Platform: Facebook
Objectives: The objective as in most of the Sims Series, is to live as an animated avatar which you can customise yourself from looks, to personality and to goals. Obviously as it is on a platform which is hard to have a memory extensive game on it, they had to make a much more simplified version so it can run on the platform with hardly any lag but still look fun and easy to understand and get your head around. They simplified the graphics of the game up to a simple cel-shaded cartoon style, in-depth character customization on all the different categories you can normally customize. As always in Sim Games you run your life similar to how humans would and complete tasks as simple as going to the toilet to make sure your avatar lives healthily and happily.
As mentioned, they've basically made a cel-shaded cartoon version of the game, simplifying the graphics so it doesnt take as much memory. Giving into Facebook though and having the "neighbours" deal all over again which seems to be in every Social Game on the facebook platform.
Use of Facebook
EA have basically used Facebook and its available functions most other companies have used the functions on facebook in their games. The functions utilized are:
- Messaging
- Facebook Friendships
- Special Dates
Gifts: Through the game, he player is given the ability to give gifts to other players that are playing the game through the world. This will help the recipient in certain ways such as game play, developing character or editing the amount of space in the virtual environment that they get in the game. You will also get notifications on when certain dates occur on the calender which are important, such as birthdays.
Adding "Neighbors": As like most of the games on the Facebook Platform they have an ability to add another person playing the game, friend or not and add them as a neighbor, this gives the player the availability of visiting hat "neighbor" in game and seeing how they are playing he game and how well they are overall doing compared to you.
Use of AI and Friendships: There are both characters (avatars) created by the game and the avatars you interact with that are created by friends in the game. A player can interact with both meaning that other facebook friendships aren't important and not essential in the game mechanics. Having the facebook friends mean you have more availability into the game and have access to more of the games content and actions.
Timer: A certain which you need to set to do most of the objectives in the game can only by used a numerous amount of times before it runs out. This stat is energy and while some objectives don't require you to use this, most do. The activity will normally take 1 energy from you and when you run out of the max you can, you have to wait via a timer to gain one. Every 5 minutes you gain a new one, making the player wait in the game.
Showing how the gift system works in the game. You can actually send free gifts which don't cost the player anything but are basically useless o the player that user that gets them. You can also spend the money that is in the game to get other players present which have more value to them
Free 2 Play Concept:
Like Farmville, Sims Social has two types of currency to use. One is earned in game and found throughout a player's progress through the game while one type of currency is got by actually buying an amount through real money.
These are:
Simoleons: Earned through progression in game
Social Points: Earned through progression in game
SimCash: SimCash is earned by buying an amount through real currency.
By getting SimCash, you can get certain exclusive content which is only bought through this in game currency and is lot more useful in the game and helps the progression of the game a lot faster. For example items such as energy recuperation based items, can only be bought with money so you don't have to wait while the timer goes down.
Adding "Neighbors": As like most of the games on the Facebook Platform they have an ability to add another person playing the game, friend or not and add them as a neighbor, this gives the player the availability of visiting hat "neighbor" in game and seeing how they are playing he game and how well they are overall doing compared to you.
Use of AI and Friendships: There are both characters (avatars) created by the game and the avatars you interact with that are created by friends in the game. A player can interact with both meaning that other facebook friendships aren't important and not essential in the game mechanics. Having the facebook friends mean you have more availability into the game and have access to more of the games content and actions.
Timer: A certain which you need to set to do most of the objectives in the game can only by used a numerous amount of times before it runs out. This stat is energy and while some objectives don't require you to use this, most do. The activity will normally take 1 energy from you and when you run out of the max you can, you have to wait via a timer to gain one. Every 5 minutes you gain a new one, making the player wait in the game.
Showing how the gift system works in the game. You can actually send free gifts which don't cost the player anything but are basically useless o the player that user that gets them. You can also spend the money that is in the game to get other players present which have more value to them
Free 2 Play Concept:
Like Farmville, Sims Social has two types of currency to use. One is earned in game and found throughout a player's progress through the game while one type of currency is got by actually buying an amount through real money.
These are:
Simoleons: Earned through progression in game
Social Points: Earned through progression in game
SimCash: SimCash is earned by buying an amount through real currency.
By getting SimCash, you can get certain exclusive content which is only bought through this in game currency and is lot more useful in the game and helps the progression of the game a lot faster. For example items such as energy recuperation based items, can only be bought with money so you don't have to wait while the timer goes down.
