And here comes the third ethnographic blog entry. Oh how time passes so fast these days. From the set of readings available this week, the theme that I found to be present throughout all the readings was the concept of serious gaming, and I defined it to be when a game is no longer played for fun, but for a specific real-world goal or profit.
Allow me to begin by analysing the first reading, “Military Playground: Contested Urban Terrain”. A highly detailed chapter, it focuses on how military games provide a convenient space for real-world activists to practice simulations of combat exercises and war scenarios. It is thus evident that gaming in this context is no longer seen as merely for entertainment but rather for rigorous military training (except in some instances when perhaps games like America’s Army was, despite its military nature, was more for entertainment than serious combat training).
This is a clear example of how a regular simulation game can turn into a serious game, the moment the goal of playing changes from entertainment to military training.
“The military, in alliance with education, the game industry and players themselves, is the prime developmental motor of militainment games of serious soldier play.” – page 26
This sentence within the reading got me thinking about the idea of a two-way influence between the real world scenario and the gaming world scenario. The next sentence completed this idea.
“The virtual game city becomes a testing ground for play tactics that are later transposed to military manoeuvres in live, conflicted urban zones.” – page 26
So who influences who? Does the real world influence the gaming world (like how the real world of human interaction has influenced the concept of The Sims, Sims Social, etc.) or does the gaming world influence the real world (like what we see in this reading, and perhaps in other examples of how movies were adapted from games)?
Although it may be a tall order to try to connect this reading to a game like Sims Social, which is of a different genre of gaming altogether, it is worthy to note that Sims Social is what it is because of the nature of the gameplay and the type of goal players have for themselves when they play the game.
Based on what little research and information there is about Sims Social (because it’s a relatively new Facebook game), Sims Social players play for entertainment and for no other particular gain (such as training, or for monetary incentives). Thus, it is definitely not a serious game.
However, the fact that the nature of its gameplay is reminiscent of the gameplay in other games like MapleStory and WoW, which also employ in-game currencies, I do wonder if Sims Social might go the way of the “Chinese gold farmer”(optional reading) in the near future, where players might pay real sums of money for a large amount of virtual currency to be used in-game. But I doubt this will happen, and I will explain why.
Being a casual game on Facebook, I deduced that the developers have foreseen the possibility of it becoming a “serious game”, especially when the game may later on evolve to have its own black market economy where people would pay real money for Simoleans and SimCash (once they decided that the exchange rate offered in the game is too expensive). Sims Social does have an existing currency exchange available in-game, allowing players to pay real money (via virtual credit) for virtual currency (SimCash).
It is interesting to note how the developers made a whole new currency, SimCash, specifically for the Facebook version. It’s a lucrative venture, as EA can potentially profit a lot from this method of purchase. SimCash can be used to convert to Simoleans, Social Points, and directly exchanged for exclusive goods.
However, power levelling is another matter altogether. There is no possible way in Sims Social for players to pay for level-ups, and there is no incentive to level up really, except for the satisfaction of being higher in the ranking board.
Now, I would like to share some interesting updates to Sims Social, as the game has changed quite a fair bit since the last time I blogged.
1. Players can now “invite” other Sims over to their house. Of course, the invited Sim is really just the script running and NOT being controlled by the actual player.
2. Players can now own another property, in addition to their main property. For the time being, it bears the theme of a vacation home.
3. It’s rumoured that Sims Social might be introducing a new feature, “Careers”, to be launched very soon.
Here are some of the interesting things that I’ve observed while playing Sims Social over the past few weeks:
1. I observed a unique emergent behaviour from the Sims Social players on Facebook, namely my friends. They would click “like” on my request links to show that they have acknowledged and fulfilled my requests. When asked why, it’s because they want me to reciprocate as well, and click on their links.
2. Not many of my friends who play Sims social pay for SimCash, as they don’t feel motivated enough to invest real money in a casual game like Sims Social.
3. After playing for a few months and reaching the almost maximum, what keeps me coming back (other than to write ethno blog entries of course)? Each week, a new theme will roll in and new skill-based items will be available for purchase. I buy them, not just because they’re new but also because they can ultimately allow me to earn more money to buy more items. Then I take a step out, and observed my own patterns of play. I recall only using the skill items that give me the most money per energy click, just trying to be as economically efficient as possible. I see similar effects with other friends, they stopped buying interesting and unique items that cost a lot, but only buy them when it’s necessary (due to a quest) or when it can help give more money.
E.g. I now use the Hedge skill item most often now because with each click I can earn 60+ Simoleans, more than what I would earn with a click from other items.
P.S. I found this really cool promo video of Sims Social, wouldn’t mind sharing it with the class.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMCcYa_gLZs
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