CS - My idea!

Because there is no set question for this module and they have just given us information on possible topics, i found it very hard to think of an idea.  I felt quite lost.  But after the most recent contextual studies lesson i felt more at ease and heard what questions/topics other students were doing.  My group had a one to one with Kim and it was then i told her about my struggle.  I told her some of my ideas that had sparked up but that i wasn't sure as to what i would talk about exactly.  I mentioned talking about something to do with trans-media with Pixar.  She said that there was some sort or manipulation of children  where they get them to buy all these toys related to the films and franchise, games included.  I though that this was a potentially interesting topic.  I decided to let it simmer in my head thinking about what i could talk about exactly for the 10 minute presentation.

The next day i went out shopping and i was in Game, looking at games and comparing prices as i always do.  I saw that the game Dishonored was now £29.99.  It was cheaper than it was before but i decided not to buy it, until i saw that there was a Dishonored Special Edition that included an Arcane Assassin pack for in-game play and a Tarot/Card Deck set for the exact same price!  So i decided to buy it.  As i was queuing up to pay for it, i looked over and saw the game Spyro : Skylanders.  The way that Spyro : Skylanders works is that the characters you choose to play in game are actually physical figurines.  When you buy the game you also get a starter set of characters and a platform.  You have a wireless platform that you link up to the console and when you want to choose your character or change characters you take the figure of the character, place it on the platform and your character appears on screen.  You don't need all the characters to complete the game, but for the hardcore gamer who likes fully completing games, there are so many of them that in order to fully complete the game and acquire all the characters it would cost you in the £200 region as the figures range from £8-£18.  I saw this and i thought to myself "Hey, that's a type of manipulation isn't it? that would fit into my project nicely!"  But then, i looked down and saw what i was buying and i saw that i was a sucker as well, i had been manipulated at that very moment in time to buy this game because of the extras! I looked around the shop and saw all these toys, tee shirts and accessories and i thought to myself, "Oh God, it's everywhere! We are all being manipulated! Whether you're a child or an adult, you're being manipulated to a certain extent."

To further my research, I went to the Disney Store.  Because now my mind had been open to the amount of marketing and possible manipulation by companies, my mind was blown!  I had never noticed this before, the amount of stuff there actually was that they were milking off of games and tv shows owned my Disney was incredible!  They quite literally had everything from cookies to stationary sets, from teddies and figures to head to toe costumes and even games.  The games are never really any good though, they are just an add on, a way to milk more money from the franchise (it is difficult to translate one media [films] into another media [games] but that's a different topic!).

After that, i have decided to talk about manipulation in games; are we more likely to buy something because of its extra content and if so, why is that?  Even if they don't come with the game, why do we want to buy things like statues, teddies and clothing?  Why do people spend so much money to buy full character costumes?  Is some of it down to our personal love for the franchise, or are game companies manipulating us? Or is it ll just clever marketing?

Lets hope i have an interesting 10 minute presentation!