Duke Maddox
ENGL 1106
Ms.Taylor
9:05am
Formal Proposal
The gaming industry is constantly evolving. It is an industry that always have ambitious new companies looking to push the bounds and create innovate. The industry is very lucrative, and this makes many companies huge. Like all industries some companies are liked more than others, but in gamming, a company’s public opinion is very important. In the gaming industry how liked a company is effects its sales much more than other mediums.
The question I want to answer is why some companies are liked more than others. More specifically, what steps did the gaming companies Bethesda and EA take to gain such a negative light in the last few years. I want to look at the choices in their games, their marketing, their response, and public statements that gave them this reputation.
I believe this research will provide a good outlook on what companies can avoid going down the same path these two have. It will be a look into the effect on being out of touch with your audience, and what that effects. It can also contribute to the argument that things that save a company money on paper, might not always be smart to implement due to public reaction not being accounted for. It will help show the how the line between the marketing team and players is something that needs to be watched carefully. This can be valuable information for marketers, seeing where the line needs to be drawn between profit and public reception.
The research I will mostly be using is textual analysis from past media and public relations to the major public relation disasters these companies have committed. I feel like this will show me the closet look to the cause and effect relationship between what is considered “going to far by the customers.”
To make sense of this data I will use a rule of majority. If it seems that majority of the audience disliked a company’s action, I will consider it as something that lead to this company not being well liked by the public. I believe that when dealing with research that is subject to varying opinions, the only important thing is how the general audience perceives them. This way I will be able to look at what alienates most audiences in the gaming community, and eventually pin point what general actions lead to Bethesda and EA’s Public Reception being so low.
Duke Maddox 