Are there Bachelor/Bachelorette's party?

"Elliandre;c-18064074" wrote:
I'm not sure why you are saying her argument makes no sense. @Babykittyjade has made an argument that makes perfect sense to me. We can't be sure if it's true or not, because they never really gave a reason why the Sims 4 is more mild, but her theory makes total sense. Maybe they are trying harder to expand the market of their games internationally, which means toning down the content so it's more widely acceptable in other cultures. What does it matter how past games were marketed? Maybe they didn't care as much back then if the games actually reflected the culture of the country they were selling the games to? As @Stormkeep pointed out, they are more inclusive than ever before, seeming to make global diversity inclusion part of their goals, which means they are maybe thinking about things like wild drinking parties more carefully and deciding if it's acceptable to everyone.

We also live in a different time now. People are more sensitive and hyper critical of media content. People are looking at video games as something harmful to their teens and kids whereas no one seemed to care what was in our games in the 80's or 90's. I heard a podcast once that said the majority of our 80's kids games would have an M rating today lol. Everywhere in the world there is increasing restrictions on what can be marketed to teens and children. Even Canadians are often calling for a closer look at how foreign games are rated for kids and teens and what's in the games and if they match our own content rules for violence, mature themes etc.

So the suggestion to make wilder parties optional is maybe one way to be more inclusive to everyone, but that doesn't actually work if other countries are becoming more strict and not going to allow American games that have that mature theme content sold under a T rating. Maybe they should just change the rating to Mature and then they wouldn't have to worry about anything. It seems easier to me, but maybe less profitable who knows why they haven't done that. For all we know, they may be gradually pushing the game series towards an E Age 10+ rating and that's why the content and humour is more mild and they nerf a lot of things that trigger complaints. I really hope not, but you never know.

I didn't disagree with her entire post -- in fact I agreed with the second part of it. It was pointing out that not all cultures had bach parties, which doesn't make sense when talking about the game's bach parties. They are not a world-wide thing, but they are in this game.

The game was toned down because the devs of this iteration decided to focus on very young teen girls as their target demographic. I remember one interview discussing this. It was actually fairly insulting as the interviewer interviewee (SGDrake?) admitted they were talking to people who worked with teenage girls more than the girls themselves.

I wouldn't want a Sims game that actually met the M rating in the US. For the countries where it IS M or outright banned, it has to do with parts of the game that absolutely should not be censored. The whole Russia kerfuffle showed that the M rating is due to homosexuality, and the countries which have it banned wouldn't allow it based on modesty reasons and no matter how much you sanitize the game, that won't be changed. This is the one thing I commend the team for. But having dancers at a party? That's not going to change the ratings, but it is smacking of paternalism deciding that teenage girls can't giggle at the absolute silliness of it. Sims 3 is still sold and its ratings haven't changed anywhere nor has there been any type of controversy around its themes.