The Sims FreePlay CSP - Language & Representations blog tasks

 Language / Gameplay analysis

1) What elements of gameplay are shown?

Building relationships and creating a family, creating different characters with different ages and race, also playing with pets 

2) What audience is the trailer targeting?

A younger teenage audience who have a smart phone

3) What audience pleasures are suggested by the trailer?

diversion- entertaining yourself away from real life

personal relationships- building relationships with the sims

personal identity- creating different characters that could represent you 

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

1) How is the game constructed?

Simple and straightforward with daily quests, a tutorial and rewards. A need for jobs for money and xp

2) What audience is this game targeting?

Aimed at both male and female but slightly leaning towards females due to the clothes selection

3) What audience pleasures does the game provide?

diversion- with a different choice of activities and jobs

personal relationships- through building a community

surveillance- through teaching different life skills and how to make money

Intertextuality through SIMS chef and master chef

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

The focus on buying items to progress. Adverts in return for crystals and crystals used for 'lets play' which speeds up time. Some elements of product placement

Representations

Re-watch some of the expansion pack trailers and answer the following questions:

1) How do the expansion pack (DLC) trailers reinforce or challenge dominant ideologies?

It reinforces dominant ideologies through different races and ages of characters to use from with different clothes and activities that reinforces the idea of consumerism 

2) What stereotypes have you identified in The Sims FreePlay?

The stereotypes of boys and girls in the Sims FreePlay with boys playing sports and having a blue bedroom and girls doing ballet in a pink bedroom 

3) What media theories can you apply to representations in The Sims FreePlay?

Blumer and Katz uses and gratification through diversification playing just for fun or personal relationship and personal identity can explain why people play it 

Representation reading

Read this Forbes article on gender and racism in The Sims franchise and answer the following questions:

1) How realistic does The Sims intend to be?

Few games try to simulate more than The Sims games, which recreate every progressive euphemism we have about love, work, and family. We’re not really looking for realism, we’re looking more for believability

2) How has The Sims tried to create more realistic representations of ethnicity?

adding more details to alter the appearance of a Sim with a less stereotypical ways of representing different ethnicities. As he showed me the tool, creating an Asian character that does indeed appear less cartoonish

3) How has The Sims responded to racism and sexism in society?

We don’t really have a message—there’s no racism message, there’s no tolerance message. We have same-sex marriage in our game. Our Sims will not discriminate based on gender preference whatsoever. 

4) What is The Sims perspective on gender fluidity and identity?

That’s an interesting topic, he said, but I have no good response to that. We would need to take more time and consideration to really arrive at that destination.

5) How does The Sims reinforce the dominant capitalist ideologies of American culture?

the game’s systems do embody a particular, largely American attitude of life as a goal-oriented, currency-driven quest toward fulfilling the handful of personality traits one’s given from birth. It’s the constant and often insupportable stress of upholding this model for society and personhood for which The Sims wants to create an escapist catharsis.