Gender in The Sims

The Sims is a life simulation computer game developed by Maxis. It is a game that does not conform to the paradigm of the male dominated video game.  Drawing from the readings of Laurel, Jenkins, Fron et al, and Fullerton et al, I will discuss the ways in which gender is embedded within The Sims.

 

One of the most important aspects of The Sims is that it caters to both the male and female gamer.  It avoids being classified under the “Hegemony of Play” which Fron states, “ignores the needs and desires of ‘minority’ players such as women and ‘non-gamers’ (Fron et al, 1).  The Sims accomplishes this in many ways; one is by allowing the players to fully customize their characters.  At the start of the game, players can either choose set characters, both male and female, or players can choose to create their own character.  Laurel states, “Supporting personalization is a power and graceful way to acknowledge and celebrate difference.  In a networked world, allowing detailed self-representation will assist tremendously in the formation of online communities”(Laurel, 51). By implementing this type of personalization to the game, creators of The Sims eliminated the stereotype of the dominant male protagonist game, making the game gender neutral.

 

The game play in The Sims is fairly simple.  It is set in a neighborhood with multiple different families.  The player can direct their character through a variety of different everyday tasks such as going to work, taking a bath, chatting with neighbors, making food, etc.  In addition, the player is able to fully customize the living space of their character from furniture, doors, lights, windows, etc.  In some ways, these features highlight the characteristics that Jenkins classifies as play for girls.  Jenkins states that play for girls “adopt a slower pace, are less filled with dangers, invite gradual investigation and discovery, foster an awareness of social relations and a search for secrets, center around emotional relations between characters” (Jenkins, 356-357).  These characteristics can be seen in the slow pace of the game and the slow development of the players’ character.  It is also seen in the interaction the player has with the other characters within the neighborhood.  Although this is one approach to the game play in The Sims, there are actually many different styles of play according to how the user wishes to play.

 

Unlike any other game, The Sims has no win condition, giving players the freedom to create their own goals that they wish to achieve.  This offers a variety of different game spaces that appeal to both female and male audiences, demonstrating the concept of an “’androgynous space’ that engages all aspects of all persons: a space into which women and girls are invited and welcomed, but in which men and boys can also enjoy more diverse and nuanced forms of play than are typically available to them.”(Fullerton et al, 1).  For example, The Sims contains female conceptions of spaces, both the domestic space and constructing and cultivating space, as mentioned by Fullerton.  Players can either focus on just the day-to-day domestic activities of their character or “contribute to building the world” through sharing their customhouses with other players around the world (Fullerton et al, 7).    

 

The success of The Sims can definitely be attributed to its achievement in making a game that appeals to both male and female gamers, ultimately showing that success of a video game comes not only from its content or game play but also the target audience it is made for.

 

 

Works Cited

Fron, J., Fullerton, T., Morie, J. & Pearce, C. (2007). The Hegemony of Play. In Situated Play: Proceedings of Digital Games Research Association 2007 Conference. Tokyo, Japan. 1-10.

 

Fullerton, T., Morie, J. & Pearce, C. (2007). A Game Of Ones Own: Towards a New Gendered Poetics of Game Space. In Proceedings, Digital Arts & Culture 2007, Perth, Australia. 1-11.

 

Jenkins, H. (2004). Game design as narrative architecture. The Game Design Reader, 670-686.

 

Laurel, B. (2001). Utopian Entrepreneur. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.