THE SIMS FREEPLAY CSP: AUDIENCE AND INDUSTRY

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Audience


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.

- "Play in real time and control your virtual world!"
- "Choose every aspect of your Sims lives"
- "start creating your dream life today! "

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

- Customisation is emphasised in the app store description

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


Participatory culture

1) What did The Sims designer Will Wright describe the game as?

- Will Wright describes it as akin to ‘a train set or a doll’s house where each person comes to it with their own interest and picks their own goals.

2) Why was development company Maxis initially not interested in The Sims?

- The board of directors thought that ‘doll houses were for girls, and girls didn’t play video games.

3) What is ‘modding’? How does ‘modding’ link to Henry Jenkins’ idea of ‘textual poaching’?

- A culture wherein players were able to modify game assets by manipulating the game code with the sanction of the rights owners, and to share their new creations via personal websites and online.

4) Look specifically at p136. Note down key quotes from Jenkins, Pearce and Wright on this page.

-‘The original Sims series has the most vibrant emergent fan culture of single-player game in history’.
- ‘We were probably responsible for the first million or so units sold but it was the community which really brought it to the next level’.

5) What examples of intertextuality are discussed in relation to The Sims? (Look for “replicating works from popular culture”)

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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?

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