Sim-tastic!

How wonderful are fans? I think it wasn't for fandom, the games John, Sal and Christina have discussed wouldn't be half as popular. I know I have previously talked about fans, but I'm coming back to the topic for a few important things I've stumbled upon in the past week.

Firstly, I re-read week 7's reading (yeh I don't have a lot to do atm) and want to stress that because Maxis involved its customers in the development of the content for the game, consumer desire and fantasy spurred it to the revolution it is today.

Players feel like they are running their own family home. I have The Sims and The Sims 2 and have designed houses and families similar to what I would desire in real life. I like big, elegant houses so I make them in the game. You can personalise The Sims, so in a sense you enter your own world when you play the game.

It is undoubtedly the most successful example of open source software. That giant gap between producer and consumer is slowly diminishing. Just have a look at Maxis: it allows fan sites to distribute user created content that fans charge other fans for. See here. In a past tutorial, John mentioned something about players from EverQuest taking users to court for trying to sell their characters on Ebay. Funny that.

You could even say that designing Sim houses, wallpaper and clothing could be a profession? Because some people are making money off it.

A final note: machinima. The EverQuest machinima John showed one lecture was freely distributed online, however although it didn't charge people to view it, it was sent cease and desist letters by its owner's lawyers. The Strangerhood is a machinima series created by a group of The Sims 2 fans. It's available in one area: it's official website. It's even copyrighted to Rooster Teeth Productions (fans), AND charges a sponsorship to users who wish to view it.

I guess some big companies aren't that anal after all. But may I reiterate and emphasis how the consumer/producer role is starting to blur. Ahhh ... who made the Sims again? Hehe :)

This website distributes The Sims machinima: Sims99. It's really cool so have a look everyone!