Category Archives: BCM215

The final chapter for this DA.

This semester I decided for my DA to do a series of blogs on my personal blog about the advertising and marketing of some old nostalgic childhood games that I use to play when I was younger. The definition of marketing is a ‘business practice that involves identifying, predicting and meeting customer needs.’ The definition of advertising is a ‘business practice where a company pays to place it’s messaging or branding in a particular location.’. So for this DA, I wanted to discuss both of these points for old childhood video games.

PLANNING

I will be honest I didn’t really know what type of project I would be doing for this assignment considering I wasn’t really a gamer or very much into video games except for old games such as Mario kart, Nintendogs, cooking mama and more. So I decided to tap into that and create a project that was something that I could write about and also something that I have knowledge of and am passionate about.

When I started my pitch I still wasn’t sure if this would be a good project but I carried through and to my surprise, it was somewhat decent I received good feedback from my tutor and also my peers and also some constructive criticism that I can use to improve on with my DA. I wrote some notes down in my notebook of the games that I wanted to look into: Mario kart, Nintendogs, cooking mama and potentially sims.

PITCH VIDEO

COMMENTS I RECEIVED

These are some of the comments I received from my peers

PRODUCING CONTENT/PROTOTYPING

Now this was the tricky bit actually producing content, in my pitch I decided to set up a content calendar so I can keep myself organised and on schedule, so my plan was to be producing a blog every 2 weeks and potentially a bonus blog at the end of the semester, so 4 all up. Well, that did not happen, unfortunately, due to unforeseen personal and work circumstances it became more difficult so unfortunately I was only able to produce 2 blogs and they definitely were not up to the standard that I wanted these blogs to be but life gets in the way sometimes and that’s ok.

It was also very difficult for me to actually write and produce content for this DA as I have always not been interested in gaming, yes this subject has taught me a lot but it was very hard to push myself and motivate myself with this project as it just isn’t something I am interested in, this also left me in somewhat of a predicament with understanding the theories that were given to us throughout the semester, I tried my hardest but it the theories was just something I could never really fully understand. I also found in just my 2 blogs I felt like I was being very repetitive due to not being a lot of research for me to use so I mostly relied on my own thoughts and opinions But we move on, I did my research and studying and I moved on to writing my blogs.

The first blog that I decided to do was about my favourite game in my childhood which was Mario kart I found Mario kart had a lot of content to cover which was good for me to write about but unfortunately, there were not as many academic sources as i thought there would have been. So in my first blog, I decided to compare the marketing and advertising of Mario kart from when it was first released in 1992 and compared it to how it is in 2022. I linked my research and blog back to the three analytical frameworks that I will be discussing more in-depth in this report.

The second blog that I decided to write was about Nintendogs. which was definitely more difficult to write about, I found with both of my blogs the research was arduous to do as there were not many resources that I could have utilised for my blogs on this topic. There was not a lot of research or articles looking at the marketing and advertising of older video games, so a lot of my blogs were my own interpretation and opinions of the game’s marketing and advertising choices. I tried to use as many resources as possible to support my ideas and I felt like this definitely made my project a lot harder than it needed to be as I wanted as many resources to be shown as possible.

Utility

Unfortunately, I haven’t received any likes or comments on my DA blog posts which were unfortunate, but my utility was to provide blog posts that were entertaining and also informational on old childhood video games advertising and marketing. I used my analytical framework to provide informational context on my blogs using psychoanalysis, media archaeology and cultural capital.

When creating my DA, I wanted to implement the FIST criteria as I wanted to be able to create content that was Fast, Inexpensive, Simple and Tiny. This helped my DA as it was easy to create the content and was not needing so many resources to wait for or to pay money to be able to create content.

Analytical framework-

Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis could be related to a type of therapy or based on Sigmund Freud’s theory but it is based on ‘the belief that all people possess unconscious thoughts, feelings, desires and memories. In relation to my DA in this subject, I wanted to relate psychoanalysis to Sigmund Freud’s theory as looking at, playing and researching old childhood video games can spark unconscious thoughts and memories regarding a person’s childhood which relates to the point of nostalgic thoughts (Cherry 2022). Aardse points out that ‘The digital world breathes new life into psychoanalysis, as simulations achieved with new technology challenge our notions of self, identity, and representation…’, This point also relates to nostalgia as the ‘digital world’ helps individuals with their identity, representation and personally feel like it helps with memories as well.

Media Archaeology

As discussed in a previous blog post for this subject I discussed media archaeology. Relating it to my DA I was discussing the archaeological framework and history of old video games from my childhood, as I have discussed my earlier version of Mario kart that I use to play when I was younger and the advertising and marketing choices of Mario kart.

Cultural Capital

Linking back to one of the previous blogs I discussed cultural capital to be one of the analytical frameworks in which discussing my DA. I related to cultural capital to the point of nostalgia, in one of my previous blogs I used a quote from Makai (2018), ‘Nostalgia is that unique combination of pain and pleasure as we realise our cultural capital has gained a temporal quality…’, I used this quote to tie to the point of nostalgia, as researching and looking at old childhood video games can bring back memories from an individual’s childhood, as that specifically happened to me.

Things I would change if I could

I am still incredibly proud of my work this semester but a few things that I would change if I could do this project again, I would try to plan and document more of my blog posts more effectively and also have more of less strict content calendar so I could have produced more blogs. I also would have potentially made a change to my topic as I felt like it was quite difficult from a research point of view and I felt like I was also being quite repetitive, lastly, tweet my blogs out for it was somewhat of an audience. For me not really understanding this subject I am still very proud of the work that I have produced and the time I have dedicated to it.

Nintendogs

Now onto the second blog for this series which is Nintendogs, this blog probably won’t be as in-depth as my previous blog talking about Mario kart.

So let’s get into it, Nintendogs was one of my favourite games as a child and I feel like nothing really compares to that game anymore. Nintendogs was initially released on the 21st of April 2005 and it was released on the Nintendo DS console, it was a single-player or multiplayer game where you could play with your friends. It was a pet-raising simulation game where you can choose the dogs that you raise but also their names, you could feed, play, bathe and teach them tricks as well. There were four different versions of Nintendogs with different animals. This buzzfeed article shows exactly how Nintendogs work if you aren’t familiar with the game

Now onto the good stuff the marketing and advertising. Since the game was released in 2005 the marketing and advertising weren’t been the greatest. It consisted of some Tv advertisements on some of the kid’s channels such as Disney Channel and on regular tv channels as well.

Another example of the advertising and marketing of Nintendogs from Ignacio Alvar-Thomas Martínez on behance provided some clips from adverts from Spain promoting Nintendogs. These ads were showing kids with their dogs look likes, other ads that they produced showed were to be shown in kids’ magazines with activities like mazes, stickers and puzzles that looked like the layout of the game.

Looking at my analytical framework again as I said in my Mario Kart blog cultural capital and Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis theory look at nostalgia. When I discussed this game with family and friends they all had nostalgic memories of this game being played in their childhood when looking at these ads I did completely forget some of the things that we could do in the game like take them for a walk but I just remember the classic ads on nickelodeon and Disney channel. Lastly, in media archaeology when writing this blog I looked more in-depth I analysed the game’s history and the older features that were available in the game.

Unfortunately there wasn’t much else I could find in the advertisements and marketing for this game. It could be just causing it was a bit older and didn’t have as many opportunities as current marketers have in this space.

The analytical framework of our childhood games.

As discussed in my Bcm215 pitch, This semester my DA is looking into and discussing advertising and marketing of old nostalgic games from my childhood such as Mario Kart, Nintendogs, Sims etc.

In my pitch, I discussed my three analytical framework topics: cultural capital, psychoanalysis and media archaeology. So in my final blog, I will be discussing these three topics more in-depth.

Cultural Capital relates to my point of nostalgic games as Makai (2018) expressed ‘Nostalgia is that unique combination of pain and pleasure as we realise our cultural capital has gained a temporal quality…’, but nostalgia is times of the past and times we reminiscence on.

This segues into the marketing and advertising of video games, as personally marketing and advertising are the starts of the player’s interest in the games. Seeing an ad for a new version of Mario kart or a game that reminds me of one I use to play leads me down this rabbit hole of past memories of playing these games.

The topic of nostalgia also links to psychoanalysis and Sigmund Freud’s work on psychoanalysis. Aardse (2014) describes ‘The digital world breathes new life into psychoanalysis, as simulations achieved with new technology challenge our notions of self, identity, and representation’. Routledge (2013) explains that ‘nostalgia promotes adaptive psychological functioning among individuals at risk for poor mental health’. This has interested me in looking more into the idea of nostalgia and using it as a tool to look at how fans and I react to the games and marketing campaigns of these old games.

Finally, I will be looking into media archaeology. Media archaeology is looking at the archaeological framework and history of old video games. This has influenced me to look at the media archaeology of my old childhood games. For example, in my DA I will be discussing the early version of Mario kart and the marketing and advertising of the game and discussing if these games were successful because of their marketing and I will be comparing them to the past and present marketing.

The marketing and advertising choices of Mario Kart.

Mario Kart is such a nostalgic game for me whether or not you played it on the Wii or on your Nintendo, Mario kart was one of my favourite things to do in my childhood. Now sadly being a 21-year-old university student, doing a communications and media degree and majoring in social media and marketing and advertising I decided to analyse the marketing and advertising of old nostalgic video games so welcome to the first part of this blog series which is Mario Kart.

Mario kart was released back in august of 1992 on Nintendo platforms. Considering Mario Kart was released in 1992 I am expecting the marketing and advertising to not be that great compared to today, obviously with technology today anything is possible in the work of digital effects and graphic design.

Mario kart marketing campaigns have definitely evolved since the early 1990s, looking back at the old examples of the Mario kart game nostalgia definitely hit me, even though I wasn’t alive in 1992 I can still remember the early Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii days. Now looking into the actual marketing and advertising of Mario Kart, it has definitely come a long way since the 1990s so in this blog post I will be doing some comparisons and similarities of what Nintendo has done since the first game was released to the last.

EARLY MARIO KART

In the early days, the advertising and marketing of Mario kart were straightforward, looking more into the traditional forms of media and advertising such as newspapers, flyers/posters, and also starting to dip their toe into the digital forms of advertising such as TV ads. These early forms of Marketing and advertising could be the reason why Mario kart is still such an essential and popular game still in 2022.  

As you can see from the video attached the early ads that Mario kart used were aimed at kids/teenagers as they are showing clips from the game. They show the characters, the tracks and all of the extras that happen whilst playing the game. They are very colourful and extreme, to say the least as the ads are mimicking actual race car events with the commentator and using racing terminology. 

The very first ad as seen in the video attached is in Japanese as Nintendo and Mario kart started in japan. As the game got more traction and more popular the Ads started to be shown in English and started to be shown all over the world. 

PRESENT MARIO KART 

Now fast forward 20 years since the release of Mario kart a lot of things have changed, the biggest in this case the technology.

The graphics, and the opportunities that marketers have now with social media being such a big thing in the world of marketing and advertising, with influencers, brand events, paid promotions and more. Social media is potentially the biggest influential thing in the world. 

In present-day Mario Kart is using tools like brand partnerships like in 2017 and 2018 when they partnered with Mcdonalds with Mario kart toys in children’s happy meals. The use of social media advertising as well, with gamers and influencers talking about the game or showing their Mario kart characters inspired Halloween costumes and makeup.

Even though these are not the traditional way of advertising and marketing they still create an audience for Mario kart. lastly and most obvious Mario kart is still advertising the traditional way thru TV ads which may not be as popular in 2022 but still reaches a specific audience.

Looking at how my analytical framework ties into Mario kart, both Sigmund Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis and also cultural capital tie into the point of nostalgia as Mario kart was such a popular game when I was a child, especially on the Wii console and is nostalgic looking back at the older ads that I use to see on Disney channel and analysing them. Media archaeology ties into looking at the early ads and marketing of Mario kart especially looking at the 1992 ads when Mario kart was released

Mario Kart has definitely still one of the most popular and well know video games even in 2022, marketing decisions like the collaboration with Mcdonald’s make fans interested again in having merchandise for the game. especially older individuals that use to play Mario kart as kids.

Mario Kart and Rassens theory

During this session of Uni, I am discussing the marketing and advertising of multiple video games so for this specific blog post I will be discussing Mario Kart wii and some of Rassens theories found in the game.

When watching the lecture I found the 2 theories I found to be connected the most with Mario Kart Wii were multimediality and interactivity.

As multimediality is a combination of different forms of media such as audio, images and text I thought Mario kart is the perfect game to discuss this theory as the game has all of the elements of media in the game. As all of these elements are present in the game, and because of this, it simulates all of the senses of the players of the game and makes the players more invested and satisfied due to all senses being activated.

According to Rassens, Interactivity, ‘a gamer is able to control the game’s proceedings and/or its conclusion‘. In other words, it’s the relationship between the human and the game as stated in the lecture ‘the game tells the player what to do – and the player in the real world tells the avatar what to do. Interactivity is present in Mario kart as within the challenges and missions whatever the player decides to do dictates what the end results are in the game, if they win, lose or if the players can move on to new challenges. In Mario Kart, the players can ultimately choose which character, vehicle and parts they would want, which ultimately have an effect on the outcome or the conclusion of the game.

Reviewing the game and Rassens theory I personally felt like multimediality and Interactivity are very prominent in Mario Kart.

Time to comment.

In the BCM215 Game media industries class, we were required to comment on 3 of our peer’s pitches and give them some feedback. I commented on, Lauren’s, Jess’s and Lauren S blogs.

Lauren’s pitch discusses how gender is represented in video games.

Jess’s pitch is looking at the representation of Disney, Star Wars and Marvel in video games and game media.

And lastly, Lauren S’s Pitch is about Animal crossing and social simulations.

Commenting on my peer’s pitches wasn’t an easy task as I’m not specifically the best with video games and also I wanted to effectively comment in a positive way to help my peers. Each of these pitches was amazing and very hard to flaw and I enjoyed each one. I felt like I provided positive comments that focused on their strengths on this assignment but also feedback on things that my peers could focus on.

In the pitches that I commented on, I found I was interested in all of them, especially Jess’s DA as she is looking at marvel and Disney and that really resonates with me. Lauren S’s DA is discussing animal crossing and social simulations in the animal crossing universe, which I was curious about as I have never played animal crossing before. Lastly, Lauren’s DA was something so interesting I haven’t seen a DA like this as she is discussing Gender roles in video games and the stereotypes of gender in-game media which I find very interesting.

In all of these DAs, I have done additional research into my peer’s topics as I had a lack of knowledge on the video games that were chosen by my peers to be able to know more about their projects and this gave me the ability to provide constructive and valuable feedback for my peers, I contributed with 1 source for each of my peer’s pitches to review. I found I didn’t find the need to discuss materials or lectures from the course as I personally felt that my peers had a good understanding and included topics in their pitches. I learnt different things from each of the girl’s pitches from their different topics and I’m excited to look at their projects over the semester.

Reviewing my peer’s pitches gave me the opportunity to look at my project under a microscope. I definitely found somethings I am working to improve on in future assignments and helped me look at my own work in a critical way.

CyberPunk 2077 disastrous launch

Cyberpunk was one of the most anticipated launched video games of 2020 with gamers waiting 7 years for this to be released and it fell flat on its face.

CyberPunk 2077 was initially released on the 10th of December 2020 and was fans disappointed in this game. Bad reviews have been the game’s kryptonite with avid gamers saying the game has agonizing glitches, lags and bugs on the game. CyberPunk was released on multiple platforms including Xbox one, Playstation 4 and more.

The problem that gamers had with CyberPunk 2077 was the initial teasers and marketing for the game. The promotional material for the game can get players excited for the game as it had nearly 8 million pre-orders for the game ahead of its release. However, CyberPunk promised too much and delivered short of what players were promised as the teasers and marketing were an unrealistic representation of the game itself.

Fans did not believe that they were given what they were promised by CyberPunk, which led to bad reviews and gamers bagging out the developers for wanting the game that they were promised. The launch of CyberPunk was so catastrophic that Sony stopped selling the PlayStation version of the game in stores and offered full refunds to unhappy gamers. Many were surprised about the game’s bad reviews and how it was received by the players.

Looking back on lectures and materials from BCM215 on the analysis and media archaeology of a game, the analysis of CyberPunk 2077 would include elements of the game such as:

  • software/hardware
  • visual graphics and sound design
  • Players controls
  • Marketing
  • reviews and ratings
  • Covid 19 impact

and more but these points have all made CyberPunk 2077 a ‘bad game’.

Due to the game being initially released in 2020 it did experience some slight delays due to the Covid -19 pandemic, which disrupted the manufacturing of physical copies of the game and also the recording of the player’s dialogue. But even with these minor hurdles, the game was released just. a few months after the expected time.

Finding out more about this game it’s definitely on my bad game list.

The marketing and advertising of our favourite childhood games.

So for my Bcm215 Digital Artefact, I decided to look at the marketing and advertising of old childhood games from our past such as Mario kart and club penguin.

These games will be ones that I use to play when I was younger so I am familiar with the games. I wanted to look at old childhood games as I feel like we all look at these games and it tugs at our childhood self remembering those times in our lives.

Analytical framework

My analytical framework is based on Cultural capital, Psychoanalysis and media archaeology. I wanted to focus on these as I am looking into the history of the game specifically their marketing and advertising and psychoanalysis based on the work of Sigmund Freud. Lastly, I will be approaching cultural capital as discussing whether the game was good or bad based on the fans.

Timeline

I will be posting a series of blog posts, my aim is to have a blog post of roughly 500-800 words posted every fortnight. I will be including the analytical frameworks and other sources to discuss my opinion of these games.

Audience

My audience will be wanting to look more in-depth into their favourite games as a kid and to look at the reasons and the ‘why’ of some marketing and advertising decisions that can make or break a game’s profit. I will be trying to receive feedback from Twitter as I will be tweeting my blogs to my followers and hopefully receiving comments from them.

 I will be starting my research into my first game next week so stay tuned for my first post!

References in the video:

Nicholas, J 2021, ‘Nostalgic gaming: how playing the video games of your youth reconnects you to yourself’, The Guardian, < https://www.theguardian.com/games/2021/dec/26/nostalgic-gaming-how-playing-the-video-games-of-your-youth-reconnects-you-to-yourself >

Is club penguin really that forgotten?

Club penguin was my childhood, I loved this game, my cousins and I use to play this game all the time and fight over the PC computer in our houses. But now for many people our age it’s a forgotten memory.

I will discuss three points of my analytical framework of club penguin: technology, genre and fandom.

Club Penguin was an online website that was a single or multiplayer game made by Disney. The game was a free website available on laptops or PCs, it could be considered a forgotten game as many new and better games have seen to replace it since the years of it being discontinued and due to the fact, their target market has gotten older. The technology and graphics used compared to now are outdated and obsolete.

Club Penguin allowed the players to be in this fantasy world as penguins, you could play with friends and have little mini-games and events inside the club penguin world. The players of the game could design their penguins with different colours and outfits. The club penguin website also offered little sidekicks to the penguins known as puffles where players could pay or earn puffles through challenges. The game was launched on October 24th, 2005 and was discontinued on the 30th of March 2017.

The Genre of the games was a fantasy fiction game that was a massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). As the players could fully immerse themselves into the club penguin world because I know I did.

Merchandise was also made about club penguin, and which is interesting to look at for the paratextual analysis of the franchise to look more in-depth at the fan’s reaction to the merchandise. The merchandise and toys for the game were quite popular and from personal experience, the toys were the most popular thing to have at that time.  The club penguin Fandom is still alive and running even though the game was discontinued, there are Reddit pages, Tumblr pages and memes made about the franchise so maybe it isn’t as forgotten then we thought it was.