Audience

Audience consumption

Who is the target audience for LA Noire?
Target Audience for LA Noir is age 20-35.

What enjoyment do audiences get from playing LA Noire?
They get enjoyment from how advanced the technology is, and that you have to see if the people are lying or not. It is also a multiplatform game.

How do Rockstar encourage their audience to interact with both the game and institution?
They uses a technique called synergy, this is where Rockstar bring out the game and a LA Noire CD at the same time, this helps to promote the game and get more money.

How does the game appeal to a wider demographic?
It’s a multiplatform game which is appealing a range of different audiences. The game was promoted on Facebook which appeal s to a younger audience and also females.

Issues around Audience
To what extent are audiences beneficiaries or victims of change within the videogames industry?
Due to oligopoly, the three major gaming companies taking over the world, the advancement in technology has increased quite dramatically in recent years. I believe that the audience are both victims and beneficiaries; victims due to the fact the companies are “playing with technology” and only releasing very small advancements over a period of time to build and create revenue, whereas also beneficiaries as we can enjoy the vast enhancement of video-gaming technology.

What are the wider issues audience issues surrounding video games – consider media effects theories.
Shortly after the release, a minority of players on both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 experienced game freezes due to overheating of the consoles. After initially judging that the problem was due to the latest PS3 firmware, Rockstar later acknowledged the problem on their game FAQ. In a subsequent joint statement, Sony and Rockstar declared that the problem was caused by neither the PS3 firmware update nor the game. In a statement on 20 May, Rockstar reiterated that neither the game nor the console manufacturers were at fault. It also stated that the troubleshooting tips on its website had been "erroneously picked up by some news outlets as a 'story,'" and that those stories were "categorically untrue".

Discuss the +/- of gatekeeping
The fact that the game is rated for over 18s is a good and a bad thing because; it keeps children from purchasing the game.