The Sims FreePlay CSP - Audience and Industries blog tasks

 The Sims FreePlay CSP - Audience and Industries blog tasks


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.

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

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


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?

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? 

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