The Sims, Theory, examples and their links:
Hesmondhalgh Theory, Risk/Profit:
The Sims FreePlay follows the freemium business model. This is a free game available to everyone who uses an app store, however the game can be progressed quicker by using in game purchases, EA uses addiction methods like making things take time within the game, therefore players want to skip these things, doing that requires points which cost money.
Gauntlett Identity theory (constructed):
For instance, the choice of skin tones available at the start of The Sims FreePlay in the character customisation screen is a recognition of the racial diversity of the audience. In this way, the town becomes a place which reflects the player’s identity and values.
Gauntlett Identity theory (Collective) & Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities:
The Sims FreePlay has a dedicated group of players who call themselves Simmers. They exchange tips and ideas on forums such as the fandom page – a wiki platform for fans to celebrate and engage with their favourite media products.
Postmodernism within “The Sims”:
The game is seen as a “simulacra” of the real world and is a “pastiche” where people can live whatever life they like.
Metroid:
Hybrid Genre, Steve Neale:
Firstly, we have the First Person Shooter Genre, this is seen by the genre repeated visor features, these being a heads-up display (HUD) where you can check your ammunition count and health status.
Secondly, we have Action and Adventure, In terms of action, Samus Aran is a bounty hunter so most of your time will be spent with the combat mode activated on your visor. And in terms of Adventure, the game has lots of puzzles to solve. As you work your way through Agon Wastes, collecting the important upgrades to your jump and beams, you also need to find three keys to open the boss door.
Judith Butler, Male Gaze, Patriarchal society and feminism:
In the original Metroid game, we can see that if you defeated the main boss in under an hour, Samus Aran would strip out of her exoskeleton and wave to the player in nothing more than a bikini. The developers received backlash from this oversexualisation, however they knew they would be “subverting expectations” if they didn’t include a over-sexualised version of “Samus” in Metroid 2, so in this case they added a reveal unlocked if you gathered more than 75 items, in this reveal she is wearing a skin tight, dark blue suit which defines and over sexualised the female attributes like breasts, thighs and glutes.
Hesmondhalgh:
“Metroid” was created in 1986 by Nintendo’s own research and development team, known as R&D1. If you wanted to play any of their original titles, you had to buy their system. The independent Retro Studios was granted the license to develop “Metroid Prime” for the GameCube. When they struggled to deliver the game, Nintendo secured $1 million worth of the company’s stock and it became one of its subsidiaries.
Tomb Raider:
Gauntletts theory of empowering women from “Media, Gender and Identity”:
In 2002, he suggested the representation of the Spice Girls and their “Girl Power” was a terrific example of how gender identities were more complex than the binary definitions which reduced women to passive housewives.
Tomb Raider game was released just after the Spice Girls topped the UK music charts with their single “Wannabe” so the representation of Lara Croft fits in with that new wave of female empowerment.
Gauntlett: “…watching Tomb Raider… might encourage girls to become somewhat more independent and feisty, without them needing to directly copy an extensive fight sequence, embark on a perilous quest for ancient artifact”
Hybrid Genre, Steve Neale:
Tomb Raider is (like metroid) an “action Adventure” game.
The third-person perspective allows the player to rotate the camera and view their surroundings without having to move the character. This gives a better sense of the 3-D space and discover solutions to the puzzles.
The player actions, attacks and weapons displays the Action genre where Lara fights enemies to get to the final gem within the game.
Propp Stock characters:
Lara Croft is obviously the hero because she goes on a quest to defeat the villain, the Queen of Atlantis, who wants to remake the world in her evil image. Natla could also be considered a dispatcher because she sends Lara to Peru in search of the first Scion of Atlantis.
Jean Seaton and James Curran, Conglomerate domination:
Some critics would also argue this business model enables the creation of increasingly complex and financially risky games. For example, Core Design needed substantial funding to complete “Tomb Raider” or the game would never have left the design board. Core design is owned By “Square Enix” who have a net worth of close to 30 billion JPY.
