What’s always been so awesome about The Sims, is that you can do pretty much whatever the fuck you want with your characters and world.
I’m sure at some point we’ve all re-made our own family, or perhaps the family across the street, based on your own extensive notes and whatever photos you could snap with your night vision camera.
Anyway, Maxis have taken a big step forward with an update to The Sims 4’s Create a Sim mode – There are no longer gender boundaries, meaning that things like tone of voice, clothing, build, or style of walk aren’t restricted to a certain gender anymore.
Not only is this great news for any transgender folk out there who can now finally create a more authentic virtual version of themselves, it’s also a boon for people like me: adult men with the muscle mass of your average 12 year old girl.
Lead producer Lyndsay Pearson told GameSpot:
The Sims 4 is a constantly evolving experience, and we’re always looking for new ways to give players more freedom in how they play with life. Players have asked us why certain hairstyles, clothing options, or voices were limited to one gender or the other. We also saw this as an awesome opportunity to continue to nurture an inclusive environment for our community. The Sims Team is a diverse group that makes a game for a diverse audience, and we want everyone to be able to create who they want.
Who could find fault with that? I mean, I’m sure lots of angry internet people will, but screw ’em.
What’s even better is that this (free) update won’t impact the gameplay in any way at all. Meaning if you were to create a transgender character, the other characters in the game wouldn’t give a shit and you’d simply go about your business.
The Sims: creating a virtual example that we should strive to follow. After years of forcing my Sims to drown in pools, I never saw this coming.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.