People are thinking so much about what's to come, it's awesome. Someone I saw went off the idea of more family options in the drop-down of CAS, and was like "bf/gf"would be good. And it would. We had that in other games but not this one right? We just recently got fiance.
But what about "partner" and "spouse/life-partner"? Or even adding "platonic life-partner"? We're getting more lgbtqia+ rep in the game, slowly but surely. They haven't finished adding all the features in. And now they are doing a family round of packs and stuff. I think this would be a great time to start implementing some of the things they promised. So that you can reflect more types of families in game.
I liked that you could start sims off in relationships in the Sims 3. But the only relationship this game recognized for so long was marriage, in CAS. So even if you spent 2 hours making a pair of sims. They got into the world and didn't even know each other. And either you had to cheat, or spend the next few hours making them love each other. When you could've been doing other things. Like getting into the game. And if they were meant to already be engaged, even longer. Especially if their personalities were meant to be opposites that attracted, easier said that done at times.
I always found it weird what things they decided to keep out of the game, even after so many updates and years. But maybe we'll get more back in this pack. Even more than we've ever had before. That would be amazing. Isn't that what this game was supposed to be originally? A massive improvement? Not just an iteration that runs easier, or used to, on your average laptop. But a step up in all ways from the previous; while still letting you enjoy what came before, and having its essence?
I say all that to say, it'd be really cool if we got to have sims be partners/bf/gf from the get go. If "Platonic Life Partners" could be introduced along with "Spousec and maybe capital "P" "Partners", to go with 'Husband' and 'Wife'. If maybe they started working on those pronouns more in time for the family reunion so that even great-aunt Mildred can get them right (And so that she shows up properly in the family tree as a great-aunt). If gender dynamics are properly added to the game. I doubt they'd bring in poly at this point. But it'd be nice.
I think if we're talking familiar bonds, then we're also talking about the people who make up those families, and the various types of bonds that can exist.
And what they do with this, especially if it really does work in the background tying together the things they've already made, done, and said they would do. It would make a great base point for future change in the game. And for the next generation of games.
