media terms

sandboxgames - free-roaming games like GTA 4; second life; sandbox gaes effectively never end and therfore encourage immersion / flow.

goal-orientated narratve - most games have some goal; it may be to earn money, save the princess or compkete various levels/miossions. it is the completion of of these goals that motivates the gamer
GTA 4 is goal orientated narrative - missions also is a sandbox game with 'sub-mission' so you can decide on the goals

Immersion - the state when the gamer is immersed within the game; the gamer is totally absorbed by the game.

Flow - links with immersion; the flow of the game is not interupted in sandbox games which encourages immersion.

Cutscenes - the film-like bits of a game that set the scene at the begining and introduce new missions or tasks. cut scenes can really anoy gamers as they interupt immersion and flow.

Important industry stuff:
The big players in the video games industry:

• Rockstar games - GTA series
• Electronic Arts (EA) - Sports games and others
• Bungie - lara croft
• Microsfoft - X-BOX
• Sony - Playstation
• Nintendo - WII

the development of videogames:

MMORPG - massively multiplayer online role-playing game,

this is a very popular game trend at the moment, it allows gamers to interasct with other game players around the world, and with the rise of social web users on sites such as facebook, bebo and myspace the gameing designers must take note of the current social trend.

generated content - adding game content by users, posts on blogs, online forums etc...

should game companies be sued for promoting violence?

what do the BBFC do?

BBFC - the independent regulator of the film and video industry in the UK. classifications

should they have more/greater powers.