scholarly journals ‘Cease and desist?’ The persistence of Marlboro brand imagery in racing video games

2020 ◽  
pp. tobaccocontrol-2019-055300
Author(s):  
Susan Forsyth ◽  
Patricia A McDaniel
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Smoking Prevention ◽  
International Policy ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Philip Morris ◽  
History Of ◽  
Negative Publicity ◽  
Game Industry

BackgroundSince 1972, Philip Morris (PM) has sponsored motorsports. Racing video games are a popular genre among youth and often emulate the branding of their real-life counterparts, potentially exposing youth to tobacco imagery. We examined racing video games for the presence of Marlboro imagery and explored the history of efforts to remove or regulate such imagery.MethodsWe searched the Truth Tobacco Industry documents for relevant documents and used information from video game-related websites and game play videos to identify racing video games that contained Marlboro trademarks and imagery. We also collected information on the Entertainment Software Ratings Board’s (ESRB) tobacco-specific and overall game ratings.FindingsIn 1989, negative publicity surrounding the presence of Marlboro logos in racing games led PM to threaten legal action against two game makers for copyright infringement. PM also launched a media campaign promoting this intervention as evidence of its commitment to youth smoking prevention. Nonetheless, we identified 219 video games from 1979 to 2018 that contained Marlboro trademarks and/or Marlboro-sponsored drivers and livery. Among the games in our sample with an ESRB game rating, all but one received an ‘E,’ indicating appropriateness for everyone, and all but three lacked tobacco content descriptors.ConclusionRacing video games have been and continue to be a vehicle for exposing adolescents to the Marlboro brand. Because voluntary efforts by PM and the video game industry to prevent youth exposure to tobacco brands in video games have been ineffective, USA and international policy-makers should prohibit tobacco content in video games.

scholarly journals The Experience Created by the Social and Cultural Context Constructed by Video Games: A Digitization of Life and Death

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-31
Author(s):  
Tulia Maria Cășvean ◽  
◽  
Vasile Hodorogea ◽  
Ioan Emanuel Cășvean ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Real World ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Life Experience ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Cultural Issues ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
The Social ◽  
Game Industry

Appling the Gadamer’s filter on video games, reveals that they support an intimate connection with real life, built on basic mimesis of simple and, at the same time, coherent and meticulous realities. Video games are not intrinsically real-world escapism but generate a concrete, contextualized life experience that is ultimately connected to social and material realities (Spiridon, 2013, pp. 64-65). Moreover, experiences gained through video games can contribute, same as television, cinema or novels do, to the creation of perceptions that influence the way people relate to various aspects of life. The pivot of this study focuses on the experience created by the social, cultural context, captured by video games, which allow players to make choices of "life and death". Such choices are even more important in the current pandemic context when some people seem not to clearly understand the potential consequences on their own protection or even own survival. The aim of the research is to open a path for a better understanding of how a video game appreciated by critics and very popular among players, especially during the pandemic (DayZ, produced by Bohemia Interactive in 2013) explores social, cultural issues that can create a favorable context for players to be better equipped for the reality of everyday life. The study will include, besides the analysis of the video game itself, wikis, and walkthroughs, the views of other researchers and professionals working in the video game industry.

scholarly journals Jogando o Passado: Videogames como Fontes Históricas * Playing the past: video games as historical sources

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 157
Author(s):  
MARCELO CARREIRO
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Mixed Media ◽  
Historical Source ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Distinctive Character ◽  
Audiovisual Medium ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
Game Industry

<p><strong>Resumo:</strong> A historiografia contemporânea vem se utilizando, de forma cada vez mais segura, das novas mídias mistas como uma rica fonte histórica – é o caso do cinema e dos quadrinhos. Contudo, essa abertura metodológica a fontes não-textuais ganha nova dimensão com a consolidação da indústria de videogames como uma mídia audiovisual interativa, com elementos das mídias anteriores, mas resultando num caráter próprio. A recente maturidade da mídia, seu alcance demográfico e de mercado, assim como sua condição de arte de massa, colocam os videogames como fonte indispensável para a historiografia do tempo presente.</p><p><strong>Palavras-chave:</strong> Videogame – Fontes – Metodologia – História do tempo presente.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Abstract:</strong> Contemporary historiography has been using, in an increasingly confident way, new mixed media as a rich historical source – such is the case concerning movies and comics. However, this methodological opening to nontextual sources gains a new dimension with the setting of the video game industry as an interactive audiovisual medium, containing elements of previous media but resulting in a distinctive character. The recent maturity of this medium, its demographics and market reach – as well as its character of mass art – makes video games an indispensable source for the historiography of the present time.</p><p><strong>Keywords:</strong> Video game – Historical sources – Methodology – History of the Present Time.</p><strong></strong>

Tusslers, Beatdowns, and Brothers: A Sociohistorical Overview of Video Game Arcades and theStreet FighterCommunity

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 742-762
Author(s):  
Michael Ryan Skolnik ◽  
Steven Conway
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
Moral Panics ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Historical Movement

Alongside their material dimensions, video game arcades were simultaneously metaphysical spaces where participants negotiated social and cultural convention, thus contributing to identity formation and performance within game culture. While physical arcade spaces have receded in number, the metaphysical elements of the arcades persist. We examine the historical conditions around the establishment of so-called arcade culture, taking into account the history of public entertainment spaces, such as pool halls, coin-operated entertainment technologies, video games, and the demographic and economic conditions during the arcade’s peak popularity, which are historically connected to the advent of bachelor subculture. Drawing on these complementary histories, we examine the social and historical movement of arcades and arcade culture, focusing upon the Street Fighter series and the fighting game community (FGC). Through this case study, we argue that moral panics concerning arcades, processes of cultural norm selection, technological shifts, and the demographic peculiarities of arcade culture all contributed to its current decline and discuss how they affect the contemporary FGC.

Patriarchy in play: Video games as gendered media ecologies

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-212
Author(s):  
Jennifer Jenson ◽  
Suzanne de Castell
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Sexual Harassment ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Media Ecology ◽  
First Century ◽  
Cultural Economic ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Feminist Perspectives ◽  
Game Industry ◽  
Hostile Environments

Videogames are a dominant cultural, economic and creative medium in the twenty-first century, whose varied ecologies are increasingly recognized as particularly hostile environments to those identifying or identified as women. These ecologies include those encoded and enacted within the virtual environments of digital games, across the spectrum of those ecologies materially inhabited in games education, game cultures and, paradigmatically, the video game industry. In June 2020, top videogame maker Ubisoft saw high ranking employees resign from the company as accounts went public on Twitter and in mainstream media of sexual harassment, abuse and other misconduct at the company being covered up and ignored. But this is by no means the first public revelation of sexual harassment and discriminatory injustices directed at women who develop and play games: many will recall the vitriolic online hate movement #gamergate. Despite the familiarity of these tropes, we seem to ‘rediscover’ every few years or so that making and playing video games can present toxic environments for women. Drawing on feminist perspectives that understand how videogames have been a gendered, primarily masculine, domain, this article proposes that a topographical view, one specifically attuned to examining gender through a media ecology lens, can demonstrate how these successive re-enactments of ‘shock and awe’ operate in the service of, and are functionally integral to, the preservation of media ecologies exclusionary by design, legitimizing the repetition of their gendered hostilities. The intent is to move beyond naïve expressions of surprise and righteous indignation, to a grounded recognition and elucidation of the extents to which misogyny and harassment are and have been deeply structured into the gendered ecologies of video games.

A study on game consumer behavior

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 2323-2330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phuong Nguyen ◽  
Luong Nguyen
Keyword(s):  
Consumer Behavior ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Customer Satisfaction ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Market Research ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Game Industry ◽  
Theoretical Foundations ◽  
Analyze Data

In the world, the video game industry has really exploded until about 2000, and since then has achieved great strides, becoming one of the leading forms of the entertainment industry, at least in terms of revenue. The main purpose of this paper is to examine the consumer behavior in the case of video games with three objectives: identify the factors affecting customer satisfaction for video games; analyze these factors to understand how they affect consumer behavior and propose some recommendations to improve the customer satisfaction for video games. Data was collected from 205 Vietnamese gamers addressing the variables of individual, psychological, cultural, and social factors. Regression analysis found that all four factors positively affect consumer behavior, in terms of customer satisfaction, especially cultural factors. The findings of this research analyzed the theoretical foundations of the theory of behavior, based on which investigated the study of consumer behavior of video game services of players in Vietnam by market research, analyze data, thereby helping businesses understand the psychological response, consumer behavior of customers, and can devise appropriate strategies.

Gaming as a Woman

2013 ◽  
pp. 106-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristen B. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Online Communities ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Rock Band ◽  
Affinity Groups ◽  
Males And Females

This chapter reports the findings of two surveys taken by players of the video game Rock Band. The purpose of the surveys was to determine what differences, if any, exist between the ways that males and females learn to play the game, are motivated to improve, interact with other players both online and in real life, and interact with other players in online communities for the game. This study suggests that while females do not appear to learn to play this game much differently from males, they are motivated differently and interact with other players differently, and ultimately they have a harder time than males finding a place in the affinity groups that exist for the game, and these findings provide starting points for teachers who intend to use video games and virtual worlds for educational purposes in guarding against creating a “gender gap” between males and females.

The U.S. Video Game Industry

2009 ◽  
pp. 499-514
Author(s):  
Janet C. Dunlop
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Video Gaming ◽  
Video Game Industry ◽  
Star Wars ◽  
Game Industry ◽  
Cover Art ◽  
Capitalist Ideology ◽  
The U.S

Today’s media are vast in both form and influence; however, few cultural studies scholars address the video gaming industry’s role in domestic maintenance and global imposition of U.S. hegemonic ideologies. In this study, video games are analyzed by cover art, content, and origin of production. Whether it is earning more “powers” in games such as Star Wars, or earning points to purchase more powerful artillery in Grand Theft Auto, capitalist ideology is reinforced in a subtle, entertaining fashion. This study shows that oppressive hegemonic representations of gender and race are not only present, but permeate the majority of top-selling video games. Finally, the study traces the origins of best-selling games, to reveal a virtual U.S. monopoly in the content of this formative medium.

The U.S. Video Game Industry

2011 ◽  
pp. 231-246
Author(s):  
Janet C. Dunlop
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Video Gaming ◽  
Video Game Industry ◽  
Star Wars ◽  
Game Industry ◽  
Cover Art ◽  
Capitalist Ideology ◽  
The U.S

Today’s media are vast in both form and influence; however, few cultural studies scholars address the video gaming industry’s role in domestic maintenance and global imposition of U.S. hegemonic ideologies. In this study, video games are analyzed by cover art, content, and origin of production. Whether it is earning more “powers” in games such as Star Wars, or earning points to purchase more powerful artillery in Grand Theft Auto, capitalist ideology is reinforced in a subtle, entertaining fashion. This study shows that oppressive hegemonic representations of gender and race are not only present, but permeate the majority of top-selling video games. Finally, the study traces the origins of best-selling games, to reveal a virtual U.S. monopoly in the content of this formative medium.

‘The fate of Shenmue is in your hands now!’: Kickstarter, video games and the financialization of crowdfunding

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 985-999
Author(s):  
Dario Lolli
Keyword(s):  
Web 2.0 ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Effective Capacity ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Digital Ecosystem ◽  
Digital Convergence ◽  
History Of ◽  
Game Industry ◽  
Funding Mechanisms

In July 2015, a crowdfunding campaign launched to revive the notoriously unprofitable video game series Shenmue closed with the record figure of above US$6 million, to date the highest amount ever raised on Kickstarter for video game funding. This article takes this campaign as an endemic case study of the changing funding mechanisms concerning video game production in the digital ecosystem of Web 2.0. Although the campaign displays some of the participatory elements often attributed to crowdfunding and digital convergence, it also sheds doubts on accountability and the effective capacity of crowdfunding to substantially challenge and de-hierarchize power relations in the video game industry. In particular, the Shenmue III campaign illustrates how the crowdfunding initiative was instrumentally mobilized by its organizers to attract further corporate sponsorships and stakeholders outside crowdfunding. This controversial episode shows how commercial platforms like Kickstarter are increasingly facilitating a process of financialization of crowdfunding, whose main effect is not so much the equal coming together of media consumers and producers as the minimization of risks for large video game corporations. By mapping the history of the Shenmue franchise from its original failure in the era of physical distribution to its recent crowdfunded success, this article argues that the empowering potentials of crowdfunding cannot be readily assumed without a contingent analysis of the cultural and political economy underlying Web 2.0 and its digital platforms.

scholarly journals Towards an Ethical Game Design Solution to Loot Boxes: a Commentary on King and Delfabbro

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leon Y. Xiao ◽  
Laura L. Henderson
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Game Design ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Design Solution ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
South Korean ◽  
Tax Relief ◽  
Game Industry

AbstractKing and Delfabbro (2019b) proposed the adoption of social responsibility measures to combat predatory monetisation in video games, such as loot boxes. This paper rectifies a game example mistakenly used by King and Delfabbro and provides further game examples to illustrate, critique and extend the proposed measures. This paper argues that the proposed measures are unlikely to be widely adopted by the video game industry, given the industry’s economic interests in the continued unhindered implementation of predatory monetisation, their preference for continued ‘self-regulation’ and their past resistance against potential regulation. With reference to South Korean law, this paper explores the possibility of codifying and enforcing the proposed measures as law and argues that overly paternalistic regulations are insensible and impractical. This paper recommends the use of regulatory nudging to encourage video game companies through incentives, such as discretionary grants and tax relief schemes, to adopt the proposed social responsibility measures and develop towards an ethical game design framework.

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