Video Games: Call of Duty

Ownership

- Published and owned by: Activision 

- Developer: Infinity Ward 

- Franchising- Activision franchises the call of duty brand to a number of different companies (merchandise Etc) - CONVERGENCE

Marketing & Distribution

- Activision is placing ore focus on billboards rather than popular digital platforms.

- Released trailer of game on a live stream (website, Twitter, Instagram)

- Billboards out up in London, Paris, New York, LA

- Above-the-line, traditional advertising:

    - BFI iMax, London (gains mass exposure)

    - (Combination traditional/digital advertising) QR codes on billboards/magazines

- Website:

    - "Buy now" multiple times in multiple places

    - Trailer embedded

    - Drop-down menu

    - Can make an account

    - Forum and blog

Audience and Regulation

- Technological Convergence;

    - The process by by which existing technologies merge into new forms that bring together different types of media and application.

    - New devices and technology convergence, devices can interact with a wider array of media types.

    - For example, a new type of media storage often require new player that only play that format.

    - People across the global can participate

    - As technology advances, however, new models might include additional features like the ability to interface with more devices or play other type of media.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-33960075​

- Who are the VSC? - Video Standards Council, regulator for video games

- What does PEGI stand for? - Pan European Game Information

- What does PEGI do? - Video game rating System (VSC use the PEGI rating)

- What are the different PEGI ratings? - 3, 7, 12, 16 and 28

- This BBC article creates a moral panic (Stanley Cohen) of violent video games being responsible for real life violence.

- Active/Passive audience - The BBC article may be arguing that active audiences may mirror the violence they see, whereas the passive audiences may just play the video game and not take any action on it.

- Desensitisation theory - The idea that exposure to violent images numbs the effect of them. The more you become accustomed to violent images, the less likely they are to have an impact on the audience. The BBC article may say that after playing violent video games for a certain amount of times, they may no longer be effected by it.

- Hypodermic needle theory - whatever you consume, you accept. This is what the BBC article is arguing that people may mirror the violence they see on the video games.

Gameplay footage

- What kind of legal/ethical issues does it raise?

- The use of weapons, murder, gun violence, knife crime

- How do the micro features (especially camerawork, mise-en-scene and sound) create verisimilitude for the audience?

Mise-en-scene

- Trees, Vines

- Weapons: gun, blade

- Rain, Mist

- Fish in water

- Checkpoints (coordinates) - when on a mission, its achieving a goal

- Blood and Gore, Floating body

- Camo and dull clothing to fit in with the dark genre 

Cinematography 

- POV - Recreates solider with a gun in hand

- Handheld movement - creates realism

Editing

- Continuous shot - realism

- Cut in the shot - natural cut to add to natural feel

Sound

- Diegetic: 

    - Jungle noises

    - Gun Shot

    - Footsteps

    - Rain

    - Becomes muffles when he goes underwater

    - Screams

- Non-Diegetic: 

    - Colleague speaking

    - Music starts - eery, dramatic = create tension 

The micro features used in this game creates verisimilitude for the audience through the use of Cinematography. The camera is in a POV position which allows the gamer to feel as if they are the actual character - giving a sense of realism. Additionally, because the camerawork is handheld movement, it further creates realism and a natural feel.

- What are your own thought of this type of first person POV shooter game, and its societal effects?

- The use of the POV camera angle makes the gamers feel as if they living in the life of the characters. This allows the gamer to experience escapism (outlined by Blumler and Katz's Uses and Grats).

CASE STUDIES TO SUPPORT HYPODERMIC NEEDLE

- Jamies Bulger (Influenced by horror movie Child's Play 3)

- The Hungerford Massacre 

- The Columbine Massacre 

- Anders Breivik claimed to have used video games as a training tool for the massacre he perpetrated:

    - Killed 77 people

    - Played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and World of Warcraft

- Adam Lanza reportivly influenced by video games. Killed him mum, then students and teachers, them himself.

- Texas Chainsaw Massacre: movie banned in the UK from 1975-1999.

    - Some people argue that, as a result of increasingly violent media, audience are becoming desensitised. 

Hypodermic Needle theory:

- Theories that audiences are essentially passive, and will readily absorb messages relayed to them by the media.

- This means that, after watching a violent horror film, or playing a violent POV shooter, audience members will be negatively influenced.

- This presupposes that audiences are passive rather than active.

Psycho

- Earlier audiences might be considered naive by comparison

- For example, many audience members were traumatised by Psycho when it first came out - through the then notorious shower scene is tame by todays standards. Main actress Janet Leigh was terrified of showing after filming, instead took baths.

Moral Panic

- In 1972, Stanley Cohen developed the moral panic theory. This encompassed ideas of folk devils in society.

- Moral panic happens when “a condition, episode, person or group of persons emerged to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests”.

- His research was based on the mods and rockers in the 1960’s, but has since been applied to the media.

The stages of Moral Panic

- Someone, something or a group are defined as a threat to social norms or community interests.

- The threat is then depicted in a simple and recognisable symbol/form by the media.

- The portrayal of this symbol rouses public concern.

- There is a response from authorities and policy makers.

- The moral panic over the issue results in social changed within the community.

The consequences of Moral Panic

- The Jamie Bulger case in the UK focused public attention on screen violence.

- Mary Whitehouse spearheads a campaign against screen violence; she gains wide support.

- BBFC starts to censor films or ban them outright; certification becomes stricter.

- Fewer people are able to consume violent films.

Notes on the Article:

- Historical psychologists 'blamed' violent games for violent/aggressive behaviour.
- Moral combat: why the war on violent videos games is wrong (Market & Ferguson).
- Key point: concern over violent video games is just another 'Moral Panic'' about youth.
- Same as - violence in comics, Hiphop/drill, Marilyn Manson (music).
- The American Psychological Association continues to insist their is a link between violence in games and aggressive behaviour 

- Hoodies as an example of devils, with the moral panic escalating around the time of the London riots. 

- Afterwards, the government considered shortening school summer holidays as a way of containing the threat – though, at the time, this was not specifically linked to the riots. 
- Many clubs, pubs and shopping centres have banned hooded tops.
 
Desensitisation
- This theory suggests that audiences reactions are weaker towards their exposure to extreme violence, sex and death.
- This decrease in fear and sensitivity links to the extreme rise of societal violence and behaviours.

Mulvey and the Male Gaze

- Gaze = how an audience views people that have been presented.

- How men look at women, how women look at themselves, how women look at other women.

- Women are relegated to the star of an object and are heavily sexualised.

- Me Too Movement - goes against this.