“LGBTQIA+ identity is a fact of life, not a switch that can be turned on and off” The Sims 4 is making it easier for players to create Sims that better reflect their life experiences. As a free update launching later this month alongside the High School Years expansion, players w

"LGBTQIA+ identity is a fact of life, not a switch that can be turned on and off"

The Sims 4 is making it easier for players to create Sims that better reflect their lived experiences. As a free update launching later this month alongside the High School Years expansion, players will now be able to choose their sim's sexual orientation and romantic/sexual attractions.

It goes like this: In the "Create Sim" feature, you'll be able to fiddle with how your Sim experiences sex and romance. First, you can choose whether your character is attracted to men or women. The Sims 4 team realizes that making this choice based on duality is not ideal. SimGuruJessica, design lead for the

High School Age expansion, wrote in the developer log: "I understand there will be concerns around the initial option being gender binary. Mechanically, non-binary sims don't exist in TS4 yet. "While we've made great progress in representing non-binary sims with pronoun updates, we acknowledge that pronouns are not the same thing as gender identity."

In addition to choosing whether your sims are attracted to men or women, you can. Choose how they display this attraction through romance and/or sex, and whether this attraction can change.

With the "Romantic Exploration" setting, you can lock in whether your sim is only attracted to one gender, or if they're basically still figuring it out, allowing them to potentially shift their attraction from one gender to another.

Finally, the "WooHoo" setting determines which gender the sim is interested in…. Which gender of person do you "mooch" with? (Gosh, I get it, but WooHoo? Can't you guys come up with something less awkward than WooHoo?) The WooHoo setting, combined with the Romance Quest setting, allows players to create aromatic or asexual sims. Unchecking the Romance Exploration option entirely or checking a box in the WooHoo settings, or vice versa, will result in Sims being interested in either completely non-sex, non-romantic sex, or non-sexual romance.

Even with these new rich ways to customize your Sims, you can choose to do nothing and have your Sims behave the same as they did before this new patch.

SimGuruJessica wrote: "If you don't change any of the sexual orientation settings, your Sims' romantic behavior will be the same as they currently were before this feature was released. They have no inherent attraction to a specific gender; their attraction is Can be transformed through the game, and they'll do WooHoo with anyone of any gender. "

However, it's crucial - and somewhat heartening - to note that this new sexual orientation feature can't be turned off, and SimGuruJessica used some pretty explicit and Affirmative language explains the decision: "While we try to give players the option to toggle certain game features, LGBTQIA+ identity is a fact of life, not a switch that can be turned on and off."

The Sims 4 team seems to be working on It began by taking a firmer stance on its LGBTQ+ players. Back in February, EA announced that it would not sell its My Wedding Story expansion pack - which centered on a lesbian couple in promotional videos and marketing materials - in Russia due to anti-gay concerns in the country Propaganda Act. After outcry from fans, EA reversed its decision and sold the pack unmodified in Russia.

Sexual orientation can't be fully represented through a bunch of sliders and options, and The Sims 4 team seems to know this and is committed to doing the best it can with what it has.

SimGuruJessica wrote: "It's important to acknowledge that these are steps in a journey we are still planning. There is much more to do, and while I can't go into detail about where exactly we are going next, please know that we are committed to continuing Improving our representation of the LGBTQIA+ community. "

Sexual orientation update will be added to The Sims 4 later this month, and the High School expansion will launch on July 28.