Sims 4 case study

Immersion - A virtual reality. - a blur of reality vs artificial - imagination

Flow - A flow of material - the game challenges the gamer, harder but pleasurable too.

Fluid Identities - Identities are changed and are not set.Facebook

Simualcra - Simulation of reality.

Ironic Position - Involvement in text

Detached Position - viewers watch something to be apart of something within a group.

Sandbox games - A sandbox is a style of game in which minimal character limitations are placed on the gamer, allowing the gamer to roam and change a virtual world at will. In contrast to a progression-style game, a sandbox game emphasizes roaming and allows a gamer to select tasks. Instead of featuring segmented areas or numbered levels, a sandbox game usually occurs in a “world” to which the gamer has full access from start to finish. 

Avatar - A hyperreal character in a simulation

Sims 4:

Sims (short version of simulation) allows users, to create their own world and characters, it is a simulation of reality. This sandbox game allows players to immerse themselves within the game, sometimes becoming confused and this is were reality vs artificial is blurred.

Modern:
Some grand narratives - nuclear family

Pomo:
Technology vs human - robots etc.
Real vs artificial
Hyperreality
Intertextual references to the sims, etc.

Style - Simulacra, a simulation of reality - careers, phones etc.
Theoretical - intertexual references
Historical - still includes some grand narratives

Foucault - Panopticon - we are watching and controlling the avatars. 

Dubord - style over substance

Baudrillard - simulacra, hyper reality