Narrative Uniqueness in Deligracy’s Let’s Play
The platform You Tube has become the largest video sharing website there is, and with it new forms of entertainment. One form is the genre of “let’s play” videos, where you watch another person play a video game and give commentary. The creator Deligracy has come into relative You Tube “fame” by making let’s play games that are narratively different each and every time with her use of “The Sims 4” game. She customizes the game to fit a certain narrative she thinks her viewers will enjoy, and she invites them to share their opinions with her as she moves the narrative forward. The series to focus on will be her shortest one, “Jungle Adventure” which has 5 episodes each between 20–30 minutes. There are two storylines going on in the let’s play; there is the internal game play storyline of what the sims are doing in the game, and the external storyline is the narrative that Deligracy is giving that can’t be portrayed by the Sims. The narrative she creates with her own storylines will never be replicated due to the programming of the game and the player themselves, making it a unique piece of art that is facilitated on her channel.
“Let’s Play the Sims 4 Jungle Adventure” is the full title of Deligracy’s series, which she created in part to show off new content that was introduced to the Sims 4 game in February 2018. She starts the series by introducing herself as Deligracy (Maddie is her real name) and her channel that is full of Sims content as well as other video games. Then she introduces the characters she created in the game and their storylines. There is Hugo, a rich man that wants to become an archaeologist. Estella, his wife, a former stage star and uptight woman. Belle, their jungle guide. Jade, Belle’s apprentice. Finally there is Gus, Hugo’s dog that goes on their adventure with them. After the Sims are introduced they are sent to Selvadorada, the jungle vacation world. They arrive at a rental home and Deligracy starts her narrative with her audience.
This type of media could never be replicated because it is based on the programming of “The Sims 4” and on the actions of the person controlling them. The narrative created for them changes based on the “whims” of the program and how the player choses to influence the Sim. The ability to give a Sim “full autonomy” can be turned on and off in the options menu, meaning you have full control of the Sims at all times. In Deligracy’s let’s play series, autonomy is on since she cannot focus on controlling four different Sims, and that influences her storylines. If she only controlled the characters and made them do exactly what she wanted the narrative wouldn’t be as unique without the Sim’s own input into her story. The game that she is telling her story on is actively influencing her story. The characters have needs that she has to attend to or they’ll do it themselves, such as in episode four Hugo wets his pants because he didn’t follow Deligracy’s command to go pee. Without their influence on their creator there would not be a compelling storyline. In the fifth episode Deligracy brings all of the Sims to a temple in hopes of killing one off, and eventually Estella gets poisoned and ends the series with her death. Her poisoning was by chance in the programming of the game based on her abilities (or lack thereof), and just luck. Deligracy has the option of curing her, and instead she chooses not to, rather she wants her death for the drama of her series.
This let’s play is unique because of how Deligracy approaches each series she creates. She has a standard storyline she usually likes to stick to, in “Jungle Adventure” there are 3 characters that want to find temples and learn about the jungle and the culture, and then there is Estella that wants nothing to do there and is only there because her husband is there. Deligracy starts her story in the way she wants, and at the end of each episode she asks the audience what they want. In the second episode though she does state that she was too excited to start another episode and didn’t use any feedback the audience gave. She tries to incorporate this into the game as best as possible, such as in the third episode when Gus the pup needed to have cheats done to keep him happy. A large amount of people wanted her to cheat for the sake of the dog rather than see a digitally created dog die. Her external storyline is what makes her let’s play series compelling, since she is giving them human qualities instead of the static actions that only Sims can perform.
In the third episode there is an instance where Deligracy’s storyline doesn’t work with how the Sims are programed. She wanted the character of Belle to go and inspect a temple first, but Hugo made it there first, so Deligracy decided that he would inspect the puzzle in front of him. The internal storyline became that Hugo inspected some item and became poisoned after trying to get past it. The external storyline was that he didn’t listen to Belle saying she would go ahead of him, and got poisoned, making Belle upset at him. The Sim didn’t harbor any ill feeling toward her companion, rather she went ahead and solved the puzzle. This is where the external and internal storylines seem to clash, but they make it more watchable.
The Sims have “feelings” but they’re interpreted by Deligracy for the audience along with their actions. They don’t have any kind of thoughts or emotions, but they are compelling to watch because we view the let’s play as a sort of show that we could never make ourselves. If she let the Sims act however they wanted, and just interpreted their actions, there could be a silly storyline there. Since there is input from their creator and their programming, there is more to be interpreted and therefore more entertaining. It is a working program that responds to those who play, and the narrative form of a “let’s play” series gives more life to a game with no real goal.
Deligracy’s “Let’s Play the Sims 4 Jungle Adventure” is a unique way of storytelling that can’t be told by anyone else because of the game it is told through. Even if I attempt to recreate everything to a T, there is no guarantee that it would end up anything like her story. Her ability to create compelling storylines has given her the opportunity to host large audiences watching and influencing her work. The “Jungle Adventure” play through is only just a little sample of what she can create and the kind of interpretations she can make from her Sims. The amount of creativity she has to create over a hundred episodes of Barbie let’s play, and recently reboot it, is staggering. Her storylines are incredibly unique and with the help of the programming and audiences, no one can ever really redo what she did.
