Ideation & Concept
One of the biggest phenomena to hit the gaming scene has been the 2017 debut of the battle royale genre, with PlayerUnknown BattleGrounds (PUBG) pioneering this new craze in gaming. To briefly explain, Battle Royale is a genre which mixes survival elements with being the last-man-standing. In a battle royale game, you are expected to fight hundreds of other players in one area. Usually the player starts with minimal equipment, and scavenges for loot (such as weapons & armor) with the final objective to become the last one standing.
I found it interesting how the development of this new game concept had caused a boom in the gaming industry, scoring millions of active players worldwide nowadays. For instance, let us take a look at the figure below.
Consider how a new game concept from 2017 had led up to the impressive statistics where almost half of US gamers have become actively involved in Battle Royale games in 2019. There is an evident popularity which attracts many players to try out these games. With such a large playerbase, subcultures and communities can form as part of the game’s ecosystem.
This project’s aim had intended to investigate the cultural phenomena involved in the introduction of this unique genre, and what other cultural impacts had followed. We notice that ever since PUBG’s release, there has been a plethora of Battle Royale games that is extremely popular with gamers back in 2017 and up until the present. Several of these examples include: Apex Legends, Fortnite, Call of Duty: Warzone, Garena Free Fire. Although these games follow the same battle royale genre, there are distinct cultural connections between each other. They also tend to have an impressive player community which continues to provide user-generated content for their respective favorite battle royale. This indicates evident contribution in the model of participatory game media culture, and a thorough analysis has been applied for the investigation of this topic.
Methodology
The main methodology applied to this project was by second-hand research. This research method initially involved looking up online about the history of the Battle Royale genre, as history plays an important understanding of the foundational culture surrounding the genre. The forming of new concept and ideas such as the application of Battle Royale themes in video games has been inspired by a prior media influence. Further details on this research will be shared in the background research section of the report.
Secondly, the next methodology involves being involved in online gaming communities which are formed by their respective Battle Royale games. As my group project treats PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds (PUBG) as the primary focus amongst the genre, I have mainly examined its culture as my digital artefact. This methodology was effective in understanding the general feedback about different Battle Royale games and also to observe what kind of user-generated content are attractive to making players form a community.
Background Research
In tracing the origins of the Battle Royale genre, we can look into what inspired the development of PlayerUnknown BattleGrounds(PUBG). Referring to Wikipedia, it mentions: “The game is based on previous mods that were created by Brendan “PlayerUnknown” Greene for other games, inspired by the 2000 Japanese film Battle Royale“
This tells us two important facts. Firstly, the developer claims that their work is inspired by the Battle Royale action-thriller film. The premise of this film is about 42 highschoolers that are abducted and transported into an island. They are then introduced to a gruesome game, where they must kill each other and become the last one standing. This island has many resources such as weapons, food and maps which aid the characters.
These are very similar elements which are present in the popular Battle Royale games of today, and most especially PUBG. Just like in the inspired movie, PUBG starts off with unarmed and emptyhanded players being sent to a deserted island full of resources. The main objective is also to become the last one standing. These are appear to be very fundamental concepts to the genre, as it can be seen in other Battle Royale games such as Fortnite, Apex Legends, and CoD: Warzone.
It is interesting to note that the Japanese film Battle Royale which premiered in 2000 was not released in America and many other countries due to its controversial nature. It was until 2017 that a game (PUBG) finally popularized the concept, which bears interesting cultural understandings.
Could foreign concepts and ideas contribute to the development of a cultural hit phenomena such as Battle Royale? Did media censorship prevent unique ideas from being incorporated into other forms of media? There is a 17 year gap between the release of the banned Japanese film, and the release of the first Battle Royale game PUBG.
From the figure below, we can see how the introduction of this inspired element had become a phenomenon in the gaming industry.
I believe the censorship of content are restrictive of the human imagination, and it took a very long time for people around the world to get the idea of making a Battle Royale game. Just the application of this once-censored idea has become revolutionary in blossoming a new culture amongst gamers, and changing the e-sports scene entirely. Though the original movie tells a gory tale, when applied in video game format, it becomes a genre with great popularity around the world.
The next fact derived from the PUBG Wikipedia article is how PlayerUnknown BattleGrounds was originally a mod in a different game called H1Z1 developed by the same person who made PUBG. Mods are the abbreviation referring to game modification, which is the act of changing elements of a game, particularly its code. This means that the developer of PUBG was strongly attributed to the Construction element of the Participatory Media Culture model.
When applying this model to expand upon my research surrounding Battle Royale games, I’ve noticed that these games have many communities in different sites such as Steam Community, Reddit, Youtube and Twitch. In Reddit alone, the PUBG community numbers to 1.9 million members. Even outside of the game, there are players who participate in the media culture of their favorite Battle Royale games and consume or produce user generated content. These user generated content include fanart, memes, cosplay and music videos. I have also noted that a majority of these content are clips from the game itself, highlighting the fun moments of the individual user to share with other people.
Utility
The digital artefact hopes to aid readers in identifying the contributing factors in how video games are able to popularize or create related subcultures. This information can be valuable to studying video game culture, and can also be utilized by aspiring game developers that are interested in turning their ideas into a video game.
The digital artefact aims to understand how participatory media culture is essential in bolstering the popularity and the longevity of a video game, and that the promotion of user-generated content relating to games can serve as both an effective and cost-effective strategy of marketing the video game to people around the world. According to this article, user-generated content is vastly more effective than branded advertising which indicate that more people generally trust the word of others than advertisers.
Responses to feedback via DA Pitch & Final DA
The feedbacks received in my DA pitch & final DA number to 3 and 5 comments respectively. There is generally a very positive feedback when looking through the comments, which is reassuring in letting me know that my digital artefact is helpful.
I’ve adopted a visually appealing digital artefact format which involves numerous video editing, with a focus on clarity in my audio message as I provide the related visual cues in the DA video. This helps even non-gamers understand what my project is about. This format has been effective when noticing the praise in the comments.
Overall Trajectory
In the pitch, I initially wanted to explore the fun parts of a game community where I could discuss about how user-generated content creates and encourages user engagement that ultimately leads to building a community. However as I’ve researched further into the topic, I realized the value of user-generated content especially in being able to construct a loving community of fans. It’s incredibly effective in marketing as well, especially when interesting content by players are being made about their favorite game without any bias.
It acts as great marketing strategy, especially because the game does not need to invest in making their branded advertisements when it is already done by the players. Thus, I discussed this point in my final digital artefact. Whether or not the information provided by my project is helpful to others, it has taught me new interesting things at least.
Project’s Success and Limitations
Taking the positive feedback from my pitch and final DA at face value, the project seems to be successful. I still believe it could be further polished, but the main limitation that I’ve faced is how the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has affected my planned schedules and my motivation. It was difficult to spend a lot of time on this project when taking to account the issues caused by the pandemic in one’s personal life.
Some more things I wish that could have been improved on was establishing a proper group communication. There were overlaps which are caused due to the lack of coordination, and each individual focusing on their own work. Unfortunately as an asocial introvert, I find it extremely difficult to bring a group together to work on a project cohesively.
Finally, despite PUBG being the pioneer of Battle Royale games, I found that there is not that much interesting content to discuss about it nowadays because other Battle Royale games such as Fortnite and Apex Legends have become more popular with a lot more cultural topics to discuss. Thus, I think it would have been better for my topic to discuss Fortnite as there are many headline articles about that game.
References
https://screenrant.com/behind-the-scenes-making-of-battle-royale/
wccftech.com/fortnite-1b-revenue-battle-royale/
https://www.adsmurai.com/en/articles/user-generated-content-ugc-more-effective-sales
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