The Sims FreePlay - Language & Audience blog tasks

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The Sims FreePlay - Language & Audience blog tasks


Language / Gameplay analysis

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




1) What elements of gameplay are shown?
  • 3rd person perspective control
  • creative game
  • ability to create personal avatar- diversity
  • realism- look after pets and create babies
  • liberty to make friendships and relationships-including marriage. 
2) What audience is the trailer targeting?
  • In terms of psychographics, Sims FreePlay would advocate towards an aspire as it allows the avatar to create an idealistic world that they have total control over
  • The age rating is 12+ with references to alcohol consumption, sexual references and other adult themes .
3) What audience pleasures are suggested by the trailer?
  • The gratification of control 
  • Personal relationships and identities with the avatars.
  • The offer of diversion with the escape to an idealistic world specific to each player 

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



1) How is the game constructed?
  • 3rd person perspective control 
  • Personal avatar with liberty to do create with imagination.
  • The game is a strategic life simulation game (also known as the sandbox genre). 
2) What audience is this game targeting?
  • A family, young audience with the psychographic group of asiperes
3) What audience pleasures does the game provide?

  • The pleasure of control, personal identity and relationships. The gratification of diversion is also present as the sole purpose of the game is for entertainment.
4) How does the game encourage in-app purchases?

  • The game is of a 'freemium' model where by some features are free to play, whereas things like extension packs need to be payed for.

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?
  • "5STARS ...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)
    “...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?

  • a real life simulation of reality
  • personalisation of everything from your avatar to your house design 
3) How do the reviews reflect the strong element of participatory culture in The Sims?

  • The reviews suggest improvements by players

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’ (Wright 1999)."
2) Why was development company Maxis initially not interested in The Sims?

    • The doll house descriptor was used and Will Wright's pitch wasn't heavily favoured.
    • "There was, at that time,a culture that gaming was not for girls."
3) What is ‘modding’?

  • Modding: players are able to modify game assets by manipulating the game code with the sanction of the rights owners.
4) How does ‘modding’ link to Henry Jenkins’ idea of ‘textual poaching’?

  • These terms link as it suggests how players and or fans can create their own content about an official game and re-share it.
5) Look specifically at p136. Note down key quotes from Jenkins, Pearce and Wright on this page.

  • ‘The original Sims series has the most vibrant emergent fan culture of a single-player game in history’.
  • ‘there were already more than fifty fan Web sites dedicated to The Sims. Today, there are thousands’.
  • ‘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’ (ibid). Whereas the game itself gave consumers a base neighborhood, wardrobe and furniture sets to play with, the players themselves turned producers (or produsers, to cite Axel Bruns’.
6) What examples of intertextuality are discussed in relation to The Sims? (Look for “replicating works from popular culture”)

  • The forms of intertextuality are of Star Trek, Star Wars, The X-files and Japanese manga.
7) What is ‘transmedia storytelling’ and how does The Sims allow players to create it?

  • Transmedia storytelling: relates to 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?
  • "The original Sims game is now hopelessly outdated. Its last expansion pack was released over ten years ago, in 2003."
9) Why have conflicts sometimes developed within The Sims online communities?

  • The idea of modding isn't popular amongst some players therefore some players had conflict with each other.
10) What does the writer suggest The Sims will be remembered for?
  • "That legacy is felt in the collaborative communities that continue to exist around the game and its descendants."
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?
  • In the sims you can 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?

  • James Paul Gee suggests that The Sims was supposed to take people beyond gaming.
3) What does the designer of The Sims, Will Wright, want players to do with the game?

  • Wrights wants people to think like designers and have freedom to create and express creativity.
4) Do you agree with the view that The Sims is not a game – but something else entirely?

  • No as to me The Sims is just a regular game but with a unique concept. The idea of hyperreality can be linked to it though and thus making some people think it is more than just a game.
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?

  • Yes but it depends on the type of game as some games dont require a mass level of interactivity,

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