Secondary
I began by starting with my secondary research.
I used online forums, interviews, and articles so I could analyse each website to find research on the audience demographic. First, I started to research what the game original target audience is. Knowing what the original target audience is makes it much easier to try and defining who the current audience profile is.
From my research I discovered that the target audience is the same audience that watched the star wars films. The star wars film franchise has been on for generations, resulting in a wide audience.
The film audience is an audience for all ages; both young and old have watched the star war films. The general demographic which the game targeted included both genders, 12 – 50 year olds. Whilst doing my research I found an articile which explained how a typical Star Wars fan is likely male, aged 18-44, watches science, history and horror TV shows and works in IT or legal. To attract more females into the video game audience, they created a female storm troopers which was thought to make the game look more gender diverse. Although I knew not every game meets their target audience.Further into my research I came across how the game actually got a Pegi rating Of T which means that the game is only suitable for young teenagers and up. Having a Pegi Rating of T must have affected their target audience in a huge way. For instance they targeted for the same audience as the star war films however the film was rated a U which means universal – Anyone can watch it.
The game originally wanted to attract an audience demographic of 12 – 50 year olds although the Pegi Rating is preventing the game getting audience the target age range. For instance the Pegi rating is only suitable for teenagers because it may contain violence. To keep the game audience age as young as possible the game was designed to be ‘arcade Like’ for example there isn’t much violence and has simple, easy controlling which is Perfect for young, casual gamers. But did this help attract the younger players? Whilst reading through several articles and forums I came across a few complaints on the star wars: battlefronts audience.
First I came across forums which players complaining how the game online is too challenging because hard-core gamers are being too competitive, violent and using a lot of strategy which is ‘scaring’ away the younger audience.
However I also came across forums where players was also complaining about the game being designed too casual and is mainly focused on the younger players. Making the game too boring for hard-core players.The mixed feedback I got back as a result from doing secondary method techniques just made it clear on what questions I should ask whilst doing my own primary research to get the best, effective answers which will define the audience profile.
Once I finished analysing all the secondary research, I created some notes on how I can improve the information I know on the audience profile. First I knew that my feed back from the secondary research left me with a few questions on the demographic of the audience. For Instance, I wanted to know if the game was suitable for the younger players? what sort of players played the game? Did they achieve their target audience?.
To answer these Questions I decided to do a online Questionnaire to ask the questions directly to the Game's audience.
Primary From my primary research, most of my respondents who answered the Questionnaire are male and aged between 14 to 22 years old. Most of the respondents were still in education and used walking as their main transport, this could suggest that the audience is still ‘young’ enough to be in school/college or maybe it could suggest that their income will not be as much as a audience who are mostly employed. Having an audience who is mainly in education could result in less players purchasing from the game.
In my online Questionnaires I decided to ask if the players noticed the women storm troopers and 60% of the respondents said they did not. Knowing that 60% of players did not notice the women storm troopers, Knowing this percentage makes it easier to estimate that a huge amount of players worldwide did not in fact notice the women storm troopers. I think this affected the amount of females playing this game and that is why males are the main demographic for this audience profile.
When I analysed all my feedback I also released that the players who played the game were usually casual players who played the game all the time.
Overall the feedback suggested that the players thought online can be a bit to competitive but it is more interesting than the missions although the participants explained how they thought missions were better for playing with their friends because of the atmosphere you got whilst playing co-op/split screen. When Asked if they thought the game was suitable enough for young players, 4 out of 5 respondents thought the game was actually suitable enough for the younger gamers because it does not involve blood/violence in the game and the game is easy enough to control.
Overall the demographics for the audience are similar to the star wars audience although it did not fully reach the target audience profile. For example whilst doing my research I came up with quite a few theory’s on the demographic for the star wars battlefront audience, Now I have finally come to a conclusion.
The Target audience profile is a demographic of mostly male players; they are casual players who are aged as young as 14 – 22 years old. Although it can statistically go up to age 35+.
The audience is mostly a lower/middle working class who statically does not have a strong income. For example if the game audience was mostly players who are in a employment, they are more likely going to spend money on a game. Only 60% of my participants have watched the film so this made me think the demographics of the game audience can be similar to the starwars audience profile.
Below you can see that I have created a short, simple presentation which explains my conclusion in a brief way. I Created the presentation so i could use it as a elucidated example. It includes the different notes I found whilst using primary and secondary research and a small, simple conclusion.
Audience Profile Conclusion
When doing the focus group and the questionnaires in task 2 I found out some vital information about star wars battlefronts audience Profile. I am going to do a brief explanation of who the audience is based on my research.The audience profile based off my research;
Age?
The audience profile includes different ages, ranging from teens to adults.
Gender?
Males make up most of the audience. There are more male players than female players.
Highest education level?
Because the audience profile includes players of a various age the highest education level varies as well. In my feedback I had Education levels varying from GCSE to A levels.
Deposit income?
Because most of the audience has some sort of education, a mass majority of them have a job. I decided to ask them was there deposit income was and the least I got was £80 to £600-700. This means that it is more likely for them to buy 'treats' like video games.
NRS social Grade?
The Average Class is C2: Skilled workers. This means that the audience profile for star wars battle front has a special skill, training and knowledge. A skilled worker would have of attended a college, university or technical school.
Geodemographics?
From my feedback I got back that the mass majority of players who all play star wars battle front are from the same location. In my focus group I also found out that they do not think the location of the player will change what game they play. Most of my feedback came back that most of the audience which I profiled are 67% from Manchester and 33% are from Wigan. I think this means that star wars battlefront is spreading in the same location and is becoming really popular, for instance the players said they found out about the game by their friends, this is probably why a huge percentage of one location is part of the audience for star wars battlefront.
Psychographics?
Star wars battlefront audience profile is mostly Mainstream and Explorer. This means that the audience for the game are independent, domestic, individual that has quite a bit of energy and likes adventure. The traits of being independent, domestic and likes adventure is probably why they play this game. Star wars battle front can be quite a competitive game and it is a FPS online game which quickly went popular.