Media Studies - Video Games (Horizon Forbidden West + The Sims Freeplay)

Guerilla Games

-published Horizon Forbidden West

-owned by SONY

-created as a result of a merger of three earlier companies and then later owned by SONY

→ reflects gaming origins in small, independent companies in contrast to its current status as a global, billion dollar industry

SONY gaming revenue and ranking as of 2026

$24.9 billion and #1 gaming company globally

Horizon Forbidden West's Platforms, Genre and Sequelality

Platform PS4/5

Action RPG

Sequel to 2017's Horizon Zero Dawn

Horizon Forbidden West's Release

-Officially announced in 2020 by SONY with a release date of 2021

-Delayed as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted production cycles and the team didn't want to overwork employees

-Released 2022

Hesmonhalgh + Horizon Forrbiden West

Diversification: HFW Lego Boxes (synergy), Music video

Genre: Action RPG, Fantasy, Open-world

Vertical integration: SONY owning Guerilla Games

Globalisation: Guerilla Games based in Amsterdam, owned by Sony (American), range of personnel (staff), HFW released globally

PEGI (Pan European Game Regulation)

-established to help European parents to make informed decisions on buying computer games

-launched in 2003

-Game publishers sign up to receive a PEGI rating (not compulsory)

-Age ratings: 3, 7, 12, 16, 18

Horizon Forbidden West's PEGI Age Rating

16 - reasons: strong violence, bad language and in-game purchases

HFW's setting

Set in a open world, dystopian, post-apocalyptic California, Utah and Nevada, the game explores the setting of a mysterious location known as the Forbidden West (which was suggested in the previous game to be barbaric and savage)

Intertextual references in the game

-San Francisco (via the Isle of Spires in the game)

HFW Story Summary

In the six months following her victory over HADES, Aloy, alone, has been searching for a backup of GAIA to repair the terraforming system, with her efforts so far being in vain.

Meanwhile, the terraforming system has been spiraling out of control, causing a poisonous red blight and catastrophic storms, all of which will bring life on Earth closer to extinction.

HFW Gameplay

-New ability to explore underwater

-New ability to upgrade weapons and wear outfits that add specific skills

-New ability to ride on flying machines

-Players able to explore a bigger map compared to Zero Dawn

-Main gameplay element is strategically fighting against enormous machines and mounted human enemies using a multitude of gear, weapons and traps from salvage parts

Schatz, 1981 - Genres of Order and Integration

-believed genre films were a social force because they reflected our values and ideologies

-argued genre filmmaking followed two dominant narrative strategies, Order and Intergration:

Genre of Order:

-focused on a protagonist who wants to defeat a physical threat

Genre of Intergration:

-celebrates the values of social intergration

HFW + Genre of Order (Schatz, 1981)

Hero (individual, male-dominant): Half-true → Female protagonist

Setting (ideologically unstable, contested space): True → Machines vs Nature, Tribal Civil Wars, The Forbidden West

Conflict (externalised violence): True → Aloy vs Villains

Resolution/ending (death): True → Tilda killed

Thematics (isolated self-reliance): True → Aloy as an outcast who determines herself the only one who can save this world

HFW and Todorov's Narrative

Equilibrium: Aftermath of Hades, Blight and animal robots killing everyone

Disruption: Hades is alive and Far Zeniths are trying to steal GAIA

Recognition: Finds GAIA minus subsystem but attacked by Erik

Attempt to Repair: Finding subsystems and battle with Tilda

New Equilibrium: GAIA is back but Nemesis is a new problem. Tilda and Gerard are dead.

HFW + Lévi-Strauss's Binary Opposites

Good vs Evil

Nature vs Technology

Humans vs Machines

Health vs Illness (Blight)

Life vs Death

Tribal vs Futuristic

Aloy vs Villains

GAIA and Elizabet vs Ted Farro

HFW + Enigma codes

-Far Zenith facility

-The abandoned camp

HFW + Action codes (actions that progress the story)

-Weapon mechanics

-finding the Far Zenith facility

-Rope glide mechanic

Visceral gratifications

Emotional feelings, not physical

Neale's Genre Theory + HFW

Repetiton:

-Large, detailed open-world

-Follows the trend of increased realistic visuals and cinematic cutscenes

-Action RPG = Boss fights, exotic setting, conflict + violence, quests

-Sci-Fi = robots and futuristic elements

Differences:

-Non-sexualised female protag

-Ethnic diversity

-Motion capture technology

Orientalism

The imitation or depiction of aspects of the Eastern world as fearful or fascinatingly alien by people from the Western world

Tribal representation in HFW (Tribes Trailer)

Oserom - “builders”, “tinkers”, "revellers” (as in drinking, having a good time) → positive

Carja - guards their border, afraid of outsiders, intelligent, civilised → nuanced

Utaru (from the Forrbiden West) - “sing to heal the land, but no hymn will save them”, patronised and presented as helpless and weak (has a matriarch and based on healing → anti-feminist) → negative (but in the game less so)

Tenakth - 3 clans, “generations of bloodshed”, has the most tribal signification, presented as “savage” and violent → negative

Orientalism + HFW

Orientalism is embedded at the core of HFW'S narrative of exploring exotic lands and Aloy is both an explorer and a white saviour

HFW's ethnic representation - Pros

-More NPCs of black characters

-Skin shading and texture

-Doesn't use the stereotypes of gangsters, athletes or promiscuous

HFW's ethnic representation - Cons

-Stereotypes of the dangerous and the pited (alvarado)

-Bad indigenous representation

HFW + Ethnic Representation (Orientalism)

-Rebels riding a Tremortusk, a massive mechanical elephant → elephants are symbols of the Orient even though they weren't often used for combat

-Use of words like “braves”, “savages” and “primal”

-”The Seas of Sands” quest has a lot of oriental imagery → a red dragon hanging from the ceiling, red lanterns and red decorative knots

HFW + Gender Stereotypes

Women:

-"compassionate”, “care", “comfort”

-Tilda's figure-hugging outfit

-feminine outfits (skirts, dresses)

-long hair

-no pauldrons (shoulder armor) nor exaggerated muscles

Men:

-masculine features (beards)

-pauldrons (shoulder armor)

-larger mass

-”courageous”, “humorous”, “warrior”

-tattoos/war paint

-short hair

Van Zoonen + HFW

Stereotypical:

-Zo + Varl romance

-Agressive + violent = male

-Caring + nurturing = female

Non-stereotypical:

-Aloy

Bell hooks + HFW

Regalla → Sapphire stereotype

Diverse characters but doesn't address racisms → post-racial society

Only patriarchal, capitalist group is a group of white people (Far Zeniths) who had the wealth and privilege to escape a dying earth

Judith Butler + HFW

Supports:

-Varl wanting to go with Aloy → protector

-Erik → toxic masculinity

-Tilda → tight fitting outfit

-Zo → maternal, cares for Aloy

Doesn't Support:

-Aloy is a strong female character (literal sense)

HFW + Glued to Games (Scott Rigby, 2011)

Competence (development of skills):

-Aloy vs Tilda (have to mastered a lot of the weapons, have to mastered strategies)

Autonomy (being in control):

-Player controls Aloy and is given the choice to make decisions in certain scenarios

Relatedness (game brings fans and players together):

-Online fandom, Cosplay and game conventions

HFW's Target Audience

-Women

-Male gamers who find sexualised female protags uncomfortable

-White and Black gamers

-Teens to 30s

-Explorers, Reformers

HFW + Uses and Gratifications Theory

Entertainment - exciting conflicts, obstacles

Identity - Aloy as role model, cosplay

Social interaction - Fandom, cosplay

Information - mechanics of game, game lore

HFW + Reception Theory

Preferred: Aloy = strong hero, diverse representation, exciting and engaging

Negotiated: Can see the problems but still enjoy the game

Oppositional: Women are presented as weaker and less war ready, stereotypical male rep, Aloy = white saviour, Tribal representation

HFW + Cultivation Theory

Stigmatisation (The media demonised groups through rep): Regalla, Tenakth tribe

Enculturation (process of learning through engaging with culture): Learning to play as Aloy

HOWEVER, it is clear that villains and storyline aren't real life

HFW + Bandura's Bobo Doll Experiment

Aloy as a role model → aspirational copying

Immersive → story lore and praised for graphics

Have to kill Tilda for the game to progess → rewarded for violent actions

HOWEVER, reasons are given for violence in the game (e.g. saving the planet), and people know it's not real

Jenkin's defence of video games

-flawed studies

-gameplay not solitary

-audiences can tell it's not real

Fans influencing the production of HFW

-Fans bring players in → more players mean more want for content

-Fan realigning hetreonormativity→ causes DLC where you can have Aloy kiss Seyka

HFW + Shirky's End of Audience

-One of GG's head people's intro to a new Horizon game on website → directly talking to audience

-Criticisms of game online e.g. representation of tribes

-GG's website encourages active audience (links their Twitter, Insta, Email) → also encourages cosplay via guides

HFW + Jenkin's Fandom

-Mode of reception (intense engagement)

-Cultural production (textual poaching) → Fanart and Fanfiction

-Social community → Cosplay conventions

-Interpretative community → YouTube analysis and criticism videos

HFW + Queerness

-Aloy canonically sapphic → only addressed in a DLC and you can chose to have her kiss Seyka (BUT it never gives you the option to say you don't like her)

Audience reaction:

-Already readings of Aloy being queer

-On AO3, all of the top Aloy ships are F/M and the top category is F/M (not surprisingly for how androcentric fandoms are → normally goes M/M to F/M to F/F)

Gamergate

A misogynistic online harassment campaign motivated by right-wing backlash against feminism, diversity and progressivism in video game culture

HFW (Zero Punctuation's Review)

-Aloy talks like a “charisma vaccum”

-States that it's “bloated with game mechanics layering over each other and getting in the way”

-Only good thing about the game is the visuals

Some opinions of HFW (POS)

-Better gameplay than Zero Dawn

-Beautiful, cinematic graphics

-Good gameplay mechanics

-”Characters are realistic and their emotions actually made me care about them” → NotJolter on Reddit (unpopular opinoon)

Some opinions of HFW (Neg)

-”It attempts too many things at once, takes too much time doing said things. And talks to much while doing so” → RollingDownTheHills on Reddit

-Climbing mechanics is worse than Zero Dawn → NotJolter on Reddit

An In-Depth Critque of Horizon Forbidden West by Adam Srayi - Visuals

-The visuals lack good shape language which causes less readability and clarity

-The tall neck is an example of good monster design (strong clear silhouette with constrasting elements) → others fall flat due to them just looking like their animal counterparts but mechanical

-Transitions between biomes is not smooth

→ ruins Player Immersion

→ problem in many open world games

-Footprints poorly implemented

An In-Depth Critque of Horizon Forbidden West by Adam Srayi - Gameplay

-The Shield wing: great in theory, bad in practice

→ no real player control when in use + landing is weird

→ have to hold down to deploy (not very fun to do)

-Special moves are disorientating for the player in battle and only stops the player's movements, not the enemy's

-Lack of defense options yet there is a glide ability which uses a shield

An In-Depth Critque of Horizon Forbidden West by Adam Srayi - Gameplay (BIGGER ISSUE)

-Most of the gameplay problems fit a bigger issue: the systems of the game don't intermingle and only occur in isolation → climbing, sneaking, attacking, swimming + gliding can only be done one at a time → NOT FUN!

An In-Depth Critque of Horizon Forbidden West by Adam Srayi - Story

-Good premise, bad exucution:

→ Storms, the Blight and poisoned water are all told to affect the world → in gameplay, they do nothing apart from the Blight, in which if you step into it, you lose a bit of health

Postmodernism

-The belief that all truth claims are infected by belief, that there is no such thing as a ‘view from nowhere’

-That everything is subject to the context it is made in

-That there is no one truth to a media text, not even the intended meaning

Simulacra

A copy of a copy of a copy/artificial copies usually based on something that is not real (e.g. tropes/stereotypes in media)

→ people often prefer this over than the real thing if it's based on a real thing

Intertextuality

References to other texts or other stuff in reality in a text

Pastiche

Where media producers are not looking for originality, but reproducing familiar tropes e.g. shared bike scenes set in Paris

Hyper reality

The unreal starts to seem more real than reality itself

Implosion

Real places/people have been lost to an unreal version that is presented by the media

Baudrillard's Postmodernism

-society has lost a sense of what is real and what is not

-history is being redefined by the media

Heightened reality

A more intense version of reality

The Sims Franchise

-A series of life simulation games

-Franchise sold nearly 200 million copies worldwide

-First game released for Microsoft Windows in 2000

-Sims age through seven life stages

The Sims and Mods

One of the big appeal about the game is the modding community

History of the Sims

-Game designer, Will Wright was inspired to create a ‘virtual doll house’ after losing his own home to a firestorm

-Originally a satire of US consumer culture

Sims Freeplay Release

2011

The Sims and Expansion Packs

-show how the Sims is no longer a satire and even the thing it was paroding in the first place

Benefits:

Player - new content, tailoring your game to your playstyle

Producer: more money with less work, no need to make another game in the series for a while

The Sims + Hesmondhalgh

Minimise risks, Maximise profits → Expansion packs

Diversification - different expansion packs for different audiences

Globalisation - available in a lot of different countries

The Sims + Curran and Seaton

-Lack of diversity → same game being published over and over again with minimal changes

The Sims Freeplay + Reception Theory

Preferred: dream life style, entertaining, utopia

Negotiated: understand traditional ideologies but still enjoy it for it's options of various life styles

Oppostional: capitalist, money-hungry, hegemonic (uses pronouns update to hide that it lacks diversity in the Sim creator)

The Sims Freeplay + Effects Theory

-Audience should want the American Dream, but a “progessive” version (emphasises myth)

→ you can be gay and not white but you should still follow the traditional values

-Progressive capitalism → traditional but “lenient”

The Sims Freeplay Trailer - Target Audience

-Female

-White

-8-Mid 20s

-Heterosexual

-Mainstream, Aspirer

-Social Grade B, C1

-People who like life simulation, mobile games and interior designing

The Sims Freeplay Trailer - Audience Pleasures

-Visceral pleasures

-Voyeuristic

-Catharsis

-Stability

-Dopamine enhancement→ celebratory non-diegitic sound effect for reward system

The Sims Freeplay - Game encouraging in-app purchases

Constantly in your face:

- embedded in normal Sims gameplay actions (not just in a separate bar)

- index of a shopping cart in bottom right corner

→ when pressed it brings you to the in-app purchases menu

-verbal code “Sir Moleen's Savings”

→ the more you play the game, the more money is saved

→ only way to get that money is by paying real life money (encourages more play so that money spent feels more worth it → trying to hide predatory nature)

The Sims Freeplay - Narrative (In-Game)

-presents itself as a sandbox, in reality it's multi-stranded (often told what to do and you have to pay money to not do it or wait a long time)

The Sims Freeplay - Narrative (YouTube Fan Stories - 14 and Pregnant)

-screen recorded gameplay

-added in subtitles and speech bubbles to narrate the plot

-dream sequence → further gameplay in black and white

-non-diegetic sound to create atmosphere

Criticisms on r/simsfreeplay

-lack of non-house buildings → used to have more non-house buildings in the architect section

-hatred of the market mechanic

→ forced to use it to build stuff

→ limited storage space

→ “sucked the fun out of the game”

-feels like a chore due to the removal of the gardening mechanic

-”Electronic Arts should be Expensive Arts”

My Criticisms of Sims Freeplay

-Sims with the same skin colour will have the male variant slightly darker, no matter what

-clothes are gender locked

-”Love is in the Air” (verbal code) side quest

→ Time limit (24 hours)

→ Sims have to wohoo multiple times to get married (6+) → characters cannot be ace and get married

The Sims Freeplay + Butler

-traditional gender roles in advertising BUT some subversion in social media posts (e.g. signifer of a man caring for his child)

The Sims Freeplay + Van Zoonen

-women presented more traditionally in advertising (repetition of signifer of pregnant women) BUT signifer of female builder and father caring for his child

The Sims Freeplay + bell hooks

-diverse + exclusive but could be better AND not seen as intersectional media→ capitalistic, trad roles

The Sims Freeplay + Gilroy

-sense of cosmopolitan conviviality

-The American Dream → western values, white majority

The Sims Freeplay - Hall's Rep

Reflective - uses real world iconography

Intentional - producers ask fans for ideas

Constructionist - different ways to view the game

The Sims Freeplay - Hacks

-there is a way to mod unlimited Simeloneons, LP etc in the game

Louis Althusser

-1918-1990

-Marxist Philosopher

-ISA: term developed by Althusser, describes things that give the values of the system (e.g. schools, churchs, the media)

→ the Sims does this

Stereotypes

Way of storing generic information about a social group

The Sims Freeplay (LGR's Review)

“Kind of like if Superman burned your house to the ground and then asks you for your credit card to put the fire out” → criticising how the only way to enjoy the game is through LP but the only way to get them really is real life money

Machinima

Animation technique using real-time screen capturing, most commonly used for video games (example: SMG4)