I always found it intriguing that video game creators know how to win over their audiences, to the point where a game becomes addicting and a must play. During the fourth week of this course, we focused on representation. Something that I found interesting in one of the assigned readings for the week dealt with how the developers were able to put together a process that made putting the game aside a tough task. In Shira Chess’ “Kim Kardashian: Hollywood: Feminism”, the game is categorized as a strictly “feminine play style”. The work by Chess went into a lot of details, specifically about the autonomy that players have when it comes to creating a character and the overall game play. Despite the fact that the game has been categorized in this manner, I want to focus more on how the game’s developers were able to get the audience engaged and addicted to the game.

One aspect of the game allows for the players to have a social media account. To me, this is cool because we can see that the developers were very creative with connecting the real world to this game. In other words, the world building for this aspect of the game was carried out well on their behalf. However, this is the place where I think the developers were able to keep their audience on the edge of their seats. Chess states, “Mobility, however, is not only upward; the player can lose followers as well. Neglecting a relationship and being dumped, as well as doing poorly on a gig, can cause followers to drop. Players can also lose followers for not playing the game for a while. In other words, the more you play, the less likely you are to lose fictional fans” (96). This quote demonstrates that the game is built to function just like real life. Just like how a bad breakup or poor performance can lead to a trending topic all over the different social media platforms, this game is embedded to do the same. Also, the idea of not being active in the game makes the chance of losing followers more likely. Once again, in real life, if one were to abandon their social media accounts, chances are, people would most likely unfollow them due to their inactivity. On top of this, this creates the window where the developers were able to win over the audience. This is the aspect that makes the game a “must play”.

Even though this game has been criticized in many different approaches, I still found it interesting that the developers were able to find a way, if not multiple, to have their audience addicted. Putting aside all of the choices and intersectionality that is described throughout this game, the developers were still able to have some fans willing to spend real money towards gameplay. I think this shows the true power that video game creators have over the general audience. Now, satisfying everyone in the world is definitely not an easy task, but I do think that video game creators have made this the least of their worries. What they are more concerned about is making proceeds from a game. This is fair, but not fair to the general world. The sad thing is, despite all of the negativity towards this particular game, there will still be people who do not see the issues of representation as a major setback. Although there is not much that can be done towards this situation, what we can do is educate the public about what is really depicted in a game. When they realize that representation is a major flaw, hopefully they speak up or stop playing.

As expressed, people spend a lot of time and even real money towards games. What makes this so simple is the fact that video game creators are successful at gaining the attention from their audiences. If we educate the public more about the drawbacks of certain games, there is a chance that they might not want to contribute both of these acts any more. Representation is something that is hard to fight for in our world today, but I do not see a reason to put a halt to the fight. People should be spending time and real money towards games that ensure a wide field of representation. Ideally, everyone should be considered in all game states and never used as a form of ridicule.

-Andy Kissoon