Here are three conclusions I can draw from the video game audience statistics: 1. Video games have mass appeal across age groups as the statistics show that the majority (82%) of people ages 8-65 play games. This indicates that gaming is a widespread leisure activity, not limited to certain demographics. 2. When people play games varies, with many playing at different times of the day and night, showing that video games are integrated into people's daily lives and routines. They are a flexible pastime not dependent on specific hours. 3. Social interaction is a major motivation for playing games as over 70% of adult and child players engage with others either in person or online when gaming. This implies that video games are as

1. Audiences and Video Games

2. Uses and Gratifications Theory
• This theory states that audiences are attracted
to media texts that are USEFUL or which
provide them with some GRATIFICATION
(pleasure)
• Blumler and Katz (1979) theorised that these
uses and gratifications fell into four categories:
– Diversion – something to pass the time
– Personal Relationships – something which allows you
to make more productive friendships, for example by
giving you something to talk to your friends about
– Personal Identity – something which allows you to
define who you are
– Surveillance – something which allows you to find
out about the world around you

3. Uses and Gratifications Theory
• David Morley (1991) argued that there were
five types of uses and gratifications:
– Cognitive (learning – the text helps you find out
something)
– Affective (the text affects you and provides
emotional satisfaction)
– Tension Release (the text allows you to relax or
let off steam)
– Personal Integrative (the text helps you to define
your own personal identity)
– Social Integrative (the text helps you with social
interactions e.g. by providing a topic of
conversation or way or interacting with others)

4. Richard Dyer’s Utopian Solutions
• “Utopia” is an imaginary ideal world
• Richard Dyer argues that “entertainment offers the
image of ‘something better’ to set against the
realities of day-to-day existence.”
• This is the idea of “escapism”
• Inside the world of a video game your existence can
be “better” than in the reality of day-to-day
existence

5. Richard Dyer’s Utopian Solutions
Real World Problem
• Exhaustion
• Dreariness
• Boredom
• Fragmentation/Loneliness
• Scarcity/poverty
Entertainment World Utopian
Solution
• Energy
• Intensity
• Excitement
• Community/companio
nship
• Abundance/wealth

6. The idea of aspiration
• Aspiration is the idea of wanting something
better than what you have
• Advertising, marketing and promotional
material will often present an idealised
representation of the world – a Utopian
Solution – as audiences will aspire to that
lifestyle and its trappings

7. How does the trailer/poster/website
use representations to appeal to its
audience?
• Use audience theories in your answer
• What uses and gratifications does the trailer suggest
the game offers?
• What utopian solutions does the trailer suggest the
game offers?
• Give examples of idealised representations that
create audience aspirations

8. Choose two contrasting games
Maslow’s
Hierarchy of
Needs
The Uses and
Gratifications
Theory
Explain what
kind of
experiences
are being
promised to
the audience

9. Casual or serious?

10. Are these games / franchises casual or
serious?
• Call of Duty
• Super Mario
• Legend of Zelda
• Candy Crush Saga
• Professor Layton
• FIFA
• The Sims
• Battlefield
• Metal Gear Solid
• Dark Souls
• The Elder Scrolls
• Angry Birds
• Temple Run
• Minecraft
• Worms
• Assassin’s Creed
• Just Dance
• Singstar

11. Video game audience stats
Source: www.iabuk.net
Who plays games?
• 82% of 8-65 year olds
• Over 27.6 million adults
• Over 5 million 8-15 year olds

12. When do people play?

13. What do they play on?

14. Gaming is social
• 72% of adult players
play socially, either in
person or online
• 96% of children play
socially

15. Games are about social interaction
• 72% of players have played with others
• 81% have played with others in person
• 54% of social network players have played
with others over a network
• 41% of browser games are played with
strangers

16. Writing task
• What three conclusions can you draw from
the statistics you have been given?
e.g. “Whether the audience plays video games is
not dependent on their gender as 49% of
gamers are female, and 51% male.”