Even though I still prefer playing the Sims 3, the gender options and representation is top notch in Sims 4 and EA/Maxis really deserve every bit of praise for it.
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
The Sims features an LGBTQ couple on a game cover for the first time ever (SEE STAFF POST)
- Thread starter Dullahan
- Start date
I literally had no idea that there was going to be a rebrand for some reason!
I love it! The new cover and new characters look amazing! And having more representation in a cover art is such a great move.
The only thing I dont like about the rebrand so far is the new menu. Only cause now it seems to emphasize the DLC that you may or may not have even more.
I love it! The new cover and new characters look amazing! And having more representation in a cover art is such a great move.
The only thing I dont like about the rebrand so far is the new menu. Only cause now it seems to emphasize the DLC that you may or may not have even more.
Nobody is saying it means nothing, but lesbians being vastly more marketable and tolerable for higher ups is a known factor and one that permeates pretty much all media. Hell, look at most big games and you'll see a token lesbian or two, or a bisexual woman, or in the case of Ellie, a straight upn lesbian main character in a huge AAA game. Then, expand that out to tv and cartoons, and you have multiple big popular shows that are almost nothing BUT lesbians(She Ra and Steven universe, for example), and nothing for gay men and boys.For people saying including lesbians is basically nothing (lesbians must feel so happy that you think so!) I can add that they have both a pre-made household of two married men and a pre-made household with a non-binary sim. Sure they are not on the covers (yet), but there is a lot of good representation in the game.
It's hard to always feel good for lesbians/bi girls when we're always either ignored or hidden in the process, or made into awful flamboyant caricatures.
I was talking with a coworker the other day about how many straight women use the term "girlfriend" to describe their female friends. Reading that first bio, I was a bit concerned that that's an ambiguity the company was leaning into. However, the second bio, with mention of both a friend and girlfriend, makes me think they didn't do that. At the same time, I feel like this cover won't cause most people to bat an eye because I don't think romantic intimacy is immediately, indisputably clear. (Looking at previous covers in the linked article, they show a couple about to kiss and another couple where one person is looking lovingly up at the other.) If this had been two men in a similar pose, however, I think people might pause a lot more.
It's great, don't get me wrong. Same-gender relationships between women should have their representation. It's significant. I know that there are many women out there for whom something like this is important (or would have been when younger).
This is sort of how I feel. That said, I think The Sims has a good chance of a being a franchise to do this. (Though The Sims's customization means it's not quite the same to me as something like Ellie in TLOU, Pt. 2.)
Well, technically, it does seem they're women in a same-gender relationship. I'm personally not 100% sure if you can say a relationship is gay or lesbian just because it's between two men or women because I'm not sure if people take the terms, when applied to relationships, as saying something about sexuality or if they function just as terms for same-gender relationships. This is a language thing I'm just unsure of.
I can't really speak for that commenter, but my other thought is...people have a tendency to use LGBTQ for everything related to that larger community when sometimes only subsections are being addressed. For example, I've heard people talk about "LGBT issues" and then not say a single thing about the "T." That can be frustrating for me. So I understand why some might have that reaction here. It's also impossible (I think?) for every letter to be represented in a single couple, so if you entered the thread looking for a specific representation and didn't see it, I could see someone becoming frustrated.
It's great, don't get me wrong. Same-gender relationships between women should have their representation. It's significant. I know that there are many women out there for whom something like this is important (or would have been when younger).
This is sort of how I feel. That said, I think The Sims has a good chance of a being a franchise to do this. (Though The Sims's customization means it's not quite the same to me as something like Ellie in TLOU, Pt. 2.)
Well, technically, it does seem they're women in a same-gender relationship. I'm personally not 100% sure if you can say a relationship is gay or lesbian just because it's between two men or women because I'm not sure if people take the terms, when applied to relationships, as saying something about sexuality or if they function just as terms for same-gender relationships. This is a language thing I'm just unsure of.
I can't really speak for that commenter, but my other thought is...people have a tendency to use LGBTQ for everything related to that larger community when sometimes only subsections are being addressed. For example, I've heard people talk about "LGBT issues" and then not say a single thing about the "T." That can be frustrating for me. So I understand why some might have that reaction here. It's also impossible (I think?) for every letter to be represented in a single couple, so if you entered the thread looking for a specific representation and didn't see it, I could see someone becoming frustrated.
Last edited:
Ask for more gay guy and transgender representation, absolutely, I do that too. I know that LGBTQ+-women are way more represented than men and non-binary and I try to promote anything I can find that does anything remotely good with the latter. But I despise the "pff, just a couple of lesbians again" vibe that comes with these things, like it didn't matter at all. It does matter greatly to many lesbian women. It's not because lesbian women are included that gay men are not. Blame the hetero norm and homophobia, not the lesbian representation.
This thing also comes just a month after Maxis made a huge mistake with their last patch, the one that added a bunch of Pride stuff in collaboration with the It Gets Better Project. There is a flag you can hang on the wall now that comes in many different variations. Gay pride, trans pride, asexual pride and so on. But at first, there was no lesbian flag option, they were completely overlooked. I learned a lot from the discussions that happened after that in regards to how lesbian women feel about representation and how the rest of the LGBTQ+ community reacted to it (which I would describe with a word like "flippant" maybe). There is a huge problem with hand-waving away the need for actually good lesbian representation. Much of what we get is fetishized stuff ment for the male gaze.
I get that, and we absolutely need more gay guys prominently represented in things, but "the lesbians get all the representation" is only part of the picture when it ignores how much of what we do get is pandering to straight guys and contributing to their ongoing fetishisation of queer women
All of the Sims on the expansion, game, and stuff pack covers are named in the gallery.
The toddler pack one is darkly hilarious, because the cover doesn't have any adults, so the toddlers don't have any parents or guardians.
Last edited:
Awesome to see, still need to pick up the Island Living expansion.
If this was any other company I may agree with you, but EA has done a hell of a better job than most when it comes to lgbtq representation. Some of ya'll need to chill, looking silly af tbh.
If this was any other company I may agree with you, but EA has done a hell of a better job than most when it comes to lgbtq representation. Some of ya'll need to chill, looking silly af tbh.
I get that, which is why i purposely ignore things like that(Like how I absolutely despise yaoi and fujoshis, and dont factor that into gay male representation), but even ignoring all those, theres still a much, much greater breadth of content for lesbians than gay men.
I get not liking the vibe some of us may give off(Hell, I feel shitty myself feeling envious like that) But it'll likely just get worse the longer this goes on which is why I'd rather help speak up now than let it fester in silence, though my grievances toward the lack of gays is never aimed at lesbians getting the rep/being happy or the people putting it out(except maybe at Rebecca Sugar, who's biggest show is almost nothing but lesbians with not a single homosexual male character, and that has always skeeved me out), but instead the shittiness of higher ups and the inherent societal homophobia at the root.
Compared to the Sims that people create, Maxis premade Sims are actually the least attractive lol.
The game is five years old so they felt it needed a face lift (some would say it's more of a kick to the face but whatever) and they also want to make it clear they are not gonna abandon this game anytime soon.
Wouldn't want to frighten the children by making them picture two bears, wearing nothing but "Kiss the Cook" aprons, pressing their greasy sausages together.
There's nothing like gay representation that just happens to cater to straight men at the same time.
OP
OP
Discussion guidelines
Official Staff Communication
Although there is much to be done by the industry in terms of representation, the inclusion of an LGBTQ couple is still a major milestone worth celebrating. Please be respectful when discussing with others and don't try to downplay this event.
I always thought they were random and some of them were characters use in the trailers but not the ones in the households already made in the game, but maybe im remembering wrong then.
They also featured the gay couples wedding in the Pets expansion trailer - keep in mind the Pets expansion is also their most popular expansion too
Adding to this, in the Vampires teaser you can see one of the pre-made male vamps flirt with both women and men.
Thought you couldn't do that anymore. I used to give parties, invite the pizzaguy, ,clown, place furtniture in front of the fireplace and delete all exitpoints.
OT: I thought The Sims already had LGBTQ Sims in them.
This is fine and all, males could/might/should be next? Not sure, let's wait and see.
Give it time and there will be a few whiners on Youtube complaining about "shoving it in their faces" and how EA is SJW or whatever outrage narrative is current. Yarda yarda.
Keep up the love EA.
Give it time and there will be a few whiners on Youtube complaining about "shoving it in their faces" and how EA is SJW or whatever outrage narrative is current. Yarda yarda.
Keep up the love EA.
You can definitely still do that. Sims are not as useless around a fire nowadays so that way is harder but there are other ways to kill whole households and NPCs. Let them all be eaten by cowplants!
And yes there are a bunch of canonically LGBTQ sims, but this is the first time they are on the cover. Autonomy makes it so that any sim can be gay, lesbian or bi as they "choose" but that's a bit different as it isn't stated anywhere.
I wish we were even remotely on that level. This very thread shows that we aren't. Whenever there's a scrap thrown our way, legions of guys come out of the woodworks diminishing it - just like you are doing, by the way. Every single time. The actual reality is like the complete opposite of what you're stating.
It has a reason that even today, gay male characters in media are taken more seriously (and portrayed more seriously) than lesbians are. Companies do their damnest to avoid the L-word to ensure guys can pretend that no, not lesbian, actually bisexual, so men can be included in threesomes. Lesbians are probably the *least* marketable of the four letters, precisely because straight guys get so utterly bent out of shape at the idea of a woman that doesn't want to be with a guy - while especially the G of LGBT tends to pretend that awful portrayals of L are somehow proof that *any* portrayal of us is actually bad somehow. Reminds me of GoT, where we got actual gay dudes - and random sex between women to titilate guys in the literal text of the show, which somehow was considered equal representation. Yeah right. And people wondered why I dropped it immediately.
Really, even the tiniest lesbian representation gets attacked by both the usual straight dude parade *and* supposed allies in the community. And in most media, I still see more gay guys than lesbian women. What we actually have in media is "women kiss other women for brief media attention, then return being exclusively portrayed with men". Indie games are literally the exception, and even there there's only a handful more lesbian women than gay men (many of which got marketing push "dude options" into the story so the straight guys wouldn't get angry - life is strange being the most blatant example).
It is especially bad here because when you factor in other content like trailers, the pets expansion already has a more prominently gay male couple in marketing content, what with a wedding and all. That gets ignored, since it's always fun to complain about representation for lesbians in male-dominated forums, for some reason.
I wonder why. I wonder why.
I didn't realise there was a new sims game.
EDIT: wait... this game came out in 2014.
Is this a re-release or something?
EDIT: wait... this game came out in 2014.
Is this a re-release or something?
Oh awesome, glad to see a first for LBTQ representation in games industry even though it shouldn't have taken so long. Hope to see more!
This is awesome
But what game is it for? A new Sims game or what? I know it's about time a new one dropped.
But what game is it for? A new Sims game or what? I know it's about time a new one dropped.
Killer post. I hope the other person takes heed. 🙏
tbh I do have issue with calling stuff like this "LGBTQ representation" rather than like, lesbian representation. I don't say that meaning to be dismissive, having a lesbian couple on the cover of a game like this is a big deal since even that doesn't happen ever. But phrasing it like that makes it feel like it's meant to be representation for every queer person. Which, well, it isn't.
Major expansion just dropped, so I would assume this is updated boxart to accommodate the added content.
To celebrate the release both the 5th year anniversary and the new Moschino Stuff pack the game is getting a new visual identity signified by the new package among other things.
Man this thread is pretty depressing. I understand gay males need more representation, but coming into a thread just to say, "yeah whatever but what about the MEN" and "well you know they only did this to cater to straight guys" is just...well it reminds me of certain other womens' issues that get downplayed and thrown to the side because of whataboutisms.
Great post and very needed. Thank you for taking the time to write it. :)
I don't think they're downplaying women's issues. Gay men aren't represented all that much either, possibly even less than gay women.
And again, that's not because queer women are enjoying some great bastion of representation, but because there's then the extra issue of the fetishisation of lesbian relationships by straight dudes (for an example of how this manifests as a problem in real life, see the female couple that was beaten by a bunch of teenage boys on public transport in London last month because they wouldn't "perform" for them) so it's actually a different issue rather than a straight "better than".