{"id":701,"date":"2018-04-16T18:42:11","date_gmt":"2018-04-16T22:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fms321.ourfascination.com\/GameLogs\/console\/the-art-of-murder-iii-exclusivity-in-gaming\/"},"modified":"2018-04-16T19:48:20","modified_gmt":"2018-04-16T23:48:20","slug":"the-art-of-murder-iii-exclusivity-in-gaming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/2018\/04\/16\/the-art-of-murder-iii-exclusivity-in-gaming\/","title":{"rendered":"The Art of Murder III: Exclusivity in Gaming"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Leave a Comment<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

\n Posted on April 13, 2018\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n In our class discussions, we briefly examined the characteristics of a game and its promotional advertisements in relation to its implied audience. After a session of Blood Money, <\/em>I wondered about its marketing campaigns and whether or not it achieved its target audience. And if it did, how?\n <\/p>\n

\n In Debugging Game History, <\/em>Carly Kocurek states that the earlier advertisement for games catered towards male audiences, however, in recent years, the identity of the gamer has broadened towards females as well. The chapter mentions Ubisoft wanting to promote the idea of a \u201cfemale gamer\u201d, yet will not add female main characters to their games. The Hitman franchise\u2019s IO entertainment is no different. While the content of their games may not explicitly reveal misogyny, their advertisements have always garnered controversy for their depictions of violence and women. In the advertisement for 2012\u2019s Hitman Absolution, <\/em>Agent 47 is seen slaughtering several scantily dressed nuns. While the video places women in an empowering state, they are still served as eye-candy for the male players and ultimately die beautifully against the signature hitman. A few years prior, during the release of Blood Money, <\/em>the company went through the same kind of controversy as they released ads of murdered people. One of the ads portrayed another woman in lingerie with a bullet in her head. While the release of Hitman (2016) <\/em>seemingly learned from its previous mistakes and chose to promote a more cinematic gameplay, it is clear that certain masculine-dominated elements are still needed to sell contemporary games.\n <\/p>\n

\n However, this exclusivity does not solely exist in a binary male vs. female structure, but across several axises. In the article \u201cThe Structure of Video Game Preference\u201d, studies reveal two dominant associations: inclusive (family oriented games) vs. exclusive (dark-themed\/mature games) and niche vs. mainstream games. Both of these axises correlates with a demographic divide between infrequent, female gamers and frequent, male gamers.\n <\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/p>\n

\n Figure 1. \u201cThe Structure of Videogame Preference\u201d\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n The graph above divides the two axises with Hitman <\/em>falling near the Exclusive-Niche quadrant. This would provide evidence that the franchise caters towards dedicated, male gamers that avoid larger, exclusive games. Divided into seven broad categories of gamers, Hitman <\/em>seems to be dominated by the \u201cLads\u201d, a group that is overwhelmingly male with only a 4% female demographic and plays more than any other group (47% play more than five days a week).\n <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n Table 2a. \u201cThe Structure of Videogame Preference\u201d\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n \"\"<\/p>\n

\n Table 2b. \u201cThe Structure of Videogame Preference\u201d\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n So while certain game companies, like IO, may cater to certain demographics, it is not necessarily just male gamers that are being targeted. It is catered toward male gamers who dedicate a lot of time to gaming, prefer darker themes, and want difficult gameplay. Despite this particular market\u2019s display of potential violence and sexism, it would be wrong to say that the entire gaming industry is not progressing in its mission to include others.\n <\/p>\n

\n  \n <\/p>\n

\n  \n <\/p>\n

\n Bibliography\n <\/p>\n

\n Lowood, Henry, et al. Debugging Game History: a Critical Lexicon<\/i>. The MIT Press, 2016.<\/span>\n <\/p>\n

\n Munro, Shaun. \u201c10 Outrageous Video Game Adverts That Caused Major Controversy.\u201dWhatCulture.com<\/i>, WhatCulture.com, 23 July 2013, whatculture.com\/gaming\/10-outrageous-video-game-adverts-that-caused-major-controversy?page=3.<\/span>\n <\/p>\n

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\n Klevjer, Rune. \u201cGame Studies.\u201d Game Studies \u2013 The Structure of Videogame Preference<\/i>, gamestudies.org\/1702\/articles\/klevjer_hovden.<\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\n Schreier, Jason. \u201cHitman Director Says Controversial Trailer \u2018Wasn\u2019t Supposed To Be\u2019 Sexist.\u201d Kotaku<\/i>, Kotaku.com, 13 June 2012, kotaku.com\/5917899\/hitman-director-says-controversial-trailer-wasnt-supposed-to-be-sexist.<\/span>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Source: The Art of Murder III: Exclusivity in Gaming<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leave a Comment Posted on April 13, 2018 In our class discussions, we briefly examined the characteristics of a game and its promotional advertisements in relation to its implied audience. After a session of Blood Money, I wondered about its marketing campaigns and whether or not it achieved its target audience. And if it did, how? In Debugging …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"item_id":"4f707f1bc7310e535f72618e63ee920a","pf_source_link":"","item_date":"Fri, 13 Apr 2018 03:55:30 +0000","item_author":"aggregation","item_link":"http:\/\/fms321.ourfascination.com\/GameLogs\/console\/the-art-of-murder-iii-exclusivity-in-gaming\/","item_feat_img":"","item_wp_date":"Fri, 13 Apr 2018 03:55:30 +0000","item_tags":"","source_publication_name":"","source_publication_url":"","nomination_count":"1","sortable_item_date":"1523591730","item_description":"","pf_word_count":"796","pf_forward_to_origin":"no-forward","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[189],"tags":[34,206],"class_list":["post-701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-round-3","tag-console","tag-post-3"],"nominators":{"1":{"user_id":1,"nomination_datetime":"2018-04-16 16:16:19","nomination_unixtime":1523909779}},"archiveOrgStatus":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9xw5i-bj","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=701"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":736,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701\/revisions\/736"}],"feed":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/pf\/v1\/feeds\/237"}],"nominator":[{"embeddable":false,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/user\/1"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701"}],"wp:term":[{"attributes":{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true},"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701"},{"attributes":{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true},"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}