Language
Euphemism
Euphemisms are spins on things considered aggressive, brash or distasteful, they re-word and twist a quote into a more mild variant, they are used in advertising to create the illusion of politeness or friendliness.
Dysphemism
Dysphemisms are an aggressive and repulsive take on a topic, they are used to present something in a bad light. Companies will sometimes use dysphemisms when referring to their competition, in an attempt to bring them down.
Why its Used
Used by companies to present their products in a positive light, turning their imperfections into something that’s intended and acceptable, while presenting their rivals as unstable or faulty.
Active & Inactive Verb
Active verbs use the present tense, if something is going on right now, people would feel pressured to be included, if something happened people would not feel as panicked. “The game industry is growing.” is considered better than “The game industry grew.” Present is used for positives. “The game sales dropped.” is considered better than “The game sales are dropping.” Inactive verb is used to present a topic as being in the past, this is useful for disasters or errors that don't go according to plan.
Language My Example - “Most of our games have lots of bugs.”
As an example of Euphemism and Dysphemism, I've reworded the sentence “Most of our games have lots of bugs.” into something that may be written by a corporation trying to soften its losses.
We pride ourselves with a diverse family of developers and creators, our executives at Game Shark believe every-single-one should have freedom to create their dream game! Every one of our projects comes from the heart, sometimes that means coming from one person only; and unlike our competitor AAA studios we have a zero tolerance policy for crunch time. When you sit down and play our hand-crafted love notes to the video game community, keep in mind the amount of effort it took to bring them to you.
Language Real-Life Example - "Genesis does what Nintendon't"
Companies are always looking for new ways to make their advertisements and products stick in the minds of their target demographic, one of the best ways to do this is to manipulate them into feeling threatened. Back when SEGA was a first-party company and was producing its own consoles there was high competition between them and Nintendo, both companies were creating counter-advertising, solidifying hostility between their fans. This led to publicity and sales increases for both companies, the obviously blinded fans, more than ready to pledge their wallets to their company of choice all because of the scuffles of Mario and Sonic, a fake and empty battle only acting as a front for company greed. "Genesis does what Nintendon't", this a solid example of Dysphemism, it is a quote repeated several times throughout SEGA's advertising. This along with the "Blast Processing" Euphemism used when describing the Genesis/Megadrive work together to bask SEGA in the spotlight while shunning Nintendo for its inferiority.
Typography
Leading
Leading is the distance between two lines, it helps take up more space on the page without needing to write more, it also makes it more clear and easier to read. This can be seen on many gossip magazines or entertainment news feeds.
Tracking
Tracking is the distance between two words, similarly to leading it is used to make text larger without needing to write more, it is useful for some fonts that overlap and are harder to read form far away.
Imagery
An example of using imagery to affect a customer can be seen in the way fears and phobias are used to affect the emotions and feelings, this effect is commonly used in video games to present a specific mood or emotion.
The fear of insanity is called Agateophobia, its described as the fear of losing one’s sanity, overly-worrying over the effects of stress and isolating one’s self away from society. Darkmantles are creatures from DnD, they have many eyes, all surrounding their body, this makes it hard to tell if it’s a predator or prey. It’s skin is rough and calloused, it obviously doesn’t survive in the sea despite its appearance, it hovers above the heads of people judging by its long, webbed tentacles. Every single part of its design is made to be unnatural and not fit into people's expectations, thus unnerving the viewer.
The fear of the undead/corpses is called Necrophobia, it is described as a incessant fear when near or around locations of the dead, this includes crypts, graveyards and abandoned locales among others. This creature is named the “Power Lich” and is from the game “Heroes of Might and Magic III”, its creators have used many different themes and ideas to bring fear into the minds of its viewers. The long, thin arms and legs that sprout from its armour are only just holding together with stray skin and muscle. The skull, with its broken jaw stares deep into your eyes with its own soulless pair. The deep crimson glow emanating from its hand bleeds into the ground, the staff glowing bleakly as well.
Sources:
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/euphemism
http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-euphemism.html
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/dysphemism
https://webdesign.tutsplus.com/articles/choosing-the-right-font-a-practical-guide-to-typography-on-the-web--webdesign-15
https://practicaltypography.com/line-spacing.html
https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758%2Fs13414-013-0463-8
https://massivephobia.com/agateophobia-fear-of-insanity/
http://common-phobias.com/necro/phobia.htm
https://soft-h.deviantart.com/art/power-lich-homm-III-559613444
https://blog.pond5.com/7776-lighting-for-a-mood-making-the-most-of-key-color-and-contrast/
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/24/light-emotions_n_4831224.html
Ways Customers affect Companies
Beta Testing
Beta Testing is an important part of game development, "it's cited as crucial for the success of virtually every successful game ever made." A developer can use the feedback given by beta testers to improve their game before release.
Closed Beta
Closed Betas are a beta of a product given to a select number of people, they are not allowed to disclose any of the things they see publicly, a closed beta tester is normally payed for their work. They are required to test out the game, detail their opinions of the game, share any problems they encountered and aid the development team in improving the issues and shortcomings of the product.
Open Beta
Open Betas are publically available versions of a game that allows those interested in the product to test it out and give their opinions on the product. In video games, open betas are a common way to spark discussion and hype about an upcoming game. This also means any glitches and errors found by the large number of open beta testers can be fixed before being shipped and released.
Telemetry
Telemetry is the act of automatically collecting data from a computer and sending it someone else, this is done by many developers (especially those who work on MMOs) in order to easily tell what player spend the most time on, what type of characters they build and all sorts of important information that may come in handy for DLC, updates or sequels.
Negative Press & Public Outcry
Public outcry is a powerful tool, in the right hands and with the right targeting it can topple organisations, the internet and social media has given people a voice and a way to unite on the issues they find unfair. There are many ways to protest on the internet, and with journalism always on the plow for the latest scoop, its not that difficult to get your voice heard.
Twitter Trends
Twitter is a social media that relies on quick, short messages and trends, it lets people quickly communicate their opinions, feelings and thoughts to thousands. Hashtags are a popular way to categorise tweets, they are also used by movements and rallies that want to raise an awareness for a specific topic.
Twitter Trends Example - #FixFIFA
An example of Twitter in action can be seen with the #FixFIFA trend, where people worldwide have reported their horrible experiences with the newest FIFA18 patch and its negative effects on the framerate of the game, horrible internet connectivity problems and several other problems rendering the game unplayable.
Forums
Forums are a great place to share just about anything, chances are if you can think of a topic there's a forum for it, Reddit is a popular place to talk about whatever you want, with thousands of forums available. Forums are a perfect place to organise events and protests, they are easy to use, free and can reach many.
Example - EA Microtransactions
Lets get to the crème de la crème of this topic, the recent news conserving EA, Battlefront 2 and its microtransactions. This topic can go on forever, talking about the predatory nature of Loot Boxes, EAs abuse of licenses, companies and staff along with the many other problems and allegations. To keep this short and sweet, I'm going to discuss the backlash on reddit, its spread towards Imgur and Twitter and the consequences of EAs actions.
This whole deal started with the Battlefront 2 Open Beta, players quickly noticed the "Pay to Win" elements present in the (80$) game, a reddit post titled "Seriously? I paid 80$ to have Vader locked?" rose through the "StarWarsBattlefront" subreddit and was promptly addressed by the EA Community Team.
This reply ended up being Reddits most disliked comment, with a -674k rating. This was them screenshotted and shared on Imgur, Twitter and many other social media websites where it grabbed the eye of journalist websites and youtubers.
As of the 23/11/2017, there has been an outcry to ban Loot Boxes as they promote gambling to children and tempt those with gambling addictions; Hawaii and several other countries rushing to ban and/or enforce strict regulations onto Loot Boxes.
Crowd Funding
Crowdfunding is a way fans can directly fund a game or project they want to see more of, there are many crowdfunding websites with differing rules and regulations.
Kickstarter
Kickstarter is a crowdfunding website, a user can set the amount of money they need, the date the crowdfunder campaign will end and any tier rewards. Kickstarter has been used in a number of famous (Shovel Knight) and infamous (Mighty Number 9) games, the platform allows for a lot of freedom between the user and the funders; The freedom given by Kickstarter given has been exploited before and has left users skeptical. The great thing about Kickstarter is the lack of publishers, no longer do developers have to edit or censor their products because of publishers, they are free to present their products as they were intended, for better or for worse.
Patreon
Patreon is similar to Kickstarter, it allows for anyone with a dream and a project in mind to be funded by interested consumers. Unlike Kickstarter, Patreon is like a subscription, you pay for each amount of time/amount of posts and are given exclusive access to development documents, closed betas and voting polls. Unlike Kickstarter, if you feel unhappy with the direction a project is heading, you are free to unsubscribe, this means you are no longer paying and will stop supporting a project.
Example - Shenmue 3
Shenmue 3 is an upcoming game scheduled for a Holiday 2017 release, the Shenmue series is a classic among SEGA fans, it has a large and thriving fandom, despite this SEGA was hesitant to create Shenmue 3 in fear of a commercial flop. Deep Sea, a publishing company interested in creating the third game in the series purchased the rights to create Shenmue 3 and published a crowdfunding campaign on the website Kickstarter, the goal of 2 million being reached and surpassed in only a couple of days. The Crowdfunding campaign went onto receive 6 and a half million, without the input of the customers and fans, this game would not have been developed.
Sources:
https://games.gamepressure.com/beta-tests.asp?ID=4_1
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/pcs-monster-hunter-like-rpg-dauntless-closed-beta-/1100-6453067/
http://www.pcgamer.com/belgium-says-loot-boxes-are-gambling-wants-them-banned-in-europe/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2017/11/22/from-belgium-to-hawaii-potential-battlefront-2-loot-box-legislation-would-be-complicated/#69a6ee187cbc
https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsBattlefront/comments/7cff0b/seriously_i_paid_80_to_have_vader_locked/dppum98/
https://www.trendsmap.com/
https://patreon.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/204606315-What-is-Patreon-
https://www.kickstarter.com/about
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ysnet/shenmue-3
https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/266377/The_imposters_guide_to_taking_feedback.php
http://www.springer.com/gb/book/9781447147688
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=-guHadEPrFcC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
No comments:
Post a Comment