Videogames: The Sims FreePlay part 1 - Language & Audience

Background: mobile gaming

The videogames industry has changed massively since the emergence of the smart phone and app store distribution model. Mobile gaming has changed the audience demographics for gaming and brought the industry into the mainstream. The app store model means tech giants such as Apple and Google are making significant sums from mobile gaming but mobile hits can still earn developers millions. Angry Birds made developer Rovio $200m in 2012 and broke 2 billion downloads in 2014.
The Sims FreePlay is a spin-off from the hugely successful Sims franchise first published by Electronic Arts (EA) in 2000. The game is a strategic life simulation game (also known as the sandbox genre). The Sims FreePlay takes the game on to phones and tablets and uses the ‘freemium’ model that makes money via in-app purchases. The game has seen 200 million downloads since 2011 – remarkable success.

The Sims FreePlay: Audience

The Sims franchise has demonstrated there is a strong and lucrative market in female gamers. When The Sims was first pitched by creator Will Wright he described it as a ‘doll house’. The development company Maxis weren’t keen because ‘doll houses were for girls, and girls didn’t play videogames’. EA then bought Maxis, saw potential in the idea and one of the most successful ever videogame franchise was born. Expansion packs available for The Sims FreePlay reinforce the view that the target audience is predominantly female.

Participatory culture

The Sims franchise is one of the best examples of Henry Jenkins’ concept of participatory culture. Since the very first game in the franchise, online communities have created, suggested and shared content for the game ‘Modding’ – short for modifications – is a huge part of the appeal of the game. Modding changes aspects of the gameplay – anything from the strength of coffee to incorporating ghosts or even sexual content.

Language / Gameplay analysis

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

1) What elements of gameplay are shown?

Virtual reality aspect: having control over content and character lives Design your own characters and create your own lifestyle in a city  "Find true love"  "Grow your family"  "Create, Live, Play"  "Design"  "Care" Perfection and idealisation: hyper reality aspect 

2) What audience is the trailer targeting?

Targeting more of a youth audience: strong element of youth culture (clubs, partying, romance, socialising)Younger audience: enter a virtual world where you can inhabit a different way of living and fulfil expriences they may not be able to carry out in real lifeFemale swayed target audience: "doll house" type activities 

3) What audience pleasures are suggested by the trailer?

Diversion and escapism: gamers may be drawn to playing this game due to the element of creating a new virtual reality and escape real life. Personal identity: gamers can create idealised or different versions of themselves.

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

1) How is the game constructed?

Beginning of game when you first download consists of a walk through tutorial so player gets used to and familiar with how to control the game and characters with in it. Personalisation of game : character investment. Realism created through the Sims needs: Hunger, Bladder, Energy, Hygiene, Social and Fun.

2) What audience is this game targeting?

Targets more of a female audience: there are more clothing and appearance options when designing female Sims character; male character has limited design options compared. Promotion of domesticity: middle class aspirations

3) What audience pleasures does the game provide?

Unlocking new content and receiving rewards. To build and create your own city. Domesticity: middle class aspirations and idealised version of life/society

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

Freemium version has limited content so to do more and unlock more content in the game players may be swayed to making in app purchases for a better, more advanced gameplay experience

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?

Audience reviews and star ratings are included just above the information provided about the game

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

Personal identity: Audiences may create 'Sim' characters in their own image as an online version of themselves allowing them to create a virtual life and carry out activities that they may not be able to do in real life.
"This is one of my favorite games that I have on my ipad. I love how it resembles actual life and you can grow the babies. I love all of the jobs and places that you can get on the map because they are all unique in their own special way and they all hold an awesome activity like going to work or buying something. I especially love designing the houses because its so much fun to create cool life like areas where your sims can live." (App Store)
"I’m absolutely in love with your sims FreePlay game. There’s so much diversity within the game its self and so much your sim can do " (App Store)

Diversion: Audiences play this virtual simulation game to escape reality and their everyday life. 

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

The reviews reflect a strong element of participatory culture as audiences are able to have a say about the media they consume and can write their honest opinion about the game. They can often express and share the changes they feel should be made to the game so their gameplay experience will improve and expand. [" all of these updates are kinda getting repetitive and you guys are missing the smaller things that will make the game that much more fun. For example the capacity of sims a house/building can hold is down right silly like seriously 10 ?!? Only ten people can be in a building at a time, like what if I want to throw a big party and only a few people can come ??? I think the bigger the house the more people you can have in it cause I have some really big hones on that game and I feel like it should hold more than just ten people, maybe twenty wound be a reasonable number?? . Also give the sims more interaction options, like maybe if more than one person could to speak to each other at the same time, I just want my sims to be able to do as much as possible" (App Store)]  The culture has revolutionised fan communities with the opportunity to create and share content. This links to Clay Shirky’s work on ‘mass amateurisation’.

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 describes The Sims as akin to ‘a train set or a doll’s house where each person comes to it with their own interest and picks their own goals’ (Wright 1999).

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

When Wright pitched his latest game concept to development company Maxis, using the descriptor of ‘doll house’, he was met with little enthusiasm. The board of directors thought that ‘doll houses were for girls, and girls didn’t play video games’ (Seabrook 2006).

Luckily for Wright – and for Maxis in general – publisher Electronic Arts (which had bought Maxis in 1997) saw potential in the idea – something that would appeal to both boys and girls, and men and women alike. They would be proved right – The Sims became the bestselling game of the first half of 2000 (Kline et al. 2003: 270), and the franchise continued its popularity with its various expansion packs, spin-offs and sequels.

3) What is ‘modding’?

This is the term for modification which the part of the appeal of the game.

4) How does ‘modding’ link to Henry Jenkins’ idea of ‘textual poaching’?

Jenkins discusses ‘textual poaching’ – when fans take texts and re-edit or develop their meanings, a process called semiotic productivity. Fan communities are also quick to criticise if they feel a text or character is developing in a way they don’t support. This links to the idea of modding as it changes aspects of the game to benefit the audience.

5) 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"

Wright:

• "A culture wherein players were able to modify game assets by manipulating the game code (a practice called ‘modding’) with the sanction of the rights owners and to share their new creations via personal websites and online.

6) What examples of intertextuality are discussed in relation to The Sims? (Look for “replicating works from popular culture”)

The game’s release, skins depicting characters from cult media such as Star Trek, Star Wars, The X-Files and Japanese anime and manga were extremely popular. Players seemed to display a gleeful desire to recreate the worlds of their favourite fandoms within The Sims.

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

Transmedia storytelling, a process wherein the primary text encoded in an official commercial product could be dispersed over multiple media, both digital and analogue in form (Jenkins 2007). 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.

8) How have Sims online communities developed over the last 20 years?

The Sims – a comprehensive list can be found at the SWARM1 fansite – but a few sites have taken on the gargantuan task of preserving The Sims, becoming in effect digital libraries or archives. Sites such as CTO Sims2, and  Yahoo Groups such as Saving the Sims3 are continuing to ‘rescue’ game assets from dead sites in a collaborative effort between creators and players who ‘donate’ game mods, which are then uploaded to the site or group and shared with other members.

9) Why have conflicts sometimes developed within The Sims online communities?

In the past there have been conflicts between creators and non-creators; between creators who wish to charge money for their mods and those who wish to share them for free; even between players and Maxis/EA itself. Fans of The Sims are not homogeneous. Some fans have complained of fellow community members receiving more recognition and power because they can create things that others can’t – opportunities for participation do not necessarily imply an attendant equality.

10) What does the writer suggest 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) How is ‘modding’ used in The Sims?

Modding is used in the Sims to create challenges and game play that is simultaneously in the game world, in the real world, and in writing things like graphic novels. Such modding is the force that sustains a passionate affinity space that builds artistic, technical, social, and emotional skills. We wrote the book because these woman and girls rock, not because they are women and girls.

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. She helped me see that how women play and design is not "mainstream" (see comments above) but cutting edge, the edge of the future."

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

"Will Wright is doing in an extreme way what lots of game designers want to do: empower people 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."

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

I agree with this idea to some extent as gamers have begun to see themselves and replicate themselves virtually in this game as Sim characters, cultivating a genuine true representation of themselves. This is enabling audiences to have autonomy and identify themselves with it. 

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 believe that The Sims has made a remarkable impression in the gaming industry that many people did not think it would have and that other games may follow as it increases the idea of participatory culture as Jenkins says we are prosumers and what clay Shirky refers to as 'mass amateurisation'  - now the way audiences interact with the media has an impacts on what is created and updated. They have the ability to choose what is right for them and this sense of freedom is felt by them enabling consumers to pick and choose what they like highlighting the idea of pluralism. This means that it can result in games having the flexibility and interactivity in future games as gamers feel more pride and are able to express their feelings more publicly.