Cognitive Disabilities and Mental Health Disabilities in The Sims 4
Recently, the Gurus have come and told Simmers that they have been thinking about adding disabilities into The Sims 4. I think this is a great step forward in inclusion. There are wide range of kids - and adults - with disabilities who enjoy playing The Sims 4, including myself. Not all of us are interested in giving our Sims-selves disabilities, but I know a large number of us are.
I'd like to give my feedback about how I'd like cognitive disabilities and mental health disabilities to look in the game. My experience here: I am cognitively disabled myself (I am autistic), and I have multiple mental health disabilities. I am a disability justice activist and have worked with several disability rights organizations. I've lived with a range of people with disabilities, including cognitive disabilities, mental health disabilities, physical disabilities, and mental health disabilities. On my college university, I've worked in an Access and Inclusion group to make the campus more accessible, and I run a disability org for students. I have some thoughts about how physical and sensory disabilities would work as well, but it's really not my expertise, so I'll be focusing on cognitive and mental health disabilities.
If cognitive disabilities and mental health disabilities were implemented in the game, here's how I think they might best be handled:
The Sims 4 team should consult actual people with disabilities in implementing any new features or mechanics for people with disabilities, and should be careful to present disability in a fully respectful light. By 'consulting actual people', I mean actual people - not our parents, siblings, or organizations that represent us without us. While it would be fine to consult those groups as well, they should first and foremost listen to actual disabled people.
Cognitive Disabilities and Mental Health Disabilities should not be treated as game 'traits' - instead, they should be a separate category that can be checked 'on' or 'off'. Many people feel that their disabilities are not *just* 'traits' and widely impact their lives. Additionally, players who want to create disabled sims should not be punished by having a game trait slot removed. (Note: from now on, when I say "game trait", I am referring to the actual mechanic of traits that is currently in the game. If I say "disability trait", I mean an actual trait, symptom, or experience associated with a disability.)
Individual cognitive or mental health disabilities should not have discreet options for different disabilities. Players should be able to check a "neurodivergent" box (neurodivergent meaning a person with any kind of cognitive or mental health disability), and from there should be able to select certain disability traits that their Sim presents. There are far too many cognitive and mental health disabilities to include everyone, and many cognitive and mental health disabilities can look different from person to person, even if it's the same condition. Many traits also overlap from condition to condition. This gives people the freedom to build a Sim with a 'brain' that most closely matches what they'd like.
Sims maintain their cognitive or mental health disability traits throughout life, and this disability remains in the ghost life stage. Many people with disabilities identify strongly with their disability and would not cure it if they had the choice. It also sends a bad message that a 'good' afterlife would, by necessity, mean someone wasn't disabled. Disabled people can have good (after)lives and be happy not only in spite of their disability but because of it! Of course, players should be able to remove these disability traits through cheats or CAS.
Townies should be able to randomly generate with disabilities. This would be a *big deal* for all sorts of people with disabilities playing the game. We hardly ever see ourselves represented, and it might help people feel more self-confident making Sims that look like themselves.
So, those are my thoughts about the broader implementation of cognitive disabilities. A lot of this also applies to physical disabilities, of course. Next, I want to focus on how something like autism might be implemented within my current dream goal of how this system would work:
Like other cognitive disabilities, autism should not be a game trait that someone can choose to add to their character. Instead, you should be able to pick from a range of disability traits that sum up to make your sim have the disability you think is relevant to them
There should be more options than simple 'social awkwardness' for autistic-like disability traits, including...
Sensory Seeking disability traits and Sensory Avoiding disability traits. You should be able to chose if a sim avoids or seeks certain types of senses, or is neutral to them. (Example: Sim A seeks sound, but avoids taste). This is a heavily simplified version of how sensory sensitivity might work, but a more complex one would likely be very difficult and costly. A sim who seeks sound might get an extra happy moodlet from loud music, but one who avoids taste might get uncomfortable moodlets from certain, randomly generated food items. Alternatively, in reverse, a sim who avoids sound might get an uncomfortable moodlet from loud music nearby, fireworks, or other loud stimuli, and one who seeks taste might get an extra happy moodlet from eating certain foods. A sim who is touch averse might get uncomfortable or angry moodlets when hugged, and a sim that's touch seeking might have increashed wishes for hugs, or might like a weighted blanket. These disability traits should be usable for any sim.
'Stim' or 'Fidgeting' idle animations. Many autistic people, as well as other neurodivergent people, do something called 'stimming'. Most people are familiar with autistic children flapping their hands, this is stimming. However, other things, like clicking pens, rocking back and forth, twirling your hair, or walking on the tips of your toes might be stimming. I think an option to pick from a list of maybe 6 or so common stims would be great. Your sims would be able to do these animations while idle/not doing anything, or maybe when multitasking for something like watching TV or listening to music. Again, any Sim could do these stims/fidgets.
There shouldn't be a "socially awkward" game trait, but including some aspects of neurodivergent social interaction would be neat. I'd like to be able to make characters who dislike eye contact, or Sims with a strange sense of humor who's jokes might fall flat with other Sims, especially sims who don't also have the disability trait for humor. Maybe neurodivergent Sims have an easier time building up friendship with other neurodivergent Sims (I've found that this is often the case).
Rituals would be a great addition - lots of neurodivergent people like rituals, like doing things in a certain order. I think it would be fun to be able to make a ritualistic Sim (with a randomly generated, but plausible ritual, such as always having a morning routine in a certain order) that has a tense moodlet if it's not fulfilled, and a happy moodlet when it is. This would be relevant for all sorts of Sims, including autistic Sims, Sims with OCD, etc.
So what does everyone think? I've been thinking about how an autistic Sim would look like for a long time, but I only recently though of a broader system to allow for all sorts of cognitive and mental health disabilities. Do you have a cognitive or mental health disability? How would you like to see yourself in the game? Do you think that it *should* be game traits, or would you prefer a more flexible system like the one I mentioned? Would you prefer not to see it at all? And for simmers without disabilities, do you think you would make Sims with disabilities? Do you like my ideas?
I'd like to give my feedback about how I'd like cognitive disabilities and mental health disabilities to look in the game. My experience here: I am cognitively disabled myself (I am autistic), and I have multiple mental health disabilities. I am a disability justice activist and have worked with several disability rights organizations. I've lived with a range of people with disabilities, including cognitive disabilities, mental health disabilities, physical disabilities, and mental health disabilities. On my college university, I've worked in an Access and Inclusion group to make the campus more accessible, and I run a disability org for students. I have some thoughts about how physical and sensory disabilities would work as well, but it's really not my expertise, so I'll be focusing on cognitive and mental health disabilities.
If cognitive disabilities and mental health disabilities were implemented in the game, here's how I think they might best be handled:
So, those are my thoughts about the broader implementation of cognitive disabilities. A lot of this also applies to physical disabilities, of course. Next, I want to focus on how something like autism might be implemented within my current dream goal of how this system would work:
So what does everyone think? I've been thinking about how an autistic Sim would look like for a long time, but I only recently though of a broader system to allow for all sorts of cognitive and mental health disabilities. Do you have a cognitive or mental health disability? How would you like to see yourself in the game? Do you think that it *should* be game traits, or would you prefer a more flexible system like the one I mentioned? Would you prefer not to see it at all? And for simmers without disabilities, do you think you would make Sims with disabilities? Do you like my ideas?
