Research

Existing Product (New)This is an issue of PlayStation: Official Magazine UK. It was released in February 2015 and features cover lines referencing games that came out the previous year (2014).

Masthead: The name of the magazine is positioned at the top of the cover in large bold capital lettering which attracts the customer’s eye. The font of the masthead looks visually pleasing and could intrigue the audience. The white text stands out against the dark colours of the image.

The main focus of the magazine cover is the 2014 video game Uncharted 4. A large image of the game takes up the entire page and this ensures the customer is fully focused on Uncharted 4 no matter where they look. The right side of the image is darkened and the left side is brightened. The producers will have aimed to achieve a desired effect; to give the impression of moonlight lighting up the character within the image.

The large image features the main character from Uncharted 4. He is an animated character, analogous to his own actor. The actor will have been photographed against a green screen in a studio and his image will have been converted via computer into an animated character.

The main character on the cover (Drake) is shown in a medium shot (from the waist up). He is standing in an unknown location outside and dark clouds surround him. It is shown to be night time within the image. There is use of low key lighting within the image, therefore dark tones and shadows occupy. The right side of Drake’s face is barely visible as it is covered by shadow, while the left side of his face is brightened. The presence of light and shadow could show good and evil, which suggests the personality of Drake and raises questions within the customer e.g. is he good or bad?

This magazine cover will have gone through a lot of production e.g. designing and creating the product. Many editing techniques have been applied to the page during post-production. The producers have clearly altered the brightness and contrast of the image to make Drake stand out. There has also been lots of colour grading which makes certain colours stand out. One such colour is dark blue.

There is use of mise en scene within the image. Drake has clearly been positioned in relation to the setting which is outside at night. The character is shown to have been fighting and his expression suggests that he is consumed by guilt. All graphic elements within the image have been arranged in a sophisticated manner.

Existing Product (New)This is an issue of Xbox: The Official Magazine which was released in April 2014. This magazine might be fully focused on exploring the qualities of the Xbox One and Xbox 360, or comparing/contrasting the two consoles.

The colour green is very prominent across the page. Green is often strongly associated with stability and endurance, which could relate to the pros of the gaming consoles. Green is a generally positive colour, and this might be a positive magazine as it explores the advantages of a gaming console.

Masthead: The name of the magazine is positioned near the top of the cover in large green and white coloured bold capital letters which clearly stand out against the black background.

Batman’s head blocks out a section of the name of the magazine. However, it is still easy to determine the name of the magazine: XBOX: The Official Magazine.

One large image of Batman: Arkham Knight takes up the whole front cover. The customer will be focused on this image. The whole image is black, with Batman’s black uniform and a black background covering the front cover of the magazine. Background effects have been used, and the customer is unable to determine where the character is standing. The graphic elements in the image connote mystery and darkness within the character and the game.

There is use of low key lighting which blocks out all light and leaves large amounts of shadow within the image. The dark colours on the page make all areas of green and white text stand out. All elements across the page have been arranged in a manner so that everything is detailed and very easy to read.

Lots of editing techniques have been applied during post-production. Colour grading has been applied so that the most visible colour is black. Brightness and contrast have been altered, making Batman stand out. Other effects have been added via Photoshop. Batman is shown to be wreathed in smoke, possibly an effect used in Photoshop.

There is use of mise en scene throughout the cover. Batman is clearly positioned in relation to the setting. His uniform is completely black and this is the exact same colour as the background.

Existing Product (New)This is a magazine cover for GamesTM, an issue published in either 2013 or 2014, evident by the orange circle which states what the magazine is a guide to people who want to purchase next-gen consoles.

The cover lines, headings, masthead, and other areas of text have been arranged so the page looks aesthetically pleasing to the customer and encourages him/her to buy the magazine. There isn’t too much text on the page; it is clean. This could prevent the customer from becoming disorientated by too much text everywhere.

There isn’t a specific location or studio on the magazine cover. A large image of one of the monsters from the video game Evolve is shown on the cover, taking up a large section of the page. There is a large empty space behind the image of the creature. The producers clearly intended to not include a background and leave the page blank.

There is use of mise en scene within the magazine cover. The arrangement of all graphic elements has an impact on the customer because it shows the artistic side of the magazine. Different areas of text are also ordered according to importance. Some areas are white and some are orange. It can be assumed that the areas of white text are more important than text that is coloured orange.

Masthead: The masthead has been positioned near the top of the page with the word ‘Games’ in large bold black lettering and the words ‘TM’ in orange bold capital letters; the orange letters are noticeably smaller than the bold black word. Some of the spines from the creature on the cover slightly cover the larger word.

Light seems to have been distributed within the image, and bright tones occupy the image. This can clearly be seen on the left side of the creature (the face, shoulder, and back) and it looks just like the sun is shining on it.

In other areas, dark tones occupy the image, and parts of the creature are in shadow. The orange areas of text match with the glow of the creatures eyes, as well as the fire building up at the back of its throat. Orange is associated with heat.

The magazine cover has clearly been edited during post-production. Brightness has clearly been altered in places and there has been colour grading which makes certain colours stand out.

Existing Product (Old)This is the cover of a classic magazine, an issue released on October 25, 1982. Due to lack of innovative technology in the 1980s, magazines were likely produced on different programs to the ones we have today e.g. Adobe Photoshop. Therefore, things like lighting, effects, and camera angles were rarely seen in magazines.

The magazine cover consists mainly of patterns such as circles, hats, and small images of landmarks (most notably the Capitol Building, the Washington Monument, the Pentagon etc.) A large Pac-Man symbol is positioned close to the bottom of the page, bigger than all other shapes across the cover.

The page is quite colourful; with reds, yellows, blues, greens, and whites. Dozens of small circles are arranged in lines down and across the page on some sections; the Pac-Man symbol is shown to be closely following them. These aspects attempt to show the characteristics of the Pac-Man game.

The name of the magazine (TIME) is positioned at the top of the cover in red capital letters. The font looks similar to Times New Roman. The red lettering is clearly visible against the dark blue background.

The heading (The Pac Men: Turning Cash into Votes) is positioned near the middle of the cover in white capital letters. The lettering is bold and stands out clearly against the blue background.

All elements on the cover have clearly been arranged in a manner so that it looks very carefully done and also aesthetically pleasing to the audience.

There aren’t any real life individuals or studios or locations on this front cover. It is purely patterns, shapes, and some areas of text.

Existing Product (Old)This is the front cover of a magazine issue published in 1982. The title is Electronic Games.

Because this magazine was produced in the 1980’s, there is lack of effects and techniques used in the cover. There were no images of real individuals taken and no specific location seems to be on the cover.

There is use of composition within the cover. There isn’t a lot of text on the page, making the cover look quite clean. There are three cover lines which reference content within the magazine. They are arranged in a neat manner. The name of the magazine is positioned at the top in large lettering with some references to the contents of the magazine below in yellow letters.

The image was clearly designed via computer and it shows something that depicts an old board game in a high angle shot. The image could be designed to appear as if it is taking place in space, just above Earth.

The image has clearly been edited during post-production. An editing technique has been applied to the image: the colour blue has been darkened and lightened in two separate areas.

The name of the magazine is in a font that matches with the theme of gaming. The silver lettering implies sci-fi games and the font looks ‘electronic’ (in relation to Electronic Games which is in the same font).

The main colours on this magazine cover are red, yellow, white and blue. The background of the magazine is orange. Orange is associated with encouragement and stimulation, which could in turn relate to the games featured within the magazine.

Certain graphic elements appear to have been ordered in terms of importance. There are three cover lines on the page; two of them are coloured yellow and one white. The yellow pieces of text are suggested to be more important than the white text in between them. Also, the yellow areas of text are in upper case letters unlike the white text which is in lower case lettering. This also shows the importance of the yellow text.

History of the Product• This type of product has changed dramatically from old to more recent products. These are

covers for video game magazines; some from the early 1980’s and some from the present day. Magazine covers from earlier time periods clearly didn’t have a lot of effort put into them; many front pages included images designed via computer and few areas of text. Magazine covers today are shown to employ a variety of editing techniques, colours, text fonts etc. In this way, they look far more visually pleasing to the customer as opposed to covers from earlier years. This shows that magazine covers for video games improved over the years.

• In recent times, different types of editing software and digital programs are used to create magazine covers for films, video games etc. Such examples include Adobe Photoshop CS6. During the 1980’s, magazine covers were designed using non-digital design processes due to technology not been as advanced at the time (digital editing techniques were only just starting to become popular).

• This type of technology has greatly changed over the years, mostly due to creation of digital editing software and programs and employment of various techniques which allowed for completely new ways to produce magazines in recent times.

SuccessProduct Name Box office figures/ circulation/ ratings/ sales

PlayStation: Official Magazine• Based in the United States, PlayStation: The Official

Magazine published thirteen issues a month until its cancellation in summer 2012.

XBOX: The Official Magazine • Official XBOX Magazine publishes 13 issues a year. The magazine is based in United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. In the US, 425,000 copies are sold per month and in the UK, 66,894 copies are sold per month.

GamesTM • GamesTM is a UK-based, multi-format video games magazine. A new issue is released monthly. Over 20,000 copies are sold every year.

TIME Magazine • With the first issue published in 1923, TIME Magazine has the world’s largest circulation rates for a weekly news magazine, with 3 million copies sold in total by 2013. It has a readership of 25 million.

Questionnaire Analysis

Robbie Hickman

Audience research• Observation: • 35% of my audience prefer to play video

games 7 hours or more per week while another 35% prefer playing games less than an hour per week. 20% of my audience play games only 1-3 hours a week and 10% play games 4-6 hours a week.

• What this says about my audience: • This shows that over half of my

audience (55%) don’t play video games a lot, whilst the other 45% do play video games a lot.

• How this will your product appeal to this audience:

• My gaming magazine will appeal to everyone in my audience because the majority of them play video games at least once a week. This proves that everyone might be interested in a gaming magazine if they like to play games.

Audience research• Observation: • Just over 56% of my audience like

to play first-person shooter games and 37% like playing third-person shooters. 6% like playing MMORPG’s.

• What this says about my audience:• This shows that over a half of my

audience prefer games centered on weapon-based combat through a first-person perspective rather than games in which the player character is visible on-screen.

• How will your product appeal to this audience:

• My video game magazine will feature first-person shooters on the cover and it may review third-person shooters and MMORPG games e.g. Battlefield 4 inside, so it might appeal to all members of my audience.

Audience research• Observation:• 47% of my audience like the Xbox

One and 52% of them like the PlayStation 4.

• What this says about my audience:• This shows that the majority of the

audience prefer both next-gen consoles almost the same, with PlayStation 4 being slightly more popular (by over 5%).

• How will your product appeal to this audience:

• My magazine will appeal to this audience because both next-gen consoles will be discussed/referenced, therefore attracting those who like Xbox One and those who prefer PlayStation 4 at the same time.

Audience research• Observation:• 38.89% of my audience assume that

Assassin’s Creed is the best franchise. Another 38.89% think the Call of Duty series is the best. 22.22% think Battlefield is the best gaming franchise. No one seems at all interested in the Crysis and Gears of War series.

• What this says about my audience:• The results clearly show that my

audience prefers games that are popular and gross millions (Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed etc.) to games that aren’t as popular e.g. Crysis.

• How will your product appeal to this audience:

• My product will appeal to this audience because first-person shooters like COD and Battlefield will feature on the magazine covers I produce.

Audience research• Observation:• 63.16% of my audience prefer

playing online with other people. 36.84% prefer playing through the single-player story mode of a game. 0.00% prefer other game modes.

• What this says about my audience:• The results show that more people

prefer playing online rather than by themselves. They also make it obvious that people aren’t interested in other game modes and focus on campaign and multiplayer.

• How will your product appeal to this audience:

• My magazine product will appeal to everyone because it will feature both campaign and multiplayer on the cover which will attract those who prefer each mode at the same time.

Audience research• Observation:• 25.00% of my audience would like

video games to change and 10% of them want games to stay the same. 65% aren’t bothered one way or the other.

• What this says about my audience:• My audience appears to be quite

happy with the way games are nowadays and assume they don’t need improving. A quarter of my audience would like to see some changes, however.

• How this will your product appeal to this audience:

• My product will appeal to this audience because it will show video games from today on the cover, but nothing about how video games could improve. This audience clearly isn’t looking for things like that.

Audience research• Observation:• 65.00% are male and enjoy playing

video games. 5.00% are males who don’t like video games. 10.00% of females like video games and 20.00% of females don’t like playing video games.

• What this says about my audience:• The results show that video games

apply to the male members of the audience rather than the female members.

• How will your product appeal to this audience:

• My magazine cover will appeal to this audience primarily because it focuses on video games which attract males.

Audience research• Observation:• 40.00% of my audience are 15-

16 years of age and 60% are aged 17-18.

• What this says about my audience:

• There is an equal balance between teenagers below 17 years of age and teenagers aged 17 or over.

• How will your product appeal to this audience:

• My magazine cover will appeal to this audience because it will feature games rated PEGI 15 or 18 on the page which are also aimed at these age groups.

Audience research• Observation:• 40.00% of my audience are

Aspirers. 20% are Resigned and 10% are Succeeders. Another 10% are Explorers, 15% are Strugglers and 5% are Mainstreamers. 0.00% are Reformers.

• What this says about my audience:

• My audience is divided due to their different attitudes and lifestyles, but lots of them are Aspirers.

• How will your product appeal to this audience:

• My product will appeal to this audience because it is about video games and will attract everyone, especially those who are materialistic and geared towards image (Aspirers).

Audience research• Observation:• 30.00% of my audience prefer

shooters and 25% prefer Action-Adventure games. 20% like sports games. 10% prefer massively multiplayer online games and 5.00% prefer games based on music. 10% prefer other types of games.

• What this says about my audience:

• My audience is interested in games that offer lots of action and elements of adventure more than any other type of game.

• How will your product appeal to this audience:

• My magazine will appeal to this audience because it will discuss shooters and action games and feature them on the cover.

Interview 1• Do you think certain video games nowadays could improve?

How? A: Make the games more interactive for the audience by adding

more features.• Are there certain elements of video games that you like? Explain

why. A: I the adventure elements of video games because it gives the

player a sense of freedom• What is your favourite video games franchise and why? A: FIFA because the franchise is getting better and better each year

Interview 1• Observation: • This audience would prefer video games to be more interactive and offer a

sense of freedom for the player. plays FIFA is a favourite game due to how it is getting better with every release. The presence of adventure in video games is also preferred.

• What this says about my audience:• This audience likes video games based around sports and hopes for video

games to expand and innovate, especially with every installment of a franchise.

• How will your product appeal to this audience:• My gaming magazine cover will appeal to this audience because certain

areas will discuss improvements in video games.

Interview 2• What type of content would you like to see on a gaming magazine

cover? Why? • Images of games bright and bold, as they look good and stand out.• Do you prefer masses of text on a gaming magazine or not? Why? • A mixture of both text and images as they both look good and

would connect the two together • Which video game do you want to appear on the cover as one

large image? Explain why.• A video game that people would know so they would look and

recognise it on a shelf or online

Interview 2• Observation:• On a gaming magazine cover, this audience wants to see images that stand

out and would prefer a mixture of text and images on a cover. A large image of a video game that is easy to recognise is preferred on the cover.

• What this says about my audience:• The audience clearly hopes to see a magazine cover that looks visually

pleasing and immediately attracts the eye of the customer. Also, the audience would not want to become confused with too much text on the front page, thus would prefer an even mixture.

• How will your product appeal to this audience:• My product will appeal to this audience because the cover will use an

image of a well-known game and will also have bright colours and a mixture of text and images on the page.

Audience ProfileCategory Demographic Content to appeal to this audience

Age Range16-21 years • Video Games rated PEGI 18 e.g. Call of Duty

• Arrangements of text to suggest intelligence (a characteristic of adults).

GenderMale • Male video game characters on the cover.

• First-person and third-person shooters . • Games with action themes which could

attract males.

PsychographicAspirer • Images which suggest charisma.

• Images representing personality of characters.

Social StatusMiddle Class • Images that connote prestige.

• Arrangements of graphic elements to give a professional appearance.