The Sims: Free Play - Audience and industries
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.
Ratings, Age rating, Category, Developer
Important:
- Ratings
- Age Rating
- Category of Games
2) How does the game information on this page reflect the strong element of participatory culture in The Sims?
The active and honest reviews from players along w their personal ratings of the game shows the interactive participatory nature.
3) Read a few of the user reviews. What do they suggest about the audience pleasures of the game?
- The graphics/ cartoonish nature
- Quests
- Different ages for roleplay
- Ability to create a family and have romantic interests
- How it resembles actual life
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?
A dollhouse
2) Why was development company Maxis initially not interested in The Sims?
Because they said girls don't play videogames
3) What is ‘modding’? How does ‘modding’ link to Henry Jenkins’ idea of ‘textual poaching’?
Because players share their mods within the community
4) Look specifically at p136. Note down key quotes from Jenkins, Pearce and Wright on this page.
Jenkins:
- ‘held together through the mutual production and reciprocal exchange of knowledge’
- notes, ‘there were already more than fifty fan Web sites dedicated to The Sims. Today, there are thousands’
Pearce:
- concept of participatory culture. As Pearce has noted, ‘The original Sims series has the most vibrant emergent fan culture of a single-player game in history’
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’
5) What examples of intertextuality are discussed in relation to The Sims? (Look for “replicating works from popular culture”)
- Star Trek
- Star Wars
- The X files
- Anime & Manga
6) What is ‘transmedia storytelling’ and how does The Sims allow players to create it?
- A process wherein the primary text encoded in an official commercial product could be dispersed over multiple media, both digital and analogue in form
7) How have Sims online communities developed over the last 20 years?
Through convergence
8) What does the writer suggest The Sims will be remembered for?
For the cult following that it engendered well beyond the usual lifespan of a popular computer game; and also for the culture of digital production it helped to pioneer, one that remains such a staple of fan and game modding communities today.
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?
Gives people emotional and social intelligence
2) What does the designer of The Sims, Will Wright, want players to do with the game?
He wants players to interact and enjoy the game. Create a life.
3) Do you agree with the view that The Sims is not a game – but something else entirely?
No, Sims is a game. It is fake.
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?
Went from only being able to control 16 Sims w one pet dog and a career to now.
2) Why does Amanda Schofield suggest ‘games aren’t products any more’?
Functions like customer support and community management are a critical part of the game developing process and must be embedded with our game teams.
3) What does she say about The Sims gaming community?
It 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?
Constant updates
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.
78,000
5 years
Read this blog on how EA is ruining the franchise (or not) due to its downloadable content. Answer the following questions:
Personal Identity, Personal Relationships, Diversion.
2) What examples of downloadable content are presented?
Extension packs, Stuff packs such as clothing, furniture, game mechanics
3) How did Electronic Arts enrage The Sims online communities with expansion packs and DLC?
They locked several iconic characters and powerful multiplayer abilities behind DLC
4) What innovations have appeared in various versions of The Sims over the years?
- The sims 4: Cats and Dogs
- My first pet
5) In your opinion, do expansion packs like these exploit a loyal audience or is it simply EA responding to customer demand?
It is simply EA responding to customer demand, unfortunately, things cost money to do so it appears to be exploitation.
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
3) What does the article suggest regarding the possibilities and risks to the freemium model in future?
Traditional console games splitting their products between single-player games, which would cost a flat fee, and multiplayer games, which are free-to-play.
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?
- Game ratings help parents decide whether a game is suitable for their children to play.
- In the UK, 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, 7, 12, 16, 18
- They let you know whether a game contains certain elements, such as violence, sex, drugs or bad language, that might be harmful, upsetting, disturbing or just unsuitable for children below that age.
- Issue icons for violence, fear and horror, bad language, sex, drugs and gambling.
3) What is the PEGI process for rating a game?
- Content Declaration Assessment: The game developer declares what the game contains
- Submission Materials: Developer provides evidence
- Video Footage Examination: Video footage is assessed
- Game Examination: Testing game
- Receiving the PEGI License: Developer is sent formal rating they're allowed to use
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