Video Games

What Video Games covers

Video Games is examined in Component 1, Media Products, Industries and Audiences. It covers video games as a media form, the Assassin's Creed franchise, Ubisoft: ownership, structure and global production, making a major game: budgets, teams and working conditions, distribution, platforms and monetisation, marketing, regulation and the debate about effects, game audiences: who plays and how they are reached, games and historical context: representing the past, global markets, localisation and cultural adaptation, convergence and the franchise across media, hardware cycles, technology and access and games, society and contemporary debate.

The 12 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Video games as a media formInteractivity in the context of a video game, player agency and game engine.Open →
• The Assassin's Creed franchiseCentral premise of the Assassin's Creed series, four historical settings the series has used and discovery Tour.Open →
• Ubisoft: ownership, structure and global productionCompany is Ubisoft in ownership terms, first-party and a third-party publisher and vertical integration.Open →
• Making a major game: budgets, teams and working conditionsFive distinct roles in a development team, three broad phases of game development and vertical slice.Open →
• Distribution, platforms and monetisationThree digital storefronts through which games are sold, two advantages of digital distribution for a publisher and one disadvantage of digital distribution for a player.Open →
• Marketing, regulation and the debate about effectsFour techniques used to market a major game release, review embargo and media effects argument as applied to video games.Open →
• Game audiences: who plays and how they are reachedFour ways a games audience can be categorised and whale in games monetisation.Open →
• Games and historical context: representing the pastPresentism in historical representation, risk of a single game becoming a period's dominant image and historical context of the games industry itself.Open →
• Global markets, localisation and cultural adaptationThree largest regional markets for video games, localisation in games and simultaneous global release.Open →
• Convergence and the franchise across mediaMedia convergence, in relation to a games franchise, transmedia storytelling and licensed tie-in product.Open →
• Hardware cycles, technology and accessConsole generation, cross-generation release and razor and blades model in console hardware.Open →
• Games, society and contemporary debateGamification of non-game activities, one benefit and one criticism of gamification and problem gaming.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Video Games further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Cloud gaming vs Online multiplayer

  Cloud gaming: running the game itself on a remote server. Online multiplayer: the game running locally and connecting players.

• Developer vs Publisher

  Developer: the studio that designs and builds a game. Publisher: The company that funds, markets and distributes a game.

• AAA game vs Indie game

  AAA game: a high-budget title made for a major publisher. Indie game: A title made by a small team without publisher funding.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What distinguishes a video game from other media forms?

   Model answer

   A video game requires the audience to act before anything happens. The player's input produces the text rather than simply receiving it.

2. 2

   Define interactivity in the context of a video game.

   Model answer

   Interactivity is the capacity of a text to respond to what its user does. A game changes state in reply to each input.

3. 3

   What is meant by player agency?

   Model answer

   Player agency is the degree to which a player's decisions genuinely change what happens. A game with high agency offers real alternatives rather than the appearance of choice.

4. 4

   Distinguish a linear game from an open-world game.

   Model answer

   A linear game moves the player through a fixed sequence of events. An open-world game lets the player choose where to go and in what order to act.

5. 5

   What is a game engine?

   Model answer

   A game engine is the software framework handling rendering, physics, sound and input. Studios reuse an engine across titles to cut development cost.

6. 6

   Why is genre useful in the marketing of a video game?

   Model answer

   A genre label tells a buyer what the play will feel like before they try it. Action-adventure, first-person shooter and role-playing each promise a different experience.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Video Games revision questions

What does Video Games cover in Eduqas A-Level Media Studies?

12 subtopics: video games as a media form, the assassin's creed franchise, ubisoft: ownership, structure and global production, making a major game: budgets, teams and working conditions, distribution, platforms and monetisation, marketing, regulation and the debate about effects, game audiences: who plays and how they are reached, games and historical context: representing the past, global markets, localisation and cultural adaptation, convergence and the franchise across media, hardware cycles, technology and access and games, society and contemporary debate. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Video Games organised?

By the Eduqas A680QS specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.