Violence in Video Games

Violence in video games is a very controversial subject in the media today. This has came to the fore through acts of violence committed under the "influence" of video games. The most common criticism that is heard today is that video games increase violent tendencies among the youth.

This topic has been studied by many colleges and groups including: The Harvard Medical School, The British Medical Journal and The Journal of Adolescent Health. These examinations have yielded proof that games have no conclusive link with the increased violence of youths.

But lets think of it logically video games are only one facet of violent media which the youth are subjected to on a daily occurrence. There is streaming television footage of various wars, violent television shows, violent music and violent movies. Lets not all forget these children's biggest influence, their parents. Its a parents choice whether or not to let their kids use this material. Can we please stop using video games as a scapegoat for acts of murder?

The top 10 selling worldwide video games last year amounted to 38.59 million units sold. That's not even counting the hundreds of other game titles released last year. The amount of murders "related" to video games last year was less than 25. Now, is it more realistic that these murders were influenced by video games? Or is it more reasonable to say that they were sporadic acts of violence? That's for you to decide.

Another Racist Obama Cartoon : Careless Editing

On Tuesday February 19th the New York Post ran a cartoon (above) that depicted two police officers standing over the bullet riddled body of a chimp with a smoking gun in one of their hands.The text bubble overhead reads : "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill". The cartoon is supposed to play off two news story's that were current at the time. President Obama signing the stimulus bill and the Chimpanzee attack in Connecticut that left a woman fighting for her life.

Shortly after the Post hit the shelves it was blasted as racist by many readers including Reverend Al Sharpton. He and many others felt it was an attack on Obama's skin color and African-Americans in general. Cartoonist also weighed in their opinions saying that not did they find it racist but also that gunfire and cruelty to animals is not tolerated anymore, not since 9/11. They added that the cartoonist Sean Delonas shouldn't be blamed as it was at the editors discretion to add the satire.

The New York Post issued this apology. "Wednesdays Page Six cartoon - caricaturing Monday's police shooting of a Chimpanzee in Connecticut - has created significant controversy. The cartoon was supposed to mock the ineptly written stimulus bill but it has been taken as something else - as a depiction of President Obama - as a thinly veiled expression of racism. This was most certainly not the intent, to those offended by the image we apologize".

Guinness New Advertisment

Guinness has had a long vivid career in the history of marketing campaigns. Guinness's iconic stature owes much to its advertising which has been constantly adapted throughout the years to keep it fresh. Its crew of writers are award winning and often sweep the annual advertisement awards.

In 2007 Guinness's new advert "Tipping Point" cost an astounding $20 million to make. It is the most expensive and complex advertisement in the company's history. Director Nicolai Fuglsig said "It was a really tough job - from the remote, high altitude location to having to frequently reset thousands of props, as well as working with hundreds of villagers that had absolutely no understanding of acting or film making - nothing was easy,".

It takes place in the remote Argentinian town of Iruya (population 1,000). The cast is made up of local people, none of whom had ever appeared in front of a camera before.

The ad revolves around a giant game of domino's being played through the town. Over 24 hours of footage were captured during the filming, with only a minute and a half making the final cut. The tipping scenes were created by world record breaking domino experts Domino Domain. Setting up the first table of domino's took three experts two days, but it took them just 14 seconds to fall.

Objects that were toppled include

• 6,000 Dominos
• 10,000 Books
• 400 Tires
• 75 Mirrors
• 50 Fridges
• 45 Wardrobes
• 6 Cars

Planet Earth

Planet Earth is an award winning BBC nature documentary series narrated by David Attenborough and produced by Alliston Fothergill. The American version is narrated by Sigourney Weaver. It was first broadcast in the UK on March 5th 2006.

Each show had a broadcast lenght of 58 minutes. The show had been heavily advertised prior to it's release creating hype. It was shown each Sunday at nine in the evening each Sunday for eleven weeks. It had a consistently high rating of between seven and nine million viewers.

Episode list below:

1. "From Pole to Pole"
2. "Mountains"
3. "Fresh Water"
4. "Caves"
5. "Deserts"
6. "Ice Worlds"
7. "Great Plains"
8. "Jungles"
9. "Shallow Seas"
10. "Seasonal "Forests"
11. "Ocean Deep"

Of course this was not the first nature documentary shown on television so it owes a lot to its predecessors. It's imitation however was not of other peoples work. The narrator David Attenborough has been the face of BBC nature for 40 years and his familiar voice resonated in the audience.

This innovative series was descibed by its makers as being "the definitive look at the diversity of our planet". It was the first nature series to be filmed entirely in high definition. This increased clarity was revolutionary and helped popularize the documentary.

The World's Most Expensive Magazine

Kohl is a new ITP lifestyle magazine which caters to Asian women. UAE jeweller Damas joined forces with Kohl to create the worlds most expensive magazine.

The special edition front cover contains 91 grams of gold and is encrusted with 622 diamonds. It is valued at over $10,000 American dollars. It was auctioned for charity last October.

In order to create this gold edition it took Damas craftsmen more than 86 hours to hand-apply numerous layers of gold leaf. Beyond it's precious exterior the magazine contains it's usual content. It would be a fantastic present for a devout humanitarian or a fan of the magazines cover girl, Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif.

The proceed's of the Kohl gold cover was donated to Rahid Pediatric Centre in Dubai. Editior Faarah Metha commented "we want to recognise and support the work of the centre in providing quality education and therapy services to children with special needs,".

IGN

IGN (Imagine Games Network) is a Internet site which was set up in 1996. It deals with multimedia news and reviews with a heavier emphasis on video games.

As of this moment it attracts over 23 million users a month and was one of Alexa's top 200 viewed sites. In September of 2005 it was purchased by millionaire mogul Rupert Murdoch.

This website has a broad appeal and could be useful to anybody with an multimedia interest and those who are looking for the latest multimedia based information. The demographic of people who use this is very wide, but I would say that it is used most by males between the ages of 13 and 25. In terms of psycho graphics it would appeal to any video game enthusiast or anyone who has an open attitude to knew technology,

The reason I use this website is that it gives very accurate reviews of games, music, television shows and movies. If you ever don't agree with their decision you can read other visitors reviews and press reviews. IGN also release trailers before they come out in the cinema, and they have regular interviews with producers and actors alike.

IGN is a very navigable site which is broken into smaller more specific sites when chosen. The first thing you see when you view the site is the constantly changing news wheel which provides up to the minute updates on various aspects of the media. Overall its an easy to read site which is easy on the eye.

IGN makes some of its money form public donation but mostly from advertising. These advertisements are placed often before video's, between pages in reviews and surrounding the text in reviews. All of which you can skip if you choose.

If I was in control of IGN I would remove the sites emphasis on games and evenly distribute the websites resources between all aspects of multimedia. I have no doubt in my mind that if they where to do this IGN would become the prime multimedia review site in the world.

http://www.ign.com

Product Placement and Embedded Marketing

Product placement is a form of advertisment used by companies where their branded goods are placed in movies ot television shows.

According to "Cable & Television" magazine "Two thirds of advertisers employ branded entertainment with the vast majority of that (80%) used in commercial televsion advertisment.

Association of National Advertisers said that "Reasons for using in-show plugs varied from stronger emotional connection to better dovetailing with relative content, to targetting a specific group".

The ten worst television shows for product placement are:

1. "The Biggest Loser" (6,248)
2. "American Idol" (4,636)
3. "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" (3,371)
4. "America's Toughest Jobs" (2,807)
5. "One Tree Hill" (2,575)
6. "Deal or no Deal" (2,292)
7. "America's Next Top Model" (2,241)
8. "Last Cosmic Standing" (1,993)
9. "Kitchen Nightmares" (1,853)
10. "Hell's Kitchen" (1,807)

The ten worst movies for product placement are:

1. I,Robot (Audi, JVC, FedEx, Converse)
2. The Island (Microsoft, Chanel, Nokia)
3. Blade Trinity (everything Apple)
4. Castaway (basically FedEx on an island)
5. Minority Report (Guinness, Lexus)
6. Austin Powers 2 (AOL, Pepsi)
7. Demolition Man (Taco Bell, Pizza Hut)
8. Back to the Future's (AT&T, Pepsi, Calvin Klein)
9. Evolution (Head & Shoulders)
10. Spider-Man (Sony, Dr. Pepper, Carlsberg)

PQMedia a site which tracks the product placement market tell us that product placement and advertisment combine in paypackets. All these payments to television and movie producers in 2006 accounted to $7 billion rising to $10 billion in 2010.

The film "Fight Club" featuring Brad Pitt was an unusual example of product placement. This included scenes where an Apple store was broken into and when Brad Pitt smashes the headlights of a VW Bettle! This self criticism is a rarity as it defaces products which paid to be in the film.

Another weird example happened after filming the current box-office hit "Slumdog Millionaire". The director Danny Boyle encountered product displacment. Brands such as Mercedes featured in the film but then asked for their logos to be removed digitally. Mercedes did not wish for their producted to be viewed in a slum setting!

Another tool which producers use instead of employing products is to make up brands of their own. The Simpsons have used this since their inception (Duff beer, Kwik-E-Mart, Laramie Cigarettes, and Krusty Burgers).