Curriculum Portal

neurologyYou need to know

• Video game CSPs are studied through media language, representation, audiences, industries and context.
• Horizon Forbidden West is an open-world action role-playing game.
• The game combines action-adventure, science-fiction and post-apocalyptic conventions.
• Game covers use composition, iconography and typography to communicate meaning.
• Semiotic meanings are created through settings, characters and imagery.
• Horizon's world combines nature, technology, past and future.
• Games use cinematic conventions to position players.
• Quests, enigmas and rewards encourage player progression.
• Binary oppositions organise game meanings and conflicts.
• Aloy challenges some conventional representations of gender.
• Representations can be analysed through Hall, Gilroy, Butler, Van Zoonen and bell hooks.
• Machines can represent both danger and technological progress.
• Guerrilla Games operates within Sony's ownership structure.
• Corporate ownership influences production, marketing and distribution.
• Cultural industries reduce risk through sequels, franchises and marketing.
• PEGI regulates video games through age ratings and descriptors.
• The Sims FreePlay is a free-to-play life-simulation game.
• The Sims FreePlay encourages engagement through tasks, rewards and in-app purchases.
• Baudrillard's theory explains simulation, simulacra and hyperreality.
• The two CSPs differ in genre, platform and business model but both encourage participation.

• Analyse video game products using the theoretical framework.
• Identify and analyse genre conventions in Horizon Forbidden West.
• Analyse game covers using media language terminology.
• Apply semiotic analysis to gameplay and promotional materials.
• Analyse world-building and mise-en-scène.
• Analyse visual aesthetics and hyperrealism.
• Analyse cinematic language in video games.
• Analyse narrative codes and player engagement.
• Apply Todorov's narrative theory to games.
• Identify and analyse binary oppositions.
• Analyse representations of gender, ethnicity and identity.
• Apply Hall, Gilroy, Butler, Van Zoonen and bell hooks to game representations.
• Analyse representations of technology, machines and place.
• Explain ownership and institutional control within the games industry.
• Analyse production, distribution and circulation processes.
• Apply Hesmondhalgh's cultural industries theory.
• Analyse regulation through PEGI.
• Analyse target audiences and audience theories.
• Apply Baudrillard, Hall and Gauntlett to The Sims FreePlay.
• Compare Horizon Forbidden West and The Sims FreePlay across all framework areas.