CSP: Sims Freeplay

The Sims FreePlay is a mobile video game where players create and manage their own virtual characters, known as Sims. You can determine their personality and customise their appearance, including their clothing, hairstyles, and facial features. Players are then tasked to fulfil the needs and desires of their characters by cooking meals, going to work, and building relationships with other Sims. Once you have designed your house, there is a store where you can purchase furniture, appliances, and other items to decorate your home and keep your Sim happy.

The game’s community is an important part of its success. You can visit and interact with other Sims, play against friends in in multiplayer competitions, and compare your scores and achievements.

Released in 2011 and still available on iOS and Android devices, this virtual town and story builder is free to play, but users are able to purchase in-game items with real money to speed up progress or unlock additional features.

Values and Ideology

Instead of poking fun at our obsession with material possessions and home comforts, The Sims FreePlay encourages the player to shop in the home store to buy more and more expensive goods. Progress is measured by the number of floors in your beach house and whether or not you have a stable for your horses.

This focus on consumerism is epitomised by the mall quests. Once you reach level 12, you can choose to start The Sunset Mall Quest and build your own centre “filled to the brim with stores, clothes and activities”. If you complete the various tasks within the time limit, you unlock the Pickle Sauce Burger Bar to enjoy burgers and milkshakes with other Sims. You can then work through the Pretty Little Planters Quest to unlock a second floor with even more ways to waste your Simoleons.

Put simply, the game reinforces a capitalist culture by normalising the desire for wealth and status.

Identity and Representation

David Gauntlett argues the media and technology play a significant role in shaping our identities and provide us with new ways to express ourselves and connect with others. For instance, the choice of skin tones available at the start of The Sims FreePlay is a recognition of the racial diversity of the audience. Although the gender options follow the simple binary of male and female, players can reject traditional gender roles when they explore the virtual world. In this way, the town will soon become a place which reflects the player’s identity and values.

Henry Jenkins suggested fandoms are social entities with distinct dimensions. The online forums provide opportunities for Simmers to develop a social community around the game where they can praise the text and protest against aspects of the gameplay. Obviously, the mode of reception for some fans is much more intense than the casual player.

Audience Profile

The 2020 survey from The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) found “video games transcend age, gender and where we live” and that “there’s a game for everyone”. Interestingly, women were more likely to play games on their smartphones with a strong preference in casual games.

The survey also revealed different uses and gratifications. 55% of women in the 18-34 age group said “games help them stay connected with friends and family”. This obviously reinforces the argument audiences consume media to develop their personal relationships or, according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, their sense of social belonging. Competing against friends in The Sims FreePlay might also improve the player’s self-esteem because they will feel accepted by their social circle.

77% of women surveyed in 35-54 age group said they played games to “help them relax”. For women aged 55-64, games provided “mental stimulation”. These motivations are examples of diversion because they are using the games to escape the stresses and strains of the real world.

Genre

Although Steve Neale was describing cinema as a “signifying process”, we can also use his semiotic approach to understand how the interplay of codes creates different genres of computer games. For instance, in The Sims FreePlay, players create and modify their own avatars, including their personalities. This is in contrast to the specific characters in action-adventure games, such as Samus Aran in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes or Aloy in Horizon Forbidden West.

The games offer players realistic and immersive experiences their incredible settings, but their narrative structures are another notable difference. The Sims FreePlay is a life simulation game because it focuses on the he emotional and social needs of the characters which Neale might call the “process of desire”. By contrast, Samus is a bounty hunter who is wants to save the universe from the evil Ing and Aloy hunts for the source of mysterious and deadly plague to restore balance to the world. In terms of Todorov’s narrative theory, the disruptions in these stories are obviously violent.

Finally, according to Thomas Schatz, genre films are a “social force”. Since the two protagonists want to eliminate physical threats to society, we can place Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and Horizon Forbidden West into the genre of order. The outcomes in The Sims FreePlay are often determined by your relationships so the game could be classified into the genre of integration.

Privacy

The developer offers its own warning of “infrequent or mild references to violence, profanity, or crude themes”. EA also draws attention to the “location detection, user generated content, advertisements” in the game which might be inappropriate for younger audiences.

In terms of privacy, the company stores some of your personal information, such as age and gender, and tracks your use of the app. They might even collect data when you access other apps and websites so they can improve their targeted advertising.

Many critics are worried about the potential for personal information to be mishandled or misused. That is why the European Union strengthened the data protection laws in all its member states in 2018 with the introduction of The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The law sets out a number of rights for individuals in relation to their personal data, including the right to be informed about the collection and use of their personal data. The GDPR also requires companies to implement appropriate measures to protect personal data and to report any breaches to the relevant authorities and affected individuals. Companies which fail to comply with the law can face significant fines.

Of course, all participatory media come with real world risks, especially for young and vulnerable children who may not realise the importance of keeping their personal information private.

Censorship

EA made the game unavailable in some countries in 2018 because of “regional standards”. Many users were quick to suggest the ban was implemented because of the possibility of establishing same-sex relationships in the virtual world. If you want to play the game in places such as China, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, you need to use a VPN and change your location.