The author of this informative study explores the Unleashed! Players question of what happens when players practise media and negotiate computer code, various ideologies, Players Unleashed! matters media and the game itself by modding (modifying) The Sims, the bestselling computer game of all time. Modding The Sims and Sihvonen examines the technical and material specificities ofThe Sims mods, as well as their the Culture of Gaming matters cultural context. Viewed as a manifestation of participatory culture, modding makes pc games malleable: players reconfigure the game by creating new content, changing the behaviours of game characters and altering the uses of the game engine. Using a semiotic framework, Sihvonen suggests a signification process that includes interpretation, configuration, reworking and redirection with the game system and rules. sihvonen tanja From its historical roots in shooters and text ad- venture games, the author bares the fascinating evolution and dynamics of modding, where gen- der stereotypes, the thrills of hacking and living the Sims’ American Dream intersect with the aesthetic and operational dimensions of mod- ding. Dr. Tanja Sihvonen is researcher in computer games, play and digital culture. ‘Players Unleashed! is a thought provoking and well- argued reconstruction of the history of digital games and the role of player modifications to such artifacts. Focusing on the wide-ranging universe of mods for the best selling game The Sims, Sihvonen presents a cogent and persuasive argument for the importance of such activities, and in doing so helps us understand the vital role that players have claimed in the development and evolution of digital games.’ www.aup.nl Mia Consalvo, Visiting Associate Professor in ISBN 978-90-896-4201-1 Comparative Media Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 9 7 8 9 0 8 9 6 4 2 0 1 1 amsterdam university press amsterdam university press tanja sihvonen Players Unleashed! Players Unleashed! Modding The Sims and the Culture of Gaming Tanja Sihvonen Amsterdam University Press MediaMatters is a series published by Amsterdam University Press on current de­ bates about media technology and practices. International scholars critically ana­ lyze and theorize the materiality and performativity, as well as spatial practices of screen media in contributions that engage with today's digital media culture. For more information about the series, please visit: www.aup.nl Cover illustration: Goos Bronkhorst Cover design: Suzan Beijer, Amersfoort Lay out: Philos, Almere isbn 978 90 8964 201 1 e-isbn 978 90 4851 198 3 nur 811 © T. Sihvonen / Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam, 2011 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE 7 I UNLEASHING PLAYERS 9 Game and its modification 9 Product and process 15 Understanding gameplay 20 Reconfiguring textuality 26 II CULTURAL AND COMMERCIAL APPROPRIATION 37 Modding and participatory culture 37 Game development in context 47 Histories of modding 57 Modding simulations 64 Serious game development or intense play? 75 III DYNAMICS OF MODDING 87 Categorising modding practices 87 From interpretation to configuration 94 Sharing the idea of play 105 Private and public spaces 117 IV NEGOTIATING THE CODE 123 Playing with the Sims 123 Game space as canvas 135 Playing house, performing gender 145 V EXTENDING THE GAME 157 Pleasures and politics of simulation 157 From recycling to remediation 168 Kinky play: pornographic hacking and The Sims 178 CONCLUSION 185 REFERENCES 190 NOTES 210 INDEX 217 6 PREFACE I still remember the day I learned how to kill my Sims. I recall having heard my brother complain about the Sim kids being a nuisance, as they were wasting the resources of the family, ‘eating too much’, without producing anything tangible (like money) in return. Although they had been quite nice to have at first, in a loving- couple-eventually-becoming-a-real-family sort of way, I soon learned that they were a big hassle. Sim kids were not as easy to control as the adult Sims since their in­ teraction possibilities were much more limited. Although they were hapless, they were also short-tempered and annoyingly cheerful. The only reasonable way to deal with them was to get rid of them. So I set off to build pools, directed my Sim kids to take a dip and then I removed the ladder, watching the little children exhaust themselves to death in the water. I ordered an irresponsible single mother to cook for her children, without teaching her how to do it first, and soon enough the whole kitchen was on fire. The first fire left behind a half-destroyed house with three dead bodies. And once I got a penchant for it, why would I have limited my destructive activities to kids only? Some Sims washed their hands too many times, turned on a light and died of electrocution. Some starved to death, or were abducted by aliens. And for some I bought a cute little pet – with the result of them getting ill and even dying from the ‘Guinea Pig Disease’ that was raising havoc among The Sims players in the early 2001. It is evident I did not only play The Sims by looking for different ways of killing the game creatures. However, it can be argued that experimenting with the game in this way opened my eyes for the hugely varied possibilities of play. I did not only torture my little homunculi to death, but I also learned to utilise all kinds of cheats, tricks and hacks so I could create interesting scenarios in the game to amuse myself (and not all of them were that morbid). With my colleagues, I also engaged in dis­ cussions that considered various possibilities of seeing naked Sims in the game. Later on, I would invite my Sim neighbours over for dinner stark naked, and, of course, make my Sims have wild sex on a bearskin in the middle of the living room around the time they should have been going to work. Although it might all sound like a lot of fun, researching games has involved a lot of serious work and very little frivolous play. In hindsight, I can see that without the help and support of many people this arduous task would not have been com­ pleted. Here, I would especially like to thank Seija Ridell, Susanna Paasonen, Mia 7 Consalvo and Sal Humphreys for their invaluable feedback, and my dear friends Barbara Abatino and Bram Kooistra for putting up with me on an everyday basis. I also want to thank my editors Jeroen Sondervan and Inge van der Bijl at Amsterdam University Press for their patience and encouragement. I am still learning from the Sims, so I guess I need to extend my thanks to the developers as well as to the players and modders of the game. Keep on playing! 8 I UNLEASHING PLAYERS Game and its modification Because of the open-ended creative freedom that players experience with the game, The Sims has universal appeal like no other game franchise. We thank players everywhere for their creativity, sense of humor and strong sense of community that has made The Sims the cultural phenomenon it is today. (Nancy Smith, President of The Sims Label, quoted in Electronic Arts press release, ‘The Sims celebrates 100 million sold worldwide’) The Sims is a curious computer game. Originally published in 2000 by Electronic Arts, it has since become a global crossover hit and a cultural phenomenon. It has been termed a strategic life-simulation, a lifestyle simulator, an IKEA game and a virtual doll’s house where the player’s task is to provide little AI-controlled hu­ manoid characters, called the ‘Sims’, with a house, household items and furnish­ ings, and follow the daily activities of these pixellated people. The Sims also looks and feels like an exceptional game: its actual gameplay consists of orchestrating the Sims’ everyday lives by directing their paths, choices and relationships. It is espe­ cially untypical in the context of mainstream games and game genres. Nevertheless, due to the accessibility of its thematic and gameplay, The Sims has attracted millions of players worldwide, among them a number of people who, prior to its introduc­ tion, were not involved in playing digital games at all. It has been an unexpected success story – a conclusion that can also be deciphered from the press release excerpt above. Interestingly enough, even after a decade since its introduction, it is still not rivalled by any other game titles of the same design or composition. In other words, its success has not yet been duplicated (Croal 2008). One of the main reasons why The Sims resists being categorised as a regular game is its design: it features subject matter, ways of interaction, characters and view­ points that cannot be straightforwardly identified to replicate the militarised mas­ culinity often regarded to epitomise the field of digital games. By militarised mas­ culinity Kline et al. (2003, 247-248) refer to a self-amplifying cultural channel or ‘groove’ which interactive gaming has cut out for itself mainly by concentrating on game design practices that produce strongly gender-coded scenarios of war, con­ quest and combat. It is also the result of the industry’s ongoing negotiations with 9 its assumedly young and male hardcore player base. The Sims, on the other hand, was one of the first major releases, backed up by a considerable publicity campaign that was not targeted primarily at male players.