The Sims FreePlay CSP - 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.

Gameplay, Story and Graphics/good visuals.

2) How does the game information on this page reflect the strong element of participatory culture in The Sims?

The Sims can have fandoms who create fan art or mods to the game to enhance their entertainment and love for the game they are very important to the game itself The Sims its almost like the heart of the game it keeps it going and beating and if there are no fans then the game would die.


3) Read a few of the user reviews. What do they suggest about the audience pleasures of the game?

They enjoy the various updates and new elements that is added into the game like the pre teens or pregnancy DLC. It keeps the game fresh for them which is important. Many audiences just like the escapism part of the game to enjoy the game without the stresses of 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 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 wasn't interested in The Sims at first because he thought that " doll houses were for girls, and girls didn't play video games". Many people did think this and it wasn't an insane thing to say at the time. However it was successful

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

Modding is where players were able to modify game assets by manipulating the game code. It links to textual poaching since it takes something that exists and mixes into something completely else but has elements of what was taken.

4) Look specifically at p136. Note down key quotes from Jenkins, Pearce and Wright on this page.

The contribution of consumers and audiences to a product or a franchise, through activities ranging from writing fan fiction to drawing fan art, from cosplaying to even penning simple gaming reviews. Participatory culture is inherently social, feeding on the affordances of Web 2.0 and social media,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 2006a:137). Thus, this culture of appropriation and remediation has brought people together in creative projects that demand nothing more than cooperation and give no remuneration except for a sense of pride and satisfaction in ones achievements.

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

Using real life celebrities and putting them in the game or famous pop culture references in objects and locations or certain career paths in The Sims are great examples of intertextuality.

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

Trans media refers to the technique of telling a story across multiple media platforms, where each platform contributes its unique element to the overall narrative. They allow the user to create their own stories they will explore their own storyline not anyone else. Another way is through the creation of mods that expand the game.

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

It has exponentially grown through the rise of social media. Communities have grown massively whether it is through twitter, TikTok or Instagram and YouTube it has definitely grown over the past 20 years or so.

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

Its loyal and creative community that continues to grow to this day, an almost cult like following. It helped pioneer, a game that remains such a staple of fan and game modding communities today the cult following that it endangered well beyond the usual lifespan of a popular computer game like Among us which mostly earned its popularity through Covid 19 and Influencers streaming the game.
 
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 says the Sims is an important game because 

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

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


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?

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:

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

2) What examples of downloadable content are presented?

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

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

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

2) Why does the freemium model incentivise game developers to create better and longer games?

3) What does the article suggest regarding the possibilities and risks to the freemium model in future?


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?

2) What are the age ratings and what content guidance do they include?

3) What is the PEGI process for rating a game? 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Advertising: The representations of women in advertising.

 Q1: There's much more sexualization and objectification of women which can be damaging to younger ladies and girls. Q2: They were housewives and mothers only never an independent woman but an inferior gender to men. Q3: The fewer clothes you had the more beautiful or sexy looking you were which was a bad mindset throughout the 1960s. Q4: Laura Mulvey created the theory of the male gaze. Q5: When women started to reclaim their femininity which is known as the second wave of feminism. Q6: It was the objectification of women that started to be popular and used by brands that they had to look perfect and have no errors in their lives. Q7: That males had the power over women and how if they sexualized it was towards women however women it's a threat and violence that comes with that sexualization. Sexual violence occurs throughout society which is disgusting due to some of these ads which promote male dominance and the sexualization of women. Q8: The phrase of femme fatale is that ...
Read more

Advertising: Introduction to advertising

 Q1: They use a wide range of different stories and cultures for example a black family or a white family or a single mother family it's very accessible to different communities and doesn't exclude anyone which is good for an advertisement. Q2: They used the bandwagon technique which makes people feel like they are missing out which brings out a wider audience, it is very smart. Q3: Cant access the file Q4: Experts They may be referencing experts who have a good knowledge of the topic giving the audience the information they need to understand the media product more easily. Q5: Marmite has used intertextuality by using the cartoon character Paddington Bear in a campaign. The Paddington Bear used to eat marmalade sandwiches but changed to marmite sandwiches. This links to the persuasive technique of association because the use of the cartoon character encourages more people to use Marmite instead of Marmalade. The use of association suggests that if Paddington Bear can change hi...
Read more

Genre blog tasks:

 Q1: They can efficiently convey meaning without the need of countless text which may confuse the reader. Q2: They let us sort out types of movies films radios etc into different stylistic choices. Q3: The disaster genre is mostly impending/foreshadowed disaster as the primary version of that plot and movie whereas action genre is generally very fast paced and have a lot of fight scenes and violence it even has slow motion shots to amplify that sense of danger the character is in. Q4: Conventions iconography narrative characters and setting. Q5: Genre is used to differentiate the pleasures and interests that the audience has for example if they like the action genre they're more likely to watch more action movies. Q6: Genre is used to map out the basic conventions of the film that will make it that genre its a good method to ready your movie out and make sure it is that genre. Q7: A old western movie typically has a bar or a duel with revolvers.i may have horses being ridden cowboy...
Read more