EDM Videography and Audiences

Over the past years I have been working on a project which originally started with the idea of filming DJ’s performing their sets. This project was Mirrors. I wanted to make recaps because I was inspired by those around me who were already in the scene making content. I started to pitch this project in BCM114, a class which introduced the idea of making a Digital Artefact. Over that semester, I made my way into the nightlife industry, making content for free for DJ’s who were performing in Wollongong. Over the next few years, I purchased the equipment necessary and became more social on my social media accounts, contacting artists and venues to let me work for them. This is where I got my proper start in this industry, and it is where I am up to in my project currently. With this project, and continuing this digital artifact, I challenged myself to incorporate new ideas into my social media use, and the content I would make for audiences and clients within this social environment.

Firstly, I was contacted by Let’s Go Dancing to film an event in Wollongong. This event would be for DNB in the Gong, a reoccurring dance party which has featured artists like Tsuki, Delta Heavy and more. This event was for the Artist B.O.M, a producer from Sydney. With this event, it attracts the audiences of the Drum and Bass community, so filming and making content would not only benefit the artist and promotors, but also showcase that Wollongong is hosting events like these, which allows audiences to know they don’t need to travel to Sydney for events. There were two DJ’s I filmed that night, first being the headliner B.O.M and then the supports Euka. With all the content I filmed, I was able to make two recap videos dedicated to these artists.

B.O.M   

For this recap, this was the main one for Let’s Go Dancing, so it featured the location, brand, and artists within the recap, just advertising the whole event for attendees in the future. The filming takes about an hour, just getting overall shots of the artists, with audiences interacting with the music. The editing process took me about 2-4 hours to clean up footage, finding the best shots and levelling audio to stop harsh redlining (difficult because of club speakers).

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by William Aiken (@mirrors.inc)

With Instagram, it has introduced the feature Reels, and with this, it allows users to experience videos with full immersion, taking advantage of the phone screen resolution (640 width x 1136 vertical) to use as much screen space as possible. With this style of export, you can get creative with what goes into frame.

For example.  

With this shot, it’s obvious that the black spacing will take up majority of the phone screen, as 33% of the space is just the video being playing in the middle. This is due to filming horizontal with a DSLR camera, instead of the intended purpose of filming vertical with a phone camera.

To counter this, we fill the empty space with zoomed in footage, and adding a blur effect to it, as seen in this screenshot.

Euka Recap

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by [u-kah] (@euka.wav)

The audience feedback with this change of viewership is positive, as it overall looks cleaner to view from a mobile and is something content creators have pushed into their uploads to meet the new trend of footage being released.

This is different to what I was uploading before and has improved my content for the better, as we can see from the interactions from audiences from the last three posts. The views have changed from my standard 50-80 to now reaching the 150+ views from audiences. Also with the added feature from Instagram ‘Collaboration mode’ which allows the content to be shared on both profiles of the collaborators, bringing more views and clicks to both accounts.

The thing I need to start considering is the time of my uploads, I find that my content gets interacted with most when I post at night, and people wake up in the morning to check their phones, gaining overall more attention.I would also wish that I could be consistent with my uploads, as my digital artifact surrounds gigs, I can only film and make content for when I get asked, as it’s something that only happens when the businesses have the budget to hire a videographer.

Talking about aesthetics, video resolution has changed with content creation. Artists or creators are now preferring a 1080 x 1920 ratio instead of the traditional wide screen ratio due to way social media's like Instagram have introduced features like ‘reels’. #bcm206 pic.twitter.com/CDrotpYMGM

— William Aiken (@WillAiken_) September 19, 2022

From working on this digital artifact, it inspired me to look at how future networks influence the way we use our social media accounts. The advances that social media is making in the everyday life is interesting, because now than ever, we are more connected and invested then we think. This brings up the idea of liquid labour, and how work can be accessed and uploaded on the go. Because of accessibility of networks, portable devices, and content that can be viewed from a phone screen, advertising and content creation is at everyone’s fingertips.

A simple timeline, but it has me thinking about liquid labor. I wonder if adobe will ever make premiere pro available for mobile devices? and the idea of accessing your camera via your mobile to transfer footage? Can you imagine how accessible content could be! #bcm206 pic.twitter.com/hN1OsvpTnq

— William Aiken (@WillAiken_) September 19, 2022

From looking at my Mirrors project, just scrolling the profile becomes a digital portfolio to show future employers and clients, allowing myself to make content that benefits. The project also shows a subculture of audiences who enjoy their environment, being EDM music. You see the audiences interacting with the posts, being in the videos, embracing the music. It creates a portrait for new audiences to observe. This is what I wanted to create because this is how I got into this project, I would scroll my Instagram feed and see all the recaps and footage of shows and gigs I missed out on. Being able to go back and watch media that content creators made over the weekend inspired me because I wanted to be in the position to do the same thing. From looking at my social profiles now, I’m happy with the aesthetic I have created. This project like many, capture a culture, and I think it’s important because not only does it benefit the artist and promoters, but helps capture a community.

3 video essays

Contextual Report

With this digital artifact, I explored a community that I grew up in. This is the Call of duty Trickshotting community. The COD trickshotting community spread like no other, and purely came from making content within the call of duty games. This started with Call of Duty Modern Warfare (2007) this is where gamers had the opportunity to record and upload content to YouTube of themselves playing the game, which started a phenomenon like no other. This was a continuous movement that spanned over the following Call of Duty’s, with the community growing larger and larger every year. This introduced the concept of having online teams, where players could join and climb a virtual ladder of the more subscribed teams. There were sponsors, paid work and social media status involved as well, as joining big teams like FaZe and SoaR could be life changing for some players. Within this contextual report, I will explore how this community evolved over the years, how the Archaeology of Trickshotting made it to what it is today, the paratext of the community involved and narrative design to what a trickshot was, and what made it different from player to player.

Media Archology

Everyone knows what a trickshot is, it could be to do with sport, or bouncing a ball into a cup. The call of duty community has taken the identity of a trickshot to a whole new level. There is a lot of history to unpack when we discuss the trickshotting community, as there were many memorable events and historical moments that happened in the period it was most active. In my first video essay, I explore how this era of gaming originated, drawing on the original content creator who started it all, this being zzirGrizz. zzirGrizz was one of the first call of duty content creators who originated a culture of unique gamers to touch the call of duty scene. His style of content influenced those around him, with other great content creators joining him in his strive. For example, other content creators like Optic Predator burst into the scene with unique gameplay and videos to staple himself as an “OG”. There were many content creators mirroring each other in the community, but it started to explode when teams became bigger and bigger. An example of this that I talked about in my video essay was FaZe clan, how they originated and started to capitalise on the trickshot scene. FaZe soon grew to be the largest clan within the scene, with those around aspiring to achieve what they accomplished. It all started from a few people with an idea, which soon grew to be a gaming empire that dominated the gaming networks. In my first video essay, I used clips of historical moments within the community, helping to paint the picture for those who may not be aware of how big this community was. I think its best if we look at YouTube and trickshotting as a Wunderkammer. A Wunderkammer is art piece that is a cabinet of curiosities , this cabinet can vary depending on the subject, but it just means that anywhere you look there is something to be seen  (Galambosova, 2022).  If we look at it in this context, Robert Gehl explores this idea of looking at YouTube as a Wunderkammer, he explains the archology that YouTube has in today’s generation of media. This is something I relate with as we look at trickshotting as a Wunderkammer, this own media interpretation that uses YouTube to collect and store all this information that this community created. As the content has become limited over the years, due to the community not being as popular as it was from the years of 2008-2014, YouTube can archive all of these videos, as discussed “Clearly, YouTube is an archive. YouTube is not a peer-to-peer sharing program which links individual computers together in an ad hoc network; here are central servers which hold the video content that users have uploaded” (Gehl, 2009).

Paratext

When we discuss paratext, it refers to how the original text of a subject expands and migrates into different mediums/formats. With the trickshotting community, the paratext went beyond the medium of playing the video game Call of Duty, but instead evolved new avenues for players to take the platform to the next level. This is where trickshotting teams started to get introduced into the gaming community. Trickshotting teams creates its own narrative when it came to the game, because players were not only interested in the video game itself, but also interested in creating an online presence of making content surrounding the game. These teams would push out player montages, teamtages and overall content surrounding the team and players involved. There were people who played the game, and people who created roles for themselves, like becoming an editor or a team leader. These roles not only helped the scene but help create new content surrounding call of duty for fans of trickshotting and the game to enjoy. In my video essay, I draw on themes on how the paratext of the community goes beyond just the game, and how sponsorships from third party associates started to latch onto this community. These were brands like Kontrol Freaks and Imagine Customs, which I discussed in the video, but it just adds to the paratext surrounding call of duty trickshotting. A person could not only play the video game, but also watch content on it made by players, with sponsors from third parties, which would also drive more available content for audiences to consume. I used various clips from large trickshotting teams which showcased their brand intro. For example, FaZe clans intro involves a sequence of logos to showcase the sponsors associated with the organisation, it starts with a Gammalabs logo (a supplement company), to scuff (controller company) and finally then FaZe logo. To understand paratext in this context, I looked at Christophe Durets work on Contemporary Research on Intertextuality in video games, in this he discuses the idea of communities in gaming going beyond the text “Other game scholars have used paratext in a similar fashion to examine an audience’s relationship with a text. Discussion revolving around epitextual analysis of paratext has resulted in thinking about the effect of trailers, marketing, and community groups (Duret, 2016). This idea further continues my point that the trickshotting community turned the text into its own, creating own content from an existing medium and manipulating it into a new context.  

Narrative design

The third and final video essay focuses on the narrative design surrounding trickshotting. What was a trickshot? What did it mean? When did it change? These were the questions I answered in my video, looking into the evolution of a trickshot, how the time period changed from early years of gaming to the later years. It Also explored how the style and complexity changed over the years because of the over saturation of people hitting the same trickshots, and how people wanted to stand out amongst each other. The first part of the video dives into these questions, breaking it apart and pulling on iconic moments within the community, like FaZe Temperrr’s ‘Temperrr shot’ an iconic trickshot. I than compare this to pancakes trickshot, which was a pinnacle moment in the community as it changed the complexity of trickshotting. I discuss this in the terms of narrative design because each trickshot was different in its own way, each trickshot told its own story in a way, we could see the players skill involved with a trickshot. The button combination, the style and distance between a trickshot made each clip have its own individuality. In the second part of the video essay, I change the style by doing a live commentary of myself playing the video game and trickshotting. Breaking down how a trickshot is done, with the mechanics in the game that allows players to do so. Playing on the idea of narrative design, you get to see myself connect with trickshotting, how I trickshot, my style of gameplay, as this expands on the idea of players having their own individualism. This idea of narrative design is discussed in Michele D. Dickey’s work Game Design Narrative for Learning, he explores the idea how narrative design goes beyond the medium presented to the audience, as discussed “Narrative is typically used to establish the setting and initial motivation, but often it is not the main focus of game play” (Dickey, 2006) he further explains how the fps games don’t focus on the narrative design compared to RPG’s and adventure games, but mainly focuses on the core gameplay elements, which I believe is what makes the narrative design of trickshotting so prominent.

The wrap up this report, I think that it’s important that we hold onto archaeology of call of duty trickshotting, as it was a really important time for gamers like myself to be a part of, but also for people in the future to look back on to see the origins of how successful gaming organisations got their framework from. And this goes towards the paratext too, there was so much content to be confused surrounding cod, and this was just from the communities alone, which developers love because it’s free marking for their product. I think it’s important that we explore communities surround the gaming industry or any industry as they are the prime examples of a successful medium. With this, the narrative design finishes the cake due to the open world it creates for gamers to interpret and turn a medium into a whole new thing just from creativity and community alone.

References

Dickey, M., 2006. Game Design Narrative for Learning: Appropriating Adventure Game Design Narrative Devices and Techniques for the Design of Interactive Learning Environments. Educational Technology Research and Development volume, Volume 54, p. 245–263.

Duret, C., 2016. Contemporary Research of Intertexuality in video games. In: Advances in Multimedia and interactive technologies . Sherbrooke: Information science reference , p. 279.

Galambosova, C., 2022. What Is a Wunderkammer? Best Cabinets of Curiosities. [Online]
Available at: https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/cabinets-of-curiosities/
[Accessed 8 October 2022].

Gehl, R., 2009. YouTube as archive: Who will curate this digital Wunderkammer?. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 12(1), p. 4.

‘Vanlife’, a phenomenon that took over the internet in 2012 with trending hashtags such as #vanlife #travelling and more. This approach to advertising a lifestyle was successful in the early days of social media, especially on social media like Instagram. Instagram allows users to search for aesthetics or things that they are after, by looking up hashtags that users have associated with their posts. An individual who was a part of this rising culture was Foster Huntington. Huntington has written many books on the ideas of vanlife, how the lifestyle can be more sufficient for the individual and just the overall enjoyment that can be achieved from this lifestyle. He was one of the original Instagram accounts promoting the vanlife lifestyle, taking photos of his journey, writing about it, and just generally showcasing his life.

From reading about foster, it gave me my own ideas on the take on vanlife, is it just limited to surfing and adventuring? Or could it more practical, like a mobile work van?

As people on social media like to basically one up each other, the setups have become more advanced and more impressive. Over the years of looking at vans and setups, there has been an increasing amount of van setups that include gaming pc’s, tv’s and everything else they need for living requirements. For a gamer, or someone who needs access to a desktop pc, this sounds ideal.

It’s interesting to talk about vanlife, and how people have taken on this nomad lifestyle. My cousin and his partner have started to build vans for a living “Rollin Campers”. They did this as they spent the last year travelling around Australia. But now with the experience they have, they have been able to start their own business in renovating vans to suit people who want to travel around Australia. This innovation of a new lifestyle has changed the way they can live now.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Rollin’ Campers (@rollin_campers)

I love festivals, and I love filming content. The idea of having a van would be beneficial as a content creator or someone who wants to travel around and film gigs and have all the requirements needed on the road. Could you imagine the possibilities of travelling with all your camera equipment for gigs, and being able to take the footage back to the van and continue working on the footage in your own editing suite? This could be the way content creators could start getting more work instead of filming in the one town/city.  

From reading the article “How Veterans of #Vanlife Feel About All the Newbies” it explores the ideas how vanlife can work for some people, depending on the work they take on while on the road. For example, “Though some vanlifers are salaried employees working 9-to-5 jobs from home — wherever that may be — many make a living doing freelance work, like graphic design or video production, which gives them even more flexibility to go wherever, whenever” (Pietsch, 2021). This further helps my understanding how vanlife can be practical for people like myself and using the van as a way to create content as well. If content creators had their side gig of filming gigs, advertisements or whatever, they could dedicate their own lifestyle onto social media as there is a market for fans of the #vanlife to follow.  

This type of vanlife I’m interested in shares the same interest has gaming vans, which is a subgenre that dives into the technological advanced setups of vanlife, it is a more expensive lifestyle, but worth it for those who need to be around technology. The YouTuber “TTTHEFINEPRINTTT” has made his own category of vanlife and has inspired many to take on his approach to this lifestyle. In his video’s he shows locations of where he’s living, and making the most of #vanlife, but also explains how he maintains and lives inside this van, with experiences that are positive and negative, to give viewers a real look into his lifestyle.

Mobile Gaming Redefined: How Trent Arant, Founder of VanLife Gaming is Ushering in a New Era of Off-Grid Innovation

If we look at these gaming vans, they are definitely an upgrade to the traditional ideas of vanlifing, as the idea of vanlife is to get on the road and embrace nature, being in the environment, but does taking your gaming setup with you take away that aesthetic? Or does it bring something new to the table? Personally, travelling with my PC would be ideal as this really resonates with me for a lifestyle I can’t leave behind.

My ideal setup for #vanlife #bcm206 pic.twitter.com/1iTDfaTSIm

— William Aiken (@WillAiken_) September 22, 2022

References

Pietsch, B., 2021. How Veterans of #Vanlife Feel About All the Newbies. [Online]
Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/02/us/living-in-a-van-coronavirus-pandemic.html
[Accessed 20 September 2022].

So, for my first blog will be focusing around Speculated Future Networks surrounding content creation in the Electronic Dance Music Industry, and how social media contributes to Artists within the industry. This is interesting to look at as there are so many avenues that can explored when looking into this scene, for example.

• Audiences’ interactions with artists
• The artists, fanbase and the algorithms
• How content creation has influenced social media posts

These are just a few examples of the ideas that can be looked at, but for this blog I will be focusing on how artists associate themselves with content creation.

As discussed before, I love EDM. The music, communities and content that comes out of this industry is something I will personally cherish for the rest of my life as, as this is a medium that motivates and inspires me every day. 

When I discuss EDM, I mainly aim towards the Bass scene within the EDM genre (Dubstep, Drum and Bass). Being able to follow along the artists in the industry, artists who produce music and create amazing sets to bring an experience like no other for audiences (like myself) to enjoy a night out.

The reasons why I bring up the artists is because of the massive role they play when it comes to gigs, concerts and festivals, the financial pool that goes into throwing a show is expensive for promoters and the venues who book these artists to play a show. Depending on the artist, and the reach they have with their audience, it can really depend on how successful the event can be.

Now, therefore I want to talk about content creation and social media.

Social media as a platform is a great way to promote an artist for fans. Fans who might be interested in catching a live performance, or just keeping up to date with what the artist is currently doing.

The EDM community is tight when it comes to the artists in the scene, and if you really care you would go out of your way to follow the local scene as well as already established artists.

I personally got into event videography back in 2019, when I came across a video of an event I attended, a recap if you will. From watching the video, it made me realise that I could be involved with this industry, as I was already competent with videography. Over the next few years, I became involved with the nightclub industry and made friends with artists in the local scene.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by William Aiken (@mirrors.inc)

On the bigger scale of things, event videography is massive, and there are videographers all around the world who are helping artists push their content on social media for fans to become invested to seeing a live event from them. If an event looks fun through a phone screen, just imagine it in person.

An example of this is from the videographer ShloadedGabe, USA based and currently doing videography for artists like Marauda, Riot Ten, and Hol!.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by @shloadedgabe

From looking at his content, he has created relationships with artists where he will be tour with the artist, creating recaps for every festival they attend. His videography and editing create an experience for the viewer, creating hype and interest for an event that will be.

The future of social media and promotion

If we look at the current state of social media, and how influencers use these applications, we are going to see a rapid influx of more applications that will be used to network events for artists and promoters. Current promoters are using apps like WhatsLively. WhatsLively is an application which allows promoters to share information about upcoming concerts and gigs, which allows users to have insight before mainstream media gets a hold of general advertising. It’s a good way to keep up to date within the scene, or just the music industry in general.

From what I have discussed this far, imagine this from the perspective of someone who may have experienced live events before the internet. It explores themes from design fiction. The way the internet has connected everyone is astounding. Advertising, promotion and networking has never been easier as now everyone can access central hubs to collect information.

This is where IOT relates with social media. IOT stands for the Internet Of Things, this is a term that is related to design fiction. When looking at design fiction it can more about being creative. Problem solving, like this quote; “Most designers are actively trying to solve problems, making things better, or producing something for sale or consumption” (Coulton, 2018). With IOT, it discusses how the internet has become more connected with devices, combining both things is how social media has become a large part of everyone’s life, the accessibility from your pocket to be online is created an avenue for people to take advantage for personal gain, such as celebrities.

The IOT has changed the way artists and promoters can access a fanbase, having everyone connected creates its own network for advertising and promotion.

References

Paul Coulton, J. L. a. R. C., 2018. The little book of design fiction for the internet of things. Lancaster University: PETRAS Little Books series.

My analytical frameworks mainly associates around the term Paratext, and how it associates itself within the game media. A quote from Consalvo explains paratext “as texts or artifacts that surround a central text, lending that central text meaning, framing, and shaping how we understand it” (Consalvo, 2017). Consalvo discusses the idea how paratext goes beyond just he game media itself, and how audiences engage beyond just the text from the game itself, making something new.

This representation explains my framework with the call of duty trickshotting community. This community thrived on experimenting with the game’s engine. Discovering new elements from the game (new trickshots, out of map spots, glitches.) Basically, exploiting bugs or intentions not made by the developers. The relationship goes beyond just playing the video game, it’s creating a community surrounding a medium which is call of duty. For an example of this, FaZe clan hosted a competition called the “FaZe #5 challenge”, which allowed gamers to have a chance to be apart of FaZe clan, if their application was successful. This would not only just be a great opportunity for the individual, but a great marketing opportunity for FaZeClan, as viewers and contestants would associate their content with faze clans brand, bringing more attention and traffic to the business.

This also explains the narrative design part of trickshotting, how gamers were able to separate themselves by doing something ‘cooler’ with their trickshot or more impressive.

A bad trickshot (good for it’s time)

A good trickshot

It’s like skateboarding, someone doing an ollie compared to a kickflip.

The media archeology will also encourage my framework, because there is a lot of history that goes beyond trickshotting, and how gamers started to manipulate and turned call of duty into categories when it came to gaming. The gaming slang used for gamers

• trickshotter
• sniper
• reggunner (tryhard/playing the game normally)
• noobs (new to the game).

This relationship with the game changed the way audiences engaged with the game itself and was more about being apart of the community. This is exactly what I will be discussing in my DA, as I break down this strange time of gaming.

References

Consalvo, M., 2017. When paratexts become texts: de-centering the game-as-text. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 34(2), pp. 177-183.

The call of duty montage scene was massive, and still is if we look at it in from various point of views. Today these montages are uploaded to multiple social media platforms, such as TikTok and Instagram, reaching more mass audiences. But back in the day when capture cards became more accessible for gamers, the content that was produced and uploaded onto YouTube skyrocketed. It became an era where people were given the opportunity to show off their in-game skills and highlights to impress audiences.

This concept of reconfiguration was how I personally connected with these videos. I don’t imagine someone on a couch playing the game, I separate the gamer to the game character, just seeing the gamertag alone creates this illusion for myself, making a parasocial relationship between me, the video game, and the content creator. These content creators were probably not aware of what they were doing at the time, as content creation was still rarely a thing that was discussed in YouTube back in this era, and not a lot of people knew what they were involved in or knowing what they were contributing to what YouTube is today. Just the first 20 seconds of this video you can tell that no one had a clue what the future of content creation could be.

The montages would either be uploaded to clan channels, or personal channels, but each gamer had his/her own alias, making the audience identify that person as that game account. They would use these montages to highlight their skills, but to also tell a story. With music, swift editing, and highlights to bring together a video for mass audiences to enjoy, this idea of reconfiguration creates a new way for audiences to interact with the players and content surounding this this type of media.

The paratext goes beyond just watching and playing the game, it creates a community, knowledge of this community for those who are invested. It creates conversation surrounding the game, surrounding the gamers. It’s like twitch and live streams, but different because you’re experiencing something that the content creator intended. It’s interesting on how much this idea of creating a unique spin on something that developers didn’t intend can create its own entity from a community alone.

This will be something I will be exploring more in my Digital Artifact, please follow along to see how I breakdown this unique era and history of gaming.

References

Postigo, Hector (2007) “Of Mods and Modders: Chasing Down the Value of Fan-Based Digital Game Modification.”

Kreissl, J, Possler, D & Klimmt, C 2021, ‘Engagement With the Gurus of Gaming Culture: Parasocial Relationships to Let’s Players’, Games and culture, vol. 16, no. 8, pp. 1021–1043.

Pitch 1 – Taya Gregerson “FNAF”

For Taya’s digital artifact she will be exploring Five nights at Freddy’s, an exploration of text about the game media surrounding the FNAF series. A part of her digital artifact will be the idea of connecting to the audience by making a contextual report about the fnaf series. Something I’ll be interested in, but I don’t understand too much about the game history, so having a contextual report will be something to look forward to.

Pitch 2 – Riley Slowgrove “The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter Stream”

Riley DA will be about him live steaming the game “The Vanishing of Ethan Carter”, another DA which I’ll be interested in because I have no idea what this game is nor any information about it. This is something that will be explained by Riley as he does a playthrough of the game which would connect to the audiences (like myself) who are new to these types of games.

Pitch 3 – Jackson Thorne “Analysing the Dead By Daylight Killers on Twitch”

Jackson will also be live streaming, but with the game Dead by Daylight, a horror game which allows survivors to have a chance to escape a location that they are locked in with a killer. Jackson will be exploring the killers of the game and lore surround these characters.

Self Reflection

What did you contribute?

For my three comments, I contributed advice or information that may help each student work on their digital artifact, this is either through various links to YouTube videos, media outlets or academic sources which may help them add onto their DA’s for the future.

• How did you draw on subject materials including lectures and reading?

I was able to draw onto the subject materials by exploring how each DA will be using paratext to explore information surround the game media each student was investigating.

• What research did you offer?

• Taya
  Game examples how the fandom of FNAF is always creating new concepts surround the games media, maybe something to explore with her DA
• Riley
  Offered Riley a link to a video which would help him with twitch streaming and editing down raw footage if he wanted to make highlight reels with the content he makes.
• Jackson
  Linked Jackson an in-depth guide of the characters in DBD, as this is something he will be looking into, and also suggested the idea of reading an article about DBD and how the players experience the game.

• What actionable suggestions did you make?

An actionable suggestion I made was for Riley’s DA, the idea of streaming is great, but being able to connect to more audiences by having other sources of media would really help his approach, as having highlights of his gameplay and commentary, or even the VOD for viewers who missed the stream would be helpful

• How useful was your suggestion and how might you be more engaging and providing better feedback in the second round of comments?

I think my suggestions may be helpful, but it’s hard to say when students already have the intention or mindset to continue with what they want to do with there DA’s. Offering advice is the best you can do but people don’t have to take it on board which is fine. I’m looking forward to seeing if they change or add on from the advice received from myself and other students.

• What did you learn?

From reading these three DA, I learnt how everyone can be excited to share something they are interested in, I love the idea of talking about a hobby I really enjoy, so reading about others and how they want to share their experience and educate others made me really satisfied with being apart of this subject.

• What did you get out of the experience? 

Educated on information I was not aware about, for example, Jacksons DA on Dead by Daylight informed me about more within the game, like the character and killers, I wasn’t aware there was that much depth within the game and now makes me more interested in playing the game more and finding out more information through Jacksons DA.

Call of duty trickshotting has had a long history, from starting out in the early years of 2008 with call of duty 4, gamers uploading raw clips to YouTube of cool moments they had in game, to turning into a gaming empire with sponsors, millions of subscribers globally and millions upon millions of watched hours of content.

Call of duty thrived from this community alone, there was call of duty trickshotting teams like FaZe Clan, Soar, Obey and more that contributed a lot to call of duty and the community of trickshotters who were involved. Teams would make money, players would make money, get exposure, it was quite a phenomenon that has impacted and changed the way gaming is perceived today.

With this three-part video series, I’ll be exploring these topics

• Media Archaeology of trickshotting
• Paratext of the trickshotting community
• Narrative Design of what a trickshot was

To keep me on track, I’ll be sticking to this upload schedule.

The audience i’m trying to attract are either people who use to trickshot, who were interested in trickshotting or knew anything about it. If you are not familiar with the concept, it might be alot of information to take in, but if you do have an idea of what I’m talking about, then you are the audience I want. An interesting Community post on Steam I just found. Seeing the other perspective.

Academically, there is a lot of information that can help guide me when discussing archaeology, paratext and narrative design, especially with gaming and communities. I’ll mainly be talking from experience, but backing up information with sources to what I’ll be referring too.

Mark Johnson 2016, ‘Review of Critical Gaming: Interactive History and Virtual Heritage by Erik Champion [book]’, Internet archaeology, no. 40.

Swalwell, M. (2007). The Remembering and the Forgetting of Early Digital Games: From Novelty to Detritus and Back Again. Journal of Visual Culture, 6(2), 255-273.

SHOW REELS

(Click title of YouTube video for a better viewing experience)

Previous works

“Reclaiming Pink” a short film which follows a woman and an unexpected pregnancy.

Nightlife

Easily one of the best arcade-type franchises to touch the late 90’s-2000’s console era, Tony Hawks Pro Skater series was beloved by fans worldwide, while introducing a new whole new generation to the world of skateboarding.

From looking at the sales of the PS2, combined with other consoles like the Xbox and GameCube, we can get a good idea of how successful these games were (Pro Skater 1,2,3,4), even to follow on, the success of the Tony Hawks Underground series which matched it’s predecessors.

Now to discuss the absolute monstrosity that is Tony Hawks Pro Skater 5. This game tainted the beloved franchise for its quick cashgrab approach. From reading around, it is told that the only reason this game was released and marketed was because the contract for the tony hawks franchise was about to expire, meaning they only had a matter of time to squeeze out an unfinished game to cash in on.

The game itself was bad, it didn’t follow on from the groundwork of the previous pro skater titles (world building, characters, interesting locations/landmarks). I’m not hooked on nostalgia, these games still hold up and the internet will tell you this, through mods like ThugPro (community made mod that combines all THPS/THUG games). Which is still beloved by the tony hawks pro skater community.

Developers may have good intentions, but audiences and the community will always be judgmental when they can sense that a project that is released was not made in good faith, especially when there is a price tag attached to it.