Task 1
In the gaming industry, research is often over-looked by
those who are new to subject and sometimes even by members of top companies.
It’s vital because it allows the company to gain an insight into the public’s
opinion, as well as new thoughts on an existing game or when creating a new
one; research is what can cause a game to be success in the long run.
There’s three ways in which people can collect results,
otherwise known as data, for their certain hypothesis or ideas.
Primary- Primary research is where you collect the data
yourself by doing questionnaires, interviews, and experiments or
experience/observe things.
Secondary- This goes by looking at what data other people
have collected from their primary research, plus there’s more ways to gain
secondary research and habitually it’s classed as one of the easiest ways to
gain data. Internet, books, magazines and articles, games, forums, charts, TV,
tales and memories (of someone else), posters/ advertisements, shops, power
points are all types of secondary research.
Tertiary- Tertiary is the final way of researching types;
it’s where you get information from a secondary research like bibliographies, TV,
sometimes books and internet other times it can be from discussions with people
who’ve taken quotations from what the original person has said to them.
Data is considered to be under two categories known as
quantitative or qualitative and is what we gain from either taking part in
primary, secondary or tertiary research. Quantitative data is considered to be questions
that allow people to make stats and facts from the data collected, these
questions are not always numerical and can be yes or no- although this can be
considered as qualitative data.
Qualitative questions are mainly physiological with them
being more sentences, than quick word answers. At times they do come across
more opinionated, biased or based on a point-of-view. The questions are
subsequently subjective and can turn into a binary as I’ve explained earlier.
With all the different types and sources of research there
has to be a purpose on why we’ve collected it.
Audience research is where people tend to collect
information on public’s view of a service or a product. Sometimes it can just
be a general audience, other times it can for a specific target audience
especially when dealing with games. For someone who’s trying to create a sequel
of an amazing hit-seller they tend to gather thoughts on how the first game
could’ve been improved or what was liked about it which would tie in with product
research. Other times developers will look at what other games have succeeded
in or will ask a different target audience their preferences so they could make
another game suited for that type of public as well- thus gaining more profits.
Market research focuses on money tendencies meaning when is
it more likely for people to buy games during the year, like Christmas,
sometimes for Easter or other special occasions that appear on the calendar
although this is quite rare. Another thing to look at would be how to price the
end product by observing the annual salary in a certain nation and weigh up the
cost it’s taken to make that product against the annual wage. At least that way
the consumer will be further tempted into buying a new release during the start
or end of the month when they’re given their money, or by saving it up to again
get that product.
Product research would be mainly used for creating a newer
version of existing materials. It works closely with audience research by
gaining views on the company’s last products and what should be amended or left
the same. For example after Ocarina of Time in Legend of Zelda they wanted to
appeal to wider audience, so when creating Wind Waker the company thought
cel-shaded version of Link would appeal ‘cuter’ aiming it more at a younger
target audience.
If they’re looking to create a new game however, developers
would think back to their favourite games why they were enjoyable. Could it be
because of the graphics, storyline, gameplay
or even the visual style?
Task 2
In this assignment we are allowed to choose a topic that
relates to gaming, mine is going to be on a childhood game known as Spyro The
Dragon series. My hypothesis is the Spyro series (excluding Skyladers) are more
aimed towards a female audience than a male audience. During my research I will be questioning 10
girls and 10 boys who have played Spyro, asking them to explain their views on
the subject and collecting data on which I can conclude an answer from.
I’ve focused on collecting my results through a primary
research by doing an online survey through Youtube with a video and asking
people on Facebook. Otherwise I’ve interviewed people from my family, friends
and workmates from the livery yard. I believed that I might be able to get a mixture
of answers rather than just sticking with my friends, who might all share the
same opinion leading to the results being biased.
Research Results
With using 10 boys and girls it would start my experiment
fairly so that we could get a clear end result, making the hypothesis
believable and results easier to conclude as well as being reliable and not
biased.
Spyro seems to more memorable to a male audience than
females, it could be because the game series grew up with the boys more than it
did the girls and seems more memorable because as a stigma, more males tend to
play games around violence, military and shoot ups. As for girls it could be
they've other games that are similar to Spyro- hence why it wouldn’t be so
memorable.
One of the reasons that have led ` me to believe more girls
would play Spyro is because on Deviant Art, Fanfiction.net and Youtube, I’ve noticed there’s been more
tributes, fan fictions and fan arts of this game by the vast majority of this
game being female. Questions 6 and 7 are based on this theory.
20% of boys have completed any fan-art, amvs or fan fiction
on any of the game’s characters, compared to the girls who’ve achieved 50% in
this subject.
3 boys admire pairings within the Spyro series (e.g Spyro x
Cynder) which is a 10% rise compared to the last question, yet for the girls they’ve
declined in 10% from the last question.
This could be although more girls have participated in
‘fan’-based work they don’t automatically like pairings within the game,
instead having favourite ‘single’ characters. Still with the results it does
allow us to believe that the main premise i created earlier is correct.
Depending on the end result of the hypothesis, I would want
to know why it ended up the way it did and how can the game be improved instead
of going the Skylander's route. The biggest hit feature of Spyro was the
protagonist being a small purple dragon that people can control in gameplay,
all the boys thought this was the best compared to other popular features. On
the other hand 60% of females loved the fact of being a dragon as well as the
option of flying concluding that Dawn of Dragon is possibly the favourite game
among the female audience, yet question five would oppose this theory with 50%
of the girls liking the series prequels and the same amount liking its sequels.
80% of females enjoyed the storylines in Spyro games
compared to males where 90% of them love the storyline.
By looking at this final graph we can see my hypothesis is
incorrect because the unisex option has the most votes. However bt studying
this closer we can see more females have chosen the unisex option compared to
males who've chosen the female option.
Conclusion
I conclude that in order to
receive more profit and a wider target audience if Activision were prepared to
create Spyro HD games or a new series that involve Skylanders, they should aim
towards more a male target audience. This could be achieved by adding more
realistic features to some of the prequel games, creating possibly a darker visual
style or adding more shooting features. In order gain non baised views on this
matter, my next step would be to conclude more research on what a male figure
would want to see in the next Spyro game if they were to produce another or a
HD.
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