Online, Social Participatory Index:

Language / Gameplay analysis

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

1) What elements of gameplay are shown?

Can construct house, begin a family - control Sim - making an ideal way of life (U+G). - Aspiration (preoccupation) or idealism. 

Characters: modify your sim, life occasions: house, family, pets yet very little genuine ongoing interaction - generally cutscenes. 

Point of view of fondness - kissing, proposition, marriage - high edge, over the shoulder of the principle - so you can see the female viewpoint - so went for female - media language decisions.

2) What audience is the trailer targeting?

Colours -- emphasises femininity.

Diverse characters generated -- aimed at everyone but go clubbing -- adventures 12-30. Broad target audience 12-30/40 or 50+.

Sensationalism -- do different things -- 'Limitless' as said in trailer.

3) What audience pleasures are suggested by the trailer?

Can build house, start a family -- control Sim - creating a perfect lifestyle (U+G). - Aspiration (diversion) or escapism.

1) How is the game constructed?

Can't redo character as much as other Sim recreations - can customize identity and enthusiasm for PC diversions. 

Consistent little rewards for doing activities - in-amusement cash and experience focuses picked up for playing and doing steady little assignments - rewards delight the crowd and make it addictive. 

Increment in amusement cash by utilizing genuine money - purchase packs - development of diversion is intended for in application buys. Hesmondhalgh - commodification of media - each activity is commodified - introduced can in instructional exercise picks up player cash and experience gains. 

Buy alternatives to tweak character (garments, hair). - Lots of customisation as far as apparel for female characters rather than male characters - so target gathering of people is female. 

Strengthens entrepreneur philosophy - find a new line of work, center around cash - returns to suggestion to in-application buys - Consumer culture - gaining and burning through cash. 

Construct claim town - costs cash and time - in-application buys of money. 

Open diversion includes by playing, undertakings are given to the client for them to finish - remunerated for rivalry. 

Can watch promotions to get staff for nothing, in diversion cash called 'Gems' - publicizing benefit made - Postmodernism obscuring of universes between this present reality and recreation. 

Blooms at the front of the house - female audience(stereotypical) 

Item arrangement. 

Intertextuality - Sim gourmet specialist TV program - Masterchef - global and surely understood 

Entire diversion is worked around time - time of errands are on the guide - certain assignments take much longer(7 hour

2) What audience is this game targeting?

12-30 y/o females. The range of clothing and customisation of the character for females is wider than males. e.g. there are more hairstyles and clothing options available for females than males.

3) What audience pleasures does the game provide?

Diversion: allows the audience to create a new life and experience something different.

Personal Identity and Relationships : creating yourself in the game and the relationships with the other Sims.

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

The entire game is built around cash - finishing little undertakings gives you in diversion money and experience focuses. You can likewise buy in diversion cash called 'Precious stones' or 'cash' for genuine money. - It's obscuring the lines between this present reality and fiction(simulation) - a postmodernism angle. 

Additionally, undertakings differ in the measure of time that that are finished, some take just a couple of minutes and some take numerous hours for example developing vegetables to offer them - carrots take a couple of minutes yet onions take 6/7 hours. So buying money to diminish the measure of time take by accelerating the diversion is empowered close to the start. Accelerating the diversion is more often than not in the majority of the Sim's amusement that you can buy - so the versatile rendition is exploiting this - of what clients are accustomed to encountering and are urging them to purchase the packs to do this.

Audience:

Read this App Store description and the customer reviews for The Sims FreePlay.

1) What critics reviews are included in the game information section?

"5 STARS ...The Sims Freeplay is everything you could ever want a freemium Sims game to be."(Gamezebo)

"10/10 ...one of the most addictive and highly polished games [...] no excuse for anyone not to download it; especially since its free to play (the clue's in the title)."(God is a Geek).

"...plenty of hours of fun... at an excellent, non-existent, price." (148 Apps).

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

This gives diversion to the audience since it is lost of fun and 'high addictive', because it is from EA a well established company it is 'highly polished', so the quality of the game is something that audiences look out for - thorough bug testing.

There could be a sense of FOMO(being left out) if the audience don't download it. The critics say that 'there's no excuse for anyone not to download it' and that it 'is everything you could ever want a freemium Sims game to be'.

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

The high reviews - 5 Stars and 10/10 - this game allows audiences to engage in the game and with other people - to be fans of the franchise as it is everything a 'freemium Sims game' should be.


Participatory culture:

Read this academic journal article - The Sims: A Participatory Culture 14 Years On. 

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?

"Doll houses were for girls and girls didn't play video games".

3) What is ‘modding’?

For audiences to create their own custom content in the game with the sanction of the rights owners. For the Sims this meant skins(clothes), careers for the sims and furniture that filled houses.

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

Consumers and audiences are contributing to a product or franchise.

5) Look specifically at p136. Note down key quotes from Jenkins, Pearce and Wright on this page.

"allowing individuals to come together around shifting interests to create digital communities that are ‘held together through the mutual production and reciprocal exchange of knowledge" (Jenkins).

"Whereas the game itself gave consumers a base neighbourhood, wardrobe and furniture sets to play with, the players themselves turned producers (or producers" (Wight)

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

They could depict characters from: Star Wars, Star Trek, The X-Files and Japanese anime and manga - all of which were extremely popular.

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

"The primary text encoded in an official commercial product could be dispersed over multiple media, both digital and analogue in form".

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

The last extension pack for the first diversion was discharged in 2003, however some still need to play the amusement and modding locales still make the diversion a functioning network. Fledgling modders are passed on abilities from the individuals who are specialists - exchanging aptitudes to others to keep the network dynamic too. 

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

Individual preferences of the players create divisions in the community - between some who want to charge money for the mods and the ones who want to see it for free.

10) What does the writer suggest The Sims will be remembered for?

The mass following of the game and the cult following of it, that stayed well beyond the usual lifespan of a normal popular computer game; also for the culture of digital production to pioneer and create a huge staple fan and game 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?

Technical modding with modding for enthusiastic insight and social communications. To make difficulties and amusement play, writing in things like realistic books. It assembles creative, specialized, social and enthusiastic aptitudes. 

2) Why does James Paul Gee see The Sims as an important game?

It is meant to take people beyond gaming, how 'women play and design' is the future.

3) What does the designer of The Sims, Will Wright, want players to do with the game?

"Empower people to think like designers, organise themselves around the game and 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?

The game has prompted networks being worked around the diversion on various stages, yet I oppose this idea. I imagine that it is only a diversion, yet it has changed modding in recreations, so it is something greater for the entire gaming network as a rule. 

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?

I don't think along these lines, in light of the fact that not all recreations will take into account as much adaptability to mod diversions. Not all diversions will take off like The Sims and have this giant participatory culture, it seldom occurs and generally occurs for AAA titles that turn out at regular intervals, basically on the grounds that its less demanding as they have a bigger after and are bound to be cleaned, so it will pull in more customers.