As an avid Sims fan, I’ve always appreciated the progressiveness the franchise had to offer. It goes way back to February of 2000, when the first game released. Same-sex relationships were an option in this fairly old game. At the same time, there has never been “straight” or “gay” Sims, they could fall in love with whoever they wanted to regardless of their sex. The latest Sims production is the Sims 4, which is famous for its extremely diverse characters, and is now known to be the video game that breaks all of the gender rules.
Although its initial release in 2014 had a handful of bad reviews in regards to removing a lot of content that fans have grown to know to and love, this update may have helped them gain some of their credibility back. If choosing “male” or “female” while creating your Sim isn’t how you want them to identify, there is a “Custom Gender Settings” tab now available. You can choose if you want their physical frame and clothing preference to be masculine or feminine, you decide if you want your Sim to be able to get pregnant, get others pregnant, or neither, and they ask if your Sim can use the toilet standing. And the best part is, you can change your settings whenever you would like! I really appreciate the simplicity of how everything was worded as well.
With anything regarding LGBTQ+, there was a mix of positive and negative attention. Some people are particularly pleased with this overdue option (like myself), and others are saying that they’ll never let their child play this harmless video game. The executive producer of the franchise stated that they’ve been working on this for years with the help of LGBT advocacy group, “Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). This isn’t this first video game to have all clothing options available to male and female characters, the Saints Row series, and Dragon Age: Inquisition and Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear has had that option available, but I think the Sims brought it up a notch with the advanced settings and did what a lot of players wanted.
This is a free update and hopefully encourages some people to buy the game. We can only hope other developers will follow through with this representation.
