Tom’s best blog post

Given this opportunity I would like to talk more about how video games are advertised and how the video games cover can be more appealing to different people. Early video games rarely ever had women as character, this started to change in the mid-2000’s. Explained in one of the reading, “Magazine advertisements for the Nintendo Wii often highlighted how mothers could use gaming systems to better bond with their families” (Chess 2011). This brought me back to when my family bought the Nintendo Wii and we would have family night. The first night we used it we all created our character to best fit us and I know my mother and sister enjoy being about to play as a female character. With the use of the video game cover you can see what the characters look like and that can make a game more appealing for different groups of gamers. In our panel presentation this week one of the key points was video game and cover design. I found this really interesting because I’ve never looked at the different designs of video game cover and how they could impact the decisions of buyers.

There were eight different types of; Rule of threes, Weapon pointing up, Face to face, Extreme close up, From the waist up, White background, Explosions, Shadows and darkness. I will explain the significance of each of these and how they can impact the buyer just because of the layout of the cover. The rule of threes helps create a more interesting look than groupings of two or having a single character. The weapon pointing up with a single character uses the full cover with a vertical design and is more appealing because it feels like a “full Screen”. The Face to face design provides symmetry it also hints at the nature of the game and works well for games that have two sides. Extreme close ups bring the idea of scale into the picture, it also explains who the main character is and what they look like. Close ups can also be used to show intense emotion with just a picture. From the waist up is a preferred cover for superhero games and gives the buyer some perspective and insight to what the game is all about. White background is used when the cover has a lot of other colors to give a chance to let the colors really shine and stand out, in these covers the use of red is recommended. My personal favorite is explosions, it’s just exciting and an easy way to show intensity. These games are particularly my favorite games. The last use of covers is shadows and darkness, this is used to show tone and explain that there is some mystery within these games. All of these different covers explain video games in different way and give insight before playing a second of these games.