The Sims is a fan-driven online game that was originally one of the biggest selling PC titles of the past few years. Industry insiders and media study researchers regularly refer to The Sims as an indicator of the ever-increasing consumer co-created content of games. In The Sims the player creates and runs a virtual household. The game is driven by the consumers desire to meet predefined needs such as hunger, comfort, energy, fun and social interaction. Of course all these desires require a cost and are reliant on the player’s characters ability to climb the social ladder and obtain a better-paid position. (The Sims online)
However the main success of The Sims does not come from the narrative structure of the game but through the success of the interaction between the producer and consumer. The Sims involves its customers directly in the process of developing and evolving of the product. The company has built a sophisticated and user-friendly set of authoring tools that enable consumers with no programming skills to create custom objects and skins, from household furniture and clothing to naked characters. (Banks, 2002)
A unique element at the time was when The Sims released eight months before the retail release an authoring tool kit, which was released online for download. As The Sims hit the shelves there were already 20 independent tools developers, 50 fan sites, 40 artists hacking up custom content and 50 000 collectors of these user-created objects. This virtual fan-driven economy was already established as the game was released providing The Sims with new content. Currently over 200 fans sites supply over 90% of the games content. (Banks, 2002)
The Sims game provides a perfect case study of the [www.gamestudies.org computer online game industry]] enlisting in the online producer-consumer interaction. This participatory process is the emergence of a different transaction space in which the roles of consumer and producer are undergoing profound change. (Humphreys, 2003) The game industry must head in the same direction as Will Wright, the designer of The Sims; “the game production process is heading in the direction where it’s truly a collaborative effort between us, the developers, and the people that buy our products.�(Banks, 2002, p.88)
Reference List
Banks, J. (2002) "Gamers as Co-creators", in Balnaves, M., O'Regan, T, and Sternberg, J. (ed.) Mobilising the Audience, Queensland: University of Queensland Press, pp. 188-212.
Humphreys, S. (2003) Online Multiuser games:Playing for real, Australian Journal of Communication 30(1):79-91 Erin Tainsh 14:29, 28 Oct 2004 (EST)
The Sims Online Retrieved October 10, 2004, from http://thesims.ea.com/us/index.html Erin Tainsh 14:52, 28 Oct 2004 (EST)
