In conclusion I can deduce from secondary and primary research that the target audience for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is young adults from the ages of 15 to 29. This is due to a variety of reasons.
When it came to secondary research, there was plenty of evidence that the target audience were young adults from 15 to 29. I firstly looked at the age rating for the game which was rated 15 from the BBFC and Mature (17+) by the ESRB. From this, I could deduce that the minimum age the game was aimed at was 15. However, since the rating boards are independent from the developer the given rating may not be what the developer initially intended. However since Bethesda is a large and accomplished developer, the game would be developed in a way to get the rating they desired to attract the target audience.
Upon looking and analyzing the age ratings from the different ratings boards I then looked at the user ratings from IMDb. The user ratings showed that the primary audience that played Skyrim were males aged 18 to 29. There was a total of over 7952 males within that age range opposed to just 718 females. This shows that the game may be more marketed towards men though due to the age, my estimation the target audience is 15 to 29 year old young adults is further backed up by the stats shown on IMDb.
Upon looking at secondary research, I then went onto primary. For my primary research, I profiled my audience via Qualitative and Quantitative Research. For Qualitative, I interviewed three separate people and I asked them questions regarding the game in order to profile them and determine whether they fit the estimated target audience. I asked them question's talking about the game while adding the occasional question gauging out whether they fit the audience established by the stat's on IMDb and the age range established by the ratings systems.
For quantitative, I made a Skyrim survey and put it out onto the internet in order to get as many responses as possible, in order to profile the games target audience. I received numerous responses allowing me to more accurately profile those answering the questions. By taking in the surveys results and analyzing them, I could find out whether they fit the age range set out by the ratings boards and IMDb.
For primary research, I did an online survey via Survey Monkey, and I also interviewed two people, one of the interviews was recorded and gameplay was put over the interview audio. Upon gathering the results, I found that once again, the main player-base was 17 to 18 year old males. This backed up the estimation the target audience are 15 to 29 year old young adults. All survey participants had enjoyed Skyrim and had put over 50 hours into it. This shows that the game is universally appealing to whomever plays it. In the interviews, both interviewees enjoyed Skyrim, with one even loving it to the point it was his favorite game. Despite this, when asked about Skyrims weaknesses, he pointed out many flaws about Skyrim, putting any doubt about bias to rest.
They both said that while Skyrim has many positives, it has a few flaws preventing the entire experience from being perfect. This shows that both participants were willing to put bias aside allowing for more accurate results.
Overall, I believe both my primary and secondary research proves that the target audience for Skyrim is 15 to 29 year old young adults. Throughout the research players consistently came up as 15 and over, which adds to the accuracy of the estimated target audience. While some aspects of the research were anonymous based, research such as the interviews was not, allowing for a guaranteed sense of accuracy for part of the results. Due to the consistent nature of the player ages, likes and dislikes, I feel my estimation as to the target audience is correct.
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