Task 2

In task 1 we learned the two types of research methods, in this task we are going to further broaden our horizons in terms of in depth research.

There two more categories of research that you are going to learn during Task 2 these are;

Academic Research
Cultural Research

What do you think is the difference between the academic and cultural research?

The difference (click on me)

Academic research:

Is research that is conducted systematically and scientifically, it is focused on making new discoveries.

The type of sources you will need to access are:

Academic journals
- - These are academic papers that are collated under one topic so for example journal of biological chemistry. There will be hundreds of papers by different authors but they would be collated under this journal as they are bio chemistry related. Think genres but for academics.
Scientific papers
- - These are documented experiments
Thesis papers
- - An paper that proposes an idea or an argument and then uses either scientific data or evidence based research to approve or disapprove the argument.
Peer reviews
- - This is where a peer at higher education level reviews another paper by using evidence from other academic research in order to agree or disagree what is proposed in that paper.

Note: I am not asking you to make any of the above, you just need them as a research source.

Google scholar is your best friend here.

https://scholar.google.com/

Cultural research:

As the name suggests it is a study of the culture around you and the space you work in also the issues that are faced within that space.

For you it will be the games industry and global issues that affect or are going to affect the majority of your generation.
Before we pick sources you will need to pick a cultural issue first .
Then the type of sources you will need to access:
- Current news
- Social movement

Why do you think that we need Academic and Cultural research for your work and ideas?

The Reasons

Educating Yourself

You need to research and makes sure that the topic that you are researching allows you to correctly understand issues and information.

Conveying a message

You guys are upcoming designers and in the future will get the chance to communicate to an audience. Your audience will come from a range of backgrounds so it is important that you are communicating the correct information and also taking in account the ranges of backgrounds when making a game. Representation of your audiences matters and we as a games industry are slowly progressing in this department.

Keeping up to date

To be able to communicate to an audience you need to stay up to date with the issues that you target audience might be facing, also the current issues or trends that your industry is facing as well. Often media that is successful is usually the one that can make a statement or educate its audience on relevant current issues and topics.

jamboard.google.com/d/1vYkbVB4znodZ-tTCN2SuwahuumLNKlvE1rUU2zAmdCo/edit?usp=sharing

Figures

UK gaming by age and gender 2021 | StatistaAn October to December 2021 survey of UK adults aged 16 years and older found that 88 percent of respondents aged between 16 and 24 years played video games, down from a 92 percent gaming penetration among the same age group in the previous year.

Current Industry and World Issues

Here is a list of sources that should allow you to explore a range of sources regarding the current news with in the industry, some successes and some issues.

Task 2

2.1 In your own words you will define what the difference between academic and cultural research is.

2.2 Lets look at current issues and news in our industry

You will need to look at the news, explore the sources provided above and pick the following:

A current issue in the games Industry or could be a global issue that is effecting the games industry
A current success in the games industry
An academic/ scientific source related to one of the above
You will make sure that you link the source and provide evidence of you accessing
You will analyse all three of the above and make sure that you summarise your understanding of the topic.

(Note: an issue/ success is something that affects the whole industry not just a single community. So for example, your favourite game getting a DLC or sequel is good for the games community, it is not an industry wide effect!)

2.3) Application of your knowledge

Now that you are aware of what is happening we need to become relevant in our idea
Looking at the idea that you generated in task 1, you need to come up ways you can incorporate current relevant things that you found in task 2.2.

You will:

Analyse your own idea from task 1
You will then make changes to the idea according to the issue/ success that you have analysed in task 2.2
Yes, this does include all sections of task 1 from the idea generations to the mood boards as well.

How to document this?

You will take relevant sections as screenshot of your task 1 work
Then next to the screen shot you will talk about the changes that you are going to be making, what, why and how. (These will be your thought process)
You will have to take account of all three mention in task 2.2

Plenary

Through engaging within all the elements of task 2 you have experienced the difference between academic and cultural research.

So by the end of this task you should have:

3 Secondary research sources;

An Industry Issue news source
An industry success news source
An academic source

1 Academic Source

2 Cultural sources

An Industry Issue news source
An industry success news source

A revised idea with more culturally aware and relevant aspects

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