I just read a tweet reply from Russkii that said “It would be optional yes. You can interact with or not.” If that’s the case, then why doesn’t the company just officially say that to everyone and put an end to angry debates happening across media sites? I don’t understand why not. A few months ago I was browsing the gallery for Maxis Sims and I found so many hateful comments on a trans Sim in the gallery. Someone replied that he was a trans teen and all the hateful comments were making him want to kill himself.
The way the company is handling the update, with vague, unconfirmed details, is generating hostile attention to a small minority that has a very high rate of depression and suicide and that experiences a lot of harassment and bullying. More then 65% of trans teens experience suicidal thoughts and they have a suicide rate twice as high as other lgbtq minorities. As a teen this game gave me so much joy and happiness and that comment really broke my heart. Please confirm officially if it is going to be optional or not to end backlash and incitement of bullying or harassment of trans teen players online. It's not everywhere there is forum moderators like here and teens get bullied usually on their own accounts.
The company has always pushed boundaries and tried to be inclusive, it's part of their company history and it's really cool to be part of that as a player, but they have also listened to feedback and made changes for us and I'm sure even though they want to push boundaries, I highly doubt they want to push their majority core players so far out of their comfort zone that they don't feel like playing anymore. They have never done that in the past. For example, all the men's skirts created recently was in an optional kit and even included some standard pieces like the denim suit, trousers and plain shoes for everyone to enjoy. Most important thing is just to voice your opinion of what you would like or not like and how it might impact your gameplay.
If you choose to use it, I hope they will not make it highly visible in the gameplay, like as depicted in the screenshots showing floating above their heads, because in reality, even though you may share your pronouns for communication purposes, doesn't mean they are permanently floating above your head. I didn't see the gurus' pronouns written across their foreheads during the livestream. It would make more sense if it was in the Sim Profile like where the marital status, traits are.
As for where it is located in CAS, I don't mind at all how they set it up in CAS, but I know many players are sensitive to CAS. There are so many mods even adjusting the lighting, adding backdrops, dressers and mirrors, etc. Also language and names are very important to one’s identity, whereas pronouns are kind of new, we can't add our ethnicity, race, nationality, religion, or sexuality beside the name and pronouns to me seem more about communication then identity, so maybe they should consider the feedback and move it to the side so as it's less upsetting for people who can't add other identification, feel confronted by it, or just think it's cluttered there at the top. I don't mind personally, because CAS is just where everything is to customize my Sim, it doesn't really matter how it looks to me, but I do have the mod that adds 4 columns in the clothing menu, so I really hope it won't break that one. This is a popular mod, so if it does impact it, then I hope they will update the columns for the game themselves. I would prefer not to use a mod to get more CAS columns.
I would also like a T-Shirt with the He/Him, She/Her, They/Them pronouns on the T-Shirt because I think that would be cool. They have similarly made rainbow pride T-Shirts. Mostly I would like some art paintings by a Trans artist with the update. :smile: I like to play the Heckings and enjoy having the Pride art objects to decorate their house with. I also love Paka'a Uha and always add him in a house in Sulani. Some new cool art objects and paintings from a Trans artist would be nice to decorate Paka'a’s home especially island type objects because most of the trans premades live in Sulani.
