THE SIMS FREEPLAY- LANGUAGE & REPRESENTATIONS!

 

THE SIMS FREEPLAY- LANGUAGE & REPRESENTATIONS:

Language / Gameplay analysis

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

1) What elements of gameplay are shown?

• Ability to form relationships and "find true love", grow a family, and explore the local town that you've constructed.

• Active verbs - give the audience an active involvement in the stories created in the game.

2) What audience is the trailer targeting?

A youth audience

3) What audience pleasures are suggested by the trailer?

• diversion - moving out of reality and living the life that they desire through a simulated/constructed reality.

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

1) How is the game constructed?

Provides tutorials - makes the gameplay easier which targets and suits the more mainstream gamer

Personalization of the game 

2) What audience is this game targeting?

Female audience: more clothing options and styles 

3) What audience pleasures does the game provide?

Diversion - escaping the reality of your own life to lead a more idealistic life.

Hyper-reality - becoming invested in the gameplay - this gamer plays for long periods which shows how easy it is to focus on the game itself more than your own life.

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

The tutorials show how the crystals can be used to speed up processes such as the construction of buildings like the fire station etc. Encourages the gamer to invest in these crystals later on in the game ti continue speeding up processes.

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?

- A capitalist society 

- The police is represented positively 

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

-The rich are predominately are white 

- girls are mainly into pink things 

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

- Gauntlett: gender fluidity 

- Gilroy: Double consciousness

- Butler: Gender as performance 

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?

The Sims games, recreate every progressive euphemism we have about love, work, and family. And few games feel as self-consciously fake either. 

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

As he showed me the tool, creating an Asian character that does indeed appear less cartoonish, I wondered if there’d ever been discussions on coding racial awareness into the game systems themselves.

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

“Our game is kind of a caricature of life. 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. 

simulations of racist thought given how omnipresent it is in American culture and politics. It's not that hatred and real, damaging social phenomena have been written out of the game. Sinhaseni brings up an example of a Sim whose main character trait is a dislike of children gaining points by breaking his child’s toys, but more than 6 million children in America are affected by child abuse and neglect every year.

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

The Sims 4 seems inflexible on is gender identity. As with earlier games,when players go to the Create-A-Sims mode the first choice they will be asked to make is between male and female. I asked Sinhaseni if there had been any thought toward including other gender identities, or at least making it possible to create a Sim with neither gender option selected.

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

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.

Read this New Normative feature on LGBTQ representation in The Sims franchise (the website link no longer works but that will take you to the text of the article - you'll need your Greenford Google login to access). Answer the following questions:

1) How did same-sex relationships unexpectedly help the original Sims game to be a success?

2) How is sexuality now represented in The Sims?

3) Why have fans praised the inclusion of LGBTQ relationships in The Sims franchise?

4) Why did the Sims run into regulatory difficulties with American regulator the ESRB? How did EA respond?

5) How is sexuality represented in the wider video game industry today?

Reality, postmodernism and The Sims

Read this Paste Magazine feature on reality and The Sims franchise. Answer the following questions:

1) What does the article suggest about the representation of real life in The Sims 4?

Whether we prefer objective or narrative based games, or gravitate towards sad or violent games over happy or uplifting ones, ultimately the goal is to remove ourselves from the drudgeries of real life.

2) What audience pleasures did the writer previously find in The Sims franchise?

In previous installments, the answer to that was some of The Sims’ more imaginative expansions. Escapism, after all, is often about living the life you don’t lead, and that means removing certain barriers and limitations we experience in reality.

3) Why the does the writer mention an example of a washer and dryer as additional DLC?

the washer and dryer, which I never wound up using. At the time I had no interest in adding yet another maintenance ritual to my Sim’s daily routine, but also, as I told my fellow Sims fans, it was almost an act of defiance. I have no desire to do laundry in real life, why would I do it in a Sims game after so many years of not having to at all? Now I think of the little content packs on the storefront page, with names like Laundry Day, Toddler Stuff, Kids Room Stuff, Perfect Patio, and Cool Kitchen, and sigh under the sheer weight of feeling that same sense of obligation I’m already trying to escape.

4) In your opinion, has The Sims made an error in trying to make the franchise too realistic?

In my opinion I think that The Sims made an error in trying to make the franchise too realistic because the game completely resembles real life so many players would have no interest in playing the game. 

5) How does this representation of reality link to Baudrillard’s theory of hyperreality - the increasingly blurred line between real and constructed?

The game is an exact copy of the real life which show the traditional ideologies of a normal day life for an example going to school etc..The Sims in this case has completely ignored the line that is blurred between real and constructed.

The Sims Free Play social media analysis

Analyse The Sims FreePlay Facebook page and Twitter feed and answer the following questions:

1) What is the purpose of The Sims Free Play social media channels?

The purpose of The Sims Free Play social media channels is to keep players aware of any new updates available or coming soon. 

2) Choose three posts (from either Twitter or Facebook) and make a note of what they are and how they encourage audience interaction or response.

By commenting on posts and engaging with other gamers, They allow audience interaction as they ask questions to the audience.

3) Scroll down the Facebook feed briefly. How many requests for new content can you find from players? Why is this such as an important part of the appeal for The Sims Free Play?

There are many requests on the Facebook page and this is important for Sims Free play because they can tell the creators what updates they are looking for

4) What tweets can you find in the Twitter feed that refer to additional content or other revenue streams for EA?

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