might be introduced.

From the spec: Genre theory is about what genres are, and about how and why they are created, chang, endure or decline. Neale argues that genre is a process by which generic codes and conventions are shared by producers and audiences through repetition in media products

Codes and conventions

• Mis-en-scene
• Props
• Non-diegetic/diegetic sounds
• Iconography 
• Structure
• Theme

b) Vampire Horror iconography: 

• Blood
• Vampires
• Fangs
• Dark clothing
• Suspenseful music
• Murder
• Stereotypically a stake and coffin 
• for make up; pale skin, different coloured eyes, stereotypically they'd be red
• gothic settings; castle, rich, opulent settings

Structure: A mysterious, secretive new guy in school, and all the girls are interested, but he only focuses on one girl and tries to get close to her, eventually the girl would fall in love with him, but once the truth is revealed about him being a vampire, the girl is shocked but despite that, she stays with him 

Theme:

Structures for a Teen movie: 

A rite of passage narrative: moving from once social identity to another

Could manifest in: change from geek to princess, loser to winner, losing virginity

Also power structures within the high school setting.

General themes: the need to belong to a group and the importance of popularity

Genre stages:

1st stage - primitive, the formative stage in which the genres characteristics are first established

2nd stage - the classical, the genre at its peak, with generic qualities refined

3rd stage - the revisionist, which scrutinizes and reevaluates, often in a critical way, the conventions that typify the genre

4th stage - the parodic, in which the genre is satirized in a consciously self-reflective, tongue-in cheek manner

Andrew Tudor: "A genre defines a moral and social world"

The rise of the teenager: The great depression of 1930s forced young people into  high schools because there were no jobs, but in the 50's, it was a time of prosperity, which meant that teenagers no longer had to work. Teens were loyal to the cinema in the 1950s due to the rise of TV, it was quite cheap and common.

In more recent years, filmmakers have sought to redefine teen movies; critical movies, often made by outsider voices, were made by within the genre


Pastiche - a 'lovely', respectful homage to previous conventions


Tarantino's films are often viewed as pastiches of multiple genres


Parody - a humorous subversion of genre expectations. Audiences enjoy seeing conventions subverted


The Spoof - More a series of 'gags' than a fully functioning narrative, dependant on specific genre knowledge. Generally popular with teens and can be highly profitable due to low production costs.