Week 6 - Analysis of a Website - The Sims 2.com

I've decided to look at 'The Sims 2' website http://thesims2.ea.com/ as its a really good example of how a good website is run. The Sims is a big franchise which is a simulator game that allows people to create people, from the way they look, personalities, what job they have and build their houses; basically a more advanced approach to what an avatar would be like online.
Firstly, after typing in the URL, a user is faced with a homepage, with an array of hypertext, which can allow the user to go to various pages within the site, which might be the forum, downloading content for 'The Sims 2' site, checking up on the latest news, and even listening to podcasts.

There's an obvious community apparent within the site. This may be from the option that allows visitors to the site to be able to put their own input into it and interact with it. If a user owns a game, they're able to bring the creations that they've made in the game offline, and put them onto the website onto whats called the 'exchange'. On the 'exchange', you can let other people download your content, so that it then becomes part of their game or download other peoples objects and 'sims'. This makes people become produsers of the website. Axel Bruns might suggest that this is user-led production, as these 'user-produsers often take the lead in the development of new content and ideas', as they are able to bring their stuff from there games into this website. Herz even writes about 'The Sims', saying how its 'prodused by the players rather than by the game publisher Maxis' (2005:335).

Just recently added is a 'The Sims 2 Store' http://thesims2store.ea.com/, which can be accessed through the homepage, which resembles any online shopping website like 'www.Amazon.com' or 'www.Play.com', there's regular 'deals' on sim objects, this time created by the creators of the game, but this time you have to pay these objects in 'simpoints', which can be obtained by exchanging real money. This is a very interesting concept as it keeps the player of the game in this virtual game world. You could even argue that this is techno-determinism; if the site ran with the purchases being in normal currency, it might change the way that people are kept in the game when their not playing it.

Nevertheless, there's also other content within the website, like the forum. Not only does the exchange create a sense of community, with people interacting with one another by sharing their creative idea's but the forum also allows this, with people able to post any problems that their having in the game, with answers from moderators; who are people involved with the game itself, which i would say brings an element of trust within the forum and also stops people from flaming because the language of this community is controlled by these people.

Flaming might even be discouraged because people have to register to the site to be able to exchange and to reply to posts on the forum. People can be anonymous because they have the option of creating avatars and fake names if they want, but because the site is run be moderators and mostly people involved in the website a fans of the game, there's an element of trust.

Users dont have to register to look at any other content which might mean that people may lurk and maybe not feel like part of the community if they cant interact. However McMillan and Chavis (1986) describe sense of community in four concepts:

1. Feelings of membership - 'The Sims 2' website would provide this through people registering to the site
2. Feelings of influence - 'The Sims 2' website would provide this by people being a produser on 'the exchange' , creating objects for other members to download
3. Integration and fulfillment of needs - 'The Sims 2' website would provide this through their forums, being able to offer support and people able to give support back
4. Shared emotional connection - 'The Sims 2' would provide this with the constant links back to the game ('The Sims 2 Store') and keeping the players or even non players who want the game interested.

I don't often interact with the site, so might be seen as a lurker but because i have the game, the sense of community is already been made for me as i have an interest and an 'emotional connection', in the what the site has to offer (reading up on news updates etc). So for me my sense of community would come from McMillan and Chavis's last point.
'The Sims 2' underpins alot of theory that we've been looking at in the past weeks but mostly concerns itself with how a website can create a sense of community within a group of people online.

Bruns, A (2006) 'Towards Produsage: Futures For User-Led Content Production'
http://snurb.info/files/12132812018_towards_produsage_0.pdf
Blanchard, A (2004) ‘Blogs as Virtual Communities: Identifying a Sense of Community’
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/blogs_as_virtual.html