Undertale (Video game)

Genre and conventions

The genre of this game is RPG(role playing game).

The avatar: The main character played by the user is that of a fallen child by which the user named.

The world and other characters: The world is based on an under ground world inhabited by monsters, while humans allegedly live on the surface.  The monsters are trapped under ground in fear of the humans after a war.  The main characters are: Flowey(an evil flower), Sans and papyrus(brother skeletons who are trying to capture yet help the main character), Mettaton( an evil karaoke machine that is one of the boss levels), Asgore (the king whom is the final box level to return to the surface), Asriel( the wife of ashore who finds the fallen human and takes them in as her own child), chara( the first human to have fallen into the underground world).

Controls and goals: z/enter=confirm, x/shift=cancel, c/CTRL=Menu(in game), F4=fullscreen, Hold ESC=Quit.  The overall objective of the game is to get the fallen child back to the surface and to explore the world.

This game is an online game and has recently become a multiplayer game.

The intertexuality of the game is that every option you take can lead to a different ending, as well as every character contributes to the story and what your options are.  It allows the user to interact as they please with characters within the game and have different outcomes.

Industry

The game was animated by Zorox but created by Toby Fox.  Toby Fox was originally a music composer for video games such as MS Paint adventures as well as hive swap.  He is also a contributor to profound waste of time magazine as well as now chosen for the 2018 games forbes 30 under 30.

Production and distribution:  The game was written and developed solely by Toby Fox, with only additional art done by additional artists.  It was released for Microsoft Windows as well as OS X, then later for Linyx and play station 4 and playstation vita.

Marketing and publicity: Away of marketing the game and getting it publicity was by use of well known gaming you tubers such as for e.g.; Jacksepticy, Pewdiepie, Markiplier,etc.  This was a way of not only getting feed back on the game but getting the game more known as these youtbers have millions of followers.

Reviews and feedback:  (1) Was seen at first with silly puns and cutesy but then had an unexpected twist that gave users a new perspective. (2) seen as brilliant and clever manipulation of gameplay mechanics. (3) seen as an imitation of real life and humans but that through monsters.

Social and cultural

Audience appeal; although  most enjoyed the game and found it witty and unexpected some found it boring and a waste of time.  Its colours and mechanics made the game enjoyable and fun for most.  Its representation is that of some human expressions and characteristics, it represents most persons in that of gender and personality.

The only ethical issue is the slight deception in the ending, the way it toys with the users emotions.  The not so innocent possible plot twist at the end that tugged at users hearts and emotions.

Overall, it is a wonderful game to watch and play, with an experience that leaves a mark on your heart and mind and possibly even your life.

Weekly News

In Leeds a 15 year old boy was detained for a car crash in which five passengers died.  The age range between 12-24.  The car was being driven at 88mph in which it finally crashed into a tree and reportedly "split in two".  The 15 year old who's identity has been kept confidential due to his age, has been detained for four and a half years and is not allowed to drive for at least seven years.

Many family members of the deceased are outraged, and do not think the sentenced given was enough. They have placed the blame onto this boy for the death and stealing of the car.

I think this is unreasonable, the adult who was one of the passengers should have stopped the boy, or at least one of the other(although much younger) passengers.  They did not, and allowed this to happen and as a result their lives were lost.  Although, this will affect the young boy for the rest of his life, i hope when he is released from prison that he is able to lead a some what normal life.

However unlike BBC News, the Manchester Evening News,  has reported that the age range is from 14-28, and stated that whether the ones killed were in the car or pedestrians are unknown.  As well as stated that two 15 year olds fled the seen before the police arrived, but however were successfully caught.

This shows how different sources give different views and sides to a story.  It shows that there is only a representation of what could of happened but not actually what happened.  How ever, similar the stories are there are major differences within important aspects of the information.

The statistic above shows the average death rate from car accidents over the years.  Although it shows a steady decline, and that is an improvement the amount of deaths is still too high.  Hopefully, as the years go by this continues to decrease and not increase.

weekly news

                                        

An Oxford university dropout who was accused of rape has had the charges dropped after being o nail for the past two years.  It is said that he is a chemistry scholar, and was told that prosecutors would offer no evidence against him just before his trial.  Apparently, there have been unnecessary delays concerning this case, for the past two years and has therefore been dropped under such circumstances.

This is the fourth time is four weeks that a rape case has collapses under such circumstances.  The judge has demanded an explanation from head of CPS rape and sexual offences unit within the next 28 days as to why it has taken so long.  The accused has suspended his study after allegations have been made.

This is similar to recent stories, especially that of Brock Turner in which he was only sentenced to serve three months of jail, due to sexual assault charges.  Most of these news articles that have reported these stories always make the suspect/convicted seem like they are less of a criminal than they actually are by mentioning; their education, their age or something to provoke emotion, meanwhile not mentioning anything about the victim and what they might be going through.

Unfortunately, persons like this and cases like this still go by without the proper punishment, and leaving the victims without proper closure.

The source is BBC News, known to be quite right wing therefore showing the accused in a more innocent light.

weekly news update

                                         
The largest construction company Carillion is under the weight of a £1.5bn debt pile.  Despite discussions between  lenders and the government  no deal was reached to save the company.

Because of the amount of government contracts the company holds such as building hospitals, managing schools, as well as the employment of 20,000 employs within the UK and 43,000 staff world wide(countries such as; Canada, middle east and the caribbean).

As Carillion is one of the largest private sector companies, it has worked on Battersea power station redevelopment, and a supplier of maintenance services to the Network Rail.  Therefore, as the company collapses, the services they provide will also cause the maintenance and servicing of these other companies to drop severely making it unsafe for others.

 

Due to the above statistics, it shows the amount of debt owing and how it has increases over the years as well as it gives a visual representation of how much their share price has plummeted.

The reason as to why it is said this will cause "massive disruption" is because of the damage it will cause to the public sector as well as the thousands of jobs that will be lost and causing person to be jobless and now having to look for other ways to survive in this already harsh economy.

The opinions of outsiders on the matter is that: "Carillion look like it's trying to bail out a supertanker with a soup spoon.  Despite the group's best effort debt is continuing to climb, and at an increasing rate, while the construction business seems to be hitting one hurdle after another".

In my opinion the business should make all its staff redundant and make itself insolvent, or sell its most valuable assets to make up as much money as it can for the sake of its staff.

The news source is BBC News, which has a very right wing and political outlook on stories, and typically reports these kind of things.

weekly news

The news source is BBC News.

The company Carillion is currently in debt of 1.5billion and is currently fear of collapsing into administration.   It is one of the biggest suppliers of services to the public sector.

One of the biggest reason the firm has believed to of gone wrong is that it has over-reached itself and taking on too many risky contracts that have been unprofitable.

It is greatly feared that this collapse could cause a lot of disruption in many areas.

In my opinion Carillion should sell as much assets as it can so as to attempt to pay off debts, or make the business insolvent, to prevent the situation from being made worse.  Although as it is such a big company, if it were to close it can cause a huge negative impact on the economy as such loss of jobs will leave a lot of persons without a job.

Newspaper analysis

The structure/layout of the newspaper article is that of a neutral background using that of a play on words such as "Be leave in britain" which sounds like believe in Britain, with the article immediately after.  Highlighting certain parts within the newspaper so as to grab audience's attention and coax them into voting for brexit.

The content of the article is mainly focused on Britain leaving the EU and the reasons why, essentially attempting to encourage as man persons as possible to do so.

The political position of the newspaper is that it is fully for Brexit, this makes sense especially considering that the newspaper normally supports that of the conservatives.

The focus of the newspaper seems to make as many persons aware as possible as to why they SHOULD vote for Brexit rather than AGAINST it.

Theories

Stuart Hall's Reception Theory

Hall stated that communication is a process involving encoding by producers and decoding by audiences.  This was started in 1973 from his essay "encoding and decoding in the television discourse". He said that there are 3 way in which it can they are decoded by audiences;

1) The dominant position: audience accepts the intended meaning from the product.

2) The negotiated position: the audience acknowledges some parts of the message originally encoded but adapts the rest of the message based on their own personal experiences.

3) The oppositional position: the encoded message is understood by the audience but disagreed with.

This advert is a perfect example of reception theory, this advert divides persons opinions.  Example of such diverse opinions are; Preferred reading: We want to go out and eat a Big Mac.  Oppositional reading: This is unhealthy i can't eat it.  Negotiated: I want to go and have one, but i need to eat healthily, maybe another day.

This theory seems quite accurate, in that of the different responses of audience in regards to products or services.  An advantage of this theory is that it allows for businesses to gage the response of their target audience while a disadvantage is that those that fall into the "grey area" can't be categorised.

weekly news

Although some of us thankfully made it into 2018, many did not. Family of five along with the pilot unfortunately died on New Years eve due to a sea plane crash into Hawkesburg river.  The cause of the crash or the events leading up to the crash are unknown.

Authorities are saying that it may take months before they may even be able to piece together the events that took place.

This along with other tragedies on New years Eve and New years should make us appreciate life a little more and to take the chances that we may have been too scared to take, as we never know when our time may be up.

The source Is BBC news, and as the family seemed to be involved in politics, this source may have only shown a sugar coated version of the story.