Research

1. Research
Jack Ward

2. Existing Product
This is an interview by Pala (Mantrousse)
Gilroy Sen at FACEIT stage 2 finals
(DreamHack Valencia) with Patrik (ff0rest)
Lindberg. This was conducted at a CS:GO
tournament and would appeal to fans of
gaming and CS:GO
Casual location in an atrium, has good
natural lighting and adds to it being a casual
and less formal interview as it isn’t a set up
studio which gives it a more genuine feel.
Pala eases into the
interview by
complementing Patrik and
makes him more relaxed
with casual small talk. Talks
about his past in the game
which gives newer viewers
a background of who he is
as well as giving Patrik
more to talk about.
The audience would be watching this for a few reasons. 1 is that its
informative and gives a good bit of background and up to date news
on the person being interviewed. Another reason is the people in the
interview whether it be the person being interviewed or the
interviewee. I chose this because I am hoping to do an interview so I
am looking more at what he asks rather than where he is as it will be
quite difficult to arrange a full face to face meeting with someone. I
chose this interview specifically because I knew it would be quite a
relaxed interview which is my aim and Pala has a good history of
interviews in the eSports scene.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfGfwhlVTC4

3. Existing Product
Questions
“How did you start out in CS?”
This question is a simple starting point for the interview as it eases f0rest into other more in
depth questions. People find it easier to talk about themselves instead of how other people are
playing so this question gets him talking about something he has witnessed. Also can give an
insight for newer players or people who idolise him as they can see how he started out.
“Cologne, do you think you could do the repeat?”
This questions relates to the Major Tournament last year in which f0rest’s team won, and Pala is
asking if f0rest thinks he could do it again. This shows that Pala has done his research into the
person he is interviewing which makes the person being interviewed more inclined to say more
as they feel an amount of trust and respect to people who have done their research and deserve
a genuine response.
“Do you ever get burnt out or think you’ll stop anytime soon”
This is a good concluding question as it is talking about the end of his career at the end of the
interview. It is also a good question for the audience as this is something everyone wants to know
about their idols, when they plan on retiring or stopping.

4. Existing Product
HLTV Homepage. Shows the recent
news articles, recent match results as
well as upcoming match results and has
a constantly updating player of the
week and team standing in the world
rankings. HLTV is a news outlet for any
CS:GO related news as well as working
as a wiki page for players showing stats
and recent match results.
The reason for the websites very mundane and
basic layout is because it has built a very strong
and loyal fan base over the years of it being
active. HLTV hasn’t updated its look to be more
modern in a while but they don’t need to do
that when their viewers are already content
with how it looks. For my website I wont have
this fanbase to fall back on so I will have to
make mine look fresh and unique to separate
my website from everyone else.
I chose HLTV as it is the most reputable website
for counter strike news and updates in the
professional scene. This is something I would like
to do on my website with a dedicated section to
CSGO in which I will have similar headlines with a
different layout and not as frequently updated.
One of my favourite features of the website is
the world ranking that can be seen in the bottom
left and this is something I would like to highlight
in my own website.

5. Existing Product
There is multiple adverts across the homepage which is
something expected as the company needs to make money
however I would have to fill these spots as I wouldn’t have any
sponsors for my website. It follows the classic layout of a
portrait page in the centre with a background of some sort
filling the rest of the page. This is a style that is widely used in
news websites and its something I hope to do on my own
website.
This website has a very clustered
layout which is something I would
not want to do in my website. On
the home page it has a list of news
showing most recent at the top
however not the most relevant
news which means that big news
such as CSGO Major
announcements can seem less
important than a low skilled team
changing a player. Also the home
page shares the news page with
the recent matches, player of the
week and the recent activity. This
creates for too much to look at
once. For my website I will have
similar topics however I will split
them into their own tabs.

6. Existing Product
This is the front page for the PC gamer magazine which is an
informative magazine in which it gives tip and tricks for games, new
releases of games and gaming related tech as well as reviews on
games and tech such as PC parts and monitors. PC Gamer boasts
quite a loud and attention seeking front page. The title is large like it
is on all of their front covers and there is a picture that has the full
centre piece, drawing people in. This picture will most likely have
been given to the magazine by the games developers as part of a
press pack for them to use. There wont have had to be a studio with
lighting for this image because the picture is taken from in game or is
at least an animation using the games engine and therefor will be
using the game engines ambient lighting. It has a simple colour
scheme of black and red which is something I like and will possibly
use for my logo. The font is simple and in block capitals making it
easy to read and doesn’t take a second look to know what it says.
The main headline for this magazine is right in the centre and is
bigger than the title of the magazine. This will attract more viewers
to the magazine as it will have people buying because its PC Gamer
as well as people buying because its about the game ‘Farcry 5’.
Throughout the magazine it presents its information in a very simple
block paragraph style suggesting it is for an older audience that are
prepared to read more ‘wordy’ articles. I would also follow this style
as we both share a very similar audience.

7. Existing Product
This poster design I found on the PUBG reddit which is a
forum website in which people submit anything they want
regarding a specific subject and people reply to the original
post creating a thread. This poster is a very simplistic design
which is what I like and which is the style I want to create for
my own poster. The poster follows a simple red and white
colour scheme which has been added as an overlay to the
image. It is split into the 3 main components the playable
characters inside the triangle, the map as the background
and the logo in the bottom centre. There is no studio
required to take these screenshots as the screenshots will
have been taken in game or screenshots of trailers of the
game. There will have been some editing of these images
such as cutting out the background and resizing them. The
background image however wont have required much editing
other than resizing or cropping. For the logo it has simply had
an overlay to change it from yellow to red which makes it fit
in better with the colour scheme. Overall I like the idea of
this poster however I think the pictures are too low opacity
and the coloured overlays drown out the pictures too much.

8. Research Analysis
• What common features do the researched products have?
By looking at quite a wide variety some of the products share similarities however
there isn’t something they all have in common other than the content which is
gaming. Things in common with the PC Gamer magazine and the HLTV website is the
style in which they write their articles in. They both use a style that could be
compared to a newspaper with there being quite a lot of writing which suggests both
are for a slightly older audience. Another common feature within my researched
products is the colour scheme that can be seen within the magazine and the poster.
They both have a dull, plain colour such as white or black and contrast that with a
brighter more noticeable colour like red in this case.
• What aspects of the research will you include within your own production work?
The aspects I will most likely use in my own production is the style of writing that can
be seen in the website and magazine because it will appeal to my ideal audience as
I'm not trying to appeal to children who cant sit through articles with a higher level of
vocabulary. Another aspect which I will be including is the style of front cover seen on
the magazine with the main picture and title being the centre piece and scattering
other information around the edges. The final aspect that I will be including in my own
work is the style of poster that I researched. I think a simplistic poster would work best
for my work as I already have quite a lot going on in the front cover and throughout
my magazine.

9. Techniques Research
One of the techniques I researched is how to conduct interviews to get the best
results and keep the interviewee interested and answering questions in detail. I found
an article on the Independent written by Gillian Orr. The article goes into detail about
many key areas on producing a successful interview. The first area is knowing your
subject. Its key to know what you want to get out of the interview whether it be
general information about the person or information about the new movie or
tournament they have coming up. It is good to start off with general questions like
asking how they are and then gradually zoning in on the question you wanted to ask
from the beginning. Another area is standing your ground and not being pushed
around by the interviewee as they feel more powerful as you are the one wanting to
interview them. The key is to be confident and treat them like everyone else. One of
the other areas is having enough questions. Make sure you account for them giving
really short answers and have lots of back up questions if the direction of the
interview changes. The final area is being on time to the interview, remember you are
the one wanting them so you cant be turning up late if they are the ones giving up
their time to speak to you. Although it may be annoying it is more acceptable for the
subject to be late however it isn’t for you.

10. Techniques Research
Another technique I researched is logo design. I looked at a video on YouTube by the
YouTuber who goes by Valuentainment. I have found out that there is 5 types of logos
that you can create; wordmark like yahoo, google and coca cola where it shows the
company name as the logo. Another is pictorial such as apple or twitter where the
logo is an image relating to the company name. There is also abstract in which the
logo image is unrelated to the text such as playboy and Nike however these are hard
to get noticed. Mascot is another type which has a character represent a company
such as Kool-Aid and KFC. The final type is emblem logo such as Harvard and
Starbucks. When creating a logo it important to not follow a trend for the logo as
trends come and go whereas your logo should be the same for a long time. Choose
your colours wisely, this can be done through websites that show a colour wheel and
give you good contrasting colours. Also different colours have different meanings so
that needs to be taken into consideration. The culture of the logo is also important
because people will feel different about logos. When designing a logo you need to
take into consideration how people will feel.

11. Techniques Research
Logo Mood Board

12. Questionnaire Analysis

13. Audience research
• How will your product appeal to this audience: Due to there being more males than
females that may be viewing my product I will most likely have more content that
relates to more males. An example of this is writing about games such as FPS and
Action games as these are popular with males.
• Observation: This
question is just a
simple one to
identify the
difference between
males and females
that may be viewing
my product.
• What this says about
my audience: It
shows that there is a
majority of males
over females

14. Audience
research
• How will your product appeal to this audience: It will appeal because my content
will be on games that are heavily played or followed by this age group i.e counter
strike and PUBG which have a player base similar to my target audience.
• Observation: Due to me
giving this survey to my class
I got the response I expected
with all of the answers being
late teenagers. This however
is the age I intend of
targeting my product
toward.
• What this says about my
audience: That my audience
is ranging from 15-20 which
is what I highlighted in my
initial plan for what target
age I will directing my
product at.

15. Audience research
• What this says about my audience: That more play video
games and therefor fall under my target audience that was
mentioned in my initial plan
• Observation: Nearly all
of the people that
completed my survey
play video games. This
is good for the rest of
my survey as the
answers will be more
reliable to the product
as my product is
relating to gaming and
if the majority of my
answers were from
people who don’t play
video games then they
wouldn’t give me the
best idea of what to
include.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: Due to my product being about
gaming by knowing that majority of my audience plays video games it makes my
product much more relevant to them

16. Audience
research
• What this says about my audience: That my audience doesn’t all read magazines. The
people that do read magazines however prefer to read them once a month and then
once a week.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: It would to this audience by spending as
much time on the website as the magazine as magazines don’t seem to be all that
popular. Also to release the magazine monthly as that’s how frequently most people
read them.
• Observation: This shows
that a slight majority read
magazines however there
is a considerable amount
who don’t. It also gives
me a good idea of how
often I should release the
magazine and the highest
choice is monthly.

17. Audience research
• What this says about my audience: that my audience is more inclined to view
information and news online
• How will your product appeal to this audience: I will appeal to this audience by
focusing a lot of time toward my website as this is where most people will come
for information and news.
• Observation: This
shows me that a clear
majority prefer to get
information from
websites instead of
physical means. This is
due to the rise of
technology recently
and the ease of
finding information
online as it is all in
one location.

18. Audience
research
• How will your product appeal to this audience: My
product will appeal to this audience because I will be
mainly focusing on my front cover and content as I think
these are the most important elements in a magazine
• Observation: This shows that
70% would buy a magazine
based off the front cover and the
content. Whereas only 8.7%
would buy based on the
company that has made the
magazine
• What this says about
my audience: That my
audience will be
mainly looking at the
front cover and what
content will be
featuring in my
magazine.

19. Audience research
• What this says about my audience: That my audience like to receive information in
different ways however this difference adds variety to my product
• How will your product appeal to this audience: My product will appeal to this
audience by showing information in both shorter facts and longer detailed facts
• Observation: This shows
there is a near 50/50
split in what way people
would like the
information shown. The
longer detailed
information will be in
longer article style
whereas the short facts
will be dotted around
the double page spread.

20. Audience research
• What this says about my audience: That my audience would pay an average price for the
magazine which shows that they expect mine to be of a similar quality to a well know
magazine
• How will your product appeal to this audience: my product will appeal to this audience
by being of the same quality as other well known magazines and have a very professional
look
• Observation: This shows
that on average the
people that have
completed my survey
would pay £4.10 for a
magazine. This is very
similar to average prices
with well known
magazines. The lowest
price someone would
pay is £1 whereas the
highest someone would
pay is £8

21. Audience
research
• What this says about my audience: That my audience would like a variety of topics
covered in my magazine.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: My product will appeal to this
audience because I will have the freedom to write about many different topics
• Observation: This shows that out
of all my sections I gave as
choices there is a pretty even
split between the celebrity
interviews, game updates, game
review and general news with
the poster section only receiving
7% of the votes however
this might be because of the
wording of my question.

22. Audience research
• How will your product appeal to this audience: My product will appeal to this
audience by covering topics regarding the more popular games such as FPS games.
This will allow for more views on my magazine and website.
• Observation: This shows that most of the
people that the most people play FPS
and RPG whereas the least people play
sports, MOBA and RTS games. The
average games with half or under playing
platformer games, puzzle games, open
world games and TBS games.
• What this says about my audience: That
my audience play a wide variety of games
and which games are more popular than
others.

23. Interviews

24. Interview 1
• What sections and features would you like to see in a gaming
magazine and why would you like to see them?
• Exclusive content as this would give it an edge over other
magazines
• Do you think news about the eSports scene is relevant in a gaming
magazine? Why?
• Yes as the eSports industry is extremely popular
• Do you follow professional gamers/streamers if so who?
• DrDisrespect he a funny guy
• Would a free item in a magazine attract you to buying it? Why?
• I would love a free gift because I like value for money
• What front cover design appeals most to you?
• A front cover with necessary information and attracting visuals

25. Interview 1
• Observation: This interview shows that exclusive content is necessary to give my
magazine the edge over other magazines. It also shows that free items make
people more inclined to buy them. Also that streaming and eSports is now very
popular and that it should be highlighted
• What this says about my audience: That my audience wants to feel like they are
getting more from their money with free gifts and that the eSports scene is very
popular when talking about gaming.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: My product will appeal to this
audience by having a large focus on eSports, streamers and exclusive content as
well as including a free gift.

26. Interview 2
• What sections and features would you like to see in a gaming magazine and why
would you like to see them?
• Exclusive things about the game, as well as explanations on each mode, as this
may make me persuaded to buy the game.
• Do you think news about the eSports scene is relevant in a gaming magazine?
Why?
• Yes, as a lot of people are following it and it is now a massive part of gaming.
• Do you follow professional gamers/streamers if so who?
• Not many, if I see a video on YouTube that interests me I’ll watch it but I don’t
follow any particular gamers or streamers.
• Would a free item in a magazine attract you to buying it? Why?
• Yes, depending on what it is, as it brings the value of the magazine up, and
especially if it is an exclusive item.
• What front cover design appeals most to you?
• Simple designs that also include the main stories and the biggest attraction in the
magazine, things I recognise mostly, such as the game itself or someone who
represents the game.

27. Interview 2
• Observation: This interview shows my audience again wants exclusive content and
having detailed information on the topics. It also shows the my audience thinks
that eSports has become a big part of the gaming scene. My interviewee doesn’t
necessarily follow any streamers or players however like watching gaming on
YouTube. This also shows that again that free exclusive item can persuade people
to buy a magazine as well as suggesting a simplistic design with a popular game or
personality as the main front image.
• What this says about my audience: That my audience wants exclusive content
specific to this magazine as it makes them feel like they are reading something
unique. They also don’t know all that much about streamers and professional
gamers however they realise the ever growing popularity in the eSports scene and
think it is relevant in gaming.
• How will your product appeal to this audience: My product will appeal to my
audience by including exclusive content, a focus on the eSports side of gaming as
well as a free gift of some sort as it makes people feel like they are getting more
for their money

28. Bibliography

29. Bibliography
1. Ward, Jack. (2018) Target Audience Research Survey (conducted on 13/04/18)
2. Henderson, Jack. (2018) Target Audience Interviews (conducted on 13/04/18)
3. Corr, Daniel. (2018) Target Audience Interviews (conducted on 13/04/18)
4. Mantrousse. (2015). NIP f0rest Has NO SECRETS!!! Interviews @ FACEIT CS GO Stage 2 Finals
(DreamHack Valencia). Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfGfwhlVTC4. Last
accessed 11th Apr 2018.
5. NicoManDoesReddit. (2018). PUBG - Retro Poster. Available:
https://www.reddit.com/r/PUBATTLEGROUNDS/comments/7o2t56/pubg_retro_poster/.
Last accessed 12th Apr 2018.
6. Anon. (2018). Homepage. Available: https://www.hltv.org/. Last accessed 12th Apr 2018.
7. Anon. (2017). PC Gamer Xmas 2017 Issue 312. Available:
https://www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/gaming/pc-gamer-magazine-back-issues/pc-
gamer-xmas-2017-issue-312/. Last accessed 12th Apr 2018.
8. Orr, G. (2015). How to interview a celebrity: Go easy on the booze and make sure you have
enough questions. Available: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/how-to-
interview-a-celebrity-go-easy-on-the-booze-and-make-sure-you-have-enough-questions-
10513373.html. Last accessed 20th Apr 2018.
9. Valuetainment. (2017). How to Create an Iconic Logo. Available:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kM5ScBw_JEk. Last accessed 20th Apr 2018.