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.
The game information that is provided on the App Store page is a short description of how the gameplay will be like such as create your story, your way. Build your virtual town, family and life! Design and decorate dream homes that show off your interior design skills and personal style. Expand your Sim Town and watch your community grow as you earn more Simoleons.
The three most important elements of making the Sims FreePlay appeal to an audience is being able to let you create, customize and build your own city and Sims character in Sims as you are the one who is in charge of it and no one else.
2) How does the game information on this page reflect the strong element of participatory culture in The Sims?
The Sims reflects a strong element of participatory culture as you are allowed to view and share your own comments and reviews about the game to other people so any newcomers who haven't played to game before can get a better understanding of it.
3) Read a few of the user reviews. What do they suggest about the audience pleasures of the game?
Social disconnect! - Hey! First off, I love this game! Like set alarms for quests, etc. I’m a full time student so I can do that, I’m sure many older, younger, and most people can’t. My biggest thing that has bothered me since neighbors were introduced is how visiting a town either 1) ends the competition at the center, saying it was some other hobby and placing 5th, 2) doing what I previously mentioned and holding my sim for the rest of the 24 hours unless I end task (which I didn’t do until I knew there was no competition anymore), or 3) say that the competition has ended (which wasn’t going on) and it taking over 24 hours for another to appear.
The audience pleasures shown with the review is that it offers diversion and escapism from your lives and it offers entertainment as you are able to enjoy playing this game for hours as there are many things to do in this game. In addition, this offers personal relationships as the character can from a bond with their Sims as it is a virtual version of themselves that they have created which we see is talked about in this review.
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?
Will Wright the creator and designer of The Sims described 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?
Maxis was not interested in The Sims the board of directors thought that ‘doll houses were for girls, and girls didn’t play video games’.
3) What is ‘modding’? How does ‘modding’ link to Henry Jenkins’ idea of ‘textual poaching’?
Modding is a short word for modifications which is a huge part of the game as they are one of the most important features in a game. Modding links to Henry Jenkins' idea of 'textual poaching' as in Henry’s Jenkins’ seminal book on fan culture, Textual Poachers (1992 [2013]), describes an aspect of fandom we are all familiar with today – the contribution of consumers and audiences to a product or a franchise, through activities ranging from writing fanfiction to drawing fanart, from cosplaying to even penning simple gaming reviews.
4) Look specifically at p136. Note down key quotes from Jenkins, Pearce and Wright on this page.
‘held together through the mutual production and reciprocal exchange of knowledge’ (Jenkins 2006a: 137).
‘there were already more than fifty fan Web sites dedicated to The Sims. Today, there are thousands’(Jenkins)
‘The original Sims series has the most vibrant emergent fan culture of a single-player game in history’ (Pearce)
‘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’ (Wright)
5) What examples of intertextuality are discussed in relation to The Sims? (Look for “replicating works from popular culture”)
Some examples found for intertextuality within in relation to The Sims is recreating the worlds of their favourite fandoms with their Sims such as Star Trek, Star Wars, The X-Files and Japanese anime and manga. If one wished to recreate the Starship Enterprise from Star Trek, all one had to do was search the internet looking for the relevant website. Fans could play out the simulated lives of their favourite characters – in this digital sandbox, they could toy with the possibility that Luke Skywalker had turned to the Dark Side, or had even engaged in an incestuous relationship with Princess Leia. Even crossovers were a possibility, allowing one lot to house Marvel Universe characters and another to house DC Universe characters – the two sets of characters could interact and even build relationships and their own life stories.
6) What is ‘transmedia storytelling’ and how does The Sims allow players to create it?
Transmedia storytelling is a a process wherein the primary text encoded in an official commercial product could be dispersed over multiple media, both digital and analogue in form. The Sims space provided a playground for cult media fans, a stage for enacting fannish stories which could later be shared (via the game’s in-built camera and photo album) with other game players who had similar interests.
7) How have Sims online communities developed over the last 20 years?
Sims online community has developed over the last 20 years by experienced Sims creators pass on their skills to novice modders. This informal mentorship enables all players to have a chance at contributing to the wider Sims community. For example, if a player wishes to learn how to create a gamic, they may contact a person in the community who is adept in this narrative form and willing to tutor them. Alter- natively, skilled creators may actively mentor others through positive feedback and interaction with the community.
8) What does the writer suggest The Sims will be remembered for?
The Sims will be remembered 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?
James Paul Gee sees The Sims as an important game because The Sims is a real game and a very important one because it is a game that is meant to take people beyond gaming
2) What does the designer of The Sims, Will Wright, want players to do with the game?
Will Wright wants players in The Sims to think like designers, to organize themselves around the game to become learn new skills that extend beyond the game, and to express their own creativity.
3) Do you agree with the view that The Sims is not a game – but something else entirely?
I agree with this viewpoint of The Sims being ,ore than just a game simply because of it mimicking ad imitating how real life is like in the real world. The Sims is targeted at young teenagers who want to find out how it's like living life, paying for items and working in a job to earn money which The Sims provides. But the game is smartly designed to get into the minds of young people for example, in app purchases if a player wants to expand further and unlock new levels or new parts in the Sims game they have to use their real money in order to access the next part in The Sims game.
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?
The Sims FreePlay has evolved since launch
2) Why does Amanda Schofield suggest ‘games aren’t products any more’?
3) What does she say about The Sims gaming community?
4) How has EA kept the game fresh and maintained the active player base?
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.
Read this blog on how EA is ruining the franchise (or not) due to its downloadable content. Answer the following questions:
The audience pleasures for The Sims that have been discussed at the beginning of the blog is players’ ability to create “Sims” — virtual humans with personalities and ambitions — and take complete control of their lives. Players can also use the game to experiment with architecture, decoration and landscaping. Traditionally, each main series entry begins with a base game containing a large portion of the content, but not the entire package.
2) What examples of downloadable content are presented?
Downloadable content called DLC's is new content for a game that is purchased or downloaded for free as a separate add-on. To many irate gamers, a more suitable definition would be “things that should’ve been in the game in the first place.” EA is no stranger to being on the receiving end of public backlash. Late last year, the now-infamous developers came under fire for locking several iconic characters and powerful multiplayer abilities behind DLC in “Star Wars Battlefront II.”
The DLC's that are provided for The Sims in particular is The Sims 4: My First Pet Stuff. “My First Pet” stuff pack delivered smaller pets and the usual extra elements. Although the content was new, players deemed it less than original. Another DLC that was added was The Sims 4: Cats and Dogs which gave players n in-depth system of creating pets while also containing a sizable amount of building content for houses and cosmetic items for Sims.
3) How did Electronic Arts enrage The Sims online communities with expansion packs and DLC?
Electronic Arts enraged The Sims online communities with expansion packs and DLC as they started boycotting against EA saying it was a way for them to just make extra money making online petitions for the pack to be free DLC, called for others’ refusal to purchase it and requested that the $9.99 DLC fee be donated to a local animal shelter, instead. In addition, some popular Sims video creators on YouTube expressed their disappointment in the pack and the development team.
4) What innovations have appeared in various versions of The Sims over the years?
Innovations that has appeared in various versions of The Sims over the years is the original carved out the niche for “life simulation” gaming. In the next cycle, “The Sims 2” refined the virtual families, allowing players to create multi-generational legacies. Following this feat, the developers gave players full access to every inch of a hyper-realistic world in “The Sims 3.”
The newest member of the family introduced the capability to travel between multiple neighbourhoods, download other players’ creations within seconds through the “Gallery” and customize gender options to improve the level of diversity present in the game — all for free.
5) In your opinion, do expansion packs like these exploit a loyal audience or is it simply EA responding to customer demand?
I feel like expansions packs in any game not even just The Sims is bad enough. This is because it does exploit loyal audiences and fans of the games and can cause them to stop having interests in the game or start hating onto it. EA had no choice but to respond back to their customers demands as the players make their game if EA did not give in to their customers they could have lost out on making Sims 4 and making any profit from it.
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.
The key statistics based around the 'freemium' model is from Candy Crush Saga to Clash of Clans, “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 freemium model incentivise game developers to create better and longer games because With freemium games, players are continuously spending money on the game, as opposed to paying once and forgetting about it. Developers are then incentivized to put that stream of revenue directly back into the game to improve it.
3) What does the article suggest regarding the possibilities and risks to the freemium model in future?
The possibilities and risks to the freemium model in the future is that it faces a lot of backlash due to receiving major criticism. South Park famously skewered the concept as a money grab that preys on addicts and leads to boring games. The singer of the Sex Pistols, John Lyndon, claimed last year that he spent over $15,000 on iPad apps. In 2013, Apple settled a class-action lawsuit for parents who alleged that Apple didn’t make it clear that free apps could charge money.
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 PEGI rating works by helping parents or carers decide whether a particular game is suitable for their children. The ratings do this by indicating the minimum age at which we think a child should be allowed to play a game. The age ratings for games are 3, 7, 12, 16 and 18.
This helps link to UK law if a shops sells an 18+ game in a store that is meant for children The Video Recordings Act 1984 makes it illegal to supply a PEGI 12, 16 or 18 rated game to a person under those ages
2) What are the age ratings and what content guidance do they include?
The age ratings and content guidance that are included is 3, 7, 12, 16 and 18. Age ratings do not indicate whether a child will enjoy a particular game and they don't indicate how difficult a game is to play. Instead, 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.
3) What is the PEGI process for rating a game?
The PEGIC process for rating a game is they have clear guidelines stating which levels of violence, sex, bad language and other issues are allowed at each of the different age ratings. These guidelines were developed by experts in child welfare and protection, and by experts in media regulation. We also listen to the views of parents and young people to ensure the ratings remain up-to-date and reflect current views about what's appropriate for children of different ages to play. The guidelines are kept under constant review in case changes are needed.
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