Avatars, Simulacra and Consumer Society

As an avid player of the Sims, I know firsthand that, through virtual identity games, we are indeed replicating our consumer society. When playing the Sims you can create a whole array of avatars. You can make them look like yourself, a better version of yourself or you can make them look like friends or family, or completely different to anyone you have ever met. When playing the Sims players have the options of starting virtual reality families by getting married to another Sim and can have babies, toddlers, pre-teens, and teens. Players can turn their Sims into seniors if they wish and send their Sims to work to earn Simoleons, which is Sim currency that can be brought with real money or earned within the game. As well as sending adults to work, pre-teens and teens can go to day school or night school.

(the sims free play 2014)

So how does this relate to replicating our consumer society? Well in the game players; earn money to buy the luxuries they may not be able to afford. Players can design their dream double story homes with in-ground pools and ensuites; design their homes with lavish furniture and giant plasma screen TVs. Therefore, when you have had a bad day at school or work, you can go home to your Sims and shop for new clothes, shoes, furniture, pay to get a tattoo, haircut or anything else you could desire and not worry about the implications this could cause if you really went shopping. Your real friends who play the game and visit your town can view all of this. When playing the Sims you can make your avatar more “attractive” by changing their body shapes, skin colours, hairstyles and colours and by buying expensive clothes or giving your sim a tattoo or piercing.

(the sims free play 2014)

  Simulacra was devised by Baudrillard the simulacra and simulation are copies of things that may or may not have been reality to begin with or things that no longer have an original; are hyper real (Felluga 2011). The Simulacra fits in with the Sims and replicating our consumer society because the virtual reality game is designed to copy real life situations and real life experiences, causing people to lose their original experiences and realities due to becoming so engrossed with the game. People can become so engrossed in games like the Sims and Second Life because this hyper reality is better than their real realities.

 

“As the Internet of things advances, the very notion of a clear dividing line between reality and virtual reality becomes blurred” (Mulgan in Vitrualbigbox n.d)

References

Felluga D. 2011, ‘Models on Baudrillard: on simulation’, Introductory guide to critical theory, viewed 5 February 2014 <http://www.purdue.edu/guidetotheory/postmodernism/modules/baudrillardsimulation.html>.

Vitrualbigbox n.d. ‘As the internet’, Wordpress blog, viewed 6 February 2014 < http://virtualbigbox.wordpress.com/>. 

The Sims free play 2014, ‘the sims free play gallery’ [image], viewed 6 February 2014 < http://the-sims-freeplay.en.softonic.com/blackberry>.