Hello, welcome to my easy to understand guide to Horizon Forbidden West, the video game and audiences. This video is going to be particularly relevant for you if you are studying AQA A-level media studies, as it currently appears as a set text on that specification. There is a pre-sold audience for this video game because it's based on a previous video game. It's a sequel. So the first video game was called Horizon Zero Dawn. And so there would have been people who played that game who would have been drawn into this as the sequel. The game offers a lot of escapism for audiences. It talks about exotic lands, exploring undiscovered territories. There's beaches, there's deserts, there's mountains, all sorts of amazing locations to explore, which will really give that kind of escapism to audiences. The game also offers a variety of entertainment for audiences, lots of action-packed sequences, lots of drama and lots of conflict. The game makes use of several celebrity voices. for characters and those celebrity voices will engage some audiences. So, for example, Angela Bassett provides the voice of Regala and she's quite famous for many, many films. Carrie-Anne Moss, who's very famous from, in particular, probably the Matrix franchise, she does the voice for Tilda and Lance Reddick does the voice for Silence. So all of these people have kind of histories of playing... strong, either strong female characters or characters within kind of sci-fi, post-apocalyptic fantasy movies. And so that really helps to draw in the particular target audiences they're after. The machinery and the portrayals of these kind of AI type robots as well would have engaged certain audiences, particularly those interested in sort of engineering, the way they transform the mechanics behind it. A lot of audiences found quite fascinating. And it's quite tactical, the game as well. For example, you know, you have to scan enemies for weaknesses. It's not just about killing. It's about strategy as well. So some audiences really enjoy that. Lots of enigma codes in the game, in the walkthroughs, in the initial first few levels of the game, and also on the cover as well, would have really helped to bring in an audience. So they talk a lot about secrets, uncovering the secrets, mysteries and that kind of thing. So really bringing in an audience and helping them to think about wanting to keep playing the game to uncover those secrets. Like most video games, there's obviously a rewards system for audiences, so you can level up, you can gain experience, you can unlock secrets, and all of those help to motivate an audience to keep playing. The game built on the previous game By using new technologies and adding more elements that perhaps were a bit different and that may have brought in an audience. So, for example, this had a bigger map than the previous game. There were underwater discoveries that perhaps you couldn't have made in the first game. There was a Valor Surge system in place and freeform climbing, a shield wing, which is a kind of parachute type thing, and a focus scanner. So new kind of tech, new gadgets, new tools within the game, which may have made an audience. want to play. Video game audiences are by their nature quite active because they are making choices. They're the ones actually playing the game and choosing the kind of direction of the narrative. Lots of audiences were making their own fan art online including what they had hoped the characters would look like. There's lots of words on the cover of the game that appeal to active audiences. Use of phrases like the words discover, fight, uncover. It helps engage those audiences who want to be a bit more active and who seek out excitement and thrills. the game tries to make players feel quite included. For example, on that cover, it says, Join Aloy. It talks about our ruin. So it kind of makes you feel as though you are part of that world and part of their community. Unlike a lot of video games, this game had quite a big female target audience. And that's potentially because of the fact that there was a female playable character, which is quite unusual within video games. The main playable character, Aloy, acts as a kind of strong, powerful role model. for women who play this game. She's capable, she's strong, she's brave, she's dominant. The ethnic diversity within the game would have really appealed potentially to a lot of audiences from minority backgrounds. There's white characters, black characters, Asian characters and lots of other mixes of ethnic minorities as well. And again, ethnic minority characters, particularly in protagonist roles, are underrepresented within video games. And so having this more diverse representation may well have appealed to audiences. Many audiences particularly liked the fact that the new technology on offer with the PS5 meant that the representations were more realistic of those ethnic minorities. So better interpretations of skin colours, better representations of textures in minority hair. And so those representations and that technology could have drawn in an audience too. Some audiences also really enjoyed the fact that there was representation of disability within the game, with several characters suffering from life-changing injuries, like having their limbs torn off within battle, and yet continuing to be part of the ongoing narrative. The game had some appeals to LGBTQ audiences as well. LGBTQ characters are often not represented in video games at all. So having some characters where their sexuality was mentioned in passing meant that... People from LGBTQ backgrounds in real life actually finally had characters that were like them in video games. So it may have offered a more interesting, diverse representation of sexuality that audiences may have enjoyed. The game's publishers actually released a downloadable content, Burning Shores Edition for the game later on, which gave audiences the opportunity to. continue the story but also the opportunity to explore Aloy's sexuality. In the DLC audiences can choose to pursue a relationship between Aloy and another female character and again this may have engaged audiences wanting more diversity in terms of sexuality within the game. Of course not every audience is going to react positively to every media product. There were some audiences who took negotiated or oppositional readings to the game. Some audiences felt that the game was culturally appropriating Native American face paint and also Native American clothing through Aloy's costume. Some audiences felt that the game was using quite tired, old ethnic tropes, where despite the diversity, it was still a kind of white saviour narrative with a white protagonist aiming to save the minority characters. Some felt the game was quite tricky to play. It was far too easy to get attacked and far too easy to die. Some players actually complained that Aloy was not sexualized or feminine enough for what they had hoped. And in particular, when the video game company released some stills from the game in the run up to its release, male players were going online and complaining that she had a beard. And you can see in these pictures what she's actually just got is like peach fuzz hair on her face, which is totally normal. But male players were complaining that it felt that she was too masculine and not feminine enough. they even made their own fan art versions of what they thought she should look like and if that doesn't tell you enough about what male players want from video games I don't know what will Some audiences complained a lot online and left a lot of bad reviews, saying that they felt that the increased diversity in terms of ethnicity, gender, disability, etc. was too woke and that they didn't want this extra diversity within video games. Some audiences in particular reacted badly to the fact that the DLC enabled audiences to choose a lesbian narrative between Aloy and Seika. So that was my easy to understand guide to Horizon Forbidden West and audiences. Don't forget to check out my other videos about that game, as well as subscribing to my channel for updates about when I upload new relevant content to you. And if you would like a video that I don't already have or you have any questions, just leave a little comment below and I'll see what I can do.