Research for Ancillary Task 2

For this task, I had to conduct research on Front Cover's and Double Page Spread's in magazines, in order to see the differences as well as the art styles used. I also had to analyse how they represent the games they are covering and advertise them to a specific audience. I also had to cover how the magazine itself used the games in order to see copies, this was particularly prominent on the front cover analysis I did. 

To start with, I purchased a copy of PCGamer. This is because PCGamer is the most well known gaming magazine covering PC Games, and as my production is a PC Game, it makes the most sense that it would be featured in this magazine, should it be real.

 This is the front cover of the issue I bought. The issue number was #277 and covered April 2015. The main focus on the front is "Fable Legends" and their "Exclusive Access" to this game. Immediately this catches the attention of the audience, as anyone interested or knowledgeable about the Fable series, will be interested in this issue. I could use a similar approach in my cover, except my game is a brand new IP (Intellectual Property), so it will have little to no prior fan base. In order to use a similar style, I would have to make it more apparent what genre and style of game it is. This front cover doesn't need to, as Fable is a very popular RPG made by Microsoft, and was exclusive for their consoles. There are some hints on the genre and type of game by the clothing the man is wearing, but nothing definite, like I will have to do with my cover.

There is also a great deal of other information on the cover. At the top, it advertises a "Free Gift" which is worth £5. The cost of the magazine is only £6. This would be very attractive for people who don't regularly purchase copies of the magazine, because they will be essentially only paying £1 for the magazine, and £5 for this gift.

On the left hand side, it advertises that "GTA V for PC" is coming. Inside the issue, there is a section dedicated to GTA V and "20 things you should do when it releases". This type of advertising would be good to include on my front cover, however it might not work as well as this one does, as my game and GTA V are very different, with the latter being much more expansive. On the right hand side, it mentions DOTA 2, an extremely popular Multiplayer Online Battle Arena game (MOBA). This would catch the attention of any long time PC gamer, as DOTA 2 is one of the most popular games on PC, a regularly reaches a peak of 850K+ concurrent players.

The cover then has 4 sections, covering a range of different games as well as PC hardware. These are minor points, to advertise the amount of content within the magazine. It would be wise to include something similar in my own cover to make it seem more authentic.

The second cover I chose to analyse is front an independent Xbox 360 magazine. I chose this one to compare how a PC Gamer front cover, and an independent publisher's front cover differs. I did not purchase this one, I simply pulled the image from Google images.

 The main focus of this cover, in my opinion is the title "360 Magazine". Which is an interesting choice. This seems to be done, because the magazine is not the official magazine done by Microsoft. As such they, need to emphasise that they are not the official one, as well as get their own brand recognition out there. Especially considering the closeness in their name to the official magazine (Which is Official Xbox Magazine).
Aside from that, Agent 47 from the Hitman series has a large focus on the game. Immediately, from the artwork, the audience knows that the Hitman series is one featuring guns and violence. This shows that the cover is quite effective in showing the genre of the game without explicitly telling the audience. However the Hitman series is again, a very old, very popular series by Square Enix and has had games across multiple platforms, films and even books. As such, they are following the same method as the PC Gamer cover, using the games success and wide fan base in order to sell copies of their magazine. The word "Exclusive" is also emphasised, being a different colour to the rest of the text it is matched with.
The price of the magazine is also made quite obvious. This may be down to how cheap it is compared with other competing magazines. However you will notice there is no "free gift" incentive on this cover. Other games are also mentioned on this cover "Soul Calibur V, Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier". All of these games are in bold white text. This is to attract the attention of fans of those games to pick up the magazine and have a look.

I will now analyse a series of double page spreads from within the copy of PC Gamer I bought, as well a one I found online.

I will start with the section on GTA V that I covered earlier. This double page spread is highlighting 20 features from the game that the staff at PC Gamer are looking forward to doing. One of the main things you notice is the colour of the numbers. It is the same green that is used on the badge of the game. This shows brand recognition and consistency. It is also made explicitly clear what game this is from the top right hand corner, where it says the name of the game.
On the far right, there is an image from the game, which takes up about half of the right hand page. This is to help break up the text, so that the audience does not feel like they are reading a book. There are two other picture from the game also included, one in the top left and one in the bottom centre. The text is then molded around these images. This makes it feel like the images are more important than the text, especially as each paragraph is summarised by its title. In effect, the audience wouldn't even have to read the whole paragraph to understand what the writer is talking about, they simply need to read the title. Whilst I appreciate the style of this, I will not be using this as the style for my double page spread. This is because I will be advertising my game, this is not advertising. There is no need to advertise GTA V as it has already released on Xbox 360/One and PS3/4, people have played the game and understand how it plays etc.

The second double sheet I will analyse is again from PC Gamer, and this one is covers the game "Sword Coast Legends" which is a five player Dungeons and Dragons RPG. This game hasn't yet released, and as such, is aiming to promote the game to an extent, much like I want my double sheet to do. The main part of the page is filled with a picture from the game, then a wall of text. In my opinion, it doesn't look very interesting when laid out this way, and I feel that unless you are specifically interested in the game, you might skip this page. At a couple of points, it had quotes from the developer which are put in bold. Aside from that, the page doesn't have anything that is particularly interesting about it, the background is all the same, there doesn't seem to be any variation in the text patterns. When creating my spread, I want to avoid this type of blandness as much as possible, as I will be trying to sell my game, and I need to attract my audience to read as much about it as they can.

For the last spread I will cover, I chose this Castlevania: Lords of Shadow article in the official Playstation magazine. The text is quite hard to make out, but from what I gathered, it is explaining what is new in this variant of the Castlevania series. The main focus of this page is the image in the centre. It then has two smaller images below it. The style that has been used, keeps the text from seeming excessive, and instead makes it seem nice and spaced out, so that it is easier to read. The background is also an image from within the game, to keep the aesthetic pleasing and on topic.  Of the three spreads I have looked at today, this one will be the one I will be most looking to emulate in my own design.