sims Language and audience

Language / Gameplay analysis

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

1) What elements of gameplay are shown?

The fact that you can control your own virtual reality is key element for the gameplay. Also, The trailer states words like care, grow, design, play and live which are some of the many things you can do within the game. The trailer also makes it seem like it is the perfect and most idealised place which is hyper reality.

2) What audience is the trailer targeting?

The trailer is targeting an audience that is predominately female as they make the game seem like a 'doll house'. It is also clear that it is for a young audience as you can do stuff like party. This game also allows them to do stuff that they might not be allowed to do in real life such as going to clubs.

3) What audience pleasures are suggested by the trailer?

There is a pleasure for diversion as people want to escape from the real world and their problems. There is also a pleasure for personal identity as gamers can create their own version of them selves so they can relate to the game the most. 

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

Read this App Store description and the customer reviews for The Sims FreePlay and answer the following questions:  

1) How is the game constructed?

It is constructed in a way where we have complete control of this virtual reality. But it seems so real that we even have to give them their needs which are hunger, hygiene, bladder. social, fun and energy.

2) What audience is this game targeting?

It targets women as the female characters have mch more of a variety of clothing which suggests that it is mainly targeted at female.

3) What audience pleasures does the game provide?

The pleasures that an audience may get is rewarding. The game unlocks things for you if you complete a task correctly which may make the audience feel good about them selves since they feel like they have achieved something.

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

This idea of the freemium model helps keep revenues up for the business. And they encourage it buy giving access to more content and selling in game currency so that the gamer could have a better experience with the game.

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?

"This is one of my favorite games that I have on my iPad. I love how it resembles actual life and you can grow the babies. I love all of the jobs and places that you can get on the map because they are all unique in their own special way and they all hold an awesome activity like going to work or buying something. I especially love designing the houses because its so much fun to create a cool life like areas where your sims can live. I have gotten pretty far into this game and have found some things to suggest. First of all, when I got the puppies and kittens quest completed, I was so excited to have my own pet to love but I feel like it should be able to do more. I can sit with the pet but I wish I could wash it in the bathtub or bounce it on the bed like I can with the baby. Another thing is that the pools, patios, and multi-story things are very expensive. I have seen awesome houses and I want to have a big upstairs but I cannot afford it so I have to get a big area of space downstairs and fill up the whole thing because I can't make an upstairs. This is annoying because I also want space outside to put a pool and a patio but those are also very expensive. Right now I have a tiny 2 by 3 patio. If I even puta railing on it, which is also very expensive, I would only have two little squares for my sims so it is just like a carpet outside that doesn't do anything. That's all for now. Love this game. Please consider my problems."

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

The audience pleasure once again seen is a diversion and personal identity once again as the reviewer seeks to do things just like real life and will be able to design and build their own houses as if they were rich so this view of hyper-reality creates the immersion of the real-life experience.

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

This conveys that the users are able to critique the game and its fundamentals, they believe that they are able to influence how the game operates and runs, therefore, believe they are active.

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?

They had little enthusiasm about the idea and described it as a 'doll house'. They also stated that 'doll houses were for girls, and girls didn't play video games' . This is the reason why they were reluctant to invest their time in the game as they believed it wasn't going to be successful.

3) What is ‘modding’?

It is when you modify game assets by manipulating the game code

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

This link to Jenkins idea as people are able to be active in the community and set up their own stories and ideas, the idea of bringing people together and being able to share shows that a game.

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 2006a: 137).

As Pearce has noted, ‘The original Sims series has the most vibrant emergent fan culture of a single-player game in history’ (2009: 272).

Jenkins notes, ‘there were already more than fifty fan Web sites dedicated to The Sims. Today, there are thousands’ (2006b: 166).

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’ (ibid).

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

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. 

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

Trans-media 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).

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

Modding sites still exist for The Sims – 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. Sites such as CTO Sims2, and Yahoo Groups such as Saving the Sims3 are continuing to ‘rescue’ game assets from dead sites in a collaborative effort between creators and players who ‘donate’ game mods, which are then uploaded to the site or group and shared with other members.

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

There has been conflicts between the creators and the players. This is because creators want to charge money for their mods and the players are against that because they want it for free.

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?

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

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 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 don't think it something else entirely but i do believe it is more than a game now. It's a virtual reality where a person can be whoever they want to be and live their ideal life in a simulated universe.

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?

The gaming industry is always changing and it has been unpredictable. However, I think that gaming industries may incorporate the flexibility and interactivity of the Sims as technology improves.