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.
-Customise 34 sims
-Love, romance, relationships and marriage watch your sims live trough it all
-Choose what careers your sims will have
2) How does the game information on this page reflect the strong element of participatory culture in The Sims?
Offers highly detailed character creation and creating families allowing the audience to shape representations and narratives themselves, also through fan communities called the 'simmers' and modding
3) Read a few of the user reviews. What do they suggest about the audience pleasures of the game?
The user reviews suggest the main audience pleasure is diversification as they play the game to be entertained but also personal relationships as the audience like building their own family
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?
2) Why was development company Maxis initially not interested in The Sims?
3) What is ‘modding’? How does ‘modding’ link to Henry Jenkins’ idea of ‘textual poaching’?
4) Look specifically at p136. Note down key quotes from Jenkins, Pearce and Wright on this page.
5) What examples of intertextuality are discussed in relation to The Sims? (Look for “replicating works from popular culture”)
6) What is ‘transmedia storytelling’ and how does The Sims allow players to create it?
7) How have Sims online communities developed over the last 20 years?
8) What does the writer suggest The Sims will be remembered for?
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?
It is about women and girls who take gaming beyond gaming to become designers within well-designed passionate affinity spaces that change their lives and the lives of others. It about these women and girls because we believe that what they are doing, how they are doing it
2) 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
3) Do you agree with the view that The Sims is not a game – but something else entirely?
I disagree with the idea of sims is not a game as it can represent and reflect the audiences lifestyle but they are many games that do this and its these types of games becoming more popular to the audience
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:
The Sims games center on the 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- this links to personal relationships and identity
2) What examples of downloadable content are presented?
The now-infamous developers came under fire for locking several iconic characters and powerful multiplayer abilities behind DLC in Stars Wars Battlefront 3
3) How did Electronic Arts enrage The Sims online communities with expansion packs and DLC?
The expansion pack introducing pets is always one of the most coveted entries. The Sims 4: Cats and Dogs followed suit. It provided an in-depth system of creating pets while also containing a sizable amount of building content for houses and cosmetic items for Sims. Three months later, the related My First Pet stuff pack delivered smaller pets and the usual extra elements
4) What innovations have appeared in various versions of The Sims over the years?
Every addition to the series has been innovative. 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.
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 EA responding to customer demand as if they demand these things the audience will play more and have a higher chance to buy in app purchases
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.
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?
Since players need to pay for in-game currency and special features it encourages the developers to innovate so that they can generate a constant stream of revenue
3) What does the article suggest regarding the possibilities and risks to the freemium model in future?
Plott is so convinced of the model that he thinks we could see traditional console games splitting their products between single-player games, which would cost a flat fee, and multiplayer games, which are free-to-play. The “freemium” model has proven itself to be incredibly profitable. The question now is how game developers use it to grow without alienating a large share of the gaming community.
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. Games can feature a wide range of content, including violence, horror, sex and drugs. It's important for parents to have a trusted source of information about whether they should let their children play a particular game. The Games Rating Authority is appointed by government as the body that issues these age ratings.
2) What are the age ratings and what content guidance do they include?
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. The Games Rating Authority is appointed by government as the body that issues these age ratings.
3) What is the PEGI process for rating a game?
The examination process
1. Content declaration assessment
2. Submission materials
3. Video footage examination
4. Game examination
5.Recieving the PEGI license
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