Who is missing what...

Naming and shaming time... Bit annoyed that only two people are completely up to date! You were supposed to write a case study on an Indie Game of your choice on Thursday instead of us having a lesson, so only four of you to do this is not on - I'm not doing it for the fun of it: you will need a case study of an indie game to know and refer to in the exam to compare with GTA IV, GTA V or Rockstar Games.

FOR THURSDAY: Your task is get completely up to date. Most of you are missing notes made fro the Reality is Broken TED video - use the Label Cloud on the right to find it again.

For a complete checklist, click here.

Any problems, reply to this message and I'll post back.

Mr H

Year 12: What you need to have posted (to be up to date)

I will be going through my spreadsheet tomorrow evening checking who is missing what. You should have the following elements posted on your Blog.

1. My gaming history - A brief summary of your experiences with gaming to date.
2. Your essay on innovations in the gaming market out of the choices available
3. A post detailing what is known about the Wii U launch - how much will it cost? What are the launch games? Do you think the market for the Wii U will be the same as the Wii?
4. Post a few statistics lifted from the introduction of the Reality is Broken book by Jane McGonigall that I handed out to you all OR from the TED lecture we watched in class, as similar stats feature in both (also available on this blog!)
5. A post about the Hot Coffee mod - What was it? what were the consequences for developers Rockstar, publishers Take Two, retailers of the game and the gaming world at large.
6. Indie games - What are they? How do they differ? Find one indie game and research it, posting a case study on the game. You will need some knowledge of an indie game for the exam to compare with Rockstar and GTA4 and 5. If you are struggling, then click here for the Minecraft label cloud. That's what the label clouds are there for!

If you feel like you are up to date, then it is never too early to see what the examiners will be looking for in January - click here for the posts i've put up about the exam.
There is a list of past years' questions, examplar answers and other tips.
Or if that seems a bit heavy but you want to do a bit of media work, then you can do a lot worse than rewatch the History of Rockstar Games.

P.S I have the letters for Play Expo so will hand those out on Monday but please return with the cheques for £17.60 by the end of the week, thank you! Will be a great day :-)

Mr H

Welcome newcomers to AS Media Studies at DHS

If you are new to the course this week, then I'd like to say hi! I hope you enjoy AS Media Studies. I believe the course is interesting and relevant to today's society - My side of the exam, the Video game industry, will be looking at one of the fastest growing industries in entertainment today: even at a time when cinema takings and DVD sales are no longer as profitable as the past. The video game industry has risen as a respected entertainment medium to the point where games are included in BAFTA categories and games feature scripts not dissimilar to those found in blockbuster Hollywood movies.

If you are new to the course then this checklist is what you will need to do:
1. Visit www.blogger.com and sign up for a Google account or log in if you already have one. (Remember a Youtube account is the same as a Google account = one big happy Google family)
2. Once in Blogger, click on Create New Blog.
Title: NAME'S AS Media Studies Videogames Blog
Address: dhsmedia followed by your first initial and surname so john smith's address would dhsmediajsmith
3. Add my Blog (This address) to your Reading List in Blogger and add a Blog List gadget in your Blog layout - add my Blog to this Blog List.
3. Still logged in, go to my Blog dhsemediamrhoward12.blogspot.com and reply to this post, copy and pasting your Blog address so I can add you to the sidebar to the left.
4. Write your first post - introduce yourself with your name and what other subjects you are taking at sixth form. Then tell us about your experiences of gaming. This can absolutely anything from hours and hours on a console or PC, right to occasionally playing a few seconds of Angry Birds on the bus home. Just to let us know the range of gaming experiences in our class. (Have a read of some other of the class's Blogs to see what they have said!)
5. Get used to using the Label Cloud on the right hand side of my Blog - clicking on a label will take you to all posts under that label, similar to Twitter hashtags. Lesson powerpoints will bring up all resources shown in lessons so that you can take any notes you may have missed.
6. Click on Play Expo for details on the Media Studies trip to the videogames trade show in October