The Sims FreePlay case study part 1 - Language & Audience

Watch The Sims: FreePlay trailer and answer the following questions:

1) What elements of gameplay are shown?

Autonomy
House decoration
Marriage
Child birth
Creativity

Pet Care
Exploring

2) What audience is the trailer targeting?

The audience being targeted for this game would be predominately female due to a lot of focus on femininity aspects that females will respond positively to. In addition I think the age range would be between 12-25 which is a very youthful audience as the game features living a life of young person surrounded by youth culture and a way to give the audience freedom to live the life they dream of.

3) What audience pleasures are suggested by the trailer?

Personal Identity - The Sims Freeplay allows the audience to reflect their lives and ideals through their in game character so that they can live their life with complete freedom.

Escapism - Escaping from real life to live a virtual life with the freedom you wouldn't have IRL. Diverting yourself from real life problems

Now watch this walk-through of the beginning of The Sims FreePlay and answer the following questions:

1) How is the game constructed?

You are given many tasks to do which will reward you with various things like EXP, simoleons and crystals. With these tasks, they do take time to do varying from a few minutes to a couple of hours. However, by using crystals (in-game purchase) you can speed up the time it takes to complete said task. Within the game you have to look after your sim by catering to it's 'needs' which relate to the fundamentals of real life e.g., hunger, bladder, hygiene, energy and fun.

2) What audience is this game targeting?

A predominantly female audience due to there being are a lot more clothing choices and just things in general for female sims compared to the male sims. This shows how the game is targeted towards females and their ideals.

3) What audience pleasures does the game provide?

• Personal Identity
• Diversion
• Hyper-reality
• Rewarding

4) How does the game encourage in-app purchases?

You are able to speed up the time it takes to complete various tasks by buying these crystals as well as buying in game currency to improve your sims lifestyle. The long time periods will start to become annoying therefore the best option is to put some money in to the game if you want to get the best experience out of it.

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)
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• “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)
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• “...plenty of hours of fun... at an excellent, non-existent, price.” (148Apps)

2) What do the reviews suggest regarding the audience pleasures of The Sims FreePlay?

The game shares a close connection to real life making it extremely easy to get lost playing it for hours upon hours, completely diverting yourself from the real world. Despite it being virtual it all feels like some kind of reality you wish to live.

3) How do the reviews reflect the strong element of participatory culture in The Sims?

Players make these reviews in order to give advice or complaints to EA on how and where they can improve their game . This shows how passionate and how much love the fan base has for The Sims as a franchise as they want it to thrive as much as it can and continue to add things that'll keep them addicted and enjoying the game.

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?

Will Wright describes as akin to ‘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?

The development company were not interested at first as the company board thought that the "doll-house" concept of the game was for "little girls and girls didn't play video games."

3) What is ‘modding’?

Modding is where players are able to modify game assets by manipulating the game code (a practice called ‘modding’)

4) How does ‘modding’ link to Henry Jenkins’ idea of ‘textual poaching’?

It links to the idea of textual poaching because by modding a game audiences are able to make their very own contributions to the game themselves and come together as a fan base to share their passion and relate to others ideals through "mutual production and reciprocal exchange of knowledge".

5) Look specifically at p136. Note down key quotes from Jenkins, Pearce and Wright on this page.

• Participatory culture creates communities that are ‘held together through the mutual production and reciprocal exchange of knowledge’ (Jenkins 2006a: 137).
• ‘The original Sims series has the most vibrant emergent fan culture of a single-player game in history’ (Pearce 2009: 272).
• Even before the first game was released, Jenkins notes, ‘there were already more than fifty fan Web sites dedicated to The Sims. Today, there are thousands’ (2006b: 166).
• "it was the community that really brought [the game] to the next level" (Wright)

6) What examples of intertextuality are discussed in relation to The Sims? (Look for “replicating works from popular culture”)

The Sims has given gamers the chance to create their own fandoms within the Sims fandom itself. This is due to how fans were creating their favourite characters from things like anime, star wars and other cult media images.

7) What is ‘transmedia storytelling’ and how does The Sims allow players to create it?

"Transmedia storytelling - when the primary text encoded in an official commercial product could be dispersed over multiple media.both digital and analogue in form (Jenkins 2007)."

The Sims allows players to create it as they can make their favourite characters from films and reenact certain scenes in their own way which can then be shared with the community.

8) How have Sims online communities developed over the last 20 years?

By having the ability to shape The Sims by making and using various mods has created a more widespread community but has also created divisions within the Sims fandom. In addition the community has become more advanced and learn from each other.

9) Why have conflicts sometimes developed within The Sims online communities?

Conflicts have developed because of the emergence of an informal hierarchy. In the past there have been conflicts between creators and non-creators; between creators who wish to charge
money for their mods and those who wish to share them for free; even between players and Maxis/EA itself. Fans of The Sims are not homogeneous. Some fans have complained of fellow community members receiving more recognition and power because they can create things that others can’t – opportunities for participation do not necessarily imply an attendant equality.

10) What does the writer suggest The Sims will be remembered for?

But what it will be remembered for, I think, is 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?

"create challenges and game play that is simultaneously in the game world, in the real world, and in writing things like graphic novels."

2) Why does James Paul Gee see The Sims as an important game?

"The Sims is a real game and a very important one because it is a game that is meant to take people beyond gaming." And how women play and design is not "mainstream"  but cutting edge, the edge of the future.

3) What does the designer of The Sims, Will Wright, want players to do with the game?

Will Wright wants to empower people to think like designers, to organise themselves around the game to become learn new skills that extend beyond the game, and to express their own creativity.

4) Do you agree with the view that The Sims is not a game – but something else entirely?

I do believe that The Sims is something more than just a game. It can be seen by many people as a reflection of real life and in many ways a fully interactive simulation in which you can completely immerse yourself within, dictating your life. The Sims is also a massive community with millions of fans coming together with their shared passion for The Sims embracing the creative aspect of it as well. 

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 do agree with James Paul as I see many games in the future having the same flexibility and interactivity as The Sims. This is due to the fact that consumers/audiences are evolving and want to become something more than just a passive audience, instead they want to engage and share their own creativity, becoming producers.