Video Games in the Digital Age

What Video Games in the Digital Age covers

Video Games in the Digital Age is examined in A2 Unit 3, Media in the Global Age. It covers media language and the codes of video games, interactivity, immersion and ludic qualities, video game genres and intertextuality, representations of gender and ethnicity in video games, the global video games industry: ownership, synergy and economics, video game audiences, fandom and media effects, Assassin's Creed, Grand Theft Auto, Mass Effect, Tomb Raider, Wii Sports, Cooking Mama, Minecraft and The Sims.

The 14 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Media language and the codes of video gamesHow lighting can be used to guide a player, game's art style and loading screen used for beyond hiding a load.Open →
• Interactivity, immersion and ludic qualitiesLudic qualities of a game, player agency and three design features that increase immersion.Open →
• Video game genres and intertextualityFive common video game genres, sandbox game and simulation game.Open →
• Representations of gender and ethnicity in video gamesRecall questions on selection and combination in a game, under-representation and why it persists, van Zoonen on character design, Hall on stereotyping, positive uses of a stereotype, customisation and Gauntlett, bell hooks and intersectionality, the global market's effect, and evidence on both sides of whether representation has improved.Open →
• The global video games industry: ownership, synergy and economicsVertical integration in the games industry, why publishers acquire successful independent studios and diversification in this industry.Open →
• Video game audiences, fandom and media effectsCasual player, participatory culture and textual poaching.Open →
• Assassin's CreedAction-led franchise Assassin's Creed and name its developer and publisher, animus and what narrative purpose does it serve and three historical settings the franchise has used.Open →
• Grand Theft AutoSatirical target of the series and structural innovation of the fifth main instalment.Open →
• Mass EffectAction-led franchise Mass Effect and name its developer and publisher, world does the series construct and paragon and Renegade system.Open →
• Tomb RaiderRecall questions on the franchise's origin and changing ownership, the core gameplay, the 1990s design of Lara Croft and both readings of it, van Zoonen applied to the original, the 2013 reboot and the criticism of it, intertextuality, the treatment of other cultures, and what a reboot does for a publisher.Open →
• Wii SportsFive sports the game contains and game's central innovation.Open →
• Cooking MamaRecall questions on the original platform and year, how the game is played and why a touch screen suited it, how Mama is presented and what player the game constructs, both readings of its gender politics, the art style and the handling of failure, the 2008 campaigning spoof, and the contrast with an action-led franchise.Open →
• MinecraftSandbox game Minecraft and give its origin, game's visual style and its advantages and procedural generation and why does it matter here.Open →
• The SimsNeeds system, simlish and why is it used and expansion pack model.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Video Games in the Digital Age further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Immersion vs Agency

  Immersion: absorption in the world to the point of forgetting the interface. Agency: the sense that your own decisions genuinely change what happens.

• Downloadable content vs Microtransaction

  Downloadable content: a substantial addition of new material sold after launch. Microtransaction: a small purchase of currency, cosmetics or advantage inside the game.

• Modding vs Machinima

  Modding: altering or extending the software itself. Machinima: using the software unchanged to record a film.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   Name the three broad kinds of code that create meaning in a video game.

   Model answer

   Technical codes such as camera position and interface design, visual codes such as setting, character design and colour, and audio codes such as music, sound effects and voice acting.

2. 2

   What is a HUD?

   Model answer

   The heads-up display is the layer of interface information drawn over the game world, showing health, ammunition, a map or objective markers, so that the player has what they need without leaving the action.

3. 3

   How does a minimal HUD change the player's experience?

   Model answer

   Removing interface elements makes the world look more like a film and increases immersion, but it forces the player to read the environment itself for the information the display would have given them.

4. 4

   Distinguish a first-person from a third-person camera and give one effect of each.

   Model answer

   A first-person camera puts the player behind the character's eyes, which maximises immediacy and threat, whereas a third-person camera shows the avatar's body, which lets the player admire and identify with a designed character.

5. 5

   What is a cutscene?

   Model answer

   A cutscene is a non-interactive sequence in which the game takes control from the player to deliver story, using the language of film such as shot/reverse shot and continuity editing.

6. 6

   Why do designers use cutscenes sparingly?

   Model answer

   Every cutscene removes the player's agency, which is the medium's distinctive pleasure, so a game that cuts away too often starts to feel like a film that keeps being interrupted by play.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Video Games in the Digital Age revision questions

What does Video Games in the Digital Age cover in WJEC A-Level Media Studies?

14 subtopics: media language and the codes of video games, interactivity, immersion and ludic qualities, video game genres and intertextuality, representations of gender and ethnicity in video games, the global video games industry: ownership, synergy and economics, video game audiences, fandom and media effects, assassin's creed, grand theft auto, mass effect, tomb raider, wii sports, cooking mama, minecraft and the sims. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Video Games in the Digital Age organised?

By the WJEC 603-1976-8 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.