TASK 1

Continent of residence and Ethnicity:

Most Valve fans are European, and this shows in its multiplayer games. Let's take CS:GO as an example. Most of its fanbase are European, with lots of those Europeans being made up of people from Russia. Why Russians like playing CS:GO so much is unknown, so knowing the country of residence of Valve's target audience is only really useful to dictate what content can be in the game (in case countries have rules against certain aspects of games). China for example doesn't allow skulls in games, so a skin in CS:GO had to be changed from a skull to a helmet to suit that country. I will need to bear this in mind when creating my game and to research the countries' rules that I will be targeting to make sure the game can be sold there. The Continent of residence links with Ethnicity, and most people are White, so that links with Europe being the continent that most players live in.

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Sex:

The vast majority of Valve's playerbase are male, and this shows in the games they make. They mostly use a realistic style, like in Half-Life and Left 4 Dead, where it's more focused on horror and the story experience. However they do also cater towards other sexes with their other games' styles, like Portal. The characters used in the games is also important. DotA 2's character are extremely diverse, which allow all genders and sexes to choose whatever they want to play as, whereas Half-Life's character is a male, and features mostly men, especially in the first game, which would appeal more to the male sex. However in the second game, Half-Life 2, one of the main characters introduced was Alyx, a female character who accompanied you through the game. She is also the playable protagonist in Half-Life: Alyx, Half-Life's newest game. The Portal series have Chell as the main character, a female. She isn't seen much in the game and doesn't say anything, so this also lets male players insert themselves into her position.

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Qualifications, Favourite Valve series, Age, Lifestyle and Favourite game genre:

Most Valve fans either have A Levels (or equivalent to) or haven't finished school yet, showing that most of their playerbase is younger people. Linking this to the Favourite Valve series data, we can see that most people play Portal or Half-Life, with Portal being a 3 rated game (by PEGI), and Half-Life being a 12 rated game (by PEGI). This links with the qualifications and age demographic, as most players are under 18, so having two of Valve's most successful series being rated under 18 means that more players can play them, giving Valve more sales and reviews. The qualifications also links to the Lifestyle data, as most players are still in education, which correlates to the data shown previously. The Favourite game genre data also links to the Favourite Valve series data, as most people prefer FPS games, which is what Portal and Half-Life are.  By continuing to develop these kinds of games, Valve are feeding their community content that they want. I will therefore make an FPS game, but an FPS game with a catch that hasn't been explored much before, if at all, which is what Valve tries to do, innovate.

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Religion:

Most players are either Atheist or Other, and so since most players don't have a religion, Valve don't need to spend time looking at what content can and can't be added because of certain religions. They still need to be careful about what they do add, but to a lesser extent. This is prevalent in CS:GO, where a team of Terrorists literally try to blow up a map, and the player has to play as those Terrorists for at least half the game. Another example is general violence in games, as almost every Valve game as guns in that can shoot the player. Most if not all religions say that murder is not good, but it's included anyway because it's so far from real life that it doesn't matter too much, and that the people you shoot aren't real. 

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Pet:

Whether the player has a pet or not can dictate if the character in the game has an animal companion. For Half-Life 2, Valve had a robot called "Dog", which acted as Alyx's pet, similar to a dog in real life. This appealed to players who had pets, or more specifically, dogs, and they had to bond with the robot in part of the game by throwing a ball and getting Dog to catch it. This is something dog owners do a lot, so it's a touch of familiarity in an otherwise alien environment.

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Favourite UI style:

The majority of people said they liked Flat UI styles the most, and this is seen in Valve's most recent games, like Portal 2, CS:GO, and Half-Life: Alyx. The second most voted for style was skeuomorphic, which is seen in DotA 2 the most. To catch on to this style and to experiment and show that I am able to make a diverse array of styles, I will create a skeuomorphic design to combine with my FPS game to incorporate elements of different game genres to try to innovate as Valve does.