Console research

Alienware

Alienware is an american computer company that works for Dell. It mainly assembles third party components into desktops and laptops with custom enclosures. They also sell rebadged computer peripheralss, such as headsets, computer mice, monitors and keyboards. Their hardware has a distinctive sci-fi style, typically including decorative neon lights inside and outside the computers. Alienware was founded in 1996 by Nelson Gonzalez and Alex Aguila.

Starting in 2002, Dell considered buying alienware, but did not take any action until March 22, 2006, when it agreed to purchase the company. The new subsidiary maintained its autonomy in terms of design and marketing. However, Alienware's access to Dells supply chain, purchasing power, and economies of scale would lower its operating costs.

Alienware sells the very best gaming pc's to date, you can ither buy one set up for you, or you can customise what in your machine. Alienwares have a very nice design with some very cool features and lighting.

 


I tried applying the same bevel idea onto my text which alienware has used on the logo (image above) but I found it didnt look right on are text. Maybe because it was the wrong font, maybe colour, or it just didnt look right for the name.

Name Idea's

Phenom
Phoenix
Game Core

Logo research

This is the kind of style I chose in the end for are logo and poster. Although it is really simple I think it looks really cool and gives a good effect.


This is another logo I liked, I really love the text because I think it looks really cool and stands out well, also with the black background which I've put into my poster design.



Sketches

After doing a few basic sketches I came up with a logo that I liked the most, the bottom left image. I thought of joining the two letters GC together because I thought the 'gamercore' would be too long and I wanted the logo to look similar to the name. I also tried to adapt the core part of the name into the logo by making the inside of the logo glow blue making it look it has some kind of core and power behind it.

 After I had a logo planned out I decided to come up with some poster ideas, as I made the logo glow I thought it would look cool if I adapted that into the text.

 After making this poster I started looking back at my logo and just kept thinking that it didnt look right. So I took a look at some other game company's logos like 'Playstation'.

 After looking at some other logos and companies I decided to go a more basic look since it is just a logo. But I think it looks a lot better this way because the gradient gives a good effect along with the sharp edges, I also think it looks a lot more professional and its easier to see what the letters are compared to before.

So once I made up the new logo I made a new poster. I just simply put the name of the brand in the centre followed by 'powering the future'. I think the text below gives a good effect because it makes it sound like a really big and powerful machine if its going to be powering the future of games, it puts it at the top of everything. I didnt want the poster to have a lot on it because I wanted everything to be focused on the name and logo. So I gave it a black background to make the text stand out, also the text below is going to make people wonder what this new machine is and want to go check it out.

comparing advertising in the 1960's to present

If you compare how coca cola was advertised in the 1960's to now, things would be a lot different. Back in the 1960's they would probably have a really pretty girl holding a bottle of coca cola, or have a huge group of people each holding a bottle all looking happy. They would still advertise on the tv, but back then not everyone would have one, also the colour tv was only just being launched. Nowadays I would say most advertising is done through the internet and tv. There has been loads of campaigns online, and they have made adverts which you can take part in, this is good because it gets your involved with the advert and makes you remember it better.

Also coca cola brought out the famous christmas advert selling there product, which shows the coca cola lorry and father christmas, the lorry has now become an icon which everyone recognises. Also the colour of father christmas (red) was founded by this advert, he used to be green, this just shows how powerful and massive coca cola has become. The tv adverts these days are still going with  the happy theme and how coca cola makes you happy if you drink it.

So compared to the 1960's not much has changed in the way adverts are being shown to people apart from things like campaigns, but I think technology and the internet are playing huge roles on todays advertising.

People these days dont look the same way towards advertising as well as they did in the 1960's.I think this is because, before the 1960's people didnt really have money to spend, and the money they did have was spent on things the needed, like food. But during the 1960's people started getting more and more money and advertising companies noticed this and started to act. Now that people have money to spend, there starting to buy things they want, instead of need. This kind of makes people think there living in a dream world, and nowadays people have just gotten used to fact they can buy things they need, and whenever and advert pops up on the tv, people kind of think 'ugh! great' and switch the channel. I think thiss might be because people have just gotten used to the fact that if they have enough money, they can get it. Also, you can now borrow money from banks, to buy stuff you want, and pay it back, or just slap it on your credit card.

Men and women are used differently in advertising since the 1960's aswell, these days they tend to wear less and less cloths in most adverts and they try to give it a kind of sexual feel to the advert. These days special effects is getting used more and more in adverts, i guess because advertising companies are getting more and more money, so obviously people still pay attension to adverts.

Selling the sixties

America in the 1960's started off with the election of the new president, John Kennedy. For many Americans he represented a spirit of hope for the nation. It was the first time when people actually had spare money to spend, instead of buying stuff they needed they could buy stuff they wanted. Therefore advertising had a big role in the 1960's. Because as people was able to spend there money on different things people started advertising things people would want.

Televisions and colour televisions become more and more popular in the 1960's. This is because more people was able to afford one, and the colour television was launched which attracted the attention of a lot of people.  Advertising companies saw this and started releasing adverts on the TV's so that they could show there products over a wider range. Also sears catalogue came out, this was a catalogue that advertised hundreds of items of a ll sorts.

Products sold -

Products were advertised in magazines, sears catalogue was the main book that sells products. It was like todays argos book, and ranged from hundreds of products. It would have 60 different types of the same product, making people feel like there in some sort of dream world, by giving them a huge variety. The 1960's

what is a brand?

Apple shop


I think the apple shop does really well in drawing people in to the shop because, as the shop is basically one big glass window so that you can see into, it makes people look at it and see what is inside. Also everything you see inside the shop you can use and try out, this makes people want to go in and play on everything. Everything is hands on.

Also you see a big apple logo outside shop indicating that it is an apple shop, although I dont think they really need that because you can tell its an apple shop just by looking at it. By the way everything is white and light shades of grey, all of their products are layed out on some sort of prop to hold them up like a piece of art work. Hinting that there unique and special compared to anything else. This makes people buy them because they want to stand out from everyone else, and be able to say 'look at me, I've got an ipod'.

Apple have made copies of other products, such as computers they made a mac, which is basically a computer but with different buttons and other pointless little things. They made an ipod, which is basically an MP3 player, and they've made an Iphone, which is a phone, but as its got the 'I' before suddenly makes it much more than a phone (to some people). They've done all of this because they want to be different and have there version of something that already exists, but try to make it slightly better so people will buy it and be able to say 'hey look at me i got an I-phone' When really that is just the same as any smart phone out there.


Hmv


Hmv is one of those shops where if you want to buy a dvd, someone will say look in hmv, or I want to buy a game, look in hmv. Hmv sells rather quite a lot, from cd's to games to books and laptops. In a way it's a shop for teenagers who are into games and dvd's or music. Also recently they have started putting latest release games  out on show so that you can play them, this is a good way to draw people into there shop. Also they put all there deals in the window which makes people come into the shop.





Analysing Brands 


Mc Donalds
Mc Donalds was first founded and built in 1940 by the mcdonald brothers Dick and Mac. Ray Kroc became the first franchise appointed by Mac and Dick in San Bernardino, California. In 1955 Ray Kroc opened his first restaurant in Des Plaines, Illnios and the McDonalds corporation was created. By 1959 the 100th Mcdonalds opened in chicago. In 1961 Ray Kroc bought all rights to the McDonalds concept from the McDonald brothers for $2.7 million. In the next four years McDonald restaurants had grown five times more than 1959. In 1964 the filet-o-fish sandwich was introduced, and by 1970 they had a restaurant in every US state, one year later the egg McMuffin sandwich was test marketed in the US as Mcdonalds first breakfast menu item, and McDonalds opened up in Japan, Holland, Australia, Germany, Panama and Guam.

In 1974 the 3000th McDonalds restaurant was opened in woolwich (south east london) in october, the first in the UK. Then one year later the first ever drive through opened. In 1983 the chicken nugget  got released. In 1984 the founder Ray Kroc dies, In 1984 McDonalds is serving 17 million customers a day which at the time is equivalent to serving the entire population of Australia and New Zealand. If McDonalds lined up all the hamburgers sold since 1955, they would circle the equator 103.75 times and reach the moon and back five times.

In 1991 McDonalds were responsible for a serious food poisoning outbreak in preston, when several customers were hospitalised as a result of eating undercooked burgers contaminated by potentially deadly E.coli 0157H bacteria.

Different media is used to communicate with the customer by using things like a website where you can see what they sell, offers, and other things that you might need to know. They could do adverts on the tv, and magazines, or make posters.

I think the meaning of the brand is trying make people happy whoever eats there products, I also think that there target audience is mostly children. Because they have things like happy meals, which are for kids, and they have a lot of meals which are for kids, also you can tell children love eating there because they always get excited about it. Maybe because of the fact that they get a free toy with a happy meal?

Playstation
In 1994 electronics giant sony, enters the highly competitive games console market. Self explanatory name playstation, this 32-bit, cd-based system hit japan in december and faced tough competition from 'the big two' in the from of sega's fundamentall similar saturn, and nintendo's upcoming ultra 64. However, its relatively sleek grey frame, ergonomic controller - not to mention an arcade perfect port of namco's popular arcade driver ridge racer attracted avid games players and started sony computer entertainment on the path to becoming a serious rival to the veterans.

1997 with playstation now firmly established as europes number one console, SCEE started to get really serious. The new year was kicked off with the introduction of the platinum range of budget priced best sellers. April of 1998 saw the launch of the next evolution of the playstation controller: the analog controller, or duelshock as its known by most. This provided scope for superior control in future titles, while the built in vibration function meant that you could now effectively feel the effects of the action on screen. This was later announced the standard controller for the console.

In the year 2000, everyone new that playstation 2 was well on the way and in 2001 - 2002 it got launched selling over 1.68 million units in europe alone. The conbined sales of both machines were now so huge that it was estimated that one out of every five housholds in europe owned a playstation of playstation 2.
 One year later, with people happily playing the playstation 2, sony wanted people to play eachother without having a large scale sleepover. The network adapter, releashed across europe between june and october, offered slightly more practical solution, allowing gamers to connect their PS2 to a broadband connection and play a host of compatible titles against players across the rest of the continent.

After playstations first successful decade, the arrival of the playstation 3 was being brought out in 2006, it promises to herald a new revolution in home entertainment bringing with it the most powerful technologies we've ever ever seen in a computer entertainment system.

I think the audience for the playstation would be from children to adults. Because people who are interested in games would obviously use this. But they have now got the playstation move, which is basically sony's version of the WII so that extends its audience quite a lot because it would encourage other people to play the playstation. 

Documentary Review

The documentary was about the history of comics and what its been through since it first started. The program was called Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked.

I thought the documentary was actually really interesting and thats coming from someone who doesn't have an interest in comics.
I think the reason for this, is that I didn't realise how old comics actually are, and the history behind them over the last few years. Also I didn't realise how old superman is, and other super heroes like batman. In-fact superman was the very first superhero in a comic which I thought was pretty interesting, since these days, you don't really here much of him (in my opinion). He starred in a film not so long ago, but from what I heard it wasn't very good. I think batman is a lot better.

I thought that the documentary explained the history of comics really well and it was easy to understand. I was really quite surprised that comics were first formed by fairly poor people with no jobs, and now most of the people at the beginning of the comic history became millionaires. I think they were surprised how well comic books would actually do. That is why they have lasted so many years. Also I think the stories they wrote in there comics about world war two made a big influence on the public and the people in the army at the time, because it showed american people fighting hitler and winning the war, but also showed in a funny way. This could of made the people feel a lot better about the war.

I think when the rules came in for what comics were allowed in the stories was really wrong. I think the comics should be allowed whatever they want in them, but they should make there comic style based  upon there readers and what age. Then this would determine the things they could write and put in it. Or maybe put on the front and age, or parental guidance like a DVD does.

I do think though, that comics on paper will eventually die out now that everything in becoming digital, of course you will get the odd collectors who will want the paper version. But it will become easier for people to read them on there computer. But the thing that wont die out is the characters that have been in the comics such as, Batman, Spiderman, Hulk, Superman. These characters will live on for years and they will continue to make films with these people. Maybe with the decreasing numbers in comic readers, people may eventually not know who these characters are, but they will still live on.

Representing other cultures in comic and video games

Idea's


I'm thinking of making a new assassin's creed character, but with a different setting, not in Rome, Venice or Acre like the last games. I'm thinking of making it set in the viking period of Norway and Denmark; or maybe around the tudor period set in england around london. It will follow the same story as other assassin's creed games, conflict between assassin's and templars and finding the pieces of eden, or, finding a new important artefact.

If i set it in the viking period, I could make one of the old viking kings a templar which you have to assassinate, or maybe a viking god in human form? (Odin). The tudor setting would be similar, I could make Henry the 8th a templar, bloody mary, or, I could make a point in the storyline where you meet guyfawks and assist him in trying to blow up the houses of parliament ( because they are templars, maybe?). But instead of making him get captured, change it around so that it actually does blow up. I could have the character meet famous people in history, jack the ripper? I could have the black plague involved maybe.

If i want to do the tudors and the time of Guy Fawkes I would have to have it set between 1570 and 1606 since this is when Guy Fawkes was born and died. So I could make King James 1st involved in the story because he was born in 1566 and died 1625. His reign was 1567 - 1625. Also some point in Guy Fawkes's life, he met someone who tried to kill King James 1st. So maybe I could make this all involved in the story and have my character try and assassinate King James, because he is a templar maybe.

I think as a background for my character he should of been quite good friends with Guy Fawkes and took part in the 'Eighty Years War'  against Philip 2 of spain. Then he comes back to england with Guy Fawkes to assist with him trying to blow up the houses of parliament. But I'm not sure whether to have guy fawkes die during this, or to live and change history. Whether he lives or dies, my character wont die during this. I think if guy fawkes dies, that would mean that the houses of parliament wouldn't get blown up. so, maybe my character could continue to try and eliminate parliament.

Timeline - information from wikipedia

• 1600
  • January - In Ireland, Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone renews the Nine Years' War against England with an invasion of Munster.^[1]
  • 31 December - East India Company granted a Royal Charter.^[2]
  • Publication of Ben Jonson's play Every Man Out of His Humour.^[1]
  • First publication of William Shakespeare's plays The Merchant of Venice and A Midsummer Night's Dream.^[1]
  • William Gilbert publishes De Magnete, discussing Earth's magnetic field, one of the first important scientific works to be published in England.
• 1601
  • 7 January–8 January - Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex stages a short-lived rebellion against Elizabeth I.^[1]
  • 25 February - Essex executed for treason.^[1]
  • Spring - Possible first performance of Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet.^[2][3]
  • 2 October–3 January 1602 - The Siege of Kinsale ends the rebellion in Ireland.^[1]
  • November - Elizabeth I addresses her final parliament with the Golden Speech.^[1]
  • An Act for the Relief of the Poor codifies the English Poor Laws.
• 1602
  • 2 February (Candlemas night) - First recorded performance of Shakespeare's comedy Twelfth Night, in Middle Temple Hall, London.^[4]
  • 8 November - The Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford is opened.^[2]
  • Publication of Shakespeare's comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor.
  • Richard Carew publishes The Survey of Cornwall.^[2]

King James I of England/VI of Scotland, the first monarch to rule the Kingdoms of England and Scotland at the same time

• 1603
  • 24 March - Queen Elizabeth I dies and is succeeded by her cousin King James VI of Scotland, thus uniting the crowns of Scotland and England.^[5]
  • 30 March - In Ireland, the Earl of Tyrone surrenders to the English.^[1]
  • April - Thomas Cartwright delivers his Millenary Petition, demanding an end to ritualistic practices, and signed by 1,000 Puritan ministers, to the King.^[2]
  • 28 April - Funeral of Elizabeth I in Westminster Abbey.
  • 17 July - Sir Walter Ralegh arrested for treason.^[5]
  • 21 July - Thomas Howard created the 1st Earl of Suffolk.^[6]
  • 25 July - Coronation of James I.^[5]
  • 17 November - Ralegh goes on trial for treason in the converted Great Hall of Winchester Castle.^[5]
• 1604
  • 14 January to 16 January - Hampton Court Conference with James I, the Anglican bishops and representatives of Puritans. Work begins on theAuthorized King James Version of the Bible.^[2]
  • 19 March - Parliament assembles and debates Robert Cecil's proposal for union with Scotland.^[6]
  • 20 June - The Form of Apology and Satisfaction is read out in the House of Commons to justify the conduct of Parliament following a dispute between King and Parliament over a contested election in Buckinghamshire.^[6]
  • 18 August - The Treaty of London brings an end to the Anglo–Spanish War, an intermittent conflict which has been going on since 1585.^[7]
  • 7 July - Parliament prorogued.^[6]
  • 20 October - King James assumes the style king of Great Britain.^[8]
  • November - Richard Bancroft enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury.
  • 1 November (Hallowmas day) - First recorded performance of Shakespeare's tragedy Othello, at Whitehall Palace in London.
  • Christopher Marlowe's play The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus published.
  • Table Alphabeticall, the first known English dictionary to be organised by alphabetical ordering, is published.
  • Peter Blundell founds Blundell's School in Tiverton, Devon.
• 1605
  • 5 November - Gunpowder Plot: A plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament is foiled when Sir Thomas Knyvet, a justice of the peace, finds Guy Fawkes in a cellar below the Parliament building and orders a search of the area, finding 36 barrels of gunpowder. Fawkes is arrested for trying to kill King James I and the members who were scheduled to sit together in Parliament the next day. Guy Fawkes spoke the legendary words: "Remember, remember, the Fifth of November".^[1][9]
  • 8 November - Gunpowder Plot conspirator Robert Catesby shot while plotters are being arrested at Holbeche House in the west midlands.^[2]
  • Publication of Francis Bacon's treatise The Advancement of Learning.

1606

• 31 January - Fawkes and his co-plotters are executed by hanging, drawing and quartering.^[1]
• 10 April - The London Company is granted a Royal Charter to encourage colonisation in Virginia.^[2]
• 12 April - First version of the Union Flag created.^[5]
• May - Severe penalties are imposed for Catholic recusancy, and for refusal to take an Oath of Allegiance to James to serve in public office, by An Act for the better discovering and repressing of popish recusants (proclaimed law 22 June).^[2]
• 27 May - Second session of Parliament under King James prorogued.^[6]
• August (approx.) - Possible first performance of Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth.^[2][10]
• 18 November - Third session of Parliament begins.^[6]
• 26 December (St. Stephen's night) - First recorded performance of Shakespeare's tragedy King Lear, before the King at Whitehall.^[10

There is a few things I could take out of this timeline and involve it in my story like, I could have my character attend one of Shakespeare's plays to assassinate someone. Or when elizabeth addresses her final parliament with the golden speech, my character could attend this to get information or another assassination. Or when elizabeth dies, that could be caused by my character.

Clothing at the time

As you can se from these images everyone wears kind of big hats, the look like cowboy hats. They also wear capes and things around there necks. The guards carry swords  and there is gunpowder involved so it gives me a rough idea of what weapons i can give my character. The men tend to all have facial hair so this is also given me an idea of what my character can look like. In the top image the men are all wearing some form of boots. Some of the people are wearing tights, and others are wearing baggy sort of trousers.

Religion-information from wikipedia

The pope in 1570 declared Elizabeth a heretic who was not the legitimate Queen and her subjects no longer owed her obedience. The pope sent Jesuits and seminarians to secretly evangelize and support Catholics. After several plots to overthrow her, Catholic clergy were mostly considered to be traitors, and were pursued aggressively in England. Often priests were tortured or executed after capture unless they cooperated with the English authorities. Persons who publicly supported Catholicism were excluded from the professions, sometimes fined or imprisoned.

Battles between Protestant and catholic. 

The Gunpowder Plot, the third Catholic conspiracy against his person in three years, forced James to reconsider his tolerant policy towards English Catholics; and for a while he sanctioned stricter measures to control them. In May 1606, Parliament passed an act which could require any citizen to c ntake an Oath of Allegiance, entailing a denial of the pope's authority over the king. 

picture of london in the 16th century.

From what I've read, guns changed the way of warfare in the 16th century. The early guns were lit by a slow match, which would then touch the gunpowder to ignite it. But in the 16th century a wheelock was invented. It was a metal wheel spun against a piece of iron pyrites generating sparks that ignited the gunpowder. Most cavalry stopped using lances, instead they carried two or three pistols each, ready to fire, and sabres. 


apparently in england at the time, they were still using longbows more than guns, but handguns were increasingly used. Muskets took a long time to reload and during that time the infantry needed protection from cavalry, they were protected by men with pikes.


Forts and towns at the time had something called bastions. It was triangular sections of wall that jutted out from the rest of the wall. This provided flanking fire at soldiers approaching the sides. 


Solid cannon balls, called shots, were useful for firing at walls during sieges and for firing at enemy ships. But to kill soldiers or sailers canister or case shot was used. That was a container filled with sharp stones or pieces of metal. When this fired the container burst and sprayed over the enemy.

Comic

The comic book i have chosen is 'Assassins Creed The Fall' the reason I have chosen this is because I was a really big fan of the Assassins creed games and was interested that they have released a comic. Although the comic is not set at the same time. The comic follows the journey of the russian Assassin Nikolai Orelov during the 1810 and later the early 20th century Russia. Nikolai's genetic memories are being experienced by his descendant, Daniel Cross in 1998.

The series is written by and created by Cameron Stewart and Karl Kerschl, the new comic book series was initially going to be an expansion of the travels of Ezio Auditore da Firenze,  from assassins creed 2 game, But was moved to an entirely new setting to provide greater freedom to the writers. However the stroy still follows the battle between Templars and Assassins.

The comic was released on November 10th 2010 a few days before the release of Assassins Creed Brotherhood.

Writer: Cameron Stewart, Karl Kerschl
Artists: Cameron Stewart, Karl Kerschl
Colorist: Nadine Thomas
Editors: Studio Lounak's, serge Lapointe

Information about the artists


Cameron Stewart:

Stewart is a Canadian Writer and artist in comics, best known for his work on Catwoman and also Batman and robin, seaguy and seven soldiers: The manhattan guardian, and the other side.

Interview: http://mindlessones.com/2009/04/09/13-questions-with-cameron-stewart/

Karl Kerschl:

karl was born in Toronto and attended the Ontario College of Art for a year before deciding to practice by himself, discovering and improving his techniques on story telling and drawing styles.
ON June  20, 2007 Kerschl began the webcomic The Abominable Charles Christopher as part of the transmission X comics collective.

Link to interview: http://www.comicfoundry.com/index.php/wfsection/article.php?articleid=166


Inspiration 


Inspiration for the comic came from the book The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon. The main character is brainwashed by the Communist party to act as their sleeper agent, acting on their orders whnever he sees the queen of diamonds playing card. In The fall, Abstergo programmed Daniel Cross to kill the mentor when in the opportune moment. The next installment, Assassins Creed: The Chain will continue the stories of Daniel Cross and Nikolai Orelev.

Pictures of the comic:

I think the work is very interesting and I really like how they have kept the style of the way the Assassin looks. It allows the reader to instantly know who the assassin is ( if they are familiar with Assassins Creed). I also like the fact that they have continued the story with assassins creed because, I really like the games and was a little sad that there slowly coming to an end. Maybe now that they have released another story line they may continue to make the games. Although I don't really like the fact its set in Russia, but you could tell it was an Assassins Creed comic just by looking at it.

I like the colours used in comic, like the original colours for the assassin, the image on the right almost makes it look a little japanese by the colours and the way they've drawn the image. I like on the front cover how they've kept the original colours from the games like red, black and white. I think these colours symbolise Assassins Creed. Again I like in the front cover that the assassin is shown on a rooftop, on what seems like a holy spot. It makes it look like the assassins creed games where you would ofton have to clim to 'view points' to get a clear surrounding of  the area.