The Sims FreePlay CSP - Audience and Industries

 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.

-Life simulation: Players control and create Sims’ lives.

Customization: Build homes, design characters, and create stories.
Updates: Seasonal events and new content keep the game engaging

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? 

-It is a way of diversion becuase people can leave reality and enjoy the loves they create in the game.

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?

-It was normalised for girls to not play video games but the word dollhouse links to females.

3) What is ‘modding’? How does ‘modding’ link to Henry Jenkins’ idea of ‘textual poaching’?

-Modding refers to modifying a game’s original content by adding or altering features, such as creating custom objects, characters, or storylines. This links to Henry Jenkins’ concept of textual poaching because it allows players to "borrow" and reimagine the game’s framework to create something personally meaningful, making them active participants in the storytelling process rather than passive consumers.

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”)

-Players replicating works from popular culture, such as recreating iconic TV shows, movies, or celebrity homes.

-Famous recreations include sets and scenarios inspired by series like Friends or films like The Matrix.

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

-Transmedia storytelling involves narrating a story across multiple platforms and media formats.

The Sims allows players to create transmedia storytelling by giving them tools to craft and share stories that extend beyond the game itself. 

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

-The writer suggests that The Sims will be remembered for its transformative impact on gaming culture, particularly for its role in empowering players to become creators, its emphasis on storytelling, and its contributions to the development of participatory fan communities.

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?

-The Sims empowers players, especially women and girls, to engage in creativity, social interaction, and skill-building beyond traditional gaming, blending real-world and game-world learning.

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

-Will Wright wants players to think like designers, create their own content, build communities, and develop skills that extend beyond the game.

3) Do you agree with the view that The Sims is not a game – but something else entirely?

- 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?

-There is 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’?

-The game has expanded significantly with regular updates, new events, story-lines, customisation options, and content designed to reflect player feedback and emerging trends.

3) What does she say about The Sims gaming community?

-They say how the community 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?

-EA introduces frequent updates, live events, seasonal content, and collaborations that keep the game relevant and engaging, catering to player interests and encouraging consistent interaction.

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.

-The game has been installed over 300 million times, and players have logged 78,000 years of gameplay, showcasing its massive popularity and enduring appeal.

Read this blog on how EA is ruining the franchise (or not) due to its downloadable content. Answer the following questions:

1) What audience pleasures for The Sims are discussed at the beginning of the blog?

-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?

-Pets, tween, teen, boutique, police.

3) How did Electronic Arts enrage The Sims online communities with expansion packs and DLC?

-EA angered fans by offering essential features, like pools or toddlers, only through paid DLCs or expansions rather than including them in the base game. This gave the impression of withholding content for profit.

4) What innovations have appeared in various versions of The Sims over the years?

-Pets are introduced.

5) In your opinion, do expansion packs like these exploit a loyal audience or is it simply EA responding to customer demand?

-I think its a mix of both becuase it is benefiting them that they are receiving good feedback form consumers and it is helping them to make sales however they can also be forced to respond to consumers demand.

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