Analysing Game Adverts - 3

  

This is the final magazine advert that I analysed. The game advertised is a creative survival game called Spore.

This is another example of a game advert that favours visual aspects over raw text. This generally makes the advert more appealing to all target audiences, as not many people want to read a lot of information at once. However, this can make the advert appear too simplistic. This may also mean that the target audience might not be able to learn much about the product from this particular advertisement. This is why the imagery is so important towards the meaning of the advert, as the audience may have high expectations for a game that has promising imagery (i.e. pictures of gameplay with stunning graphics, etc.).

The different hands are holding different controllers from much older gaming consoles. This connotes to evolution of gaming, which is backed up with the flavour text "The Next Stage in Evolution". This can indicate that the new game is aimed to be much better than most other games. The connotation of the game controller growing out of a person's hand can indicate towards how important and large the gaming industry has become over the years. This can also show that this particular industry has become a big part of many people's lives.

Analysing Game Adverts - 2

This is the second advert I have analysed. This is advertising a Japanese fighting game called One Piece: Grand Battle.

This advert is also different from the first advert, as it favours to use imagery over information. This can make the advert look as if it is aimed at a younger audience. The use of bright colours and smooth edges on the pictures also makes the advert look like it is aimed at teenagers. The style of writing used is also less formal, with lines such as "Ahoy there mi' hearties!". This indicates towards a younger audience. This style of speech is also accosiated with pirates, which easily displays one of the game's aspects to the target audience.


In the background, there are two people fighting each other. This relates to the age rating of the game, as it would be unlikely to be aimed at younger children if it contained violence. The character at the front of the advert also has an angry expression, which again indicates that the violence would be aimed at an older audience. This is, however, counteracted by the cartoonish colours and art style. It shows that contrasting the two themes can display a very unique style, as not many games mix cartoonish art styles with a gritty gameplay style.

Analysing Game Adverts - 1

This is the first magazine advert I have analysed. This particular advert promotes a puzzle game for the Nintendo DS console called Brain Age.

First of all, the main thing that attracts the eye to this advert is the main picture, as the main text does not stand out much. The picture seems to denote intelligence, due to the fact that the man's head seems to be illuminated. This can symbolise the fact that he is thinking. Another aspect that backs up this idea is the title of the game. The title 'Brain Age' can also denote thinking, as a brain can be a symbol of intelligence. It can also denote the main age group, as the man in the picture shows that this can be a game adults will enjoy.

This advert also connotes a formal type of advertising, due to the text being plain and simple, as well as taking up the majority of the space. This can mean that the advert was aimed at older people. This advert also uses very dull colours, which also connotes formality. Another aspect is that the picture of the actual game packaging is very small and is not included in the main picture. This is not usually done, as most adverts show the game packaging as a main part. This is because the target audience can know what to expect by looking at the games cover (which may include game aspects like main characters, game scenery, enemies, etc).

“Can you use a video game to rewire your brain?” is not a catchphrase that is included in the game, but seems more like a headline of a newspaper article. This highly connotes that the advert is being formal, as most newspapers are written very formally for the general public. It could also be considered that the game is being addressed to the majority of people through this advert, as many people can relate the style of writing used in the advert to that of a newspaper article, which will be something familiar to them. This could greatly expand the target audience that the advert is aimed at.