The Sims: Audience and Industries
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.
'Create their story', 'Customise to your Heart's content', 'Virtual community'.
2) How does the game information on this page reflect the strong element of participatory culture in The Sims?
The use of words like 'Create' 'Customise' 'Choose' 'Design', gives the player an active role in shaping their own game play experience.
3) Read a few of the user reviews. What do they suggest about the audience pleasures of the game?
Diversion: Engaging in romantic relationships and carrying all kinds of realistic activities.
Personal Identity: They can mirror themselves through the characters they create and feel represented.
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?
Because they said girls don't play videogames
3) What is ‘modding’? How does ‘modding’ link to Henry Jenkins’ idea of ‘textual poaching’?
Because players share their mods within the community
4) Look specifically at p136. Note down key quotes from Jenkins, Pearce and Wright on this page.
Jenkins:
- ‘held together through the mutual production and reciprocal exchange of knowledge’
- notes, ‘there were already more than fifty fan Web sites dedicated to The Sims. Today, there are thousands’
Pearce:
- concept of participatory culture. As Pearce has noted, ‘The original Sims series has the most vibrant emergent fan culture of a single-player game in history’
Wright:
- ‘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’
5) What examples of intertextuality are discussed in relation to The Sims? (Look for “replicating works from popular culture”)
- Star Trek
- Star Wars
- The X files
- Anime & Manga
6) 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
7) How have Sims online communities developed over the last 20 years?
Through convergence
8) What does the writer suggest The Sims will be remembered for?
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 toda
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?
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.
2) What does he want people to do with the game?
To use the game to inspire creativity, community, and personal development, not just entertainment.
3) Do you agree that the Sims is not just a game but something else entirely?
Players don’t just play; they design, write stories, create graphic novels, mod technically and emotionally, and build whole subcultures.
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?
2011 - 16 Sims and a pet.
Now - Marriage and children (including full aging systems). Expanded pets (including dragons and fantasy elements). Professions with deeper strategy.
2) Why does Amanda Schofield suggest ‘games aren’t products any more’?
In free-to-play mobile development, launch is just the beginning, games are constantly updated, developers work in an ongoing partnership with players. Customer support and community management are integrated into development.
3) What does she say about The Sims gaming community?
The community’s voice is embedded in development: Player feedback directly influences updates. Developers monitor when players struggle or love new features.
4) How has EA kept the game fresh and maintained the active player base?
Constant updates.
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.
The game has been installed hundreds of millions of times. Players have collectively spent thousands of years of gameplay time in the game.
Read this blog on how EA is ruining the franchise (or not) due to its downloadable content. Answer the following questions:
Players’ ability to create “Sims” — virtual humans with personalities and ambitions.
Experiment with architecture, decoration and landscaping.
2) What examples of downloadable content are presented?
DLC is simply new content for a game that is purchased or downloaded for free as a separate add-on.
3) How did Electronic Arts enrage The Sims online communities with expansion packs and DLC?
“things that should’ve been in the game in the first place.”
4) What innovations have appeared in various versions of The Sims over the years?
March 6, 2018 - “The Sims 4: My First Pet Stuff.” then “The Sims 4: Cats and Dogs”.
5) In your opinion, do expansion packs like these exploit a loyal audience or is it simply EA responding to customer demand?
It's customer demand. When first making the game they can't know exactly what the audience want so it's a slow, continual process for demands and changes after the game has feedback.
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.
League of Legends is 100% free to play, it generated more than $1 billion last year in revenue.
2) Why does the freemium model incentivise game developers to create better and longer games?
LoL - Micropayments to buy champions (new characters) and skins.
3) What does the article suggest regarding the possibilities and risks to the freemium model in future?
Skewered the concept as a money grab that preys on addicts and leads to boring games.
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?
PEGI 12, 16 and 18 rated games supplied in physical form, such as on discs and cartridges, are legally enforceable and cannot be sold or rented to anyone under those ages.
2) What are the age ratings and what content guidance do they include?
Violence, horror, sex and drugs.
3) What is the PEGI process for rating a game?
1. Assessment for bad content.
2. Evidence for judgements made in assessment.
3. Re-checked.
4. Game examination by playing it.
5. Formal license for rating symbol they must use.
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