Thursday, 4 June 2015
Task 8 The Networks
UKIE- UK Interactive Entertainment
"UK Interactive Entertainment or Ukie (pronounced YOU-KEY) is a trade body that aims to support, grow and promote the whole of the UK’s games and interactive entertainment industry. Founded in 2010 (although formerly known as ELSPA), Ukie’s membership includes all the major UK and global games publishers and the best of UK development talent - from promising start-ups to some of the biggest, most successful studios operating in the UK today."https://www.linkedin.com/company/ukie---the-association-for-uk-interactive-entertainment
Ukie helps promote UK's games industrys, founded in 2010 it includes most of the UK's larger games industrys and most of the most successful stuido's
IGDA - International Game Developers Association
"As an international organization, we are a global network of collaborative projects and communities comprised of individuals from all fields of game development - from programmers and producers to writers, artists, QA and localization. We bring together developers at key industry conferences, in over 90 Chapters and in Special Interest Groups (SIGs) to improve their lives and their craft. We advocate on behalf of our membership to ensure quality of life, perpetuation of our craft and preparing the next generation of developers." http://www.igda.org/?page=aboutThe bring people who wok in the games industry together to improve video games, they work globally, there like a job center for game developers
Women in Games
Highlight academic and industrial perspectives on groundbreaking work in computer games research, games development and games education. Focus attention on issues of special interest to women in the games industry and through this seek to address the games industry's gender imbalance and develop a fuller understanding of games and game playing. http://www.womeningames.com/They help promote women in the games industry, making them more relevant and giving hem the same attention men get.
BAFTA – British Academy of Film and Television Arts
"The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is an independent charity that supports, develops and promotes the art forms of the moving image by identifying and rewarding excellence, inspiring practitioners and benefiting the public.""In addition to its Awards ceremonies, BAFTA has a year-round, international programme of learning events and initiatives that offers unique access to some of the world’s most inspiring talent through workshops, masterclasses, scholarships, lectures and mentoring schemes, connecting with audiences of all ages and backgrounds across the UK, Los Angeles and New York."http://www.bafta.org/about
They look for talent, giving awards to the largest people in film, tv, and games they identify there excelence and then make them more wanted in other Films, tv, and games
MEF – Mobile Ecosystem Forum
"The Mobile Ecosystem Forum is a global trade body that acts as an impartial and authoritative champion for addressing issues affecting the broadening mobile ecosystem. We provide our members with a global and cross-sector platform for networking, collaboration and advancing industry solutions." http://www.mobileecosystemforum.com/about/They work across the world trading there platform for companies to use.
Task 7 The Issues
Violence
The research, led by psychologist Christopher Ferguson and published in the Journal of Communication, not only found that there was no link between violent media and behavior but also questioned the methodology of previous studies suggesting the two were related. http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/gaming/longterm-us-study-finds-no-links-between-violent-video-games-and-youth-violence-9851613.htmlViolence in video games has inspired a massive debate About whether or not video games can cause violence in kid, in my own opinion, if parents actually enforced the rule of the age rating there would be no problem with violence in video games
Rating
"Minors want mature games, and publishers know this. Take, for example, Bungie’s conclusion to the adventures of Master Chief, Halo 3. The ESRB rating cites Blood and Gore, Mild Language, and Violence as justification for a Mature rating." http://www.gatheryourparty.com/2012/05/03/issues-with-game-ratings/Rating games should really be more enforced, the amount of younger games that come on 18+ games floods the amount of people who are over 18, this is also an issue due to younger games having a bigger influence on mature games, as parents give the games to kids without reading the age rating, then there attacking the company for have made a inappropriate game just makes he parents look bad. If you could in game have to confirm your age rating would be more suited for larger game franchises.
Education
"The fact is that many video games can offer an enriching, even educational experience for children. In today’s high-tech world, it is clear that the more comfortable your child is with technology, the better equipped he or she will be to stay on top of the fast-moving tech world."http://www.education.com/magazine/article/benefits-video-games/Education in video games is already here, even in the most unlikely of video games, for instance MineCraft - in this world you create anything you wish, this brings out he imaginative in kids, and can also teach them about the world, it can give them social skills that they on there own probably wouldn't learn in a day to day basis.
Stereotyping
"Issues regarding race and ethnicity are typically avoided in many discussions, because people fear being portrayed as a racist. Instead of voicing their opinions, most people are content to pretend that racism doesn’t exist." http://venturebeat.com/2009/09/28/racial-stereotypes-in-video-games-how-do-we-change-them/Stereotyping in games from my opinion is wrong not in the sense that it shouldn't happen, but that it's already there and it doesn't always mean its always a bad thing, When you call someone a "Kid" you are giving them a stereotype, not all stereotypes mean something bad, saying for example when you start yelling "go back to your own country" then your giving them a racial stereotype that can offend someone.
Addiction
"The problem of video game addiction isn’t as simple as playing too much or really enjoying video games. Addicted gamers played video games twice as much as casual gamers (24 hours a week), are more than twice as likely to have ADD/ADHD, get into more physical fights, and have health problems caused by long hours of game play (e.g, hand and wrist pain, poor hygiene, irregular eating habits). Many need treatment to improve their academic performance and return to normal functioning." http://www.video-game-addiction.org/video-game-addiction-articles/new-facts-about-video-game-addiction-problem-more-widespread-than-expected.htmComing back to the issue of parents being the main problem with kids in video games they have the control to stop there kids at anytime from playing to long, The Addict stereotype does not apply to everyone who gets it the person could just get really into a game then not realize how long they have been playing, this gives them the addict title, even if they never do that again.
Task 6 The Legal Stuff
IP
The Internet Protocol (IP) is the way companies transfer data across the internet, they can send and receive information across countries and anyone who has access can view there data."IP specifies the format of packets, also called datagrams, and the addressing scheme. Most networks combine IP with a higher-level protocol called Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), which establishes a virtual connection between a destination and a source."
Copyright
"Copyright is one of the main types of intellectual property - others include designs, patents and trademarks. Intellectual property allows a person to own things they create in the same way as something physical can be owned. It is the right to prevent others copying or reproducing someone's work." http://www.cla.co.uk/copyright_information/copyright_informationCopyright is where you patent a product or brand, so no one can use it in there designs or say its your own work. Copyright allows the owner o give access to the product tho who ever thy want.
Trademark
"A trade mark is a sign that you can use to distinguish your business’ goods or services from those of other traders.""A trade mark can be represented graphically in the form of your company’s logo or a signature."
"Through a registered trade mark, you can protect your brand (or “mark”) by restricting other people from using its name or logo." http://www.ipos.gov.sg/AboutIP/TypesofIPWhatisIntellectualProperty/Whatisatrademark.aspx
A trade mark is a lot like Copyright, as it protects our product/ brand from being stolen, and used in other areas
Patent
"A patent protects your invention and lets you take legal action against anyone who makes, uses, sells or imports your invention without your permission."https://www.gov.uk/patent-your-invention/overviewWhen you have an original idea you can patent it so other companies cannot copy your design, this is also a lot like copyright.
Registered Designs
"You can register the look of a product you’ve designed to stop people copying or stealing it.""The look of your design includes the:
- appearance
- physical shape
- configuration (or how different parts of a design are arranged together)
- decoration"
Registering a design means the design that you have created you can register it so other people cannot steal that same design, other companies will have to come up with new ideas to use similar designs.
Task 5 The Relationships
Employment Contract
"Employees and employers must stick to a contract until it ends (eg by an employer or employee giving notice or an employee being dismissed) or until the terms are changed (usually by agreement between the employee and employer)."https://www.gov.uk/employment-contracts-and-conditions/overviewThis contract basic gives the employees terms and conditions within the company, if terms are not met they can fire the person for not doing there job correctly, these terms include and are not limited by:
- employment conditions
- rights
- responsibilities
- duties
Development Agreement
"A development agreement is a contract between a local jurisdiction and a person who owns or controls property within the jurisdiction. The purpose of the agreement is to specify the standards and conditions that will govern development of the property."http://mrsc.org/Home/Explore-Topics/Planning/Land-Use-Administration/Development-Agreements.aspx
"A development agreement for use where a landowner already owns the land to be developed and engages a developer to carry out the development on its behalf. The standard document assumes that the landowner intends to sell the property on completion of the development and the developer will receive a fee based partly upon the development value." http://uk.practicallaw.com/7-101-7478
A development agreement basically says that the person who owns the land get a set revenue from the people who rent the land of them, after the land owner gets to sell the land after work has been completed.
License Agreement
"A licensing agreement is a legal contract between two parties, known as the licensor and the licensee. In a typical licensing agreement, the licensor grants the licensee the right to produce and sell goods, apply a brand name or trademark, or use patented technology owned by the licensor."www.inc.com/encyclopedia/licensing-agreements.html
The license agreement say that who ever owns the product can sell it to who ever they please,this can grant them he right to do what they want with the product. If someone who does not have the licence agreement uses the idea for there own design, a copyright claim can be taken up on them.
NDA
Non-disclosure agreement - "A non-disclosure agreement (NDA) – otherwise known as a ‘confidentiality agreement’ or ‘confidential disclosure agreement’ – is a contract relating to mutual or one-way disclosure of confidential information between two parties. They can be relevant to any business that has concerns about unauthorized disclosure of its valuable or sensitive information - say, intellectual property - or simply wants to restrict the extent of how (or purpose for which) it can be used." http://www.startupdonut.co.uk/startup/business-law/intellectual-property/q-a-non-disclosure-agreementsAn NDA is a contract where two parties disclose information about the product which hasn't gone public, the contract states any information disclosed will result in a permanent ban from the company and put on your record.
"The best way to keep something confidential is not to disclose it in the first place. If you do need to share information you should use a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). This could happen when you speak to potential partners like:
investors
manufacturers
stockists
You may have to tell people about your idea or your business to get advice. This could be from:
accountants
banks
financial advisors
insurance brokers
business coaches
or a marketing agency" https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/non-disclosure-agreements/non-disclosure-agreements
Collaboration Agreement
"The common theme to these agreements is two or more organisations working together to advance one or more of their existing technologies, or to combine their technologies to produce something new. These agreements range from simple documents to very complex arrangements."This is for two companies who want to work together to create something better than what just the one company could do on it's own. It says that both companies can own an equal share of the product produce to make a good outcome.
Task 4 The Trends
Huge acquisitions
For example, When EA started to take over all there competitors and bought them out. A corporate action in which a company buys most, if not all, of the target company's ownership stakes in order to assume control of the target firm. Here's a few examples of EA's acquisitions
"Mythic (Dark Age of Camelot) - Purchased by EA in 2006; shut down in 2014."
"Bullfrog (Syndicate, Dungeon Keeper) - Purchased by EA in 1995; shut down in 2001."
"Origin (Ultima, Wing Commander) - Purchased by EA in 1992; shut down in 2004."
"Westwood (Command & Conquer) - Purchased by EA in 1998; shut down in 2003."
Flood of Steam games
Steam is a massive online game store. it gets hundreds of New Early Access games onto its store in a day, "These are games that evolve as you play them, as you give feedback, and as the developers update and add content." issues with this are that the developers when given the money to carry on sometimes don't do anything with the game they just go out and spend the money.
Devaluation of games
In the games industry of games are rising quickly with people wanting the high-end quality games, companies have to work very hard to get games this good, the more complicated of a game the more money it will cost to produce, so most game companies cannot afford to go for the larger amount of games. looking at he mobile market, you see that the market is cheep, this is because mobile games are quick easy, and don't cost alot to create, this pushes the "free" market further into population. " Inexpensive and easy-to-use developer tools, phones that double as debug units, modest app developer fees, and digital distribution have inspired a flood of new talent to join the field."
Kickstarter matured
"Interest in crowdfunding has never been higher, but Kickstarter has shown signs of slowing down, according to an analysis by market research firm NextMarket Insights."http://www.inc.com/liyan-chen/kickstarter-growth-slows.html
Kickstarter is a great way for companies to start here games of quickly, this can give them more funding if the cannot afford the full amount the game could cost. After Kickstarters became a big thing, they finally hit a point where they final came to a stop of an increase.
"Kickstarter has matured, and like many industries, that means competition has increased drastically. The golden age may not be over but the easy age certainly is. This is nothing new. It happened for the internet with the “dot com” bust and this phenomena has happened in many many other genres as well. It is the nature of any business. "https://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php?topic=16487.0 Kickstarter may be finally of had kits day and now just slowly simmer down into the many amounts of other large trends.
YouTube personalities
YouTube, one of the most popular things for teenagers to be on watching videos that people have created, the people on YouTube ("YouTubers") have become so popular they can now be class as famous, one of the most recognized YouTubers is "PewDiePie", First name Felix, PewDiePie started his carrier on YouTube, making lets play videos, starting on 22 Dec 2013, he now has a growing subscriber base of 37,621,053 as of July 2015 and over 9 billion video views.
Due to the popularity of PewDiePie he has coverage in many indie development games, this boosted sales of indie game, it seams like the army of people (bro army) will follow him anywhere and will do a lot to try to become what he is. Felix also now has been in radio and been on TV, most popular South Park episode, where "Cartman" is show watching his video.
For example, When EA started to take over all there competitors and bought them out. A corporate action in which a company buys most, if not all, of the target company's ownership stakes in order to assume control of the target firm. Here's a few examples of EA's acquisitions
"Mythic (Dark Age of Camelot) - Purchased by EA in 2006; shut down in 2014."
"Bullfrog (Syndicate, Dungeon Keeper) - Purchased by EA in 1995; shut down in 2001."
"Origin (Ultima, Wing Commander) - Purchased by EA in 1992; shut down in 2004."
"Westwood (Command & Conquer) - Purchased by EA in 1998; shut down in 2003."
Flood of Steam games
Steam is a massive online game store. it gets hundreds of New Early Access games onto its store in a day, "These are games that evolve as you play them, as you give feedback, and as the developers update and add content." issues with this are that the developers when given the money to carry on sometimes don't do anything with the game they just go out and spend the money.
Devaluation of games
In the games industry of games are rising quickly with people wanting the high-end quality games, companies have to work very hard to get games this good, the more complicated of a game the more money it will cost to produce, so most game companies cannot afford to go for the larger amount of games. looking at he mobile market, you see that the market is cheep, this is because mobile games are quick easy, and don't cost alot to create, this pushes the "free" market further into population. " Inexpensive and easy-to-use developer tools, phones that double as debug units, modest app developer fees, and digital distribution have inspired a flood of new talent to join the field."
Kickstarter matured
"Interest in crowdfunding has never been higher, but Kickstarter has shown signs of slowing down, according to an analysis by market research firm NextMarket Insights."http://www.inc.com/liyan-chen/kickstarter-growth-slows.html
Kickstarter is a great way for companies to start here games of quickly, this can give them more funding if the cannot afford the full amount the game could cost. After Kickstarters became a big thing, they finally hit a point where they final came to a stop of an increase.
"Kickstarter has matured, and like many industries, that means competition has increased drastically. The golden age may not be over but the easy age certainly is. This is nothing new. It happened for the internet with the “dot com” bust and this phenomena has happened in many many other genres as well. It is the nature of any business. "https://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php?topic=16487.0 Kickstarter may be finally of had kits day and now just slowly simmer down into the many amounts of other large trends.
YouTube personalities
YouTube, one of the most popular things for teenagers to be on watching videos that people have created, the people on YouTube ("YouTubers") have become so popular they can now be class as famous, one of the most recognized YouTubers is "PewDiePie", First name Felix, PewDiePie started his carrier on YouTube, making lets play videos, starting on 22 Dec 2013, he now has a growing subscriber base of 37,621,053 as of July 2015 and over 9 billion video views.
Due to the popularity of PewDiePie he has coverage in many indie development games, this boosted sales of indie game, it seams like the army of people (bro army) will follow him anywhere and will do a lot to try to become what he is. Felix also now has been in radio and been on TV, most popular South Park episode, where "Cartman" is show watching his video.
Task 3 The Money
Describe the following within the industry:
Budget - "An estimation of the revenue and expenses over a specified future period of time."
The budget is the amount of money the company is willing to spend on there game. this cost can vary due to many reasons such as they amount of time it takes the project, if it takes more time than needed the budget will over run. This could make the project stop as they might not be able to afford the cost of over running.
Fixed costs - "A cost that does not change with an increase or decrease in the amount of goods or services produced."Fixed cost can be an issues in the industry as the amount usually is overdrawn, this means that the project will stop until more money can be made to get the project running once again. This isn't always a bad thing as it makes you think what you really need to build a game, and not just throw in what you want but what the game could really use to make it better.
Variable costs - "A corporate expense that varies with production output. Variable costs are those costs that vary depending on a company's production volume; they rise as production increases and fall as production decreases." Variable cost do what is said in the name, It rises to work with the company over running the project or it will decrees if the money is too much and not all of it is needed.
Break-even point -
1. "In general, the point at which gains equal losses."
2. "In options, the market price that a stock must reach for option buyers to avoid a loss if they exercise. For a call, it is the strike price plus the premium paid. For a put, it is the strike price minus the premium paid."
When you break even you basically make what you spent, lets say you spent £1000 to create a video game, you would be - £1000 in debt, then when you sell the game you would make exactly £1000 in game sales, so this mean you would break even.
Budget - "An estimation of the revenue and expenses over a specified future period of time."
The budget is the amount of money the company is willing to spend on there game. this cost can vary due to many reasons such as they amount of time it takes the project, if it takes more time than needed the budget will over run. This could make the project stop as they might not be able to afford the cost of over running.
Fixed costs - "A cost that does not change with an increase or decrease in the amount of goods or services produced."Fixed cost can be an issues in the industry as the amount usually is overdrawn, this means that the project will stop until more money can be made to get the project running once again. This isn't always a bad thing as it makes you think what you really need to build a game, and not just throw in what you want but what the game could really use to make it better.
Variable costs - "A corporate expense that varies with production output. Variable costs are those costs that vary depending on a company's production volume; they rise as production increases and fall as production decreases." Variable cost do what is said in the name, It rises to work with the company over running the project or it will decrees if the money is too much and not all of it is needed.
Break-even point -
1. "In general, the point at which gains equal losses."
2. "In options, the market price that a stock must reach for option buyers to avoid a loss if they exercise. For a call, it is the strike price plus the premium paid. For a put, it is the strike price minus the premium paid."
When you break even you basically make what you spent, lets say you spent £1000 to create a video game, you would be - £1000 in debt, then when you sell the game you would make exactly £1000 in game sales, so this mean you would break even.
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