Magazine Production: Evaluation

I have successfully created two magazine covers and a double spread about video games. I have chosen this genre as I'm passionate about it and believe that Media slanders it for problems that don't even relate to it and are caused by other causes; example being that 'Video games cause violence,' which has been proven wrong by many studies that Media still ignores just to fit their 'idea'. By researching different video game magazines, I have learned how they are generally organised, what language they use to persuade the readers into buying them at first glance and how they make it appealing to catch the eye of passerbys.

Throughout the process of production of this project, I have consistently used the theme of video games by using different images from different games that connect with other themes; the example of this being Halloween to which I have researched different games that have Halloween events occurring every October. Furthermore, this was made easier by my general passion for video games as it allowed me to know any interesting news that I have referenced on my magazine covers.

As well as, I have specifically chosen the game: 'Don't Starve Together', a multiplayer game that has the players playing together,against each other or alone to survive the harsh world of 'The Constant.' To dealing with the burning heat of Summer that sets everything ablaze, to the facing one of the many seasonal giants. You can play as 16 different characters that all have unique traits and weaknesses that are specific to them; these abilities could be the key to survival or your very downfall.

But the interesting part of this is that all the characters aren't the same age, meaning that there are characters that are elders and some that are children.This creates the idea of it not mattering what age you are to survive in the wild, it all depends on how you think and what you do. This is a representation of ages by how it says that age doesn't present your intelligence or maturity and instead your decisions and actions do; this goes against the stereotypes of children being not bright and the adults being the wisest, it's all instead dependent on your choices.

This links to the target audience of 16-21 as they're the age groups that are the most interested in video games when compared to other age groups; younger generations mostly liking the mainstream games, while older generations mostly don't play at all. Furthermore, the representation displayed in the game connects with the target audience as during this time, these people are still thought of being too naive and inexperienced to make good choices by the older generation, yet expected to make life changing decisions that will carve the start of their life and even affect them later in life. This puts a lot of stress and frustration on them that causes them to suffer or stop even caring for what is to come with their lives. Furthermore, it also quite hypocritical by how the older generation expects the newer generation to be able to do the same thing that they did despite the changes in society and to also fix their problems; the prime example of this being Global Warming.

The issue of regulation in media with this magazine will be to avoid showing any explicit violence, sexual content or explicit content as the target audience includes younger audience/minors. Fortunately, this will be made easier as the chosen game doesn't really have explicit content like that, examples being: blood, corpses or sexual content as the game is aimed to be played by all ages. The magazine would be sent out monthly and the alternate addition would be specifically sent out in October, right around the corner for Halloween. I believe that the magazine is appropriate enough to be send out in to the public sphere as it doesn't include anything that would be an issue.

What I have learned during the production process is on how to analyse products using media language and then apply what I have learned to create my own creations. Also, I have learned that time management is the key to making your work consistent and coherent as I have instead caused unneeded panic for myself, yet managed to keep my work consistent throughout the blog. I have achieved in successfully creating two different magazine covers and double spread using original images and writing. Furthermore, I have also made different moodboards that have collection of related images to my final pieces; of 'Don't Starve Together' characters, Halloween-related images and other game-related Halloween event images.

However, it would have been better if I didn't leave the whole project until the last week, as mentioned previously, it caused me unnecessary panic that could have been avoided if I worked on the project over time. To improve for next time, I should work on the given project as soon as it's given and to also try and use Photoshop to create my next piece as I have previously used FireAlpaca, an art program that has similar tools to Photoshop.

Evaluation by Ieva Klavina