Currently I believe that there is an issue for me technologically and my computer keeps telling me I can’t access the games because of potential malware (I’m not a computer person and it’s a new computer), so I decided to observe posted gameplay of the video and discuss my observations of the individual and equally his interaction with the game itself. 

One of the first things that the person playing mentions is how previously he has been targeted by individuals online for posting his gameplay because he used a female avatar. He is very candid about how he himself is a homosexual and doesn’t use the avatar in, what he feels, is a misguided sexual way. He exhibits interest in the amount of individual desired options for however he wants his now male avatar. As he progresses through changing his features and choosing his attire, he eventually manages to walk out of his quarters and go into the world and eventually stores. 

The first store that is walked into is one of his favorites, and it’s a pet store. He begins by explaining all the different options for buying pets and discusses some of the features required to get a pet and the social events surrounding the types of pets when you get them. This could be a social group for dogs, or in general the conversation that can start by carrying a chimpanzee baby wherever you go. This aspect of buying things in the game seems rather important as it builds your status and becomes a suggested talking point for others. He furthers that by going to a hair salon where he can display the different styles you can get, which he thinks is one of the better aspects of the game, as far as virtual display of the individual.

He continues his gameplay by visiting a fellow youtuber’s vacation home in the game. He claims that this was new information to him, but that he was communicating with her and that he was intrigued by the ability to begin this in the game. He notes that a sexual community has been built out of her vacation homes within the game. This is an option that he isn’t desiring to go into for the purposes of streaming his gameplay to YouTube, but was interested in this idea. I personally find that this aspect of the game should be investigated further because examining human sexuality through disembodied characters. 

What I can gage about this, while not being fully able to participate as desired, is that this game aims to simulate life in a very real way graphically and materially (money). The game shows gross exaggerations of the human body and appears to be a form of escapism, at least from the person I am watching. Every aspect of the game as displayed by this individual was driven by the fun things money can buy during the game. From sexual adventure to pets and clothes, the game is geared towards not being in reality and yet being able to more easily obtain things which different people might find desirable. While I wanted more engagement with others, I found it fascinating that the information he was finding about the game wasn’t coming through interaction with other players inside the game, but via different YouTubers and their videos. This shows that the community could possibly be oriented more around communication outside of the game than in it to a certain degree, but this is most likely skewed as this is a monetized YouTuber.