"LiELF;c-17612261" wrote:
"TheSpotted_C;c-17612239" wrote:
"LiELF;c-17612213" wrote:
"CAPTAIN_NXR7;c-17611784" wrote:
I strongly disagree that there should be an all inclusive representation of 'race' in The Sims.
Instead, the game should focus on a more complex sims creator tool, adequate enough for the player to create a sim of any appearance.
TS4's CAS is good, but it can be much better. As you mentioned, it should have unique sliders for certain features that are currently missing. Really there should be height sliders.
Skin tones and skin details should be expanded by adding new swatches, or through a complete CAS overhaul. There should be a greater variety of hair styles, including textured hair and more natural colors.
I'm a hybrid of about 50 different 'races'. I can't find a preset of anything that looks like me, because my 'race' doesn't exist in game. I'm not even a 'race' anymore.
What I am is a human being with a blend of different physical features. And in the end that's what everybody's appearance is. A blend of physical features.
It's not Maxis' job to represent every single race in The Sims. It's Maxis' job to give us the right tools so we can create a sim that looks like ourselves, or another person with unique features, or something completely ridiculous that doesn't even exist in the world (Or so we think...).
That's why it's a game. If a tool like that exists, no one has to be disappointed.
Enter Sims 4 and suddenly EA/Maxis wants to jump on the trend bandwagon to be "part of the crowd'. Suddenly, the game's long history of diversity speaking for itself isn't good enough to get attention, but they have to shout loud and proud to get that pat on the back (and, let's be realistic, money.) Suddenly they're preaching up and down about inclusion and culture and diversity, making huge presentations out of every addition that speaks to that agenda. And while it's good to include those things in game by default, and expand on them, the marketing of it always left a bad taste to me because it's using a serious issue to get sales, and eventually, the expectations will go above and beyond what they are capable of accommodating.
Honestly, I don't see how they can get out of it now. The game should have been left up to the interpretation of its players, while these new, diverse items got patched in on a neutral stance, or under the presentation of just expanding CAS. But they've raised a flag and declared their game representative of real people, so real people are going to expect representation.
But that's just it - this was never a game they were going to win. There's no middle ground to these people spamming Twitter on the internet. There was never any way that they could have stayed neutral, because to the people complaining, neutrality is complicity. So if EA just sat back and said nothing, people would rage about it. When Sims 3 was on the scene, this type of attitude was only just starting to emerge as dominant online, so of course they didn't need to make statements back then.
That's possibly true, but I think that had they not fed into specific agendas and kept more quiet on the issues, players may not have been seeing this as a race/culture issue. Had they pressed that this was a game of fantasy and not reality, in the sense that The Sims takes place in a fictional universe with occasional parallels, I don't think the expectations would be for precision, or seen in such a personal way. But they've been pushing the personal angle a lot lately, and that's just strolling into a mine field. That's what's going to make players more upset about what's not in the game because now it feels like a personal affront to them.
Sticky situation.
Even if sims 4's theme was "Fantasy and not reality" , that would not keep Black simmers from wanting skin tones that have warmth and dont look ashy. We would still want hairstyles featuring Ki n k y textures. TF? This point of view centers European as the default. It just does.
