Hi there, and welcome to my ethnographic analysis journal. Here, I will be citing my own opinions regarding the weekly readings, as well as sharing with you my observations to my chosen game (to analyze), The Sims Social, a game application that has taken Facebook by storm.
Welcome to Sims Social @ Facebook!
To begin, allow me to briefly introduce Sims Social. As the name suggests, it is a Facebook application version of the popular simulation game series, The Sims, created by Will Wright. The main difference between the original game series and the Facebook application is undeniably, as the name suggests, the social aspect of Sims Social.
But before I delve deeper into the inner workings of Sims Social and the unique gameplay it offers to Facebook users, I shall discuss this week’s readings, which is centered on the definition of play and what are the various kinds of games. Throughout the reading, Callois has argued with and against the Huizinga’s definition of play, eventually concluding that play must be (1) a “free and voluntary activity”, (2) “engaged in with precise limits of time and place”, (3) “uncertain” in terms of the outcome, (4) “unproductive” or “an occasion of pure waste”, (5) “governed by rules”, and (6) is “accompanied by a special awareness of a second reality”.
As I played Sims Social, I found it to correspond well to Callois’ definition, as it met all the requirements needed for it to be a good gameplay (in accordance with the respective numbering). As I immersed myself into the game voluntarily (1), I noticed how the interface and simple gameplay (with minimal instructions and tutorial steps) was really designed and programmed for the daily usage of Facebook users (2). After playing it for a few weeks, I noticed that achieving any form of goal in terms of object collection is impossible and unpredictable as new themes occur every week (3). But the game itself got so addictive that I could spend hours just clicking away, wasting my time, and for the hardcore players, real money as well probably (4). With Sims Social’s gameplay focusing around the mundane activities of real life, thereby setting itself a set of rules (but it is freeing at the same time, as you have the choice of fulfilling those needs or you can just let your character wet himself) (5), players understood the nature of this second reality that they now share with their Facebook friends who also play Sims Social(6).
According to the classification given to games in this week’s readings, it is apparent that Sims Social is a form of mimicry or simulation of real life, where pleasure is derived from pretending to be something or someone else. There is not much agon (competition) present; the closest thing to it would probably the player-ranking list that ranks your house value accordingly, thus some players may have the desire to always be at the top of this list. There is no alea (chance) or ilinx (dizziness) involved in the game either.
I find the concepts of paidia and ludus most fascinating due to its complexity in understanding the terms. I will not say that I can fully comprehend these concepts, but I will attempt in making them relevant to my discussion on Sims Social.
One striking resemblance to a paidia and ludus coupling within Sims Social would have to be the energy system implemented on an interactive object. Paidia, the spontaneous manifestations of joy resulted by a player when they wish to do an action like playing the piano or painting a picture (to fulfill their character’s need for fun, to level up in skill or to earn Simoleans), would cause them to naturally want to click repeatedly on the object without a care.
But ludus, complementary to paidia, disciplines and enriches the action by creating a system whereby players can have only up to 15 energy points (there are occasional bonus energy points) to spend (by clicking) at any time, as well as controlling the number of clicks needed to earn a new skill point, which now makes the player think harder and plan out the number of energy points he needs to set aside for this particular action. In doing so, Sims Social has understood the crazy joy of clicking (paidia) and controlled it with a defined set of rules that enhances the gameplay and the satisfaction gained from carrying out certain actions (ludus).
In essence, Sims Social is very similar to its original counterpart in terms of its gameplay. It is still an open-ended game that simulates real life, whereby a player controls a Sims character and fulfills its basic needs using interactive household objects, but with an added challenge of fulfilling quests in order to win some exclusive objects to add to one’s collection. Due to the word limit, I will elaborate more about Sim Social’s gameplay with a live demonstration in class.
I will share one very important observation that I gained from my time playing Sims Social and that is the interaction between players, and the implied reciprocity that follows. Interaction between Facebook friends in real-time occurs when the player seeks to complete building objects or rooms, or completing quests. I witnessed this to be a unique form of collaborative gameplay that occurs outside the Sims Social space, happening on the Facebook walls of friends, tagging each other on these posts and asking them to click on the links, so as to grant them the respective ingredients needed for them to complete these tasks.
Not too long ago, after I tagged my best friend to a post of mine, requesting a item, she commented on my post, saying she won’t click it because I have yet to click on any of HER links! (I was too busy with schoolwork and totally forgot to click.)
Question to ponder on: How does the marriage of gaming and social media affect gameplay between friends?
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