The Sims 4 is set to release its most in-depth update for LGBTQ game play on July 28, with an entirely new way to represent the sexual identities of its players and their virtual characters.
Designed in collaboration with LGBTQ organizations the It Gets Better Project and GLAAD, the game's sexual orientation update adds two new customization scales for players interested in exploring a more full range of sexual and romantic identities. The changes were unveiled alongside the release of the new Sims 4 High School expansion pack, which lets you play as a teenager going through the trials and tribulations of high school. It's not lost that the combined update and expansion pack could more accurately embody a difficult period of time for many LGBTQ youth, even in virtual gaming worlds.
The new feature can be used so players' Sims can experience same or different-sex attraction, experiment with different attraction naturally over game play, feel physical but not romantic attraction (and vice versa), or not feel any sexual or romantic attraction at all. To set these parameters for your characters, Sims 4 players will have access to various romantic and sexual ("woohoo") options directly in the game's Create-A-Sim customization menu, alongside a Sim's gender.
The new "romance" options include a simple selection for romantic attraction to different genders ("male," "female," both, or none). Users can then select if a character is interested in exploring romantic partnerships over time in the game (this will determine how your Sim responds to romantic advances by different characters), followed by whether or not they are interested in "messing around" or "WooHoo'ing" with various other Sims. To play as a Sim exploring asexuality, for example, you could leave every box unchecked, or only choose a romantic attraction. The game doesn't currently let users play as nonbinary or gender nonconforming characters, although the game recently got an update to allow players to choose their own pronouns regardless of gender (including they/them pronouns).
You won't need to purchase the expansion pack to be able to use the new features, either. Instead, they're available to all players upon the July 28 update, and the new settings (intentionally) can't be turned off. If you'd like to play your Sims as they've already been designed, the game will continue to default to whatever settings players have already selected.
The Sims, the original version of which launched in 2000, has a long, somewhat complicated history with representing the complete spectrum of LGBTQ identity in its game play. This is due in part to the technical limitations of a virtual world designed around a gender binary and its associated, "expected" social interactions, as well as parent companies and developers that have faced related criticisms about LGBTQ inclusion since the games' initial launch.
Regardless of public opinion, early game developers still sought out ways to include same-sex relationships in-game, intending to circumvent the early homophobic responses same-sex interaction between Sims would illicit, removing "violent negative interactions" between same-sex characters on romantic storylines, and adding in "LGBTQ easter eggs" in early versions. Documents from these decades-old conversations, released by programmer and artist Don Hopkins in 2019, showed many advocating for a more complex determination of sexual orientation, suggesting custom scales players could use to determine same-sex attraction responses and additions to early relationship trees for Sims interactions.
Twenty years ago, that advocacy wasn't necessarily met with a radically LGBTQ-diverse game, but it did ensure that the original release offered players representation of same-sex relationships and prevented erecting gender-aligned barriers for actions, careers, and the like. More importantly, it established a strong presence and game identity among LGBTQ players, who have often used The Sims as a meme-adjacent modifier to LGBTQ online identity.
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Now, the company and developers, like the update's design lead Jessica Croft (also known as SimGuruJessica), seem to finally be tackling the technical possibilities of Sims sexual orientation. In the Maxis Developer Diary released alongside the update, Croft explained that the update is a natural next step in the game's journey toward creating the most inclusive and realistic game for its players who seek to embody the full spectrum of both gender and sexuality.
EA and Maxis, the entities behind The Sims, have gradually added LGBTQ-friendly features to the most recent iteration, The Sims 4, like a gender customization rehaul in 2016, the addition of gender-neutral bathrooms and Pride elements in 2019, a complete redesign of The Sims 4 key art to include its first lesbian couple also in 2019, and various trans and nonbinary non-player characters (NPC's) added over the last three years.
"Many members of the team, myself included, are part of the LGBTQIA+ community," Croft wrote. "That said, each one of us on the team represents only a narrow slice of lived experiences. As such we’ve worked extensively with GLAAD and the It Gets Better Project to ensure that we’ve captured the widest possible range of viewpoints on how to approach this feature in a manner that respects and elevates the community."
Croft also explained that this update is not an intended full fix to many players' concerns, nor is it the last update. "[The Sims 4] is 8 years old at this point, and reliant on systems that were originally architected with a gender binary in mind. In the intervening years, we’ve taken important steps such as gender customization, pronouns, and now sexual orientation. It’s a journey still in progress, with many more steps to go. Proper mechanical systems to fully support nonbinary Sims is another step in that journey," Croft said.
This update does what many in the Sims Community have already attempted on their own, adding to the bottom-up, community work conducted by players to create an even more queer playing experience, including Sims mods that add LGBTQ traits and stories to the base game.
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Those ad-hoc additions can have their limitations, though. Efforts from official Sims designers and EA itself have more potential (and resources) to ingrain this LGBTQ identity into the DNA of the game itself, especially by making LGBTQ Sim stories an integrated, normal part of The Sims 4 experience and letting players explore every facet of these stories without additional work on their part. These actions all at once validate the early goals of The Sims, the formative history of the game among LGBTQ online communities, and a future in which queer identities are the forefront of simulated-life gameplay.
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