The Sims FreePlay CSP - Language & Representations blog tasks

 Language / Gameplay analysis

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

1) What elements of gameplay are shown?

Character customisation, house living, customisation in general, interaction with other sims, wedding, pets, teens, night life (disco/club)

2) What audience is the trailer targeting?

Targeting younger adults and teens due to the representation of work and adult living while also appealing to a younger teen audience due to the sandbox aspect of the sims.

3) What audience pleasures are suggested by the trailer?

Diversion- players are able to make a whole new persona in game and live their dream life away from reality and creativity in designing characters and homes, social interaction through gameplay.

Personal identity- Create characters on people around them to make it seem as if its their real life.

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

1) How is the game constructed?

It is constructed to be free to play game that lets players design their own dream in a game. It lures players in through fake relationships/families as well as creating your own town.

2) What audience is this game targeting?

Younger women as there is a lot about living life and starting family empathised through. 

3) What audience pleasures does the game provide?

Diversion- players are able to make a whole new persona in game and live their dream life away from reality

Personal identity- Create characters on people around them to make it seem as if its their real life.

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

Through watching ads or buying gems for clothes or speeding up time.

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?

They reinforce family values when women are expected to have children as well as having success by living in a penthouse and romance being the key to happiness. They can challenge diversity through gender and ethnicity as well as bank robbers being a white female.

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

 There are basic stereotypes seen as the trailer shows a girl doing ballet while the boy does karate seeing how they separate hobbies through gender. For the police there is a box of doughnuts while theres a white male police and black chief called Mr Nice Guy. The cat work sexualises females and there are so many romances seen to happen at the mall. 

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

There are links to Van Zoonens gender stereotypes and objectification of women, Gauntlets fluidity of identity, Gilroy's double consciousness and Hall's approaches to representation.

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?

“We’re not really looking for realism, we’re looking more for believability,” he told me. “It’s kind of a model of life with things like death and aging."

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

One of the special areas of focus in The Sims 4 is improving the Create-A-Sim feature, 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, 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. Our Sims will not discriminate based on gender preference whatsoever. But there’s a line where it becomes too real. The only manner of hatred we have in the game is between incompatible Sims, something that’s driven by the traits of the Sim—a hotheaded Sim, or a Sim who hates children.“

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

One element that 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. “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?

While the studio strives to render identity politics invisible, the game’s systems do embody a particular, largely American attitude of life as a goal-oriented, currency-driven quest toward fullfilling 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?

Having same-sex relationships drew positive publicity showing how they had the best diversity when it came to characters sexuality.

2) How is sexuality now represented in The Sims?

The game is very inclusive where even the background sims have their own sexual preference. Its also up to the players on what they want their sims to feel, however the game is programmed to be inclusive. 

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

The inclusion was able to help many fans learn about sexual preferences in a safe way. it played a huge role in their perception of sexuality as the game was going towards equality and gay rights, normalising it as a whole when playing.

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

The Sims 1 was originally given a T-rating as they didn’t have any guidelines on same sex support because no game had ever done it, however later on this was changed to a M-rating. Their was a fear amongst fans that the inclusion feature would be removed later so EA stepped up and was able to convince the ESRB to maintain the game’s T-rating.

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

The Sims was an influence to the vudeogame industry where other games that came out allowed same-sex relationships as well as offering  characters with believable and realistic LGBTQ relationships. An example was The Last of Us Part II recently made waves with a lesbian kiss of its own at E3 2018.

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?

 It doesn’t have the magic and fantasy of the Supernatural expansion, the transformative excesses of Island Paradise or Into the Future, or the depth and excitement of World Adventures. It offers a few rich experiences in small consumable bites, but nowhere near to the extent of of The Sims 3. So with nothing else to really do, my playthrough of The Sims 4 is reduced to tedium, and trying out features I avoided before. If you’ve got to live the domestic life, after all, might as well make the most of it.

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

Escapism entertainment relationships, personal identity.  

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

I was discussing The Sims 3 with some folks on Twitter once and I remember talking about one of the later additions to the game, 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?

It’s not that I think The Sims, which is literally a life simulator, shouldn’t be like real life. That wouldn’t be the point. It’s that I need more options for escapism. The game used to be so complex and now it feels as if going through the motions of domesticity are the only available options. 

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

The Sims franchise is a perfect study in hyperreality as it allows players to create an entirely constructed life through the game. The Sims FreePlay social media channels also provide an example of simulacra – they are situated in the real world and interact with real players but feature entirely constructed fictional content from the game.

The Sims FreePlay 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 FreePlay social media channels?

Intertexuality to grow their audiences and make new members of their game. 

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.

- Hijabs are now available for child, tween, teenager and adult female Sims! They can be found in the newly refreshed ‘hats’ category in CAS which has now been renamed to ‘headwear’.

- We’re celebrating Pride all year long with the help of artists Jupiter Stevens-Hill, Ashley Lukashevsky, & Mohammed Iman Fayaz! The pack is full of paintings in multiple frame colours & styles created by LGBTQ+ Simmers.

- Happy International Nurses Day! Thank you to the nurses and the health care workers for your compassion, professionalism and round-the-clock commitment to your patients during Covid-19 and in your everyday work. Tag a nurse to say thank you.

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 FreePlay?

- A post showcasing player-created content and inviting others to share their creations.

- A teaser for upcoming updates that encourages players to comment on what they hope to 

-A poll asking players to vote on their favourite in-game features this encourages the audience to interact and engage more with the game even on its socials and stay up to date within the game. 

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

Includes optional in-game purchases.