Digital Artifacts & Research Tools
Sega Saturn console advertisement for system and various games.
Think of a research question – what do you want to know?
Why do women identify less as gamers, and why does the gamer stereotype perpetually maintain itself as a male only label?
What theory would you use? Why?
Feminist theory to analyze the advertisement. I would use this because my research question is gender based and the advertisement is very sexual and constructed for a male audience. I want to know about gaming stereotypes, so to analyze the advertisement with a feminist analysis is very useful to see how the company is targeting its gamer audience.
What kind of research method would you use to collect data & answer your research question?
I would probably attempt to randomly select gamers and non-gamers, ask them to fill out a likert scale coded survey and then construct 2 focus groups, one male and one female.
What limitations are there to your research approach?
Time expended would be a limitation, because the focus groups are complicated and it would take forever to transcribe the conversation and code it.
Also my sampling method would be limited because I could only complete so many focus groups with just myself as an interviewer. That means my sample size will be small and limited and it will be very important to choose a proper demographic and equal gender ratio.
What are some of the weaknesses of the theory that you’re using?
It doesn’t really give an impartial view of the advertisement, it automatically assumes there is a power issue (which there is). Harder to quantitatively prove, mostly qualitative research can be gathered. It would be better to also do a textual or semiotic analysis of the image/advertisement for a better all around research solution.
Part Two:
You’ve now been playing and thinking about your serious game.
What are some of the things you could talk about in your research paper about the game?
The target audience: it targets the young, new voters in the UK. Important? YES. Especially when environmental issues are rising to be of the utmost importance for those campaigning to run for the government.
Are there things or issues that stand out?
Yes the game definitely focuses on political policy and choice effecting climate change. Its not a question whether it will happen or not, but how today's actions effect tomorrows outcome.
Is there something about the message? The game play? What you’re
learning/not learning? Etc.
Learning is a key concept for the game, players learn mainly about the causes of global warming from human causes, made aware about government policy regarding climate change, and asked to consider the international challenges regarded climate change policy/negotiation.
Whats missing? The game does an excellent job of informing the player about resources, money, & whats important for what sector. It kind of misses the boat by leaving out the demographics/cultures of certain areas. If you are in charge of placing a mandatory bylaw for people to buy energy efficient appliances, would it not be important for the player to know income level or general class? Clearly the game cannot include every bit of real life in it or else it probably would not be as fun in its current layout, but to blindly assume is also a problem.
You should give at least three possible discussion topics in this part of the post and why it’s worthy of further discussion/analysis.
1. Target audience: impact of game on audience and importance for real life decisions... is this game working/effective at all?
2. Political action: does this game create an interest in environmental issues? Or does it foster the interest in those who already have one, leading to agency and action in real life..
3. Environmental knowledge: do players already know the data that are manipulating? Or does this game do a good job in teaching new and unknown information about climate change, policies, and related economic/resource issues.
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