The Sims FreePlay - Representation blog tasks

Textual analysis

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?

The trailers do reinforce some ideologies and some are challenged and reinforced. For example, the women within the trailers are objectified and seen to be taking on conventional roles like shopping, doing catwalks in the malls and dressing up. There are specific colours associated with each gender like pink and blue. The idea of the girl being shown doing her homework and the boy in the rock band is conventional and stereotypical, it is reflective of woke politics as there is also not much fluidity in terms of gender representations as the genders are provided with stereotypical roles.

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

The stereotypes that are identifiable is to do with gender representation as the trailer counter argues gauntlet's theory of gender and fluidity because in the free play trailer it only depicts the stereotypical gender roles and what they identify with. For example, females are mostly seen at the chic boutique and doing catwalks and males are seen as playing guitars and the piano.

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

The media theories that are applicable to the sims include:

• Gramsci's theory of hegemony and Marxism: This is because the perfect ideal world is represented and the high life including penthouses the players constantly drive themselves for more as they want this 'lush life'. This conveys the concept of Marxism as the ruling class ideology is conveyed of hard work and getting rewarded. The idea of the sims being able to build a fire station and get a job is the promotion of the capitalist ideal.
• Stuart Hall suggests individuals each have their own conceptual map – effectively what we use to decode and understand media texts. 
• Reflective approach: the media simply mirrors (or reflects) the real world. This is a limited approach that minimalises the power or complexity of the media.

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 is only realistic to some extent as it is more trying to get the audiences to believe in it rather than making it realistic.

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

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 cartoonist, 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?
“It gets to the point where it crosses a line,”  “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.
4) What is The Sims perspective on gender fluidity and identity?
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.“

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

It's not that hatred and real, damaging social phenomena have been written out of the game. The article 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

Read this New Normative feature on LGBTQ representation in The Sims franchise and 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?

There is more diversity in terms of the representation as because there is more choice over the type of identity the sim chooses to have.

3) Why have fans praised the inclusion of LGBTQ relationships in The Sims franchise?
This is because to the gamers they felt something unique was in the game and felt as if it bought up issues of adulthood that wouldn't be done in many other games. The fans felt as if it was something rewarding and positive to see this representation in the game.

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

“When we went to the ESRB on The Sims 1, they didn’t have any guidelines on same sex support because no game had ever done it, this meant that the game a T rating, but the ESRB corrected that after the game shipped and same sex support was an automatic M. This posed a serious problem. Fans had contacted the team regularly about how much they loved the feature’s inclusion, and their fears that it could be removed in later versions. On top of this, the team was proud of its inclusion and wanted to stand by an integral part of the game that had been intended from the beginning.

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

I think that representation of sexuality is represented as more diverse and subversive like, The Sims continue to strive toward greater heights, there may someday be more games out there that help people see acceptance of sexual identities as more than just a simulation. There is celebratory feel to this game as these relationships are viewed as being positive and is promoted rather than being seen as discriminatory.

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?

The sims 4 is more suburban than usual and the article is critical of it as it is meant to be allowing audiences to escape reality, but instead people are just playing a virtual life of themselves apart from the things that are included as fantasy.

The article claims:

it’s more about accessorising a comfortable veneer of suburbia than it is about banging aliens and werewolves, aiming for the kind of life you fantasise about before finding out that adult life actually sucks.


2) What audience pleasures did the writer used to find in The Sims franchise?
He claims:
 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. The funnest part of the game used to be all the inventive and mischievous ways to act out or blow off steam, which is really what we’re all looking for on both a macro and micro level. The Sims is really at its best when it’s letting me live my best life


3) Why does the writer mention an example of a washer and dryer as additional DLC?
He claims that it was like in real life how he doesn't like doing his laundry and At the time 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. He felt as if already he was trying escape.


4) In your opinion, has The Sims made an error in trying to make the franchise too realistic?
I think to some extent it has because the whole point of individuals to play a game like this is to feel rewarded and feel a sense of escapism through diversion. The part of it being to realistic can just reflect the domesticity in reality.


5) How does this representation of reality link to Baudrillard’s theory of hyperreality - the increasingly blurred line between real and constructed?
The term of hyper-reality is used in semiotics to describe an inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality, especially in technologically advanced postmodern societies. The sims can be described as a simulation of the real world it can be seen as neglecting the real world. Audiences may interpret through this and this may blur their image between the things between fiction and reality. This links to Baudrillard as he claims that now our culture now perceives the copy as more real than the original.

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?

Push the sims content to a wider audience, and to also demonstrate the realism associated with the sims - i.e. their ability to interact with each other.

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.

Grand Garages - Download it now to take your Sim’s dream home to the next level by building the ultimate garage, along with some other surprises.

Pregnancy pictures - advertise the different stages of family life available in the game and the fact that you have an opportunity to develop your own relationships based around your preferences

Happy international women day posts - Simulacra, linking the virtual women in sims to the real-life concept of International Women's Day.

There isn't a lot of text in the captions of the posts - there are typically only emojis which leaves the posts open for debate and interpretation amongst the Sims community and fandom.

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?

1. Different body types
2. Facial features
3. Different buildings

Highlights the fact that audiences constantly desire new more diverse content - important as it signifies the fact that audiences are directly involved in shaping the content of Sims.

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

1. Expansion packs - a revenue stream as people download the additional content to improve the game.
2. Premium content - "VIP Rooms and Winter Wonderland Quest"

5) Linking to our work on postmodernism, how could The Sims FreePlay social media presence be an example of Baudrillard’s hyperreality and simulacra?

It is an example of simulacra as it is situated in the real world and focuses on real actions, yet is based on fictional content of the sims. It is bringing the media text into and merging it with the real world.