Unit 12 - Specialist Study

Mind Map

Contextual Studies Audit

-Which contextual study subject have you enjoyed the most and why?-
Controversies in the Video Games Industry.
I got a good kick out of researching certain ridiculous controversies (like anything in relation to Fallout 76).

-Which contextual study subject have you enjoyed the least?-
Characteristics & Contexts / "Do Videogames fairly represent demographics in society?"
The questions are so open-ended and opinion-based that trying to answer them gave me quite a headache.

-What contextual study did you feel you learnt the most from-
Legal and Ethical Constraints.
Learning the fact that PEGI has a unique icon/label for In-Game Purchases totally surprised me.

-If you were to revisit what you've learnt from any of these previous subjects, which would it be?-
I don't think revisiting any previous subjects will aid me in my chosen topic, so I would revisit none of them.

-Is there a particular subject you felt very strongly about?-
Controversies in the Video Games Industry.
As funny as some can be, it's also incredibly depressing how consistently major publishers and developers seem to screw things up.

-Do you feel that your response to any of the Unit 9 Contextual Studies has affected the route you have chosen to go down for your Unit 12 specialist study?-
Nope.

Class Discussion

I added three topics in order of importance to me: Purple, Self-Referential Humor, Fan Engagement with IPs.

Funnily enough, Self-Referential Humor is exactly what happened to the word-board itself, as the class decided it would be funny to mass-spam the words "monkey" and "klaptrap".

While not added by me, the topic of Colors will act as the basis for my study as I have decided on the question: "How important is color in video games from a gameplay perspective?”

Specifically, this refers to video game iconography and indicators using colors to inform the player.
The methodology I plan to follow involves testing two groups in completing the same set of Mario Maker levels.
One group will act as the control and play it normally. The other group, however, will be forced to play the game in black and white. I will then observe if there is any difference in how the levels are approached.

Research Report

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