Sims Audience and Industries blog tasks
Audience
Read this App Store description and the customer reviews for The Sims FreePlay and answer the following questions:
1) What game information is provided on this page? Pick out three elements you think are important in terms of making the game appeal to an audience.
Amazing game, some suggestions - First of all, this is a great game. I have been playing for years and I love creating stories in my Sims’ lives.
2) How does the game information on this page reflect the strong element of participatory culture in The Sims?
It lets you interact with the page by leaving a review and interacting with other reviews either by commenting on or liking the review.
3) Read a few of the user reviews. What do they suggest about the audience pleasures of the game?
First off, I love this game! Like set alarms for quests, etc. I’m a full time student so I can do that, I’m sure many older, younger, and most people can’t. My biggest thing that has bothered me since neighbours were introduced is how visiting a town either 1) ends the competition at the centre, saying it was some other hobby and placing 5th, 2) doing what I previously mentioned and holding my sim for the rest of the 24 hours unless I end task (which I didn’t do until I knew there was no competition anymore), or 3) say that the competition has ended (which wasn’t going on) and it taking over 24 hours for another to appear.
Otherwise, the past ten years have been exciting! I do wish pre teens and toddlers had more hobbies, especially with items to collect for LP and XP (bracelet making, scouting, something!). I also wish babies could interact with pre teens and toddlers (who don’t have much to do unless I age advance) or have other toys, hobbies, interactions. One more little quirk...during pregnancy events, seniors cannot give other seniors parenting advice. You have to have 22 teens, seniors, and adults to complete the 9 day event without boosts...give us a break!
And thank you for bringing back unfinished crafting events! Even when I don’t finish I sleep better knowing I will have a chance in the future to finish.
Love this game! And I love seeing the changes since the first days!
There is diversion and personal relationship and identification
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?
That game was The Sims, a so-called sandbox game that allowed players to create and populate their own simulated world in a process that creator 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?
When Wright pitched his latest game concept to development company Maxis, using the descriptor of ‘doll house’, he was met with little enthusiasm. The board of directors thought that ‘doll houses were for girls, and girls didn’t play video games’ (Seabrook 2006). Luckily
for Wright – and for Maxis in general – publisher Electronic Arts (which had bought Maxis in 1997) saw potential in the idea – something that would appeal to both boys and girls, and men and women alike. They would be proved right – The Sims became the bestselling game of the first half of 2000 (Kline et al. 2003: 270), and the franchise continued its popularity with its various expansion packs, spin-offs and sequels. At the time of writing, Sims 4 is due to be
released in September 2014 (IGN.com 2014).
3) What is ‘modding’? How does ‘modding’ link to Henry Jenkins’ idea of ‘textual poaching’?
This enabled a form of participatory culture to grow up around the game, a culture wherein players were able to modify game assets by manipulating the game code (a practice called ‘modding’) with the sanction of the rights owners, and to share their new creations via personal websites and online for a – or even on the official Sims page, where an exchange centre was set up. ‘Participatory culture’, as first posited in Henry’s Jenkins’ seminal book on fan culture, Textual Poachers (1992 [2013]), describes an aspect of fandom we are all familiar with today – the contribution of consumers and audiences to a product or a franchise, through activities ranging from writing fanfiction to drawing fanart, from cosplaying to even penning simple gaming reviews.
4) 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 2006a: 137).
‘The original Sims series has the most vibrant emergent fan culture of a single-player game in history’ (2009: 272).
‘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).
‘has been used to replicate and ‘rearrange’ scenes and character settings from famous works of popular culture in much the same way fans have traditionally been performing their fandom through recycling texts and images’ (Sihvonen 2011: 172).
5) What examples of intertextuality are discussed in relation to The Sims? (Look for “replicating works from popular culture”)
From the early days of the game’s release, skins depicting characters from cult media such as Star Trek, Star Wars, The X-Files and Japanese anime and manga were extremely popular. Players seemed to display a gleeful desire to recreate the worlds of their favourite fandoms within The Sims. If one wished to recreate the Star ship Enterprise from Star Trek, all one had to do was search the internet looking for the relevant website. Alternatively, one could consult a fan-generated information resource or links list to find a website that stocked transporters and replicators. Once downloaded, you could decorate your in-game Star Trek world accordingly.
6) What is ‘transmedia storytelling’ and how does The Sims allow players to create it?
In other words, what The Sims offered was a form of transmedia 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 (Jenkins 2007). The Sims space provided a playground for cult media fans, a stage for enacting fannish stories which could later be shared (via the game’s in-built camera and photo album) with other game players who had similar interests.
7) How have Sims online communities developed over the last 20 years?
But this marriage of the social and the functional is effective only for as long as its participants
stick around, and sometimes the relations between fans of The Sims can be fraught with mistrust and in-fighting as Sihvonen notes: ‘Various internet spaces, also in the context of The Sims, can be regarded as repositories of collective cultural memory and important leisure places as well as areas in which power relations are put to the test [emphasis added]’ (2011: 115). And: ‘The Sims players do not constitute an easily definable or concise online community [...]The Sims modding scene is divided on the basis of its members’ individual preferences and practices of play’
8) 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) Why does James Paul Gee see The Sims as an important game?
Also I had a sin to expiate. I had left the Sims and women gamers pretty much out of my first book on games. Betty helped me see that 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.
2) What does the designer of The Sims, Will Wright, want players to do with the game?
Will Wright is doing in an extreme way what lots of game designers want to do: empower people to think like designers, to organize themselves around the game to become learn new skills that extend beyond the game, and to express their own creativity.
3) Do you agree with the view that The Sims is not a game – but something else entirely?
Will Wright is doing in an extreme way what lots of game designers want to do: empower people to think like designers, to organize themselves around the game to become learn new skills that extend beyond the game, and to express their own creativity. Many say the Sims is not a game--and I myself used to believe that. But as Derrida would remind us, what we find marginal is often actually central. Out book argues that games like the Sims--and gaming beyond gaming--will eventually be the new centre of gaming or maybe something eventually all together different.
Industries
Electronic Arts & Sims FreePlay industries focus
Read this Pocket Gamer interview with EA’s Amanda Schofield, Senior Producer on The Sims FreePlay at EA's Melbourne-based Firemonkeys studio. Answer the following questions:
1) How has The Sims FreePlay evolved since launch?
2) Why does Amanda Schofield suggest ‘games aren’t products any more’?
3) What does she say about The Sims gaming community?
4) How has EA kept the game fresh and maintained the active player base?
5) How many times has the game been installed and how much game time in years have players spent playing the game? These could be great introductory statistics in an exam essay on this topic.
Read this blog on how EA is ruining the franchise (or not) due to its downloadable content. Answer the following questions:
1) What audience pleasures for The Sims are discussed at the beginning of the blog?
“The Sims” games centre on the players’ ability to create “Sims” — virtual humans with personalities and ambitions — and take complete control of their lives. Players can also use the game to experiment with architecture, decoration and landscaping. Traditionally, each main series entry begins with a base game containing a large portion of the content, but not the entire package. As the lifespan of the game progresses, various “expansion packs” are sold to add new gameplay features, while “stuff packs” add items, such as new clothing or furniture options, without expanding on the game mechanics. These all fall under the umbrella term “downloadable content.”
Diversion, personal identification and identity
2) What examples of downloadable content are presented?
DLC - pets, expansions, tween, teen, boutique, police
3) How did Electronic Arts enrage The Sims online communities with expansion packs and DLC?
EA is no stranger to being on the receiving end of public backlash. Late last year, the now-infamous developers came under fire for locking several iconic characters and powerful multiplayer abilities behind DLC in “Star Wars Battlefront II.” That’s why, on March 6, 2018, long time fans of “The Sims” franchise — myself included — were stunned by EA’s nerve. They had outdone themselves. As true industry innovators, EA created, possibly, the first DLC for your DLC: meet “The Sims 4: My First Pet Stuff.”
4) What innovations have appeared in various versions of The Sims over the years?
Every addition to the series has been innovative. The original carved out the niche for “life simulation” gaming. In the next cycle, “The Sims 2” refined the virtual families, allowing players to create multi-generational legacies. Following this feat, the developers gave players full access to every inch of a hyper-realistic world in “The Sims 3.” The newest member of the family introduced the capability to travel between multiple neighbourhoods, download other players’ creations within seconds through the “Gallery” and customize gender options to improve the level of diversity present in the game — all for free.
5) In your opinion, do expansion packs like these exploit a loyal audience or is it simply EA responding to customer demand?
I think that it is somewhat capitalistic and exploitive in nature, but allows the producers to then continue funding and supporting the game afterwards with the paid expansion.
The ‘Freemium’ gaming model
Read this Business Insider feature on freemium gaming and multiplayer games. Answer the following questions:
1) Note the key statistics in the first paragraph.
“freemium” games and their in-app purchases account for about 70-80% of the $10 billion or more in iOS revenue each year. While League of Legends is 100% free to play, it generated more than $1 billion last year in revenue as evidenced by this League of Legends subreddit — complain of spending more than $2,000 on the game over the course of several years. The singer of the Sex Pistols, John Lyndon, claimed last year that he spent over $15,000 on iPad apps.
2) Why does the freemium model incentivise game developers to create better and longer games?
Because they earn money from the game even though its free it allows the producers to be paid and so improve the game so that more people download it for the opportunity to spend money on the game.
3) What does the article suggest regarding the possibilities and risks to the freemium model in future?
As Plott notes, that would be an impossible proposition for any gaming company that releases standalone games. Plott is so convinced of the model that he thinks we could see traditional console games splitting their products between single-player games, which would cost a flat fee, and multiplayer games, which are free-to-play. In 2013, Apple settled a class-action lawsuit for parents who alleged that Apple didn’t make it clear that free apps could charge money. The “freemium” model has proven itself to be incredibly profitable. The question now is how game developers use it to grow without alienating a large share of the gaming community.
Regulation – PEGI
Research the following using the Games Rating Authority website - look at the videos and FAQ section.
1) How does the PEGI ratings system work and how does it link to UK law?
We have clear guidelines stating which levels of violence, sex, bad language and other issues are allowed at each of the different age ratings. These guidelines were developed by experts in child welfare and protection, and by experts in media regulation. We also listen to the views of parents and young people to ensure the ratings remain up-to-date and reflect current views about what's appropriate for children of different ages to play. The guidelines are kept under constant review in case changes are needed. All game ratings are awarded in accordance with these guidelines, ensuring that parents trust the ratings and know what to expect at the different levels. You can see our most recent research into public opinion in the 'Media Centre' section of our website
2) What are the age ratings and what content guidance do they include?
3,7,12,16,18
Age ratings do not indicate whether a child will enjoy a particular game and they don't indicate how difficult a game is to play. Instead, they let you know whether a game contains certain elements, such as violence, sex, drugs or bad language, that might be harmful, upsetting, disturbing or just unsuitable for children below that age. It's worth noting that, even if a game is rated at the lowest classification of 3, it may still not appeal to young children and/or may be very challenging and complicated to play. It simply won't contain any content that is harmful to, or unsuitable for, young children. When buying a game for anybody under 18, always look at the age rating on our website or the PEGI app to make sure the game is suitable for them
3) What is the PEGI process for rating a game?
The guidelines are kept under constant review in case changes are needed. All game ratings are awarded in accordance with these guidelines, ensuring that parents trust the ratings and know what to expect at the different levels. You can see our most recent research into public opinion in the 'Media Centre' section of our website
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