When analysing games The Last of Us and Just Dance, I found out that these two games are, indeed, different, but stay true to the common codes in their corresponding genres. The Last of Us is a survival- horror action-adventure game filled with jump scares and thrills, whereas Just Dance is a dance and rhythm game where people don't care about anything else than dancing.
More than half of my total respondents have never played any of these games, but they were willing to answer the survey despite that. I highly doubt that the gender or each respondent has had any visible effect on their answers.
Games such as The Last of Us are successful and far more pleasurable to play when they have a rich story, better if it's non-linear, that means that the player makes choices and based on them, the story turns in different direction. All of the people that partaken in my survey agreed with me, especially as this game's foundation is the story itself. With this aspect of horror, uncertainty it is easier to absorb the feeling a game has to tell if it has a believable plot, when we can associate with or at least attach to the main characters, experiencing every single moment with them. Because of that, the audience that the game does appeal to are mostly teens and adults; they can understand what's happening and why it's happening this way. Children would get lost and probably scared, elderly could understand the story but I doubt they would enjoy it.
On the other hand, games such as Just Dance don't need a story, this aspect of a narrative convention is unwanted in this kind of game. It is purely a social game, which you play from time to time, especially when friends are visiting or with family. The most it has to the story is each of these songs, the player chooses what to play next and it can play a certain level once, multiple times or never - it doesn't matter. With this as well, the respondents agreed stating that if this game would have a story, it would act as an interruption to the gameplay and wouldn't be as enjoyable to play as it is now. They stated that the game mostly appeals to children and teenagers, but some adults and elderly may find it enjoyable as well (basically any extrovert with some stamina).
Looking at the content, both games have text, images/graphics and soundtrack, but because of the genres, this content varies greatly.
The Last of Us' content is constructed to be dark, dim and depressive - the realism is surrounded by the 'fog of uncertainty', colours are lacking in saturation, the font appears dirty. It clearly shows that the game and what happens in it isn't happy at all. When we look at the pictures of posters or gameplay itself we see this asymmetry - characters are off to side, camera is tilted suggesting the lack of safety or sanity. Apart of this, the game plays as a film, it is packed with lots of interactive cutscenes. The respondents claimed that this content, especially the graphics, fits very well into the game's genre as well as the story it tells, stating that it does reflect the spooky atmosphere.
Just Dance's content is constructed to be bright, flashy and over the top. The game's action shouts for more and more attention. We see those theatrical sceneries with mannequins wearing very impressive and glamorous clothing. The colours are highly saturated, there's barely any browns or blacks, just the colours of the rainbow. This and it's cartoonish style emit the party mood and inject it into the players. When looking at pictures of posters and the gameplay we see this central, symmetrical view - the characters are like actors, doing their best on the stage. In addition this is one of the very rare games that almost are played in second person, there's no more I or she/he, but you. The respondents agreed that the overall style, especially the colours and music do seek attention and definitely make it a party game. They also suit the target audience but also are appealing to other age groups.
Lastly, I would say that any game has a potential to be successful and enjoyable, as long as it is aware of it's audience and knows how to select the right content. I don't mean it that people should only use the generally expected common codes and clichés to the particular genre. It's still better to surprise the consumers with something new, as long as it's not completely different.