Task 3 - Responses

In this task, I shall establish and analyse what my personal response has been towards The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in regards to The Reception Theory model.

In short, the reception theory is when an audience doesn't passively take in media, they actively create their own thoughts and feeling on what they have just consumed. This is the opposite to social control when the audience passively accepts any media consumed and are told what they are to think of it, and as such, social control is achieved.

In regards to my own personal response to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, I feel I have reacted positively to the game overall. When utilizing the reception theory, it is made clear I have actively consumed Skyrim as a media text and I have made my own opinions and thoughts about the game, opposed to passively consuming it and being told what to think and feel when playing it allowing me to resist social control.

The way in which Skyrim has been encoded, is that Bethesda have adhered to the codes and conventions of the fantasy genre, and have actively drawn on audience expectations, taken from feedback of their previous game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. This was done in a way to make sure the audience decoded Skyrim in a way that makes them notice that Skyrim is an improvement over its predecessor and that it adheres to the codes and conventions of the fantasy genre such as the 'hero needs to save the world' plot, the races from popular culture such as Orcs, Elves, etc and swords and magic in a medieval world just to name a few.

I feel that I decoded Skyrim in the way that Bethesda aimed for when encoding Skyrim. I feel overall I have had a positive relationship in regards to interacting with Skyrim as a media text. I have a positive relationship with the game due to the way it was encoded. Due to the fact Skyrim was encoded by using the popular codes and conventions of fantasy and due to the fact I like fantasy, I instantly decoded Skyrim in a positive way due to the game being encoded to cater to people with the same or similar likes.

I feel that Skyrims emphasis on using the common codes and conventions of fantasy to encode it allowed me to decode it successfully due to my proclivity of the mainstays of the fantasy genre. Due to this, I feel that my personal response and relationship in regards to Skyrim has been positive as a results of the codes and conventions encoded into Skyrim.

I feel that its reliance on the main codes and conventions of Skyrim allows the game to provide a similar narrative feeling to its predecessors, due to the fact they themselves are very traditional with no significant deviations from the traditional codes and conventions of the genre. Due to this, the game feels similar allowing me to decode it in a way that positively reinforces my personal response with Skyrim, due to my liking of the previous entries in The Elder Scrolls series.

Overall, I feel my personal response to Skyrim was positive. My response adhered to the Reception Theory because Skyrim was encoded in a way that when I decoded it as a media text, the game instantly appealed to me. I actively consumed Skyrim opposed to passively which allowed me to form my own opinions and thoughts towards the game upon decoding it.


Written References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reception_theory



Visual References:
http://www.slideshare.net/pradanayar/reception-theory-39659828