Language Sims

Language / Gameplay analysis

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

1) What elements of game play are shown?

Having control over the characters, being able to create them 
You can go anywhere 
You'll have a house, can have pets and friends
Creating a family 

2) What audience is the trailer targeting?

More of a female audience and also an active audience, this means it may most likely be young people as they may have more time on their hands to play the game.

3) What audience pleasures are suggested by the trailer?

Hyper-reality

Diversion
Escapism

Virtual world
Youth culture

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

1) How is the game constructed?

You must take care of the characters hunger, social, fun, hygiene, bladder, energy. Tutorials are included at the beginning of the game in order to help the audience understand how to play the game. 

2) What audience is this game targeting?

This gameplay targets more of a female audience. One reason for this is that there are more choices in terms of clothing and design if you pick a female character.

3) What audience pleasures does the game provide?

Build a city

Unlocking new rewards
Make it your reality

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

- The game does this by having advertisements. in order to get rid of advertisements you may have to pay. Furthermore you can use in app purchases to get more money to buy new things.

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?

They love the game for many reasons including how you are able to live a realistic life and grow babies.

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

Audience pleasures include things such as designing houses and creating your own characters.

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

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?

His latest game concept to development company Maxis, using the descriptor of ‘doll house’, he was met with little enthusiasm.

3) What is ‘modding’?

Term for modification which the part of the appeal of the game?

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

When fans take texts and re-edit or develop their meanings, a process called semiotic productivity. Fan communities are also quick to criticise if they feel a text or character is developing in a way they don’t support. 

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"

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

Depicting characters from cult media such as 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 (Jenkins 2007).

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

A comprehensive list can be found at the SWARM1 fansite – but a few sites have taken on the gargantuan task of preserving The Sims, becoming in effect digital libraries or archives.

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

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.

10) What does the writer suggest The Sims will be remembered 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 in 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.

3) 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"

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

I agree with this idea to some extent as gamers have begun to see themselves and replicate themselves virtually in this game as Sim characters, cultivating a genuine true representation of themselves.

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?

They have the ability to choose what is right for them and this sense of freedom is felt by them enabling consumers to pick and choose what they like.