CS: Research Report Proposal (Brief & Research)

Context:

To prepare myself for the 5000 (10,000 extended if I've got enough to talk about) word essay I plan to write in third year, we are being given the chance to explore, devise, revise and study initial research topics whilst receiving support from the close guidance of the course team.  Choosing from the wide variety of research topics, I must identify, discern and articulate enthusiasm in a particular are of investigation to prepare for completing my Research Report in BA3a.

Brief:

The Research Report Proposal is to be 1000 words and will identify key areas of investigation, as well as to document initial research areas and relevant supportive material. This Research Report will be realised and make me choose one form of writing style, I have the option to choose from:

1. Extended essay

2. Industry report

3. Technical report

4. Reflective report

5. Editorial

The research report guidelines document (available on the VLE) has more information about how to lay out the essay proposal. The chosen writing style must also be shown in the essay proposal.

Essay Proposal Ideas and Plan:

When this project began, I started brainstorming ideas that I thought would make a good essay to write about. I started with the premise that it will involve character design somehow, I then went onto think about characters that I enjoyed playing as, there are a number of characters that I connected with for their unique design, personality and overall message they convey. I prefer the characters that give you the options to chose how you want the story to turn out, like Mass Effect and Fallout, I particularly like the games where you can create these characters and make them whoever you want them to be. It then got me thinking about what goes through a person's mind when they create a character, do they try to make them look like the player, or do they go so far as to make them an abomination to look at to get a number of laughs in.

I decided to write my proposal on character design and the enjoyment that comes out of it, however this can mean a lot of things in the gaming world, so I had to simplify it to questions that I would be asking myself throughout the essay. If I need to, I will narrow the questions down to make them easier to understand.

1. What makes a good character design?
2. How a person chooses to create their character?
3. Why do players attach to their avatar?
4. What goes through a person's mind when they create a character?

For my essay I want to write about What makes a good character design? I plan to find out what game characters people prefer over others?, why they prefer them? and what do they learn from them? I plan to make surveys and send emails to companies of my choosing asking them about their characters. I will also be playing games with unique characters, and using online research to find out why these characters are so popular.

I presented my ideas to Merlin to hear his opinions and which direction to head in, he helped me layout potential ideas for my essay, he also liked my idea of what make a person choose that character a lot, looking at the guidelines and tips on the VLE. I will construct it in a rule of 3 essay, focusing on three areas within my chosen topic to talk about. I plan to write my proposal over the Easter break as I know art progress due to unreliable software will be slow.

After explaining my idea to others, I decided to take a step back because a majority of them couldn't understand what I was trying to explain. So I went on to expand upon my initial idea and look at what my first idea could relate to, I chose to look at:

'What Makes a Good Game Story?'

This allows me to look at more than just the character element in games and research into areas like environments and what the player takes away from his experience with the game. This gives me more to explore and write about, and I believe that it is a more interesting topic to talk about.

Mind Map Ideas for Essay