8 consumption

How are games consumed?

Gaming consumption

Gaming has changed from the days of coin-op arcades. How we consume gaming products comes in a variety of different ways, here are some to consider:• Merchandise: t-shirts, Rockstar’s more unusual items• Cosplay• Fanfiction and Fanart• E-sports• Machinima• Modding – Rockstar had a great beneficial relationship

with their fans – right up until the Hot Coffee controversy which changed everything!

Merchandise

You only have to flick through the poster racks of HMV to see that videogames merchanise is everywhere. From Angry Birds selling 10 million plush soft toys last year, to more extravegent –replica samarai swords from Japanese roleplaying games (RPGs)

Rockstar Games are particularly savvy with their merchandise – Remember: For them their brand is as much about style as it is about the product.

Merchandise

Cosplay

• Cosplay short for "costume play“ is a type of performance art in which participants don costumes and accessories to represent a specific character.

E-sports

• Electronic sports (or E-sports) comprises the competitive play of video games.

• Other terms include competitive gaming, professional gaming, e-sport, and cybersport. The most common video game genres associated with electronic sports are real-time strategy (RTS), fighting, first-person shooter (FPS), massively-multiplayer online (MMOG), and racing.

• Games are played competitively at amateur, semi-professional and professional levels, and some games have organized competition in the form of leagues and tournaments. Events such as Major League Gaming (MLG), Global Starcraft II League (GSL), World Cyber Games (WCG), Dreamhack, and Intel Extreme Masters provide both real-time casting of streamed games, and cash prizes to the winners.

Machinima

Machinima (muh-sheen-eh-mah) is filmmaking within a real-time, 3D virtual environment, often using 3D video-game technologies.In an expanded definition, it is the convergence of filmmaking, animation and game development. Machinima is real-world filmmaking techniques applied within an interactive virtual space where characters and events can be either controlled by humans, scripts or artificial intelligence. By combining the techniques of filmmaking, animation production and the technology of real-time 3D game engines, Machinima makes for a very cost- and time-efficient way to produce films, with a large amount of creative control.

Machinima

Machinima (muh-sheen-eh-mah) is filmmaking within a real-time, 3D virtual environment, often using 3D video-game technologies.In an expanded definition, it is the convergence of filmmaking, animation and game development. Machinima is real-world filmmaking techniques applied within an interactive virtual space where characters and events can be either controlled by humans, scripts or artificial intelligence. By combining the techniques of filmmaking, animation production and the technology of real-time 3D game engines, Machinima makes for a very cost- and time-efficient way to produce films, with a large amount of creative control.

Machinima

Examples include Call of Duty gameplay videos

Halo 3 had built in machinima recording software

Games often feature cinematic camera angles and graphics – particularly in cut scenes: sections in a game where the player is not in control but ‘movie’ like scenes to provide context and explanation of player motivations

Rockstar Games that have resulted in machinimainclude GTA and Red Dead Redemption

Blood Money (GTA IV Machinima)

Modding

Mod or modification is a term generally applied to PC, especially first-person shooters, role-playing games and real-time strategy games.Mods are made by the general public or a developer and can be entirely new games in themselves, but mods are not stand-alone software and require the user to have the original release in order to run. They can include new items, weapons, characters, enemies, models, textures, levels,story lines, music, and game modes. They also usually take place in unique locations. They can be single-player or multiplayer. Mods that add new content to the underlying game are often called partial conversions, while mods that create an entirely new game are called total conversions and mods that fix bugs are called unofficial patches.

Modding

Mod or modification is a term generally applied to PC, especially first-person shooters, role-playing games and real-time strategy games.

Mods are made by the general public or a developer and can be entirely new games in themselves, but mods are not stand-alone software and require the user to have the original release in order to run.

They can include new items, weapons, characters, enemies, models, textures, levels, story lines, music, and game modes. They also usually take place in unique locations. They can be single-player or multiplayer. Mods that add new content to the underlying game are often called partial conversions, while mods that create an entirely new game are called total conversions and mods that fix bugs are called unofficial patches.

Modding

The Internet provides an inexpensive medium to promote and distribute mods, and they have become an increasingly important factor in the commercial success of some games.Developers such as Blizzard Entertainment, id Software, Valve Software, Bethesda Softworks, Firaxis, Crytek, The Creative Assembly and Epic Games provide extensive tools and documentation to assist mod makers, leveraging the potential success brought in by a popular mod like Counter-Strike.

Modding

Considering our focus on Rockstar Games, the most important mod in recent history is the 2005 Hot Coffee mod for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

TASK: Research the answers to the following questions. The more detail the better for your research. You will need to look at more than one source for this.

1. What was the Hot Coffee mod?

2. How did the mod affect San Andreas’s age rating?

3. What was the impact for each of the stakeholders: The developers, the publishers, the platform holder and the consumer?

Modding