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.
- Pictures and videos of the actual game play.
- An introduction to what the game is about.
- Reviews from the game play.
2) How does the game information on this page reflect the strong element of participatory culture in The Sims?
There are events going on in the game, which suggest that a lot of fans of the game who will participate in these events. Fans can also visit each other as neighbours and become friends with with each other.
3) Read a few of the user reviews. What do they suggest about the audience pleasures of the game?
The game reviews are generally positive and talk about how good the game is, providing them with escapism. However, they do mention that some of the game has a few issues: bugs, long quests and there are too many ads in between doing different tasks etc.
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 the game as "a train set or a doll's house where each person has their own interest and picks their own goals"
2) Why was development company Maxis initially not interested in The Sims?
They thought that as Will Wright suggested that the game as a "doll's house" and dolls are for girls, whereas the main market for video games was boys, so where not interested to start with.
3) What is ‘modding’?
Where fans are able to modify game assets by manipulating the game code, and where they then share these modifications online with other fans.
4) How does ‘modding’ link to Henry Jenkins’ idea of ‘textual poaching’?
As the fans are making modifications to the game so are contributing as fans to the product.
5) Look specifically at p136. Note down key quotes from Jenkins, Pearce and Wright on this page.
Digital communities are "held together through the mutual production and reciprocal exchange of knowledge. - Jenkins.
"The original Sims series has the most vibrant emergent fan culture of a single-player game in history." - Pearce
"there were already more than fifty fan websites dedicated to The Sims. Today there are thousands." - Jenkins
"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" - Jenkins quotes Wright.
6) What examples of intertextuality are discussed in relation to The Sims? (Look for “replicating works from popular culture”)
The Sims was used to replicate and rearrange scenes and characters from different popular cultures the same fans have been performing their fandom by recycling texts and images. You could have skins depicting different characters from Star Trek, Star wars, The X-Files, and Japanese anime.
7) What is ‘transmedia storytelling’ and how does The Sims allow players to create it?
A process where the primary text encoded in an official commercial product could be dispersed over multiple media in both digital and analogue in form (Jenkins 2007)
8) How have Sims online communities developed over the last 20 years?
That fans used to create stories of the game and starting making gamics (comics) and the fans started to create different mods which other players could use. This strengthened the fan communities over the years. Nowadays the game is outdated yet some people still play it and the modding websites still exist but are now seen as a place to preserve the game. It is a place where players can come and relax with each other.
9) Why have conflicts sometimes developed within The Sims online communities?
There have been divisions in the community between creators and non-creators. There are some creators who want to charge for their mods whereas some want to give them for free to other fans and the game producers themselves. Fellow fans have been saying other fans are getting more recognition than others creating a hierarchy .
10) What does the writer suggest The Sims will be remembered for?
The cult following that it 'engendered' well beyond the usual lifespan of popular computer games and for digital production it helped to pioneer one of the biggest fan and modding communities.
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 for emotional intelligence and social interactions. It builds artistic, technical, social and emotional skills.
2) Why does James Paul Gee see The Sims as an important game?
As The Sims is meant to be a game which is meant to take people beyond gaming. And the women play and designing is not mainstream but cutting the edge of the future.
3) What does the designer of The Sims, Will Wright, want players to do with the game?
Wright wanted his users to construct a community and build their own content around his games.
4) Do you agree with the view that The Sims is not a game – but something else entirely?
I disagree with this view and that it is a game as it provides gamers/audiences to do whatever they want to do providing them with escapism - the exact thing other games do.
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?
In my opinion I think that there will be many more game like The sims, providing the audiences with similar audience pleasure, however these will not be popular in the mainstream media as gamers prefer a game which has an objective at the end for example games with missions such as GTA.
Industries
Regulation – PEGI
Research the following using the VSC website PEGI page - look at the videos and Q&A section.
1) How does the VSC and PEGI ratings system work and how does it link to UK law?
VSC and PEGI rate the game so it is enforceable by law to make the age rating and that no one younger than that age should be able to buy that specific game.
2) Click on the PEGI Rating tab in the top menu. What are the age ratings and what content guidance do they include?
There is PEGI 3,7,12,16 and 18. The content includes that games might apply to young audiences such as 3/7 as they might not understand the concept of other games or might not appeal to them so easier games would have this rating. Games which have violence and profanity would be 16, 18 would include all the above including sex and nudity.
3) What is the PEGI process for rating a game?
- The developer declares in detail what is in the game.
- Evidence is given to PEGI with video footage and a copy of the game.
- The footage is examined.
- The game is tested to see if the declarations were correctly done.
- The examination takes around 4-10 days. The developer is given a formal license, detailing the rating symbols and the content labels displayed.
The ‘Freemium’ gaming model
Read this Lifewire feature on freemium gaming and answer the following questions:
1) How does the freemium model work?
The producers make the core product free so the players can play it but other added on packages which might make gameplay more interesting or more functionable would have a charge.
2) Why do some gamers believe freemium is ruining games?
Some games are pay to win which is annoying for the players as they can only progress in the game if they pay, which frustrates the players.
3) What are the positives of the freemium model for gaming?
Having the choice of trying a game for free and allows the players work in the game to get in-game currency and then purchase the premium model packs using that in-game currency. This keeps loyal costumers.
Now 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 apps contribute to 70-80% of the $10 billion or more in IOS revenue each year.
2) Why does the freemium model incentivise game developers to create better and longer games?
It offers the core product to the audience for free and then optionally charges the audiences for free
3) What does the article suggest regarding the possibilities and risks to the freemium model in future?
- That if the company didn't have enough money to monetise then it would be difficult to improve the game experience.
- That traditional console game could be splitting their products between single-player games which would cost a "flat fee", multiplayer games, which are free-to-play.
Read this New York Times feature on freemium gaming and answer the following questions:
1) Why did Temple Run use the freemium model?
After a while, the game had lost interest so the producers put it on freemium and also put it on a website called free app a day, which resulted in a spike of people downloading the game. It has topped 40 million downloads and 13 million people a day play it.
2) The bigger gaming studios like Electronic Arts used to avoid the freemium model. Why are they now embracing it?
They saw the success that The Sims Freeplay had brought them
3) Why does Peter Farago suggest independent game makers benefit more from the freemium model than the major publishers like EA?
As it is free and easier to make so economically beneficial.
Electronic Arts
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?
Its gone from a small game where you could control 16 sims, have a pet dog and have a career to now doing anything you could, such as having children, getting married, having different pets etc. And they never thought hundreds of people would still be playing 5 years later.
2) Why does Amanda Schofield suggest ‘games aren’t products any more’?
As they are partnerships with players as producers have to rely on the audiences as they might not get something right so the audience can have an input.
3) What does she say about The Sims gaming community?
They always reach out to the producers and tell them when they want something to help the development of the game.
4) How has EA kept the game fresh and maintained the active player base?
When they find a system that excites the players, then they try to build on that section more. They add more tools to give freedom to the players.
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.
- 200 million installs on the game.
- 78,000 of amount of game time in years.
Finally, read this blog on how EA is ruining the franchise (or not) due to its downloadable content. Answer the following questions:
It is described as a roller-coaster of emotions and that players can experiment in the game providing them with escapism and Blumler and Katz: Uses and gratifications.
2) What examples of downloadable content are presented?
Different expansion packs such as new gameplay features, house and clothes updates and different furniture options.
3) How did Electronic Arts enrage The Sims online communities with expansion packs and DLC?
They made an expansion pack which was $9.99 but fans made a petition for the pack to be free for them to use and that the $9.99 should go towards an animal shelter instead.
4) What innovations have appeared in various versions of The Sims over the years?
- Virtual families
- Multi generational legacies
- You were able to travel between different neighborhoods
5) In your opinion, do expansion packs like these exploit a loyal audience or is it simply EA responding to customer demand?
I think they exploit fans as they give the game for free but make it limited so audiences cannot do a lot for things, making these packs makes the audiences feel "special" so they buy them. This causes them to get addicted to these pack as they keep paying for them which lets EA to keep getting money from the fans.
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