The Sims is one of the many iconic games that have shaped the industry. For many years now, fans have enjoyed having their friends and other characters live together from their imagination in a small town where they control most, if not all, of their actions. The Sims has always allowed players to romance their Sims with others of the same sex since the original title, but The Sims 4 will soon receive an update that changes Sims’ sexual orientation and even allows players to adjust what gender they are attracted to.
In recent years, the Sims 4 has been slowly adding features that allow LGBT players to customize their Sims to be a little more like them in their identities. A patch released in 2016 allowed players to change the gender of their Sims in many ways, such as creating voting options that are not limited to gender. While this made it easy for players to create trans-Sims, a recent update from last May introduced modifiable pronouns. This meant that players could be referred to Sims by any pronoun they wanted.
EA has revealed that the next step towards incorporating different LGBT identities in The Sims 4 comes with a free update that will be released along with the High School Years expansion on July 28. This update allows players to adjust their Sims’ sexual orientation. While same-sex relationships have always been possible in the series, this new update will be the first time players will be able to actively interest a Sim for only boys or girls.
EA’s article detailing what fans can expect from the sexual orientation update even mentions that Sims can now be designated to have no interest in sex at all once the patch is installed. However, asexual Sims can also ask others to become “WooHoo Partners”, separating the interaction from romantic interactions while also staying true to how some asexual people behave in real life.
The update message also includes an apology from EA for the fact that “non-binary Sims do not yet exist in TS4.” This refers to how players are still asked to choose between two genders when creating a Sim. This was the system that started the game in 2014, and creating “good mechanical systems to fully support non-binary Sims is another step in that journey” toward inclusivity.
Once the update is launched, these settings will allow Sims to still romance with other people, which is similar to how the in-game characters used to behave. For those not interested in these options, EA stands by its decision, as the feature cannot be turned off because “LGBTQIA+ identities are a fact and not a toggle to turn on and off.”
The Sims 4 is currently available on PC, Playstation 4, and Xbox One.
Source: EA.com
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