Video games: Call of Duty

Call of Duty Ownership




Franchising
Activision also franchises the Call of Duty brand to a number of different companies.

Merchandise includes action figures, comic books and card games.

  

                                                       

Marketing and Distribution

They use billboards to make fans feel more physically connected and involved on the ground with the CoD community

Digital advertisement- Live streamed the game on the website, Facebook page, Instagram, twitter.

On the same day, five billboards will go up in New York City, Los Angeles, London and Paris. There are unique codes hidden on the billboards for fans to find. The gamers can then piece the codes together and unlock them on a websiteWhen the codes are cracked, gamers can unlock exclusive content related to “WWII” that cannot be obtained anywhere else.

QR codes which is a Combination traditional-digital advertising

Reveal trailer

Extreme close ups

Close ups

Tracking shots

Use of voice over

Slow motion

SFX

Hand held camera

Quick cuts

Extensive use of POV/ first person shooter

Mise-en-scene- highly developed- rain, detail of uniform, rifles, setting

Very violent

Part of the advertising campaign is if you pre-order it you get access to the private beta
Synergy between print and television advert

Audience and regulation

1.What does ‘PEGI’ stand for?

PEGI stands for

Pan

European

Game

Information

2.What does PEGI do?

PEGI regulate video and computer games and give them an age rating that is suitable. 

3.What are the different PEGI ratings?

The age ratings are  3, 7, 12, 16, 18

4.Name a problem with the current PEGI ratings relating to violence.

The current problem is they can't define what violence fits into the right age category so whats a 16

might need to be 18

Target audience for Call of Duty although being rated an 18 by PEGI its actually aimed at 10-17 year olds as it encourages rush game play instead of stealth and strategy.

Legal and Ethical issue

What kind of legal/ ethical issues does it raise?



Active/ Passive

Hypodermic needle theory

• Theorises that audiences are essentially passive, and will readily absorb messages relayed to them by media

• This means that after watching a violent horror film or playing a violent POV shooter, audience members will be negatively influenced

• The presupposes that audiences are passive (unable to reject media messages) rather than active (they make sense of media messages through personal and social contexts)

Texas chainsaw massacre (1974)
Banned in the UK from 1975 until 1999 as part of the 'video nasties' campaign, in part spearheaded by Mary Whitehouse

During this era- and especially through the 1980s, with the boom of VHS- films were often banned. Sometimes this would be due to their title alone (e,g. if they included the word chainsaw), with the members of the BBFC trawling through lists of new releases.

Some people argue that as a result of increasingly violent media audiences are becoming desensitised- that is numbered by the effects of their exposure.

The remake of Texas chainsaw massacre (2003) featured an array of hewn body parts, graphic bloodshed and horrific gore- but neither the censor nor audiences batted an eyelid


Psycho (1960)
Earlier audiences might be considered naïve by comparison

For example many audiences members were traumatised by psyco when it first came out- through the then notorious shower scene is tame by todays standards. Main actress janet leigh was terrified of showering after filming wrapped and took to taking baths instead

Similarly, there were reports of audience members fainting and throwing up during cinema screening of the exorcist (1973)


Moral panic and folk devils

In 1972 stanley cohen developed the moral panic theory. This encompassed ideas of folk devils in society.

Moral panic happens when "a condition, episode person or group of people emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests".

His research was based on mods and rockers in the 1960s but has since been applied to the media.


The stages of moral panic

• Someone, something or a group are defined as a threat to social norms or community interests
• The threat is then depicted in a simple and recognisable symbol/ form by the media
• The portrayal of this symbol rouses public concern
• There is a response from authorities a policy makers
• The moral panic over the issue results in social changes within the community

• VHS is introduced. Audiences can now rewind and rematch segments of film
• The Jamie burger case in UK focused public attention on screen violence
• Mary Whitehouse spearheads a campaign against screen violence; she gains wide support
• BBFC starts to censor films or ban them outright; certification becomes stricter
• Fewer people are able to consume violent film

You could look at hoodies as an example of devils with moral panic escalating around the time of the London riots. Afterwards, the government considered shortening school summer holidays as a way of containing the threat- Though at the time this was not specifically linked to the riots. Many clubs pubs and shopping centres have banned hooded tops.


Media effects
Anders Breivik claimed to have used as a training tool for the massacre he perpetrated:
"Norways alleged mass killer testified on t


Adam Lanza (sandy hook)

• Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 first-graders and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School
• in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14, 2012, before shooting himself.
• Adam Lanza is believed to have shot 27 people: 20 children, six teachers and his mother. He is thought to have first shot his mother, Nancy Lanza, in the head at her home in Newtown, Connecticut, around 9 a.m. on December 14, 2012.
• Adam Lanza was described early on by classmates as "fidgety" and "deeply troubled." According to some of his friends and family members, he had also been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome.
• He played GTA 

Anders Breivic