The Sims knowledge community Michelle Schrader ENGL 42501: Writing for New Media Assignment 1: Examining Knowledge Communities

What is The Sims?  The Sims series is a single player, life simulation computer game.  There are 4 installments in the series: The Sims, The Sims 2, The Sims 3, and the brand new The Sims 4  Including multiple expansion packs that provide more content and gameplay  Spinoff game The Sims Medieval  The Sims Online (shut down: August 1, 2008)  Created by game developer Will Wright  Maxis Software / Electronic Arts  Creator of SimCity and Spore  The Sims was released on February 4, 2000  The Sims 4 (release date: September 2, 2014)  Sims titles expand beyond PC games:  Mobile game on iOS, Android  Console games on Nintendo DS/3DS/Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3  Facebook game “The Sims Social” (shut down: June 14, 2013)

Who are Simmers?  A simmer is a player and fan of any of The Sims titles.  Usually more than just a casual player, but can be applied to all players

What is the Knowledge Community?  Main knowledge community:  The Sims PC titles  Other related communities:  The Sims console games  The Sims mobile game  The Sims Medieval  SimCity series

Knowledge Community: as defined by Lévy and Jenkins  “voluntary, temporary, and tactical affiliations”  “reaffirmed through common intellectual enterprises and emotional investments”  Members…  “…may shift from one group to another as their interests and needs change…”  “…may belong to more than one community at the same time.”  “mutual production and reciprocal exchange of knowledge”  “prod individual members to seek out new information for the common good”

The Sims as a Knowledge Community  Simmers are voluntary players and fans  Having an enjoyable experience with the game is a mutual goal of all Simmers  Simmers can be members of one specific KC  Or have membership in multiple KCs for the different games, expansion packs, or interests  May shift their membership as new series or expansion packs are released  Information and creations are shared through a variety of online mediums  Simmers help each other out  Simmers seek out information from various sources to share with the community

Where are the Simmers?  Forums  Fan sites  Wikis  Social media  Blogs

Some of the many Sims Knowledge Community channels/media:

The Sims Official Forum  Perhaps the main hub of the KC  forums.thesims.com/en_US forums.thesims.com/en_US  Multiple sub-forums (various KCs)  General Discussion  Sims and Modeling  Stories and Legacies  And more!  Part of the official Sims websiteofficial Sims website  Monitored by EA employees called “SimGurus”  Previously The Sims 3 forum

The Sims Official Social Media  The Sims brand has many official social media accounts  Controlled by EA  Simmers can interact with each other  Responses from EA representative(s)  Facebook Facebook  Twitter Twitter  SimGurus have their own Twitter accounts, too!  YouTube YouTube  Tumblr Tumblr  Google+ Google+

ModTheSims  modthesims.info modthesims.info  Site where Simmers share the mods and overrides they create  Also share other creations  Forums Forums  Moderated by Simmers  Provides news  Serves The Sims 2, Sims 3, and Sims 4 KCs  Also includes a Sims 1 forum/KC

NRaas Industries  nraas.wikispaces.com nraas.wikispaces.com  Consists of:  Mod sharing  Wiki  Forum Forum  Exclusively for The Sims 3 KC  Home of the extremely popular mods:  MasterController MasterController  StoryProgression StoryProgression  Traveler Traveler  Overwatch Overwatch  ErrorTrap ErrorTrap

The Sims Wiki  sims.wikia.com/wiki/The_Sims_Wiki sims.wikia.com/wiki/The_Sims_Wiki  Wiki  Can be edited by anybody  Consists of 10,000+ pages  Information about all Sims series  Including console and mobile games  Sims and wiki news  Community discussion threads Community discussion threads  Fanon Fanon  Simmers share their own Sims and stories  Blogs Blogs  Social media

SimsVIP  simsvip.com simsvip.com  News posts  Simmers can leave opinions, questions, and interact through comments  Forums Forums  Links to other Sims sites  Social media

YouTube  “Let’s Play”  Walkthroughs  Tutorials  Vlogs  Machinima  Storytelling  Official Sims / EA  Promotional videos  Producer walkthroughs

The Dark Side  The Sims knowledge community can also go beyond legitimate ways of sharing knowledge and creations.  Illegally sharing copyrighted material  Sharing files with bad mods  Sharing files with viruses and malware  Sharing content that was not created by them  (Stealing from other Simmers)  This is combated by:  Simmers in the community who report stolen creations.  Both on The Sims site & file sharing sites  Promoting the use of Delphy’s CustardDelphy’s Custard  EA takes care of locating illegal file sharing of their copyrighted material and getting it removed from the file sharing site.

Simmers & EA: a Love-Hate Relationship  The Love  Game developers for The Sims 3 Store have created downloadable content based on what many Simmers’ ideas posted in The Sims 3 forums.The Sims 3 Store  The Hate  Some Simmers have protested the release of The Sims 4  Missing features from previous Sims titles Missing features  Some Simmers created petitions on the forums  The Mixed Feelings  Repeated expansion pack themes

Simmers asked for farm stuff…

No EP, but they did get all this from the Store team: …and this isn’t even all the items in the sets!

One of many Sims 4 Simmer-created petitions from the forums…

…but EA did not change their release date.

Seeing Double? Triple?