To what extent do video game makers target audiences through changing representations?
You may either take this on as a timed challenge without access to your notes (give yourself 35 minutes) OR you can treat this as an 'open-book' assessment and take unlimited time with full access to your notes and blog. Please note you will not be given a mark and grade for this essay question but will be given written feedback on what you produce.
(didn't look at notes + didn't time myself)
The way that representations in The Sims Freeplay and Tomb Raider are portrayed are similar as well as different. The methods used by the developers of both games have been carefully analysed to ensure that concepts like postmodernism and other relevant industrial contexts. The target audiences for The Sims and Tomb Raider are a majority of Gen Z or millenial players. Whilst The Sims appeals more to a female market, the female gaze means that Tomb Raider has a majority male fanbase.
To an extent, the creators of Tomb Raider Anniversary have gone to great lengths to carefully construct representations to attract its target audience. When the original Tomb Raider released in the 1990s it was seen as a groundbreaking game because almost all titles at the time included females as side characters - not as the main protagonist. It's therefore easy to see why the game had an instant pull towards the female gamer market. As more and more titles were released, Lara Croft became one of the most recognisable characters in the gaming universe predominantly due to her sexualised appearance. Tomb Raider Anniversary released in 2007 and it was an instant hit as the nostalgia that was associated with the original Tomb Raider game was evident in this game. The way in which Lara Croft was constructed is definitely to appeal to the majority of male gamers. Applying Laura Mulvey's male gaze, one can argue that Lara Croft's appearance is simply the result of hetreosexual normality and that the way in which the character of Lara Croft is constructed appeals to the 'target' audience which tends to be males aged between 18-30 years old. We can also apply Van Zoonen's theory about the female body being seen as a 'spectacle' as Croft's body is seen as a device to attract male gamers. Through the heterosexual representation in Tomb Raider Anniversary, we see a progressive game concept however the game doesn't tackle other issues such as the inclusion of minorities or LGBTQ+ members.
In The Sims Freeplay representations in-game are far more progressive than any of the other two CSPs in this topic. One could argue that this game is a postmodern text as it can be applied to Jean Baudrillard's theory of hyperreality. The artificial world in The Sims allows players to construct their own world, free from any dominant and influential ideologies, leading them to create a universe which feels more real than the one players are actually in. This leads to the fake reality becoming more definitive of the real world. The developers of The Sims have done this to display that its players can create their own individual world, opening up the possibility of unlocking fantasies. Another area in which The Sims dominate is the representation of LGBTQ+ members. When EA unveiled The Sims Freeplay at E3, the trailer they screened at the event featured a gay couple kissing, seen as extremely progressive and ahead of the times. Through changing the conventions of identity, the developers have given way for many underrepresented groups to be represented in the game. In return, this attracts more of their target audience as there is a wider scope to present one's identity. This can be linked to David Gauntlett's fluidity of culture, which is evident in the DLC packs The Sims Freeplay offers. DLCs like the pre-teen update and the pregnancy update reflect societal demands and then implements itself in the game. This makes the game's target audience more likely to create characters which best represent them and it'll make them play for longer.
We can apply Henry Jenkins' theory of fandom as Tomb Raider Anniversary offers a great sense of nostalgia to its players as it is a game in a long line of Lara Croft games, movies and spin-offs. The game appeals to the original fandom that the game attracted in the first place. Also applying Blumler and Katz's uses and gratification theory, the audience are able to find diversion and personal relationship. The game's player base is made up of mostly male gamers however a large part of the target audience is female as it's still seen as one of the only games to portray a female as the main protagonist.
The development of The Sims was not exactly straightforward. The original developer Maxis thought that the game was not going to hit well with the target audience as it was too much of a risk. Taking David Hesmondhalgh's 'risky business' into mind, the sandbox game simply didn't have the appeal of similar games at the time. EA however saw its potential and took credit for its 'dollhouse' style game and published the game, going on to be one of the most successful game titles of all time. The 'dollhouse' style appealed to the female market, which makes up a large majority of its players. EA are also well known for adding the freemium model tp its games. In The Sims, the freemium model adds an extra layer of depth to the personalisation aspect of the game. In return for paying money to EA for extra DLC packs, players are given exclusive items that allow themselves to expressed more clearly in the game. We can apply Baudrillard's theory of simulacra here as the game both reflects and rejects some aspects of real world scenarios. Baudrillard mentioned a few descriptions of simulacra that could be applied to a postmodern text. I applied pretence to The Sims as it's a text that masks the absence of reality through process of speeding up building progressions and changing one's appearance. Another use of Baudrillard's theory could be the inclusion of pure simulacra. Players can create a world which bears no resemblance to the real world and is therefore a completely constructed world. We can also apply Jenkins' theory of fandom as Modding is one of the things that makes The Sims different from any other title is that fans can make their own make believe world from their own creations. The use of fan-made texts and applying it to an existing, well known product makes the target audience more involved in the creation of the game. The Sims' social media accounts also provide a great example of simulacra as they are real people, interacting with real gamers but its content is entirely based around a fictional world.
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