More representation of indigenous cultures?

"GrimlyFiendish;d-983928" wrote:
The other day I noticed one of the new necklaces for female Sims has a colour option that is the same as the Australian Aboriginal flag, it got me wondering if perhaps there should be more indigenous representation in the Sims, or if it was something that was just too much risk of getting way wrong (like having Sims wearing first nation head dressed Coachella style, or female Sims being able to play a digeridoo).

What do others think, is more indigenous representation something EA should strive for, or is there just too much of a risk that it wouldn't be done right and would end up being tokenistic or insulting to indigenous cultures? Is this something better left to the CC and Mod creators?

Here's a thought you might want to consider. What about creating an indigenous culture neighborhood on your own? Seriously...instead of waiting for other people to do it for you, just recreate a neighborhood full of indigenous Sims you have created yourself. Seriously...this lack of personal motivation to do things for yourselves...is this a generational thing? Why are you wasting time when you can be doing this yourself? How about a little self sufficiency and imagination here?

"Karon;c-17729284" wrote:

I more or less agree with you on this one. It would be like making a "asian" themed pack instead of a "japanese" or "south korean" themed packs, .

You mean like the Hispanic Heritage stuff they put out people complained was majority Mexican-inspired generic things?

Im also a miniority but I dont expect video games to represent all facets of my identity, thats why we have tools in the game to do as we please and use your creativity. More tools is a plus, but I cannot understand this hype about representation everywhere. I cannot expect everything everywhere to represent me. Its nice, but not a requirement for me to enjoy my game. EA cannot really be too specific with cultures because they get twitter cancelled but they also get grief from being safe and being generic. Id rather they give us tools and gameplay rather than 100% representation. That's not as important as gameplay to me.

If I was going to add different Cultures and Adventures to new lands, I would focus it around the legends, myths, and folklore tied to those areas. I wouldn't do anything too modern. that way you could play with the ambiguity. It has to be mostly correct but at least you could get away with incorrectness.

But for me, I enjoy a good adventure. However I'm not just going to see New Sites. I don't just travel to go Mountain Hike in the woods, climbing, Swimming. I go for the souvenirs, the treasures, the rare Artifacts that hold value, mystery, things that can enhance gameplay.

There's so many European worlds we could create
England, France, Spain, Ireland (We already have Germany with Windenburg)

I would like to Go Middle East, Like Say they did an Arabian Inspired world I would Love Arabian Architecture build & buy objects. It's the clothing that I would have to learn about because I wouldn't know what can be worn when. I just think it's all beautiful. However The Lore of that realm is Magic Lamps and Genies.

Make the adventure worth my time. What Does my sim get for climbing to the peak of a Mountain, or what will they find in the forests, or at the bottom of the sea? In the temple of a Dense Jungle, or a Forgotten tomb under Sands of Arabia or Egypt.

I want more culture period. Sims 4 is the most censored version of the Sims and I feel like they play too safe to appeal to 1950s viewpoints. It is not even like they are appealing to kids even because even kids are more mature than the Sims 4. It has come a somewhat away with including culture since release day, but still a long way to go too. Sims community is more worldwide now than it was 20 years ago and I think should appeal to Simmers everywhere not just where one part where the Gurus are because not even all the Gurus work from California but they work out of the country too. I know a lot of the Gurus are multicultural too, so would love to see more of their feedback with representing culture in future packs. I'm a deviant Simmer, so I rather them not play it safe when it comes to the Sims games especially when it is supposed to be a teen rated game, but is being treated with baby gloves compared to E for everyone games these days. In order to get better gameplay, they need to not be scared to do representation too. The two are related and there is only so much Stepford Wives Sims franchise can handle before the gameplay gets old and repetitive. I am seriously tired of only gameplay in the Sims 4 is living like a entitled university party kid who only likes to drink at bars and party without consequences. Not like their version of parties are fun anyways. I don't understand why all the objects have to be so big and not functional too. Like gameplay is the least of the concerns and Sims are only meant to look "perfect" but not being able to walk anywhere.

Anyways I was more blunt about my request with the SimGurus recently. Pretty sure they know my feelings about it by now.

I think it is a sensitive topic and I would rather speaks with the people than about them. Also there a lot of indigeneous tribes, and I bet it will raise a lot of discussion and disappointment too. One will always be annoyed and angry.

I had to think a little bit about this topic and I had to do a research for satisfying my knowledge-hungry mind. For europe only the Sami still count as indigeneous, but in due of a treaty the others are called ethnic minority groups, for example like the Sorbs in Germany. They are too far developed in their lifestyle to be considered as indigeneous anymore, but still they have their own language, culture and representation. Their history is long with suppression too. Now they have the written right of protection and support of their own culture.

I'm mostly of Eastern/Western European with a little Prairie Cree Native. I don't know too much of that side of my nationality only what I've learned by a couple of my relatives & the internet.
I would so love a North American Aboriginal Native World with the full culture.

From a business perspective, I wouldn't do it---too much of a chance for it to backfire and offend people by not getting something right. I think we should leave it to modders

Should have focused more on gameplay rather than adding more cultural stuff.

I'm an indigenous in my own country and I personally dont care whether they eventually add my culture or not.

"Karon;c-17729302" wrote:

"Icewolf;c-17729018" wrote:

"Sharonia;c-17728866" wrote:
Not meaning to be offensive here but personally I'd rather they focus on improving the game play rather than focusing on inclusivity and representation all the time. None of this was needed in previous iterations of the Sims and people still managed to enjoy the games.

Yes, I agree totally. Representation is nice but it's not really needed at this point. I'd rather just that we keep this a simple game, without feeling the need to add every real life representation into it just because.

@Icewolf I'm pretty sure you're saying that because you're not the one lacking representation, darling.

Well, I'm scandinavian and there pretty much no scandinavian culture at all in Sims.

"OceanbornAngel13;c-17729346" wrote:

"GrimlyFiendish;d-983928" wrote:
The other day I noticed one of the new necklaces for female Sims has a colour option that is the same as the Australian Aboriginal flag, it got me wondering if perhaps there should be more indigenous representation in the Sims, or if it was something that was just too much risk of getting way wrong (like having Sims wearing first nation head dressed Coachella style, or female Sims being able to play a digeridoo).

What do others think, is more indigenous representation something EA should strive for, or is there just too much of a risk that it wouldn't be done right and would end up being tokenistic or insulting to indigenous cultures? Is this something better left to the CC and Mod creators?

Here's a thought you might want to consider. What about creating an indigenous culture neighborhood on your own? Seriously...instead of waiting for other people to do it for you, just recreate a neighborhood full of indigenous Sims you have created yourself. Seriously...this lack of personal motivation to do things for yourselves...is this a generational thing? Why are you wasting time when you can be doing this yourself? How about a little self sufficiency and imagination here?

Ah, okay. Well first of all I'm not insisting that EA do anything, as a matter of fact it would be my personal preference that individual gamers do utilise things like CC and Mods to create their own indigenous representation if they so wished (I certainly wouldn't trust a US centric game company, whose main motivation is profit, to represent indigenous cultures). I was simply curious what other people thought, given EA's apparent emphasis on diversity.

In terms of my own gameplay, I actually prefer to do a lot of things myself rather than just buying an endless round of packs to fill in whatever gameplay holes may or not be missing.