Create a new blogpost called 'The Sims FreePlay case study part 1 - Language & Audience' and complete the following in-depth tasks.
1) What elements of gameplay are shown?
Language / Gameplay analysis
Watch The Sims: FreePlay trailer and answer the following questions:
1) What elements of gameplay are shown?
decorating your house, taking care of pets, make your sims date, grow a family, build a city you can interact with
2) What audience is the trailer targeting?
it seems to be a wider audience but they do include female outfits and designs to begin with. This could allude to the Sims being more female targeted.
3) What audience pleasures are suggested by the trailer?
diversion, personal identity
Now watch this walk-through of the beginning of The Sims FreePlay and answer the following questions:
1) How is the game constructed?
players have to pay real money for in-game currency if they want to play the game without interruptions.
2) What audience is this game targeting?
Woman mobile gamers. The women characters have more customization options.
3) What audience pleasures does the game provide?
4) How does the game encourage in-app purchases?
By spending money, the game becomes more convenient to play in larger chunks of time.
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?
GameZebo, a game review site that reviews mobile and PC games.
"10/10... one of the most addictive and highly polished games available"
God is a geek, also a game review site.
2) What do the reviews suggest regarding the audience pleasures of The Sims FreePlay?
3) How do the reviews reflect the strong element of participatory culture in The Sims?
The reviews are full of improvements for the game to make.
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 dollhouse
2) Why was development company Maxis initially not interested in The Sims?
a dollhouse is for girls, and girls don't play games
3) What is ‘modding’?
modifying the game to add new content
4) How does ‘modding’ link to Henry Jenkins’ idea of ‘textual poaching’?
fandoms will take from the source and create their own
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’- Jenkins
As Pearce has noted, ‘The original Sims
series has the most vibrant emergent fan culture of a
single-player game in history’
Wright saying: ‘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”)
sailor moon skins, the x men skins and danger room
7) What is ‘transmedia storytelling’ and how does The Sims allow players to create it?
"storytelling, a process wherein the primary text encoded in an official commercial product could be dispersed over multiple media, both digital and analogue in form"
8) How have Sims online communities developed over the last 20 years?
as the playership has dwindled, the community has turned to archiving the wide database of fanmade content.
9) Why have conflicts sometimes developed within The Sims online communities?
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
10) What does the writer suggest The Sims will be remembered for?
"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?
much less has been written about modding the Sims to 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. She helped me see that how women play and design is not "mainstream" (see comments above) but cutting edge, the edge of the future. If it were leprechauns that were the cutting edge of the future I would have written about them.
3) What does the designer of The Sims, Will Wright, want players to do with the game?
empower people to think like designers
4) Do you agree with the view that The Sims is not a game – but something else entirely?
The Sims is not just a game because it has a huge community working on 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?
No, I think games will go in a similar direction as films. Using Hesmondhalghs's "risky business" concept, it can be argued that because money is being pumped into the industry, the risk of outputting an innovative game and having it flop is greater.
