Andy Raynes

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LO4 To Be Able to Develop Responses
to Media Products

Task 4b)

Magazine Article

Today, video games based on the genre of shooters are one of the worlds best leading sellers in
the market. For instance; the release of Grand Theft Auto V, an action roleplaying shooter game,
triggered $1 billion worth of sales in its first two days. More recent releases include Call of Duty:
Ghosts, a first person shooter, which headlined several news articles as well as offering their
games on a variety of platforms to expand their audiences; which is a small difference between
the two games of similar genre. Both on the other hand, distribute their games on CDs for
consoles due to the need for higher-end specification devices.

The main objectives in these shooters is to well shoot em up. No matter what type of
shooter it is, it is always the same objective, yet; these well-known titles are always topping
sales and becoming highly talked about topics within the gaming community worldwide
especially for teenagers, who may not always be the correct age to play the game to begin with.

To be able to fully understand the true depths of the genre, I analysed Grand Theft Auto 5 and
Call of Duty: Ghosts after a few hours of gameplay.



Beginning with GTA V, it is not surprising that the company, Rockstar, managed to earn an
incredible amount of money from this game its new, its creative, its got everything; and I
mean: everything from taking part in bank robberies to enjoying a full game of golf online.
There are representations of poverty, gang culture and crime, and conversely corporate and
political corruption. The game itself features three main characters Michael, a family man and
retired bank robber; Franklin, a relatively inexperienced criminal who specialises in cars; and
finally Trevor, who is a petrifying corrupt, red neck, mafia-type guy with slight class
www.computerandvideogames.com themselves state Trevor is a terrifying, crazy-eyed
psychopath, and one of the most outrageous, immoral characters we've ever seen in a Grand
Theft Auto game. You can also swap between characters to experience their different roles in
the storyline, which sometimes intertwine together at some points in cut scenes and
demonstrates the multi-stranded (like a soap-opera) narrative structure.
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In my opinion, I feel the game rips the reality of real-life but adds a sense of humorous
dramatics which just wouldnt be possible in real-life, to make it appeal more to younger
audiences. For instance if you walk down one of the roads next to pedestrians, their
conversations would constantly contain unnecessary bad language and sexual humour. Also, in
terms of crime they even implement the ability to torture someone to be able to identify a
subject to shoot with a sniper, by means of water-boarding; electrocution; hitting with a
wrench; and pulling out teeth. Because of this torture scene in the games linear storyline, it has
sparked many controversies in news articles by being the go-to bad example
(http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/18/grand-theft-auto-5-under-fire-for-
graphic-torture-scene). However this doesnt detract from the games popularity, but in fact,
does the opposite and promotes it, thus getting more sales.

On the bright side, there are many changes to the game since its predecessor, GTA IV, including
better graphics; larger landscapes; a longer storyline; abilities to rob banks and plan heists; and
many other new added features. Though, since it of course a shooter they have kept the concept
of having a variety of weapons (as well as with scope displays) to choose from to blow anyone
elses brains out whether its a pedestrian, player or police officer. Rockstars target audience
nevertheless remains the same; which is of course for people over 18 years of age.

The representation that GTA V brings to society though is not so good. For example, after each
unscrupulous mission, you feel as though everyone is bad at the end of the day. This can give
bad influence to youngsters. Furthermore, it portrays a bad representation of society, depicting
drug-use; violence; gang warfare; killing; obscure sexual interactions; and swearing. There is
also extreme racist stereotyping from the language used, and how Franklin (the black-skinned
American) is coincidently the best driver and most interested in cars amongst the characters.

Call of Duty: Ghosts, another game with the genre of a shooter, has many similarities and
differences.

With an all-new cast of characters, the introduction of a canine squad mate, all wrapped up in
next-gen graphics, CoD Ghosts offers up quite a fresh spread of meats on the first-person
shooter dining table. Lead character Logan (single-stranded narrative) and his brother are
caught up in a conflict that sees the United States threatened (surprise, surprise) by a foreign
attacker, only this time it's a little closer to home: South America is attacking the US from space,
and within minutes of switching on the game the player will find him or herself splattering
blood in zero gravity throughout the games linear storyline. Even IGN state It wouldnt be a
Call of Duty game without elaborate set pieces, fierce shootouts, and tense stealth missions, and
Ghosts delivers some of the most memorable experiences in the series
(http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/11/05/call-of-duty-ghosts-review).

On the one hand it's a sign that Call of Duty has given up on trying to hold onto any sense of
realism and has instead opted for a fantasy guns-blazing romp through landscapes based on
exaggerations of the franchise's history - with crazy destructive set pieces; blowing up planes
from a warship; blowing up ships from planes; killing people on Earth from space.

On the other paw, the inclusion of Riley, the playable German shepherd squad mate, is an
indication that the game's developers still want to represent a degree of faithfulness to aspects
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of modern war. The dog's character, and the technology it wears to aid its human companions,
was designed with the help of the US Navy Seals, who use dogs in combat. There are fun, if brief,
moments of gameplay where you are tasked with playing from the dog's perspective,
annihilating foes with the sharpest teeth on the battlefield.

Unlike GTA V, this game is available on a slightly wider range of platforms, including PC,
therefore can be downloaded from the internet, which is a slight advantage to having a wider
target audience to turn to. Though, they are both rated 18+, so younger members of the
audience are still excluded, but that doesnt stop them from somehow buying the games.

The representation in CoD Ghosts remains somewhat the same as its many predecessors. It
gives the idea that war isnt truly as bad as it seems, and that Americans will always come out on
top dramatically. The game also gives us the hint that our future will be devastated by the
development of technology in weapons. But it differs from GTA V in the fact that it is not about
the society and peoples personalities, but rather, just plain all-out war and shooting.

Being a variation of the genre, I have to say some of the features Rockstar implemented in GTA V
are really stunning when compared to the first-person shooter CoD Ghosts, where the only
objective is to kill people at all times, not really being much gameplay changes. But GTA V does
fulfil the expected genre characteristics by having the choice to buy any weapon you want and
lock-on to players to shoot them for points and money. Rockstar also expands this ability online
to players, being able to play in very generic shooter game-modes such as Deathmatch or
Team Deathmatch, which is likewise an option in typically every other shooter, including
Gears of War, Call of Duty, Counter-Strike and Battlefield.

Furthermore, most shooter gaming companies would aim to sell towards of the audience of
young males; possibly at secondary school or university, as on a male-female ratio survey, it
tends to be this proportion and age that plays games of this type the most. More recently,
gaming companies try to bring the female audience towards this area, for example one of Call of
Duty Ghosts new features is that you can have the choice of using a female player, which
couldnt happen before.

But still, not much is being done about youngsters who arent of age to buy the game, which is
actually a restriction from the legal market, and can give them a slightly violent edge having
been brought up with these violent shooter games. It can even encourage some to join the army
from propaganda (a possible representation from CoD Ghosts), which has done in the past many
times. The only real control lies within the distributors, the players and possibly parents.

Overall, shooters are very fun-to-play games, but the variety in GTA V does come out on top of
CoD Ghosts which only focuses on war and slight improvements. Youngsters should be
reminded that they can only play these games if they are over 18 years of age, and should try to
ignore the negative representations each of the games represent, but rather; just enjoy the
games for its entertainment.