The Sims FreePlay CSP - 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.
The screenshots of gameplay on iPhone and iPad, the game description and the rating/reviews.
2) How does the game information on this page reflect the strong element of participatory culture in The Sims?
It writes how audiences are able to choose, create and play with their own freedom
3) Read a few of the user reviews. What do they suggest about the audience pleasures of the game?
I think is it diversion where players are so immersed into the game it becomes their new reality. The constant demand for more updates with newer feature/objects shows how players actually want the game to reflect their real life but in a better and self controlled way.
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?
He described it 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?
The term dollhouse used by Will was a associated with girls and at the time it was normalised for girls not to play videogames which bought little enthusiasm to the pitch.
3) What is ‘modding’? How does ‘modding’ link to Henry Jenkins’ idea of ‘textual poaching’?
Modding is where players are able to manipulate game code to modify assets in game. This links to Henry Jenkins’ idea of ‘textual poaching’ as audience only play parts of the game they enjoy engaging in game play that they are interested in.
4) Look specifically at p136. Note down key quotes from Jenkins, Pearce and Wright on this page.
Pearce-‘The original Sims series has the most vibrant emergent fan culture of a single-player game in history’
Jenkins-‘there were already more than fifty fan Web sites dedicated to The Sims. Today, there are thousands’
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’ (ibid). Whereas the game itself gave con-sumers a base neighbourhood, wardrobe and furni-ture sets to play with, the players themselves turned producers (or producers, to cite Axel Bruns’
Jenkins-The Sims
‘has been used to replicate and ‘rearrange’ scenes and character settings from famous works of popular culture in much the same way fans have traditional-ly been performing their fandom through recycling texts and images’
5) What examples of intertextuality are discussed in relation to The Sims? (Look for “replicating works from popular culture”)
There are lots of intertextualities like how they could toy with the possibil-ity that Luke Skywalker had turned to the Dark Side, or had even engaged in an incestuous relationship with Princess Leia. Even crossovers were a possibility, allowing one lot to house Marvel Universe characters and another to house DC Universe characters – the two sets of characters could interact and even build relationships and their own life stories.
6) What is ‘transmedia storytelling’ and how does The Sims allow players to create it?
It is a process wherein the primary text encoded in an official commercial product could be dispersed over multiple media. The sims game give a space that allows cultured media fans to share stories with other game players who had similar interests.
7) How have Sims online communities developed over the last 20 years?
8) What does the writer suggest The Sims will be remembered for?
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 important as it takes people beyond gaming. It shows how women play and design is not just "mainstream" but cutting edge, the edge of the future.
2) What does the designer of The Sims, Will Wright, want players to do with the game?
He wants to be able to 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?
It writes how people are not just participating in the game but are also leering. Everyone's ends up learning how to produce and design participating in ways that allow themselves to be "colonized" by a group or to gain much less than others in the group or even to be used as an example that makes others look good.
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?
It writes how it has become this rich world which covers every aspect of the Sims’ lives. There's also an introduction to pets from puppies and kittens to dragons and fairies and the world is full of interesting places for Sims to go, mountains of fashion and near infinite ways to design and decorate homes.
2) Why does Amanda Schofield suggest ‘games aren’t products any more’?
She means how customer support and community management are a big part when it comes to games where producers can see what players say about the newest update but also respond quicker to problems.
3) What does she say about The Sims gaming community?
They say how the community is is very active and always hungry to see more features and content in the game.
4) How has EA kept the game fresh and maintained the active player base?
A lot of players build great houses in build mode so theyve been keeping up to give them more tools and freedom to make the houses of their dreams by adding balconies, pools, a second story and all manner of furniture styles over the years.
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.
Over 200 million installs of The Sims Free Play showing the franchisers popularity and the game time was 78,000.
Read this blog on how EA is ruining the franchise (or not) due to its downloadable content. Answer the following questions:
Personal relationship where players have the ability to create “Sims”, virtual humans with personalities and ambitions and diversification where they can also escape their own reality through experimenting with architecture, decoration and landscaping.
2) What examples of downloadable content are presented?
There are various “expansion packs sold and “stuff packs” add items, such as new clothing or furniture options, without expanding on the game mechanics.
3) How did Electronic Arts enrage The Sims online communities with expansion packs and DLC?
The EA developers received backlash for locking several iconic characters and powerful multiplayer abilities behind DLC.
4) What innovations have appeared in various versions of The Sims over the years?
The introduction of pets is always introduced in one way or another.
5) In your opinion, do expansion packs like these exploit a loyal audience or is it simply EA responding to customer demand?
The expansion pack is sort of a way to exploit their loyal audience as they know their players will be willing to spent their money on new items to make the game seem fresh and newly updated. This may seem like they are responding to their customer demands however it may just be a cover up for the exploitation due to these new items being already in the game.
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.
2) Why does the freemium model incentivise game developers to create better and longer games?
The goal is to create a game that brings players back for hundreds of hours of gameplay as players are continuously spending money on the game, as opposed to paying once and forgetting about it.
3) What does the article suggest regarding the possibilities and risks to the freemium model in future?
Spending of money in game could increase as the game may be free however in app purchases make it a very expensive game play which can cause a lot of commotion amongst the gaming community and what they believe the producers should be doing.
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?
The rating syystem works to help parents decide whether a game is suitable for their children to play. This links 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?
3+ =suitable for all age groups
7+ =frightening scenes/sounds, unrealistic violence
12+ =realistic violence, sexual posturing, mild/bad language and horror sequences
parental guidance =parents recommended to watch with child
16+ =violence, sexual activity, strong bad language, alcohol/drugs
18+ = extreme violence, sexual violence and threat, gambling/illegal drugs/alcohol, sexual activity
3) What is the PEGI process for rating a game?
1)content declaration assessment
2)Submission materials
3)Video footage examination
4)Game examination
5)Receiving the PEGI licence
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