Creators, Producers, and Management in Video Gaming Industry in Corporate Companies such as Activision Blizzard

TERM PAPER ASSIGNMENT INFORMATION • COMM 346

>> ABOUT THE TERM PAPER

 The COMM 346 class has already surveyed various aspects of the entertainment industry (and will continue to do so through the remainder of the semester). The idea of this term paper is to have students investigate important elements of the entertainment/tourism industries, primarily by analyzing a notable product or service generated by the industries and detailing its background via substantive, meaningful research.

 The term paper will consist of several sections, each requiring various statements of facts and opinion (where necessary; note the below listed information for details).

 >> TERM PAPER CONTENTS

 You will be required to select and describe a particularly noteworthy, historically and socially significant product or service (therefore, not a company, team, group, band or artist) in the domestic (U.S.-based) entertainment/tourism industries. You will then discuss those directly involved in the creation of it, those in the upper management who oversee such creation, the cultural/historical relevancy and significance of it (via information sourced from scholarly, academically-oriented periodicals, publications and journals), and any noted societal effects of the product or service (again, via information sourced from scholarly, academically-oriented periodicals, publications and journals).

 Examples of product/services have included topics like historically/socially significant video games, music albums, films, television programs, sports championships, etc. Note the stress on the historical significance of your product/service choice—do not select something that is not considered a “game changer” in its respected field. Your selection should hail from sometime between 1920-2015 or so

Select an exact, specific product or service. Do not just use a generic descriptor like “video games” as your topic. It should be the specific company and model name of the product or service, e.g., Fortnite. Do not use company/network names like “CBS” or “MTV” as your topic — it must be a specific program on CBS.

 The success of your paper may hinge on your topic selection. Therefore, you will have to spend considerable time in the selection process, to examine which products/services meet the criteria and have substantive documentation from which you can source.

In a 5-page paper (excluding title and references pages), you are expected to provide the below-listed, in the following sequence of section headers (use these section headers in your paper):

INTRODUCTION

A synopsis of the entertainment product/service you have selected and why you chose this product/service. [this should be about a half-page; reminder: do NOT use first-person voice here – no “I” or “me” or “my” statements]

CREATORS/PRODUCERS/MANAGEMENT

A description of those directly involved and their particular roles in the initial creation/production of the selected product/service (depending on the product/service selected, these could be inventors, bands/artists, producers/engineers, event planning company/marketing staff, athletes/team members/coaches, etc.)

A description of those who supervised/oversaw the creators/producers of the product/service and their roles in the organization or those who took over the implementation of the product/service in the marketplace after its creation and/or currently oversee the product/service’s implementation (depending on the product/service selected, these folks could be CEOs of companies/organizations directly related to the product/service, team owners, commissioners, etc.)

HISTORICAL & SOCIETAL SIGNIFICANCE

What sorts of documented historical value does this entertainment product/service contain, particularly within its own field or industry? Provide information regarding how this entertainment product/service made an impact in terms of comparisons to like-minded products/services, from a similar or perhaps previous time period, or how it may have changed the face or future of its respective industry at large, if it did in any way. Also: What makes this entertainment product/service notable, when you look at it chronologically and within the context or frame of the overall entertainment industry?

Articulately discuss how — in the opinions of scholars and authors you have researched — the product/service you have selected has changed/impacted society at large. Some questions to consider answering as part of this section: How have people interacted with this entertainment product/service? How has this entertainment product/service been shown through the media? How and why has this entertainment product/service become popular? What makes this entertainment product/service entertaining to those who use them? Are there message boards, blogs or websites dedicated this entertainment product/service and if so, what are they saying? How has this entertainment product/service manufacturer marketed this product/service, and how has that changed over the years? How has the public caused this entertainment product/service to change (if they have at all)? How has this entertainment product/service changed the way people interact or socialize? Why is this entertainment product/service so important in the nation or world?

[this section should be of considerable length, must have strong, multiple in-text APA formatted citations and references to academic sources you’ve researched; no direct quotes—all information must be paraphrased in your own words and properly cited]

S.W.O.T.

Identify the STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES and THREATS of/to your selected product/service in this section. Write it in a standard narrative sentence form; do not break it out in bullet points or short phrases. You must detail at least two Strengths, two Weaknesses, two Opportunities and two Threats in this section. What made the product/service so strong in marketplace? What were its weaknesses (shortcomings) in the marketplace? What opportunities did this product/service have, and did it capitalize on those opportunities? What were the threats to the product/service, and from where did they hail? Feel free to mention more than two for each part. Make sure all elements are properly cited.

CONCLUSION

A brief encapsulation of the entertainment product/service you have discussed in the paper and its relation to entertainment and/or tourism communications. [this should be about a half-page; do NOT use first-person voice here – no “I” or “me” or “my” statements]

>> ORGANIZATION

The term paper should have:

An APA-formatted title page (a.k.a. cover page — no abstract is necessary) [1 page]

The above-listed components in their proper sequence with subheads in place [5 complete pages of narrative]

References page(s) in full APA format [1+ page(s), depending on number of references]

Note that analysis is key. I am not seeking a straight historical report of a product or service; depth and discussion based on research and credible sources adds value (and points) to this paper.

 >> FORMATTING

 APA conformity is crucial in maintaining a strong assignment grade. All references must be cited in APA 6th or 7th edition format within the paper’s narrative and also listed on the References page. Wiki- and/or -pedia citations are not allowed. All references should be of valid, sound academic value. News reports must be culled from legitimate, reputable organizations. Online blogs and non-academically sourced websites will be deemed unacceptable. A minimum of six qualifying references must appear in the References page. At least three of these references must hail from peer-reviewed academic journals/articles/books. Formatting is a graded component of the paper. Therefore, papers lacking quality, academically sound sources will also be subject to point deductions.

 APA info available here: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/ (Links to an external site.)

 APA info also available here: http://apastyle.org/learn/index.aspx (Links to an external site.)

 Note: Those “automatic” APA citation tools available online and via the library’s website are not perfect and may miss components of proper style for your references list or in-text citations. Therefore, I strongly urge you to double-check the citations with an APA Style Publication Manual before submitting. Refer to the APA Example Paper PDF posted to the COMM 346 Canvas page as a formatting guide.

Compose your paper using 12 pt. Times or Times New Roman font size only throughout the entire document (including headers/footers). Papers must also be double-spaced, with 1" margins all around. Page numbers must be included per APA specifications (upper right hand corner of header). A running header in all caps should be placed in the upper left hand corner of the header.

Do NOT use first-person or second-person voice anywhere within this paper – no “I” or “me” or “my” or “you” statements, unless they are direct quotes from an external source (which is a very rare occurrence). Write this term paper solely in third-person voice.

Please note that because this is a Communications class and due to your instructor’s professional writing background, items like spelling, punctuation, word usage and overall grammatical quality will be factored in as a sizable portion of the paper’s overall grade, so please proofread and spell-check your document before submitting.

>> TOPICS NOT ALLOWED

 Due to over a decade of reading many similar 346 Term Papers ad nauseam, the following topics are not allowed for this assignment (many of these were actually really good topic ideas):

 13 Reasons Why; Academy Awards (Oscars); Airbnb; All in the Family; Amazon-branded products/services; American Idol; Animal Crossing; all Apple products/services; Avatar; The Bachelor/Bachelorette; Barbie; Beatles albums; The Birth of a Nation; Burning Man; Call of Duty; Citizen Kane; Coachella; Comic-Con; The Cosby Show; all Disney products/services/films/parks (including 20th Century, Marvel and other subsidiaries); Electric Daisy Carnival; Ellen Show; Facebook; The Fast and the Furious (entire franchise); Family Guy; FIFA World Cup; Fortnite; Friends; Frozen; Game of Thrones; Glee; Gone With the Wind; Google; Gossip Girl; Grand Theft Auto; The Grammys; Grey’s Anatomy; Hamilton; all Harry Potter-related books/products/services/locations; How I Met Your Mother; Hulu; The Hunger Games; I Love Lucy; Instagram; The Jazz Singer; Jaws; Jersey Shore; Jurassic Park/World; Keeping Up with the Kardashians; Kickstarter; Knott’s Berry Farm; La La Land; League of Legends; Legos/Legoland; Lord of the Rings; Lyft; all Michael Jackson albums; Modern Family; Mr. Rogers Neighborhood; MySpace; Napster; Netflix; Newport Beach Film Festival; Nintendo Entertainment System/Gameboy/Wii; Straight Outta Compton (movie & album); The Office; Oprah Winfrey Show; Pandora; The Phantom of the Opera; Pintrest; Pixar; Playboy; Sony Playstation; Pokemon/Pokemon Go; The Real World; Redbox; Rent; Rocky Horror Picture Show; RuPaul’s Drag Race; Saturday Night Live; Sea World; Seinfeld; Sesame Street; Sex in the City; The Simpsons; Skype; Snapchat; SoundCloud; South Park; Spongebob Squarepants; Spotify; Stagecoach; Star Trek; Star Wars films; The Superbowl; Superman; Survivor; Teen Mom/16 and Pregnant; Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; TikTok; Tinder; Titanic; TRL; Tumblr; Twilight series; Twitch; Twitter; Uber; Vine; The Walking Dead; Warped Tour; Wizard of Oz; Woodstock; World of Warcraft; XBox; Yelp; YouTube.

>> TERM PAPER DEADLINE

The Term Paper is to be turned in via the TurnItIn link on the class Canvas page by 3 p.m. on April 19th.

Papers received up to 24 hours after deadline (up to 3 p.m. on Apr. 20th) will only receive half credit (50 points maximum). Papers received more than 24 hours after deadline will not receive ANY credit. Do not turn in a hard copy, electronic paper submissions only. Your term paper will be automatically checked for plagiarism via TurnItIn.

[If you have trouble uploading to TurnItIn, you must email me your paper as an attachment and I must receive it before 3 p.m. for full credit.]

>> GRADING

The paper is worth 100 points maximum. The paper will be graded via a variety of categories including compositional quality, formatting, citations/references, depth and significance of information provided in each section, plus adherence to protocol and assignment instructions.

NOTE: I will do my best to have term paper grades posted and papers returned by final exams week, but this is not always a guarantee. Your patience with my less-than-expedient grading pace is appreciated.

GRADING CRITERIA

COMPOSITION: 40 POINTS

CONTENT: 40 POINTS

FORMATTING/CITES/REFERENCES: 20 POINTS

TOTAL: 100 POINTS                                                                           

>> WRITING STYLE

 Please refer to the “346 Writing Guidelines” document posted on Canvas. It is a comprehensive document outlining what you should and should not do. I cannot emphasize this enough: I am really picky about writing quality.