P5

Task 1 - Infographic

a) analyse products impact/effect on audience

Ninja Theory created there own shop/store for players who like games made from them. They sell merchandise, such as: jewellery, clothing of all sorts and badges. This is a selling point for Ninja Theory as it gives them a higher future budget as they will earn more money. Which impacts on their audience, making people want to buy from the company they like.

Different people have mixed emotions on this game. This is due to the nature, violence and storyline of the game, some people may find that to understand what Senua is going through can be stressful, difficult and hard but they could also find it interesting and feel curious to what else happens within the game. However, with violence being quite extreme some people may find the psychosis interesting but they may not like the fighting scenes.

However, even though there are good aspects of the game as i said before, there have been quite a few complaints. These complaints have mainly been based on bugs and glitches within the game, causing them to lose all progress, whilst the game freezes and lags. People have said that this doesn't happen that much, but when it does its annoying and upsetting.

Hellblade has been reviewed on many sites. IGN gave the game 9/10, they say that overall "Hellblade: Senua's sacrifice is a masterclass of atmosphere, storytelling, and the marriage of mechanical and conceptual design. Metric gave them 88% out of 100%, due to the games "independence and how we see Senua's life and story in a short game". Its overall Trusted Reviews are 4.5/5 which is very good for a game, especially created by an almost unknown company at the time. 

Fan Art

Task 2 - Representations

B) Issues of representations

Hellblade isn't similar to many games. This is noticed in gender and ethnicity, as stereotypes in this game is far different from any other game. Most action-packed games include men as the main protagonist typically. Famous games such as, red dead redemption 2, grand theft auto 5 and the call of duty sequel include men as the main characters, both villains and heroes. Even though this is the case most of the time, there are still games with the main character being a female, for example, Tomb Raider, the walking dead and Zelda.

In video games, females are usually looked at as the main love object and not seen as serious in a way, due to there importance in games. However, Hellblade is very different because not only is the main character (Senua) a hero, she is also not seen as an object but she is seen as influencing to Hellblade as a whole.

Although there arent many females compared to males as the main character, to narrow it down there are even less females with an ethnic background. Which boosts Hellblade, as not only is the main character a female and not seen as an object, she is also from an ethnic background. This shows support to everyone around the world as not only can people from ethnic backgrounds be interested in the game, people who don't have as much of an ethnic background if not at all will get the game.

Here is a screenshot towards the end of the game. This is when Senua realises that her lover is dead. after working hard and going through pain, she realises it was for nothing. This is different, due to the main protagonist being a female, also the fact she doesn't have an army makes the game very different. This is different to typical characters in games. Which makes Ninja Theory break the usual stereotyped character. 

Here is another screenshot of a fighting scene. This was Senua's first fighting scene against her first monster. There a quite a few scenes where violence and fighting is involved. You can see the main protagonist with her sword, which also doesn't fit the stereotype with games as most of the time its the male's who are in combat. However in this game its different.

Hellblade is seen as a horrific and brutal game for its violence. The game includes a huge amount of fighting scenes which look violent. However, when you play the game you not only start to understand the game's main storyline, but you also start to understand and feel the pain Senua's going through alone. There are scenes where Senua is in agony and pain whilst she looks so scared and frightened from herself. Whilst we see her weaker sides, we also see her strong sides. As we see her fighting monsters and exploring the world she is in, we also see the struggle she goes through on the inside.

Hellblade can be both positive and negative to people. The storyline of the game, where we see the main character fighting and killing monsters is a negative side. However, the mental health and psychosis involved scenes show a positive side as many people will understand what she is going through. This is because it raises awareness, so that people who arent going through it will get to know what people with mental health and psychosis is like.

Overall, Hellblade can be looked at a positive game for people who suffer and go through the pain similar to Senua's psychosis and mental health. This is because this game portrays mental health and psychosis very well, and people going through this will like the game as there arent many games with this style. Giving the people who need it support and making them feel in some way safe.

Task 3 - Do video games make you violent?

In my opinion, video games don't necessarily make you violent. However, video games can influence you to feel like violence isn't as bad as you may think. Its the same with movies, they most likely wont certainly make you a violent person and use violence, however it has the same effect of influencing you to feel different.

However, judging by the articles video games influenced people to commit murder and crime. 77 people were murdered by Breivik. He said in his statement and in court that he played modern warfare 2 a lot. This game includes violent and fighting scenes. After completing these scenes you got a reward. Players are getting rewarded for shooting and torturing people. 

Another shooting took place in 1999 at Columbine High school. Experts said that this shooting took place soon after the game "DOOM" was published. This is another example of how video games made people violent. Billions of players play violent games, however there is only a small minority of people who go crazy and use these in game skills in real life.

Another article shows how kids were influenced as well to use violence with knives from video games. Not only is crime created from video games dangerous, but also kids of a young age are taking violence to another level, and violence from a young age has increased significantly over the years.

Overall this tells us that video games can be dangerous and give a negative effect to the world. For adults and kids being influenced to commit a crime is completely wrong. However, this is only a small minority, and most of population enjoy these style games. As a society the world has been influenced in bad ways, however its almost to late to make that change for the best.

C) Legal/ethical issues

Are there any ethical Issues with Hellblade?

There may be many ethical issues with Hellblade. This will only be if people/players find the game offensive and use the games style as stereotypical in some way. Usually in video games, the main protagonist would be a stron, male character with some talent. However in Hellblade the main protagonist is female. Some people may see this as unfair and different, but others may find the game interesting in that way. This shouldn't be an issue, but not everyone has the same overall opinion for a game.

Hellblade could include

- Sexuality

- Horror

- Violence

Sexuality could be an ethical issue, as there is only 1 main sexuality in the game. The relationship with the main character Senua and Dillion. THis relationship is a straight one (heterosexual). This was allowed as there wasn't more then one straight relationship. Also the sexuality shouldn't affect the storyline and narrative in a way to find it offensive.

Horror could be another ethical issue if it goes as far to sticking with you and scarring you in a way. Creators Ninja Theory put in a lot of horror in Hellblade, without being too scary. Even though it was about Senua's life and how her psychosis haunts her, its horror and understanding is balanced well. With this all binding together, this makes the storyline more interesting and gives people an understanding as most people go through stress and pain but in another way.

Violence may be an issue as it could influence people of any age to be violent out in the real world. However, you could argue that Hellblade couldn't make someone become more of a violent person. This is because, Senua doesn't kill people for fun but she has a reason for this violence. Not only does she do it to save her lover, but also Senua isn't fighting humans and abusing humans, so it can be looked at differently as a way of self defense but it can also be looked at as a bad influence, but it isn't motiveless killing, meaning it isn't all bad and influential to people.

Are there any legal issues with Hellblade?

Hellblade could legally get in trouble for encouraging violence, hate and drive anger. However, this isn't really an issue as the game doesn't promote violence, or promote you to hurt others. Senua only uses this violence to survive and find her lover who has been captured by the demons and monsters she is fighting.

Hellblade as a whole: narrative, characters, art and characters design, etc would count as am IP. This means that the game is an intellectual property. Meaning that not every game out there has to agree or sign a Non-disclosure agreement (NDA), this is so that people within the games company cannot leak or expose information about the game before its release, even if its to their closest family members as its part of the law. What this means is Hellblade will not have any problems with copyright claims, strikes or issues overall as there IP rights is safe from any claims of copyright as they own the IP.

Task 4 - My PEGI vs Real PEGI Rating

In my opinion, I believe that Hellblade would fit Pegi 16. I would give Hellblade a 16, due to the violent scenes that are included within the game. This is because there are a lot of fighting scenes that may not be suitable for people under the age of 16. Even the main character (Senua) is carrying weapons such as her sword. Also, Senua isn't all good and the hero as she looks to kill others. The game is very realistic in look and style. The face that it looks realistic makes the violence also more real. Throughout the game, there are sound effects which make the game more horrifying, fearful and scary as a whole. The sound effects are the voices inside of Senua's brain, due to her psychosis and mental health, which may be hard for people under the age of 16 to understand.

However, Ninja Theory gave Hellblade a rating of 18. This is because the violence is quite extreme at most points, however, her psychosis and mental health at times could be seen as offensive and discriminating in a way. All discrimination types fit in the age rating of 18 and no younger as it shouldn't be influenced by young teenagers or kids. The realistic fighting scenes, alongside the agony Senua is going through is what makes the game push up to an 18. Most games rated 16 have violence. However, realistic violent scenes alongside pain and agony the main character goes through could drive people younger then the age of 18 mad.

D) Role of regulatory bodies

PEGI stands for Pen European Game Information.

PEGI is a European video game content rating system established to help European consumers make informed decisions when buying video games or apps through the use of age recommendations and content descriptors. The body responsible for applying UK PEGI ratings is the VSC Rating Board. Essentially, the PEGI rating on a game confirms that it contains content suitable for a certain age group and above. So a 7-rated game is suitable for everyone who is seven or older, while an 18-rated game is deemed suitable for adults only.

Before Ninja Theory could release the game they would have to take in mind the PEGI rating, regulatory body and the legal and ethical issues, in other words they had to consider how these would affect the age rating. PEGI's role was to make sure the rating of the game was suitable as a whole before releasing the game. Ninja Theory would make sure that they had to include the content which fits there target audience and the correct age group, otherwise PEGI would chose the age rating above the actual rating, for example if EA Sports did not give there newest FIFA game then PEGI would simply make that rating up one, so instead of the game being rated a 7 it would be a 12. This is bad as it may lose many players for that specific target audience as there would be many people who play FIFA who are younger then the age of 12. Also PEGI could have the choice to not publish the game at all, as they have to have an age rating for it to be sold.

PEGI's age labels restrict who can buy the games, meaning that companies would try to cut out certain content from there games in order for them to appeal to their target audience specifically.
For example, because Hellblade doesn't have any bad language companies would try to lower the games age rating, therefore selling more copies to people as there will be more people to sell the game to, due to the bonus amount of buyers younger then the official PEGI rating.