Me and the members of my group went out and gave our questionnaires to people of our assigned age groups. Once we had given out 20 questionnaires each, we brought our results together and put them in to graphs, comparing them by gender.
Do you play console games?
Female Yes: 17
No: 28
Male Yes: 38
No: 7
As expected, more males who we asked played console games that the females, already supporting the theory that males are more interested in console games than females are.
If Yes
How often do you play (per week)?
Female Every day: 4
3-6 days: 6
1-2 days: 7
Male Every day: 15
3-6 days: 13
1-2 days: 10
There is a significant difference in the results on this question when comparing the two genders. The top answer for the males is "every day", whilst the majority of the girls answers was just "1-2 days" of game play per week.
What games console(s) do you play?
Female Nintendo Wii: 12
XBox: 5
Nintendo DS: 8
Playstation: 3
Other: 8
Male Nintendo Wii:9
XBox: 17
Nintendo DS: 5
Playstation: 15
Other: 3
Other popular answers were Facebook games (Farmville), online games and phone apps.
Here it is shown that the theory that certain games consoles are aimed at specific genders may be true. Females tended to play the Nintendo consoles (Wii and DS) more than the XBox and Playstation, which were more popular with the males. The Nintendo products, as shown in earlier posts, were mainly advertised by girls (girls hands holding the console, Girls Aloud used in TV advert), whilst the Playstation was advertised with men.
What type(s) of game do you play?
Female Sport: 2
Racing/ driving: 3
Shooting: 2
Platform: 8
Other: 7
Other games mentioned were adventure, puzzle and popular dance games.
Male Sport: 14
Racing/ driving: 12
Shooting: 22
Platform: 9
Other: 5
Poker and other gambling games were popular in the 'Other' category.
As we predicted, shooting games, racing games and sports were more popular with the males who were given the questionnaire. Females tended to lean more toward platform games, and they told us that they also enjoyed adventure and puzzle games, and those involving a dance mat.
If No, why?
Female Lack of Time: 12
Lack of Interest: 10
Too expensive: 5
Other: 1
Male Lack of Time: 4
Lack of Interest: 2
Too expensive: 1
Other: 0
We also asked the people who said that they do not play console games their reason(s) for this. Both genders mainly answered "lack of time" or "lack of interest", however there was obviously a higher percentage of females answering this question.
Overall, our results came back with a positive correlation to our initial thoughts; that men are more interested in games consoles than females, and the stereotypes with regards to what consoles and games they play.
Thursday, 22 December 2011
Tuesday, 22 November 2011
In-depth Research
After having lectures covering the three industry level questions that were posed for us, we were put in to teams of three and were given one of the questions to look further into and later give a presentation on.
The question my team was given was the question posted by Rebel Play in session 3:
Do media platforms and genres have specific gender appeal? Why don't more women play console games?
After discussing the question with the other people in my team and sharing the notes that we had collected in the lecture, we decided that a good place to start would be carrying out some quantitive research, so we created a questionnaire to give out to members of the public to find out who was interested in playing video games and who wasn't, and why?
We each took 30 questionnaires and decided on an age band that we would hand our questionnaires to so that we had an equal amount of results from different age ranges. I chose to give mine out to people aged 15-24, whilst my team mates gaves theirs to people below 15, and over 24. We also decided that we would give 15 of our questionnaires to females, and 15 to males, so that we could compare results equally from both genders.
Here is our questionnaire. When we next meet as a team we will analyse our results.
1. Gender Male Female
2. Do you play console games? Yes No
- If Yes
3. How often do you play (per week)? Every day 3-6 days 1-2 days
4. What games console(s) do you play? Wii Xbox Nintendo DS PlayStation
5. What type(s) of game do you play? Sport Racing/driving Shooting Platform Other(Please specify) ______________________
- If No
6. Why? Lack of time Lack of interest Too expensive Other(Please Specify) __________________________________________________
7. Do you play any other types of game? (iPhone apps, online games, facebook games, etc)
_________________________________________________________________
The question my team was given was the question posted by Rebel Play in session 3:
Do media platforms and genres have specific gender appeal? Why don't more women play console games?
After discussing the question with the other people in my team and sharing the notes that we had collected in the lecture, we decided that a good place to start would be carrying out some quantitive research, so we created a questionnaire to give out to members of the public to find out who was interested in playing video games and who wasn't, and why?
We each took 30 questionnaires and decided on an age band that we would hand our questionnaires to so that we had an equal amount of results from different age ranges. I chose to give mine out to people aged 15-24, whilst my team mates gaves theirs to people below 15, and over 24. We also decided that we would give 15 of our questionnaires to females, and 15 to males, so that we could compare results equally from both genders.
Here is our questionnaire. When we next meet as a team we will analyse our results.
1. Gender Male Female
2. Do you play console games? Yes No
- If Yes
3. How often do you play (per week)? Every day 3-6 days 1-2 days
4. What games console(s) do you play? Wii Xbox Nintendo DS PlayStation
5. What type(s) of game do you play? Sport Racing/driving Shooting Platform Other(Please specify) ______________________
- If No
6. Why? Lack of time Lack of interest Too expensive Other(Please Specify) __________________________________________________
7. Do you play any other types of game? (iPhone apps, online games, facebook games, etc)
_________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, 15 November 2011
CBBC
In this lecture, we had a talk led by Jim Fleming of BBC Children's. He posed the question:
How can we create a safe environment for children online without discouraging participation?
Jim talked about the development of the CBBC and CBeebies websites, where children can sign up and take part in a virtual community and how they could combat the issues of children's online safety whilst still being able to give them a sense of individual identity.
The CBBC website is a community which is aimed at children between the ages of 6 and 12. It aims to provide a form of safe social networking for younger children, to prevent them from signing up to other social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter, which typically have a minimal consent age of 13 years old and are not considered to be safe for people younger than that, due to the more open identity features, such as profile pictures and education/ location information.
Ideas that Jim Fleming had for encouraging children to sign up to the CBBC website were:
However, a problem that always comes with personal profiles is security and making sure that not too much of the children's identity is given away.
This could perhaps be solved by:
I think that this could be used as a basis for the 'compelling content' that the CBBC want to introduce to their website, as the children have come up with the idea themselves. Perhaps the children could actually create a virtual pet on the website, similar to Moshi Monsters and Neopets, where they can then play games to earn money to "feed" their pets, and trade them with other users.
How can we create a safe environment for children online without discouraging participation?
Jim talked about the development of the CBBC and CBeebies websites, where children can sign up and take part in a virtual community and how they could combat the issues of children's online safety whilst still being able to give them a sense of individual identity.
The CBBC website is a community which is aimed at children between the ages of 6 and 12. It aims to provide a form of safe social networking for younger children, to prevent them from signing up to other social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter, which typically have a minimal consent age of 13 years old and are not considered to be safe for people younger than that, due to the more open identity features, such as profile pictures and education/ location information.
Ideas that Jim Fleming had for encouraging children to sign up to the CBBC website were:
- Holding hosted personality web-chats
- Personalised profiles/ identity
- Providing compelling content (Games, points systems, etc)
However, a problem that always comes with personal profiles is security and making sure that not too much of the children's identity is given away.
This could perhaps be solved by:
- Not allowing children to use a photograph of theirselves as a profile picture to identify them, but letting them make a cartoon avatar to represent them.
- Instead of letting them type in their own username (because a lot of children still use their names or part of their names in their username), have the website generate a few different usernames when signing up for them to choose from. The new Pottermore website uses this method to ensure safety for their younger users.
- Making sure that on sign up, parental consent is given through sending an email to the parent's email address to ensure that they are aware that their child is joining the community.
About Pink Panthers: They are exactly like black panthers but are a dark, fiery, ginger-red colour. They live to between 30 and 45 years. They are able to be weened at 12 days,and all of these youngsters are 13-17 days old. When a Female has a litter, it takes up to a week for all the cubs to be born. Females are rare, as when you breed them there is only a 20% (1-in-5) chance of getting one. However, My female (Amber) has had a litter of 7 and 3, yes 3, are female! I'm keeping one of the females, but the rest are all for sale!They would then "sell" them to each other using an imaginary currency.
I think that this could be used as a basis for the 'compelling content' that the CBBC want to introduce to their website, as the children have come up with the idea themselves. Perhaps the children could actually create a virtual pet on the website, similar to Moshi Monsters and Neopets, where they can then play games to earn money to "feed" their pets, and trade them with other users.
Wednesday, 19 October 2011
Rebel Play
In this week's lecture, we were paid a visit by game publishers Rebel Play. The question posed for us was:
Do media platforms and genres have specific gender appeal? Why don't more women play console games?
As part of Rebel Play's presentation, we were shown that according to statistics, only 42% of gamers are women, wheras 58% are men. What factors could contribute to these statistics?
Firstly, I think age contributes to the reasons why women don't play console games. Speaking from a female's perspective, when I was around nine years old, I played video games every day. As I grew older, however, following the influences of older females around me, I became more interested in going shopping with my friends, my ballet classes and make up. Perhaps a lack in games to suit these interests were the reason that girls of my age lost interest in playing games? Men, on the other hand, tend to be brought up to enjoy sports and video games, therefore maintaining their interest in playing video games. Also, as generations change, I think that more people, both male and female, will play video games, as a wider range of games are being developed to suit different audiences. Ten years ago, not as many consoles were around; however today, there is a wide range to choose from, such as Playstation, Xbox, Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii. It has been suggested that the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii are aimed at a female audience, as females have been used to advertise these consoles, and also because the design of them is more sleek.
Do media platforms and genres have specific gender appeal? Why don't more women play console games?
As part of Rebel Play's presentation, we were shown that according to statistics, only 42% of gamers are women, wheras 58% are men. What factors could contribute to these statistics?
Firstly, I think age contributes to the reasons why women don't play console games. Speaking from a female's perspective, when I was around nine years old, I played video games every day. As I grew older, however, following the influences of older females around me, I became more interested in going shopping with my friends, my ballet classes and make up. Perhaps a lack in games to suit these interests were the reason that girls of my age lost interest in playing games? Men, on the other hand, tend to be brought up to enjoy sports and video games, therefore maintaining their interest in playing video games. Also, as generations change, I think that more people, both male and female, will play video games, as a wider range of games are being developed to suit different audiences. Ten years ago, not as many consoles were around; however today, there is a wide range to choose from, such as Playstation, Xbox, Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii. It has been suggested that the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii are aimed at a female audience, as females have been used to advertise these consoles, and also because the design of them is more sleek.
Girls Aloud appeared in an advertisement for the Nintendo DS Lite. Here it is shown that the DS is also available in a wide range of colours including red, pink and blue which means that it can be tailored to meet the preferences of a wide audience.
This is a promotional picture for the Nintendo Wii. A girl's hands are used to model the small and sleek Wii remote.
On this PS3 advert, however, a male's body is shown to advertise the console, suggesting that it is aimed at a male audience.
Characters and the way they are portrayed in a game may play a part in influencing who plays the game. I will use Tomb Raider as an example. This game may be seen from some perspectives as glorifying females; it is not often that females are given the role of the heroic figure in games. This may attract girls to the game as it would make them feel powerful. However, an article written by a female gamer suggests that one of the reasons that girls don't play games is because they are put off by the sexualization of the female characters. One girl writes about "Lara Croft Sydrome":
I couldn’t wait to load and play Tomb Raider when it first came out, but when I saw Lara, I just couldn’t take the game seriously. The giant twin pyramids mounted onto her chest look like something she could use to impale her enemies. In many ways her kick-butt presence is a triumph, but the designers’ decision to sexualize her to the point of deformity angered me. I couldn’t get past her proportions, so I put the game away.
Thursday, 13 October 2011
Hurricane Films
In last week's lecture, we were visited by Hurricane Films, a Liverpool based production company. We were presented the following question:
How can you engage an online audience in storytelling?- How do you encourage users, especially those from an older generation to participate?
"Without our memory, we have no past at all"
Hurricane Films launched People's Stories- Liverpool Lives to try and encourage older people to share their stories through the internet and also to try and engage a younger audience in looking at the culture and history of Liverpool.
However, a problem faced with this is the lack of knowledge within the older generation with regards to using the internet. It doesn't take much research to be able to conclude that the percentage of people over 50 who use the internet is quite small. This may make it harder to reach this generation and get their stories up on the internet.
The problem could perhaps be solved by encouraging the younger generation to get involved. Children and teenagers could research into their own family's history and collect information to post on the website themselves. This way, both of Hurricane Films aims are being fulfilled.
Working with local museums could also be a way to source information on Liverpool's history to the website. Taking a look at old artefacts that belong to Liverpool and posting pictures and information about them to the website could not only educate audiences, but encourage them to go out and visit these museums to look for themselves.
I think People's Stories is a fantastic way of bringing the older and younger generations together as a community and it will be interesting to see how the website grows over the next few generations to come.
How can you engage an online audience in storytelling?- How do you encourage users, especially those from an older generation to participate?
"Without our memory, we have no past at all"
Hurricane Films launched People's Stories- Liverpool Lives to try and encourage older people to share their stories through the internet and also to try and engage a younger audience in looking at the culture and history of Liverpool.
However, a problem faced with this is the lack of knowledge within the older generation with regards to using the internet. It doesn't take much research to be able to conclude that the percentage of people over 50 who use the internet is quite small. This may make it harder to reach this generation and get their stories up on the internet.
The problem could perhaps be solved by encouraging the younger generation to get involved. Children and teenagers could research into their own family's history and collect information to post on the website themselves. This way, both of Hurricane Films aims are being fulfilled.
Working with local museums could also be a way to source information on Liverpool's history to the website. Taking a look at old artefacts that belong to Liverpool and posting pictures and information about them to the website could not only educate audiences, but encourage them to go out and visit these museums to look for themselves.
I think People's Stories is a fantastic way of bringing the older and younger generations together as a community and it will be interesting to see how the website grows over the next few generations to come.
Thursday, 29 September 2011
Media Professional Studies- Where I started.
Hello,
I'm Frances and I am currently a second year student studying BA Media Professional Studies at Liverpool John Moores University.
In this first post I will talk about how I became interested in media and technology.
Before college, I had no experience in media; I didn't know anything about it. When I enrolled at college after high school, I had a spare option after I chose the subjects that I wanted to study, and after flicking through the prospectus I decided that A Level Media Studies looked like fun. It ended up being my favourite subject of the four I was studying and I decided that I wanted to carry on with media studies at university.
I particularly enjoy the practical side of media, planning a project and then filming and editing and bringing my ideas to life. Having a film that I helped produce screened to a large audience is something that I would like to achieve some day.
Since starting Media Professional Studies at LJMU I have learned about a wider range of things to do with the media industry, such as starting a business, and research media. I think that it is important to be versatile and to be able to demonstrate a wide variety of knowledge and skills, as the media industry is such a large and competitive industry.
Along side media, I have a huge interest in the music industry, as a hopeful musician myself. I am interested in the impact that the media industry has on music, and the impact that music has on the media industry; new technologies that have allowed the two to join, such as MP3 players, internet sharing such as iTunes and Youtube, and also the production of music videos for television.
I'm Frances and I am currently a second year student studying BA Media Professional Studies at Liverpool John Moores University.
In this first post I will talk about how I became interested in media and technology.
Before college, I had no experience in media; I didn't know anything about it. When I enrolled at college after high school, I had a spare option after I chose the subjects that I wanted to study, and after flicking through the prospectus I decided that A Level Media Studies looked like fun. It ended up being my favourite subject of the four I was studying and I decided that I wanted to carry on with media studies at university.
I particularly enjoy the practical side of media, planning a project and then filming and editing and bringing my ideas to life. Having a film that I helped produce screened to a large audience is something that I would like to achieve some day.
Since starting Media Professional Studies at LJMU I have learned about a wider range of things to do with the media industry, such as starting a business, and research media. I think that it is important to be versatile and to be able to demonstrate a wide variety of knowledge and skills, as the media industry is such a large and competitive industry.
Along side media, I have a huge interest in the music industry, as a hopeful musician myself. I am interested in the impact that the media industry has on music, and the impact that music has on the media industry; new technologies that have allowed the two to join, such as MP3 players, internet sharing such as iTunes and Youtube, and also the production of music videos for television.
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