Language / Gameplay analysis
Watch The Sims: FreePlay trailer and answer the following questions:
1) What elements of gameplay are shown?
-customisation of characters
- maintaining the happiness of characters
- playing with pets
- having relationships
- exploring the avenues of adult life
2) What audience is the trailer targeting?
- females that desire to have their own family in adult life
3) What audience pleasures are suggested by the trailer?
- nostalgia of other Sims games
- diversion
- personal relationships: bond with the characters and their journey through the game
- personal identity: players can relate to their characters as they have created something that reflects their values and idelogies
Now watch this walk-through of the beginning of The Sims FreePlay and answer the following questions:
1) How is the game constructed?
It's constructed to give you control over the avatars life as you have full customisation of their appearance and personality. The freemium model allows you to purchase extra gems to quicken your progress too.
2) What audience is this game targeting?
People that have the time and patience to carry on the progress of the game until they get a reality that reflects their ideal one. Ideally, females seem to have a lot more patience than men and prefer a game where you nurture a character and its surroundings.
3) What audience pleasures does the game provide?
personal identity: your customisation of the character makes sure that your own values are at heart
personal relationships: gamers bond with the characters and their journey through the game
4) How does the game encourage in-app purchases?
By using gems that can speed up your progress which'll get your dream city much faster.
Audience
Read this App Store description and the customer reviews for The Sims FreePlay and answer the following questions:
1) What critics reviews are included in the game information section?
5 STARS ...The Sims FreePlay is everything you could ever want a freemium Sims game to be.” (Gamezebo)
“10/10 …one of the most addictive and highly polished games available and there’s no excuse for anyone to not download it; especially since it is free to play (the clue’s in the title).” (God is a Geek)
2) What do the reviews suggest regarding the audience pleasures of The Sims FreePlay?
The in-app purchases enhance and improve your gaming experience.
3) How do the reviews reflect the strong element of participatory culture in The Sims?
The players of the game influence the game's production and future updates based on what needs to be fixed.
Participatory culture
Read this academic journal article - The Sims: A Participatory Culture 14 Years On. Answer the following questions:
1) What did The Sims designer Will Wright describe the game as?
‘a train set or a doll’s house where each person comes to it with their own interest and picks their own goals’
2) Why was development company Maxis initially not interested in The Sims?
They didn't see the success of the 'dollhouse' style - cultural industries are a risky business
3) What is ‘modding’?
manipulating game code, with permission of the rights owners, to create new and 'fanpage' style content to post on a forum or even the official game website.
4) How does ‘modding’ link to Henry Jenkins’ idea of ‘textual poaching’?
They're using the original text, like the fans, and using it to produce a new and engaging creative text.
5) Look specifically at p136. Note down key quotes from Jenkins, Pearce and Wright on this page.
‘held together through the mutual production and reciprocal exchange of knowledge’
‘The original Sims series has the most vibrant emergent fan culture of a single-player game in history’
‘We were probably responsible for the first million or so units sold but it was the community which really brought it to the next level’
6) What examples of intertextuality are discussed in relation to The Sims? (Look for “replicating works from popular culture”)
Star Trek, Star Wars, The X-Files and Japanese anime and manga were extremely popular.
7) What is ‘transmedia storytelling’ and how does The Sims allow players to create it?
a process wherein the primary text encoded in an official commercial product could be dispersed over multiple media, both digital and analogue in form
- The "official commercial product" is the actual Sims game
- the dispersion of that media in both digital and analogue form is where the players can customise their characters or even use modding or creating fan fiction.
8) How have Sims online communities developed over the last 20 years?
They've become more interlinked, not only though their love of The Sims, but also through the distribution of fan made content which is just as, if not more, popular than the original text.
9) Why have conflicts sometimes developed within The Sims online communities?
- modding characters to commit illegal activities that would be inappropriate for a game rated PEGI 3
10) What does the writer suggest The Sims will be remembered for?
"for the cult following that it engendered
well beyond the usual lifespan of a popular computer
game; and also for the culture of digital production it
helped to pioneer, one that remains such a staple of
fan and game modding communities today."
Read this Henry Jenkins interview with James Paul Gee, writer of Woman as Gamers: The Sims and 21st Century Learning (2010).
1) How is ‘modding’ used in The Sims?
modding is used to improve emotional intelligence and social interactions
2) Why does James Paul Gee see The Sims as an important game?
It's meant to be a game that goes beyond gaming, it's not just mainstream, it's cutting edge.
3) What does the designer of The Sims, Will Wright, want players to do with the game?
they want players to be empowered to think like designers. they want the players to be at the forefront of the game's development.
4) Do you agree with the view that The Sims is not a game – but something else entirely?
It doesn't really strike as much of a game - rather an application that allows you to use its customization features to build a fantasy world that fits in with individual ideologies.
5) How do you see the future of gaming? Do you agree with James Paul Gee that all games in the future will have the flexibility and interactivity of The Sims?
I think that many games will follow suit with The Sims and they'll create content that allows players to create their own content within the rights of the game. We're seeing an increase in the freemium model with EA's microtransactions and after its acquirement of multiple games developers like F1 devs Codemasters, it could be just a few years until we see all games constructed like The Sims.
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