In the world of gaming, The Sims has been an incredibly diverse series when it comes to letting players create who and what they want and spawned a huge community of modders and creators who expand it more. However, when The Sims 4 first released, it took a step back with many restrictions in this area, which meant less representation. As time went on, things began to move forward, and with more recent updates, the team has taken diversity further.
One of the first major things added was removing clothing restrictions. Traditionally, clothing was separated into sex and age categories which meant only women could wear women’s clothes and men only men’s clothes. Now any Sim can wear what they want. This minor in-game change was the first major one for the community. Later, Sims’ body types could be molded into any shape instead of standard body types from previous games. Since then, Sims have been created in many shapes and sizes.
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A couple of years later, cultural items and celebrations were added over time, like Diwali and Muslim-inspired clothing, to represent various parts of the world and cultures. This one, in particular, is a tough one to fulfill, but slowly more and more content is being added. Last year’s update further diversified The Sims 4 with the most recent one expanding on it.
Even though it was a simple addition that took a little too long to arrive, it meant a lot to the community. A huge selection of skin tones was finally added, along with the ability to customize and create a unique skin tone as well. Alongside this came various cultural hairstyles and hair types, and while the community was happy about it, not everyone was thrilled by how the textures looked. Modders got to work improving them with their own versions, but now they’ve been updated officially with the latest patch as the Sims Team continues to listen to the community.
Another big addition in the update has been to pictures that hang in their Sim’s homes. Since the series inception, same-sex marriage has always been included with the only Sims to stop it be an angry ex or inappropriate wedding guest. In The Sims 4, the rest of the LGBTQ+ community has been added. However, this representation was overlooked in a simple area – household décor. Outside of portraits and photos taken by Sims, paintings and posters were basic and usually included straight couples or European-esque settings. This update adds options to change some picture contents to represent more people, families and couples while still allowing players to choose the colors and styles they want.
Over the last year, it seems like the Sims Team has finally started to listen to its player base and long-time fans given the content that’s been released. The franchise has always been a creative one where people have fun playing The Sims and creating content for themselves and others to enjoy. Hopefully, The Sims 4 will continue to be on the upswing.
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