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I thought some of you may be interested in this piece of University work done as part of my Cultural Geography module at Nottingham Trent. I've edited it around to make it viewable here, so no pictures !
Basically it looks at the Gamecube as a cultural item, why it is what it is. The original essay scored 80%, putting it well within the First Class degree mark. It was written last Christmas so it is slightly out of date, but most of it still holds true.
See, videogames are educational :)
Here it is;
The Nintendo Gamecube is one of three games consoles currently available across Europe, Asia and America. Its sole function is to allow consumers to play console games. The Gamecube was created by Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan but it is marketed and has games created for it in all three of the main territories it is distributed in. First announced in 1999 in Japan, the Gamecube launched in Japan & parts of Asia on "May 16th, 2001", America & Canada on November 18th and Europe on May 3rd 2002. The launch came as the Global sales of video games look set to increase 12% for 2002 to $31bn (£20.6bn), according to a report by research firm Informa Media Group. In America Nintendo sold $100m (£70m) worth of Gamecube products on its first day on the market, the company has said, and prior to the UK launch of the console 25,000 people in the UK had placed orders for Nintendo's new computer game console. However, as well as being a games console, the Nintendo Gamecube is a cultural object. Five major cultural processes - Representation, Identity, Production, Consumption and Regulation - can be used to study any object as a cultural item. By looking at these five processes it will become clear how the Gamecube is more than just a console; that it is a complex object with assorted meanings, effects, nuances and impacts on the console industry as a whole. The five processes form a cycle of culture, each one impacts on the other which impacts on another and so on, as such I have chosen to look at how the Gamecube can be looked at on each point of this cycle, beginning with Production.
The Production of the Gamecube involves it's origins, facts that have come to be associated with it, where it is produced, and what that means. The Nintendo Gamecube project was officially announced in 1999 and incorporates components made by Japanese and American companies such as IBM, ATI (American Technologies Incorporated), Dolby Sound Systems, and Nintendo of course. Unlike its rivals - Microsoft and Sony - Nintendo only produces the Gamecube in Japan. This gives the impression that it is a high quality product, especially as Japan is considered a place of high technology. Microsoft manufactures it's rival Xbox console in Hungary and Mexico, whilst Sony produces its Playstation 2 console in China. The Nintendo company has a long proud history of entertainment products. It began in 1889 when Fusajiro Yamauchi, the great-grandfather of the present president, began manufacturing "Hanafuda," Japanese playing cards, in Kyoto and continued to do so until after the Second World War, With Japan's economy devastated, Nintendo survived and in 1977 Nintendo developed home-use video games. The Gamecube is the latest console from Nintendo. Whilst not all consumers are familiar with this history, many have grown up with Nintendo games, and Nintendo's use of mascots like Mario, Zelda and Fox McCloud means it always enjoys a wide appeal.
In fact the first person in the UK to buy a Nintendo Gamecube was a 19-year-old woman...the stereotype of a games player as a spotty, teenaged boy with a shallow pallor and an aversion to exercise had been broken. The female audience is especially valued as Nintendo's rivals ignore it, and this means it is the kind of customer all the key manufacturers are chasing. Nintendo has created an image which means many now consider it the 'Japanese Disney' - a brand with products that appeal across the world to consumers with widely different backgrounds and ages.
The way in which the Nintendo Gamecube is represented is primarily through advertising, visual appearance & design, and some alternative representations. Nintendo has been keen to market the Gamecube as a toy for all ages. It is immediately apparent that the purple colour, and choice of a rare black versions, is different from its competition. The actual design of the Gamecube reinforces the feeling of simplicity most toys share; the parts that plug into the Gamecube such as AC Adaptor, controller, and scart connector, all have differently shaped sockets so that there is no way the wrong item can be plugged into the wrong socket, the console itself has no sharp edges or obtruding parts apart from the carry handle, the controller lead has a quick release feature - often people sit back from the television when playing and it's common for someone to trip over the lead from the controller to the console. If someone does this with the Gamecube the lead ejects without any harm being done. In addition, unlike its rivals the Xbox and Playstation 2, the Nintendo Gamecube only plays games. The design has been described by Nintendo as Small, cute and desirable. This, along with the idea that the Gamecube is a toy, has led to unwanted representations, though in context these have mainly been in Xbox and Playstation 2 publications. The idea has always been that Nintendo - with its Disney image - has just targeted younger consumers, but Nintendo's director has said that We believe gaming is an attitude not an age. We want to make sure our games appeal to all ages. This has proved successful, Super Mario Sunshine, one of Nintendo Gamecube's most anticipated games made by Nintendo outsold the violent Hitman 2 and Unreal Tournament 2003 from other formats on it's release, and continues to do so. This strategy is reflected in other adverts: they are all fun, bright, clean, simple adverts, with the Nintendo Gamecube catchphrases 'Gaming 24:7' and 'Life's A Game'. Nintendo's strategy seems to be working too, as the first console was sold to a woman - a previously unthinkable occurrence for traditionally male gamers! The Nintendo Gamecube has broken the traditional representations of what a console is and who should play it.
Different Identities are associated with the Gamecube; that of the Nintendo company, the consumers and associated identities. Nintendo's success with the Gameboy brand - the only surviving handheld console in the world - and it's long history of consoles compared to Sony and Microsoft, combined with it's ethos that gaming is about fun and not limited by age, has meant that increasingly more and more gamers see it as different to its rivals which have an image problem because of being multinational corporations. This is because of the negative way multinationals are seen by many, whereas Nintendo, like Disney, has escaped such criticism. It is also the only company that just concentrates on gaming. This gives Nintendo an identity that seems committed to more than just profit, but also to games and their products. Nintendo's quality record with the Nintendo Gamecube has been exceptional, with no reports or complaints regarding any problems with Nintendo Gamecube in the UK as of October. Consumers for the Gamecube are hard to clearly identify. A survey by the European Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) has found that the average age of the keenest players is gradually edging upwards…that the largest game-playing group is actually aged between 25 and 34…and that women are starting to be a significant proportion of gamers. Whilst Nintendo does hold a universal appeal, the types of people identified by ELSPA are the ones any company wants to buy it's products as they are most likely to be able to afford the games for a console regularly. Like the PC, the CD player, and the mobile phone, the Gamecube offers something for nearly anyone willing to try it; as such the identity of those who do is wide and varied.
The Consumption of the Nintendo Gamecube raises multiple questions, mainly the significance of its usage, the social relations it effects, forms and implies, the value of it as a product, and its cultural effects. By making games such as Super Mario Sunshine, Luigi's Mansion, Super Smash Bros Melee, NBA Courtside, Wave Race Bluestorm, Star Wars Rogue Leader, Pikmin e.t.c which Nintendo considers fun, only one of the Nintendo Gamecube's games has been rated for adults, Nintendo is promoting the Gamecube as a fun item whose sole use is games. Nintendo are also encouraging multiplayer gaming where people play against each other or as a team. This tries to make gaming a fun activity shared with others, not just something a person does by themselves. By itself it functions well, but the expansion slots on it's base shows consumers they are buying an upgradeable piece of technology. Other peripherals can also be purchased to add to the Gamecube experience. These all add new functionality to the Nintendo Gamecube. Another long term idea Nintendo have is that people who have a Nintendo Gameboy Advance will be able to connect it to the Nintendo Gamecube to unlock new features in games. This all adds to the appearance of the Nintendo Gamecube as a new, high tech, value for money entertainment product. Pricewise, the Gamecube is competitive- it retails at £129.99 compared to £159.99 for Microsoft's Xbox and £169.99 for Sony's Playstation 2. This is also an important factor in terms of consumption because Nintendo has the lowest price tag of the three. As an item of consumption the Nintendo Gamecube is still a non essential luxury, none of us 'need' it, but it is a desirable item to many different groups of people.
The Gamecube is Regulated in various ways. This is most obvious in the media the Nintendo Gamecube uses for games. Each game is stored on a 3" optical disc, which holds up to 1.5GB (Gigabytes) of information. These discs are unique to the Gamecube, Sony and Microsoft both use standard CD size DVD discs. These are easily obtainable and this has led to massive software piracy costing $4.5 billon a year, and $1 billion in tax revenues were also lost last year. The Nintendo optical discs are expensive - "equivalent to $50 each retail" to manufacture and make piracy virtually unprofitable. Nintendo Gamecube software piracy is virtually non existent.
The Gamecube has broken traditional cultural boundaries in gaming by having a wide appeal and attracting more females to play games, almost deregulating gaming to some extent. A new group, Women Gamers, started on the internet, at www.womengamers.com, and has a growing community of female and male gamers. The emphasis Nintendo put on the Gamecube being a fun 'toy' means that the console, and gaming as a whole, is beginning to be less stereotyped - gaming is being taken seriously. Whilst the Gamecube is still very much a private use object, Nintendo is encouraging gaming to be a more family orientated activity by offering widely appealing games and easy multiplayer facilities on the Gamecube. This makes gaming less of a private activity than it used to be. The Nintendo Gamecube has, unlike its rivals, tried to make gaming a shared experience and to break traditional boundaries and preconceptions that existed in the console industry, perhaps more importantly Nintendo have shown that Lara Croft isn't the only female in the console industry.
With Christmas approaching, a vital time is approaching for Nintendo. Why? This is the first year that three similar consoles will all be on sale simultaneously, Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft, are set to battle it out in what is been dubbed the war of the consoles…it's definitely a great thing for the consumer. Clearly the Nintendo Gamecube is an important contemporary cultural object as the console industry continues to grow in size and popularity. Significantly it is marketed as an item that could appeal to both genders and a wide age range. If Nintendo is successful this Christmas, with fun, widely appealing and bright games, then it has important cultural ramifications for those who make games for the consoles, as it will mark a shift away from increasingly violent games like Max Payne and Resident Evil .
Basically it looks at the Gamecube as a cultural item, why it is what it is. The original essay scored 80%, putting it well within the First Class degree mark. It was written last Christmas so it is slightly out of date, but most of it still holds true.
See, videogames are educational :)
Here it is;
The Nintendo Gamecube is one of three games consoles currently available across Europe, Asia and America. Its sole function is to allow consumers to play console games. The Gamecube was created by Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan but it is marketed and has games created for it in all three of the main territories it is distributed in. First announced in 1999 in Japan, the Gamecube launched in Japan & parts of Asia on "May 16th, 2001", America & Canada on November 18th and Europe on May 3rd 2002. The launch came as the Global sales of video games look set to increase 12% for 2002 to $31bn (£20.6bn), according to a report by research firm Informa Media Group. In America Nintendo sold $100m (£70m) worth of Gamecube products on its first day on the market, the company has said, and prior to the UK launch of the console 25,000 people in the UK had placed orders for Nintendo's new computer game console. However, as well as being a games console, the Nintendo Gamecube is a cultural object. Five major cultural processes - Representation, Identity, Production, Consumption and Regulation - can be used to study any object as a cultural item. By looking at these five processes it will become clear how the Gamecube is more than just a console; that it is a complex object with assorted meanings, effects, nuances and impacts on the console industry as a whole. The five processes form a cycle of culture, each one impacts on the other which impacts on another and so on, as such I have chosen to look at how the Gamecube can be looked at on each point of this cycle, beginning with Production.
The Production of the Gamecube involves it's origins, facts that have come to be associated with it, where it is produced, and what that means. The Nintendo Gamecube project was officially announced in 1999 and incorporates components made by Japanese and American companies such as IBM, ATI (American Technologies Incorporated), Dolby Sound Systems, and Nintendo of course. Unlike its rivals - Microsoft and Sony - Nintendo only produces the Gamecube in Japan. This gives the impression that it is a high quality product, especially as Japan is considered a place of high technology. Microsoft manufactures it's rival Xbox console in Hungary and Mexico, whilst Sony produces its Playstation 2 console in China. The Nintendo company has a long proud history of entertainment products. It began in 1889 when Fusajiro Yamauchi, the great-grandfather of the present president, began manufacturing "Hanafuda," Japanese playing cards, in Kyoto and continued to do so until after the Second World War, With Japan's economy devastated, Nintendo survived and in 1977 Nintendo developed home-use video games. The Gamecube is the latest console from Nintendo. Whilst not all consumers are familiar with this history, many have grown up with Nintendo games, and Nintendo's use of mascots like Mario, Zelda and Fox McCloud means it always enjoys a wide appeal.
In fact the first person in the UK to buy a Nintendo Gamecube was a 19-year-old woman...the stereotype of a games player as a spotty, teenaged boy with a shallow pallor and an aversion to exercise had been broken. The female audience is especially valued as Nintendo's rivals ignore it, and this means it is the kind of customer all the key manufacturers are chasing. Nintendo has created an image which means many now consider it the 'Japanese Disney' - a brand with products that appeal across the world to consumers with widely different backgrounds and ages.
The way in which the Nintendo Gamecube is represented is primarily through advertising, visual appearance & design, and some alternative representations. Nintendo has been keen to market the Gamecube as a toy for all ages. It is immediately apparent that the purple colour, and choice of a rare black versions, is different from its competition. The actual design of the Gamecube reinforces the feeling of simplicity most toys share; the parts that plug into the Gamecube such as AC Adaptor, controller, and scart connector, all have differently shaped sockets so that there is no way the wrong item can be plugged into the wrong socket, the console itself has no sharp edges or obtruding parts apart from the carry handle, the controller lead has a quick release feature - often people sit back from the television when playing and it's common for someone to trip over the lead from the controller to the console. If someone does this with the Gamecube the lead ejects without any harm being done. In addition, unlike its rivals the Xbox and Playstation 2, the Nintendo Gamecube only plays games. The design has been described by Nintendo as Small, cute and desirable. This, along with the idea that the Gamecube is a toy, has led to unwanted representations, though in context these have mainly been in Xbox and Playstation 2 publications. The idea has always been that Nintendo - with its Disney image - has just targeted younger consumers, but Nintendo's director has said that We believe gaming is an attitude not an age. We want to make sure our games appeal to all ages. This has proved successful, Super Mario Sunshine, one of Nintendo Gamecube's most anticipated games made by Nintendo outsold the violent Hitman 2 and Unreal Tournament 2003 from other formats on it's release, and continues to do so. This strategy is reflected in other adverts: they are all fun, bright, clean, simple adverts, with the Nintendo Gamecube catchphrases 'Gaming 24:7' and 'Life's A Game'. Nintendo's strategy seems to be working too, as the first console was sold to a woman - a previously unthinkable occurrence for traditionally male gamers! The Nintendo Gamecube has broken the traditional representations of what a console is and who should play it.
Different Identities are associated with the Gamecube; that of the Nintendo company, the consumers and associated identities. Nintendo's success with the Gameboy brand - the only surviving handheld console in the world - and it's long history of consoles compared to Sony and Microsoft, combined with it's ethos that gaming is about fun and not limited by age, has meant that increasingly more and more gamers see it as different to its rivals which have an image problem because of being multinational corporations. This is because of the negative way multinationals are seen by many, whereas Nintendo, like Disney, has escaped such criticism. It is also the only company that just concentrates on gaming. This gives Nintendo an identity that seems committed to more than just profit, but also to games and their products. Nintendo's quality record with the Nintendo Gamecube has been exceptional, with no reports or complaints regarding any problems with Nintendo Gamecube in the UK as of October. Consumers for the Gamecube are hard to clearly identify. A survey by the European Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) has found that the average age of the keenest players is gradually edging upwards…that the largest game-playing group is actually aged between 25 and 34…and that women are starting to be a significant proportion of gamers. Whilst Nintendo does hold a universal appeal, the types of people identified by ELSPA are the ones any company wants to buy it's products as they are most likely to be able to afford the games for a console regularly. Like the PC, the CD player, and the mobile phone, the Gamecube offers something for nearly anyone willing to try it; as such the identity of those who do is wide and varied.
The Consumption of the Nintendo Gamecube raises multiple questions, mainly the significance of its usage, the social relations it effects, forms and implies, the value of it as a product, and its cultural effects. By making games such as Super Mario Sunshine, Luigi's Mansion, Super Smash Bros Melee, NBA Courtside, Wave Race Bluestorm, Star Wars Rogue Leader, Pikmin e.t.c which Nintendo considers fun, only one of the Nintendo Gamecube's games has been rated for adults, Nintendo is promoting the Gamecube as a fun item whose sole use is games. Nintendo are also encouraging multiplayer gaming where people play against each other or as a team. This tries to make gaming a fun activity shared with others, not just something a person does by themselves. By itself it functions well, but the expansion slots on it's base shows consumers they are buying an upgradeable piece of technology. Other peripherals can also be purchased to add to the Gamecube experience. These all add new functionality to the Nintendo Gamecube. Another long term idea Nintendo have is that people who have a Nintendo Gameboy Advance will be able to connect it to the Nintendo Gamecube to unlock new features in games. This all adds to the appearance of the Nintendo Gamecube as a new, high tech, value for money entertainment product. Pricewise, the Gamecube is competitive- it retails at £129.99 compared to £159.99 for Microsoft's Xbox and £169.99 for Sony's Playstation 2. This is also an important factor in terms of consumption because Nintendo has the lowest price tag of the three. As an item of consumption the Nintendo Gamecube is still a non essential luxury, none of us 'need' it, but it is a desirable item to many different groups of people.
The Gamecube is Regulated in various ways. This is most obvious in the media the Nintendo Gamecube uses for games. Each game is stored on a 3" optical disc, which holds up to 1.5GB (Gigabytes) of information. These discs are unique to the Gamecube, Sony and Microsoft both use standard CD size DVD discs. These are easily obtainable and this has led to massive software piracy costing $4.5 billon a year, and $1 billion in tax revenues were also lost last year. The Nintendo optical discs are expensive - "equivalent to $50 each retail" to manufacture and make piracy virtually unprofitable. Nintendo Gamecube software piracy is virtually non existent.
The Gamecube has broken traditional cultural boundaries in gaming by having a wide appeal and attracting more females to play games, almost deregulating gaming to some extent. A new group, Women Gamers, started on the internet, at www.womengamers.com, and has a growing community of female and male gamers. The emphasis Nintendo put on the Gamecube being a fun 'toy' means that the console, and gaming as a whole, is beginning to be less stereotyped - gaming is being taken seriously. Whilst the Gamecube is still very much a private use object, Nintendo is encouraging gaming to be a more family orientated activity by offering widely appealing games and easy multiplayer facilities on the Gamecube. This makes gaming less of a private activity than it used to be. The Nintendo Gamecube has, unlike its rivals, tried to make gaming a shared experience and to break traditional boundaries and preconceptions that existed in the console industry, perhaps more importantly Nintendo have shown that Lara Croft isn't the only female in the console industry.
With Christmas approaching, a vital time is approaching for Nintendo. Why? This is the first year that three similar consoles will all be on sale simultaneously, Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft, are set to battle it out in what is been dubbed the war of the consoles…it's definitely a great thing for the consumer. Clearly the Nintendo Gamecube is an important contemporary cultural object as the console industry continues to grow in size and popularity. Significantly it is marketed as an item that could appeal to both genders and a wide age range. If Nintendo is successful this Christmas, with fun, widely appealing and bright games, then it has important cultural ramifications for those who make games for the consoles, as it will mark a shift away from increasingly violent games like Max Payne and Resident Evil .
thankyou for telling me stuff i already know
RM18 wrote:
> As a gamer, I think that was a well-written, informative post, but as
> a university student has absolutely no window of opportunity to write
> about anything remotely interesting as Gamecube, I hate you.
>
> :D
Lol :) Get this, my dissertation is about representation and the cultural production of Videogames :)
> As a gamer, I think that was a well-written, informative post, but as
> a university student has absolutely no window of opportunity to write
> about anything remotely interesting as Gamecube, I hate you.
>
> :D
Lol :) Get this, my dissertation is about representation and the cultural production of Videogames :)
I did actually also mean to say that it was very good.
Your just showing off that you have the brains to write a post over 100 words long.
I know who Hedfix wants to be when he grows up...
I know who Hedfix wants to be when he grows up...
I could have done that...really I could...
As a gamer, I think that was a well-written, informative post, but as a university student has absolutely no window of opportunity to write about anything remotely interesting as Gamecube, I hate you.
:D
:D
I thought some of you may be interested in this piece of University work done as part of my Cultural Geography module at Nottingham Trent. I've edited it around to make it viewable here, so no pictures !
Basically it looks at the Gamecube as a cultural item, why it is what it is. The original essay scored 80%, putting it well within the First Class degree mark. It was written last Christmas so it is slightly out of date, but most of it still holds true.
See, videogames are educational :)
Here it is;
The Nintendo Gamecube is one of three games consoles currently available across Europe, Asia and America. Its sole function is to allow consumers to play console games. The Gamecube was created by Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan but it is marketed and has games created for it in all three of the main territories it is distributed in. First announced in 1999 in Japan, the Gamecube launched in Japan & parts of Asia on "May 16th, 2001", America & Canada on November 18th and Europe on May 3rd 2002. The launch came as the Global sales of video games look set to increase 12% for 2002 to $31bn (£20.6bn), according to a report by research firm Informa Media Group. In America Nintendo sold $100m (£70m) worth of Gamecube products on its first day on the market, the company has said, and prior to the UK launch of the console 25,000 people in the UK had placed orders for Nintendo's new computer game console. However, as well as being a games console, the Nintendo Gamecube is a cultural object. Five major cultural processes - Representation, Identity, Production, Consumption and Regulation - can be used to study any object as a cultural item. By looking at these five processes it will become clear how the Gamecube is more than just a console; that it is a complex object with assorted meanings, effects, nuances and impacts on the console industry as a whole. The five processes form a cycle of culture, each one impacts on the other which impacts on another and so on, as such I have chosen to look at how the Gamecube can be looked at on each point of this cycle, beginning with Production.
The Production of the Gamecube involves it's origins, facts that have come to be associated with it, where it is produced, and what that means. The Nintendo Gamecube project was officially announced in 1999 and incorporates components made by Japanese and American companies such as IBM, ATI (American Technologies Incorporated), Dolby Sound Systems, and Nintendo of course. Unlike its rivals - Microsoft and Sony - Nintendo only produces the Gamecube in Japan. This gives the impression that it is a high quality product, especially as Japan is considered a place of high technology. Microsoft manufactures it's rival Xbox console in Hungary and Mexico, whilst Sony produces its Playstation 2 console in China. The Nintendo company has a long proud history of entertainment products. It began in 1889 when Fusajiro Yamauchi, the great-grandfather of the present president, began manufacturing "Hanafuda," Japanese playing cards, in Kyoto and continued to do so until after the Second World War, With Japan's economy devastated, Nintendo survived and in 1977 Nintendo developed home-use video games. The Gamecube is the latest console from Nintendo. Whilst not all consumers are familiar with this history, many have grown up with Nintendo games, and Nintendo's use of mascots like Mario, Zelda and Fox McCloud means it always enjoys a wide appeal.
In fact the first person in the UK to buy a Nintendo Gamecube was a 19-year-old woman...the stereotype of a games player as a spotty, teenaged boy with a shallow pallor and an aversion to exercise had been broken. The female audience is especially valued as Nintendo's rivals ignore it, and this means it is the kind of customer all the key manufacturers are chasing. Nintendo has created an image which means many now consider it the 'Japanese Disney' - a brand with products that appeal across the world to consumers with widely different backgrounds and ages.
The way in which the Nintendo Gamecube is represented is primarily through advertising, visual appearance & design, and some alternative representations. Nintendo has been keen to market the Gamecube as a toy for all ages. It is immediately apparent that the purple colour, and choice of a rare black versions, is different from its competition. The actual design of the Gamecube reinforces the feeling of simplicity most toys share; the parts that plug into the Gamecube such as AC Adaptor, controller, and scart connector, all have differently shaped sockets so that there is no way the wrong item can be plugged into the wrong socket, the console itself has no sharp edges or obtruding parts apart from the carry handle, the controller lead has a quick release feature - often people sit back from the television when playing and it's common for someone to trip over the lead from the controller to the console. If someone does this with the Gamecube the lead ejects without any harm being done. In addition, unlike its rivals the Xbox and Playstation 2, the Nintendo Gamecube only plays games. The design has been described by Nintendo as Small, cute and desirable. This, along with the idea that the Gamecube is a toy, has led to unwanted representations, though in context these have mainly been in Xbox and Playstation 2 publications. The idea has always been that Nintendo - with its Disney image - has just targeted younger consumers, but Nintendo's director has said that We believe gaming is an attitude not an age. We want to make sure our games appeal to all ages. This has proved successful, Super Mario Sunshine, one of Nintendo Gamecube's most anticipated games made by Nintendo outsold the violent Hitman 2 and Unreal Tournament 2003 from other formats on it's release, and continues to do so. This strategy is reflected in other adverts: they are all fun, bright, clean, simple adverts, with the Nintendo Gamecube catchphrases 'Gaming 24:7' and 'Life's A Game'. Nintendo's strategy seems to be working too, as the first console was sold to a woman - a previously unthinkable occurrence for traditionally male gamers! The Nintendo Gamecube has broken the traditional representations of what a console is and who should play it.
Different Identities are associated with the Gamecube; that of the Nintendo company, the consumers and associated identities. Nintendo's success with the Gameboy brand - the only surviving handheld console in the world - and it's long history of consoles compared to Sony and Microsoft, combined with it's ethos that gaming is about fun and not limited by age, has meant that increasingly more and more gamers see it as different to its rivals which have an image problem because of being multinational corporations. This is because of the negative way multinationals are seen by many, whereas Nintendo, like Disney, has escaped such criticism. It is also the only company that just concentrates on gaming. This gives Nintendo an identity that seems committed to more than just profit, but also to games and their products. Nintendo's quality record with the Nintendo Gamecube has been exceptional, with no reports or complaints regarding any problems with Nintendo Gamecube in the UK as of October. Consumers for the Gamecube are hard to clearly identify. A survey by the European Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) has found that the average age of the keenest players is gradually edging upwards…that the largest game-playing group is actually aged between 25 and 34…and that women are starting to be a significant proportion of gamers. Whilst Nintendo does hold a universal appeal, the types of people identified by ELSPA are the ones any company wants to buy it's products as they are most likely to be able to afford the games for a console regularly. Like the PC, the CD player, and the mobile phone, the Gamecube offers something for nearly anyone willing to try it; as such the identity of those who do is wide and varied.
The Consumption of the Nintendo Gamecube raises multiple questions, mainly the significance of its usage, the social relations it effects, forms and implies, the value of it as a product, and its cultural effects. By making games such as Super Mario Sunshine, Luigi's Mansion, Super Smash Bros Melee, NBA Courtside, Wave Race Bluestorm, Star Wars Rogue Leader, Pikmin e.t.c which Nintendo considers fun, only one of the Nintendo Gamecube's games has been rated for adults, Nintendo is promoting the Gamecube as a fun item whose sole use is games. Nintendo are also encouraging multiplayer gaming where people play against each other or as a team. This tries to make gaming a fun activity shared with others, not just something a person does by themselves. By itself it functions well, but the expansion slots on it's base shows consumers they are buying an upgradeable piece of technology. Other peripherals can also be purchased to add to the Gamecube experience. These all add new functionality to the Nintendo Gamecube. Another long term idea Nintendo have is that people who have a Nintendo Gameboy Advance will be able to connect it to the Nintendo Gamecube to unlock new features in games. This all adds to the appearance of the Nintendo Gamecube as a new, high tech, value for money entertainment product. Pricewise, the Gamecube is competitive- it retails at £129.99 compared to £159.99 for Microsoft's Xbox and £169.99 for Sony's Playstation 2. This is also an important factor in terms of consumption because Nintendo has the lowest price tag of the three. As an item of consumption the Nintendo Gamecube is still a non essential luxury, none of us 'need' it, but it is a desirable item to many different groups of people.
The Gamecube is Regulated in various ways. This is most obvious in the media the Nintendo Gamecube uses for games. Each game is stored on a 3" optical disc, which holds up to 1.5GB (Gigabytes) of information. These discs are unique to the Gamecube, Sony and Microsoft both use standard CD size DVD discs. These are easily obtainable and this has led to massive software piracy costing $4.5 billon a year, and $1 billion in tax revenues were also lost last year. The Nintendo optical discs are expensive - "equivalent to $50 each retail" to manufacture and make piracy virtually unprofitable. Nintendo Gamecube software piracy is virtually non existent.
The Gamecube has broken traditional cultural boundaries in gaming by having a wide appeal and attracting more females to play games, almost deregulating gaming to some extent. A new group, Women Gamers, started on the internet, at www.womengamers.com, and has a growing community of female and male gamers. The emphasis Nintendo put on the Gamecube being a fun 'toy' means that the console, and gaming as a whole, is beginning to be less stereotyped - gaming is being taken seriously. Whilst the Gamecube is still very much a private use object, Nintendo is encouraging gaming to be a more family orientated activity by offering widely appealing games and easy multiplayer facilities on the Gamecube. This makes gaming less of a private activity than it used to be. The Nintendo Gamecube has, unlike its rivals, tried to make gaming a shared experience and to break traditional boundaries and preconceptions that existed in the console industry, perhaps more importantly Nintendo have shown that Lara Croft isn't the only female in the console industry.
With Christmas approaching, a vital time is approaching for Nintendo. Why? This is the first year that three similar consoles will all be on sale simultaneously, Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft, are set to battle it out in what is been dubbed the war of the consoles…it's definitely a great thing for the consumer. Clearly the Nintendo Gamecube is an important contemporary cultural object as the console industry continues to grow in size and popularity. Significantly it is marketed as an item that could appeal to both genders and a wide age range. If Nintendo is successful this Christmas, with fun, widely appealing and bright games, then it has important cultural ramifications for those who make games for the consoles, as it will mark a shift away from increasingly violent games like Max Payne and Resident Evil .
Basically it looks at the Gamecube as a cultural item, why it is what it is. The original essay scored 80%, putting it well within the First Class degree mark. It was written last Christmas so it is slightly out of date, but most of it still holds true.
See, videogames are educational :)
Here it is;
The Nintendo Gamecube is one of three games consoles currently available across Europe, Asia and America. Its sole function is to allow consumers to play console games. The Gamecube was created by Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan but it is marketed and has games created for it in all three of the main territories it is distributed in. First announced in 1999 in Japan, the Gamecube launched in Japan & parts of Asia on "May 16th, 2001", America & Canada on November 18th and Europe on May 3rd 2002. The launch came as the Global sales of video games look set to increase 12% for 2002 to $31bn (£20.6bn), according to a report by research firm Informa Media Group. In America Nintendo sold $100m (£70m) worth of Gamecube products on its first day on the market, the company has said, and prior to the UK launch of the console 25,000 people in the UK had placed orders for Nintendo's new computer game console. However, as well as being a games console, the Nintendo Gamecube is a cultural object. Five major cultural processes - Representation, Identity, Production, Consumption and Regulation - can be used to study any object as a cultural item. By looking at these five processes it will become clear how the Gamecube is more than just a console; that it is a complex object with assorted meanings, effects, nuances and impacts on the console industry as a whole. The five processes form a cycle of culture, each one impacts on the other which impacts on another and so on, as such I have chosen to look at how the Gamecube can be looked at on each point of this cycle, beginning with Production.
The Production of the Gamecube involves it's origins, facts that have come to be associated with it, where it is produced, and what that means. The Nintendo Gamecube project was officially announced in 1999 and incorporates components made by Japanese and American companies such as IBM, ATI (American Technologies Incorporated), Dolby Sound Systems, and Nintendo of course. Unlike its rivals - Microsoft and Sony - Nintendo only produces the Gamecube in Japan. This gives the impression that it is a high quality product, especially as Japan is considered a place of high technology. Microsoft manufactures it's rival Xbox console in Hungary and Mexico, whilst Sony produces its Playstation 2 console in China. The Nintendo company has a long proud history of entertainment products. It began in 1889 when Fusajiro Yamauchi, the great-grandfather of the present president, began manufacturing "Hanafuda," Japanese playing cards, in Kyoto and continued to do so until after the Second World War, With Japan's economy devastated, Nintendo survived and in 1977 Nintendo developed home-use video games. The Gamecube is the latest console from Nintendo. Whilst not all consumers are familiar with this history, many have grown up with Nintendo games, and Nintendo's use of mascots like Mario, Zelda and Fox McCloud means it always enjoys a wide appeal.
In fact the first person in the UK to buy a Nintendo Gamecube was a 19-year-old woman...the stereotype of a games player as a spotty, teenaged boy with a shallow pallor and an aversion to exercise had been broken. The female audience is especially valued as Nintendo's rivals ignore it, and this means it is the kind of customer all the key manufacturers are chasing. Nintendo has created an image which means many now consider it the 'Japanese Disney' - a brand with products that appeal across the world to consumers with widely different backgrounds and ages.
The way in which the Nintendo Gamecube is represented is primarily through advertising, visual appearance & design, and some alternative representations. Nintendo has been keen to market the Gamecube as a toy for all ages. It is immediately apparent that the purple colour, and choice of a rare black versions, is different from its competition. The actual design of the Gamecube reinforces the feeling of simplicity most toys share; the parts that plug into the Gamecube such as AC Adaptor, controller, and scart connector, all have differently shaped sockets so that there is no way the wrong item can be plugged into the wrong socket, the console itself has no sharp edges or obtruding parts apart from the carry handle, the controller lead has a quick release feature - often people sit back from the television when playing and it's common for someone to trip over the lead from the controller to the console. If someone does this with the Gamecube the lead ejects without any harm being done. In addition, unlike its rivals the Xbox and Playstation 2, the Nintendo Gamecube only plays games. The design has been described by Nintendo as Small, cute and desirable. This, along with the idea that the Gamecube is a toy, has led to unwanted representations, though in context these have mainly been in Xbox and Playstation 2 publications. The idea has always been that Nintendo - with its Disney image - has just targeted younger consumers, but Nintendo's director has said that We believe gaming is an attitude not an age. We want to make sure our games appeal to all ages. This has proved successful, Super Mario Sunshine, one of Nintendo Gamecube's most anticipated games made by Nintendo outsold the violent Hitman 2 and Unreal Tournament 2003 from other formats on it's release, and continues to do so. This strategy is reflected in other adverts: they are all fun, bright, clean, simple adverts, with the Nintendo Gamecube catchphrases 'Gaming 24:7' and 'Life's A Game'. Nintendo's strategy seems to be working too, as the first console was sold to a woman - a previously unthinkable occurrence for traditionally male gamers! The Nintendo Gamecube has broken the traditional representations of what a console is and who should play it.
Different Identities are associated with the Gamecube; that of the Nintendo company, the consumers and associated identities. Nintendo's success with the Gameboy brand - the only surviving handheld console in the world - and it's long history of consoles compared to Sony and Microsoft, combined with it's ethos that gaming is about fun and not limited by age, has meant that increasingly more and more gamers see it as different to its rivals which have an image problem because of being multinational corporations. This is because of the negative way multinationals are seen by many, whereas Nintendo, like Disney, has escaped such criticism. It is also the only company that just concentrates on gaming. This gives Nintendo an identity that seems committed to more than just profit, but also to games and their products. Nintendo's quality record with the Nintendo Gamecube has been exceptional, with no reports or complaints regarding any problems with Nintendo Gamecube in the UK as of October. Consumers for the Gamecube are hard to clearly identify. A survey by the European Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) has found that the average age of the keenest players is gradually edging upwards…that the largest game-playing group is actually aged between 25 and 34…and that women are starting to be a significant proportion of gamers. Whilst Nintendo does hold a universal appeal, the types of people identified by ELSPA are the ones any company wants to buy it's products as they are most likely to be able to afford the games for a console regularly. Like the PC, the CD player, and the mobile phone, the Gamecube offers something for nearly anyone willing to try it; as such the identity of those who do is wide and varied.
The Consumption of the Nintendo Gamecube raises multiple questions, mainly the significance of its usage, the social relations it effects, forms and implies, the value of it as a product, and its cultural effects. By making games such as Super Mario Sunshine, Luigi's Mansion, Super Smash Bros Melee, NBA Courtside, Wave Race Bluestorm, Star Wars Rogue Leader, Pikmin e.t.c which Nintendo considers fun, only one of the Nintendo Gamecube's games has been rated for adults, Nintendo is promoting the Gamecube as a fun item whose sole use is games. Nintendo are also encouraging multiplayer gaming where people play against each other or as a team. This tries to make gaming a fun activity shared with others, not just something a person does by themselves. By itself it functions well, but the expansion slots on it's base shows consumers they are buying an upgradeable piece of technology. Other peripherals can also be purchased to add to the Gamecube experience. These all add new functionality to the Nintendo Gamecube. Another long term idea Nintendo have is that people who have a Nintendo Gameboy Advance will be able to connect it to the Nintendo Gamecube to unlock new features in games. This all adds to the appearance of the Nintendo Gamecube as a new, high tech, value for money entertainment product. Pricewise, the Gamecube is competitive- it retails at £129.99 compared to £159.99 for Microsoft's Xbox and £169.99 for Sony's Playstation 2. This is also an important factor in terms of consumption because Nintendo has the lowest price tag of the three. As an item of consumption the Nintendo Gamecube is still a non essential luxury, none of us 'need' it, but it is a desirable item to many different groups of people.
The Gamecube is Regulated in various ways. This is most obvious in the media the Nintendo Gamecube uses for games. Each game is stored on a 3" optical disc, which holds up to 1.5GB (Gigabytes) of information. These discs are unique to the Gamecube, Sony and Microsoft both use standard CD size DVD discs. These are easily obtainable and this has led to massive software piracy costing $4.5 billon a year, and $1 billion in tax revenues were also lost last year. The Nintendo optical discs are expensive - "equivalent to $50 each retail" to manufacture and make piracy virtually unprofitable. Nintendo Gamecube software piracy is virtually non existent.
The Gamecube has broken traditional cultural boundaries in gaming by having a wide appeal and attracting more females to play games, almost deregulating gaming to some extent. A new group, Women Gamers, started on the internet, at www.womengamers.com, and has a growing community of female and male gamers. The emphasis Nintendo put on the Gamecube being a fun 'toy' means that the console, and gaming as a whole, is beginning to be less stereotyped - gaming is being taken seriously. Whilst the Gamecube is still very much a private use object, Nintendo is encouraging gaming to be a more family orientated activity by offering widely appealing games and easy multiplayer facilities on the Gamecube. This makes gaming less of a private activity than it used to be. The Nintendo Gamecube has, unlike its rivals, tried to make gaming a shared experience and to break traditional boundaries and preconceptions that existed in the console industry, perhaps more importantly Nintendo have shown that Lara Croft isn't the only female in the console industry.
With Christmas approaching, a vital time is approaching for Nintendo. Why? This is the first year that three similar consoles will all be on sale simultaneously, Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft, are set to battle it out in what is been dubbed the war of the consoles…it's definitely a great thing for the consumer. Clearly the Nintendo Gamecube is an important contemporary cultural object as the console industry continues to grow in size and popularity. Significantly it is marketed as an item that could appeal to both genders and a wide age range. If Nintendo is successful this Christmas, with fun, widely appealing and bright games, then it has important cultural ramifications for those who make games for the consoles, as it will mark a shift away from increasingly violent games like Max Payne and Resident Evil .