The sims-Language and audience

1) What elements of gameplay are shown?

You create your own chracter,friends and house.

2) What audience is the trailer targeting?

It's like a dollhouse which is 75% female and 25% male.

3) What audience pleasures are suggested by the trailer?

Diversion-making your own world and living the way you want to live.

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

1) How is the game constructed?

It introduces the world and how its built.

2) What audience is this game targeting?

Younger audience by having bright colours.

3) What audience pleasures does the game provide?

Diversion-live the way you want and make your own world.

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

you can pay for  speeding things up in the game by buying gems.

Audience

Read this App Store description and the customer reviews for The Sims FreePlay and answer the following questions:  

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

The review talk about how wonderful it is for making its own world and making characters for themselves.

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

The audience pleasure once again seen is a diversion and personal identity once again as the reviewer seeks to do things just like real life and will be able to design and build their own houses as if they were rich so this view of hyper-reality creates the immersion of the real-life experience.

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

This conveys that the users are able to critique the game and its fundamentals, they believe that they are able to influence how the game operates and runs, therefore, believe they are active.

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?

The designer described the game to be a sandbox doll house type of game that would attract a younger audience which is more adapted to a more technological mindset. The would simulate the aspects of creating your own city and character where you can do a multitude of tasks.

2) Why was development company Maxis initially not interested in The Sims?

One reason that people were not interested in the aspect of doll house type of game was that it was targetted at a female audience and games at the time were more male orientated. Therefore the company did not see it worthwhile to make a game targetted for a female audience.

3) What is ‘modding’?

Modding is the use of code to add, delete or innovate something within a game, this is often done by fans of the games who release them online to share with others, some groups of fans do this to create a project sometimes a new game entirely or an improved version of what they have already been given.

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).

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

"The Sims is a real game and a very important one because it is a game that is meant to take people beyond gaming"

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 The Sims and have this giant participatory culture, it rarely happens and mostly only happens for AAA titles that come out every few years, simply because its easier as they have a larger following and are more likely to be polished, so it will attract more consumers.