The Sims: FreePlay: Language / Gameplay analysis

Language / Gameplay analysis

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

1) What elements of gameplay are shown?

--> Characters: customise your sim, life events, house,family, pets but not ,much actual game play, mostly cut scenes
Can build house, start a family, creating a perfect lifestyle, Aspirations (diversion) or escapism.
Perspective of affection, Can see the persepctive of a female.

2) What audience is the trailer targeting?

--> Diverse characters genrated

3) What audience pleasures are suggested by the trailer?

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

1) How is the game constructed?
Constant little rewards for doing actions -- in-game currency and experience points gained for playing and doing constant little tasks - rewards gratify the audience and make it addictive.

Increase in game currency by using real currency -- buy packs - construction of game is designed for in app-purchases.
Purchase options to customise character (clothing, hair). -- Lots of customisation in terms of clothing for female characters instead of male characters - so target audience is female.

Reinforces capitalist ideology -- get a job, focus on money -- goes back to reminder to in-app purchases --- Consumer culture - earning and spending money
2) What audience is this game targeting?
-->12-30 years old 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 build around currency - completing small tasks gives you in game currency and experience points. You can also purchase in game currency called 'Crystals' or 'money' for real life currency. 

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)
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• "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).
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• "...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.

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 expansion pack for the original game was released in 2003, but some still want to play the game and modding sites still make the game an active community. Novice modders are passed on skills from those who are experts - transferring skills to others to keep the community active as well.

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 emotional intelligence and social interactions. To create challenges and game play, writing in things like graphic novels. It builds artistic, technical, social and emotional skills.

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 led to communities being built around the game on different platforms, but I disagree. I think that it is just a game, but it has revolutionised modding in games, so it is something bigger for the whole gaming community in general.

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 so, because not all games will allow for as much flexibility to mod games. Not all games will take off like.