Representation

"drakharis;d-991904" wrote:
I feel that groups races ethnicities and cultures not in the sims at all with ZERO representation should be a higher priority to adding in farming or for that matter occult sims. (...)

We have Pacific Islanders with representation in the game. Nothing added that is actually part of the culture like Hula dancing or even Luaus as added food and parties for our sims.

(...)

We have Japanese Representation kind of. When I think of Japan I don't think snowboarding skiing or even rock climbing. I think fishing, tokusatsu, great foods like sushi, sentai, stage shows, Tea Ceremony, anime, J-Dramas, J-Pop, manga, Japanese Gardens and so much more. Which really wasn't added with Snowy Escape. I end up just deleting and rebuilding the world.

(...)

There aren't a lot of cultures ethnicities and races represented yet in the game.

Asians are more than just the Japanese. There are Indians, Middle Easterners, Chinese, Koreans and so on.

What about European cultures with French, Italian, Greek, Spanish, Portuguese and so on.

What about Jamaicans and Haitians?

Representation is a good thing. Said so, I think the tools offered by CAS already allow us a lot of liberty in designing Sims with whatever features, skin colour etc we desire. It is up to the player then to imbue whatever ideals, projections, vision of the world etc they want in those characters. I have created multiple Sims of different ethnicities/cultural backgrounds and I am happy I was free to do so in the ways I deemed appropriate. I do not need the devs to do that for me (or worse, force it on me). Especially since there is always a genuine risk that that sort of in-game representation degenerates into shallow stereotypes, which are silly at best and highly offensive at worst.

I'm not comfortable with the game implementing this kind of "representation" because it would be at best a very superficial one. The kind where Sims with an Italian name would be sun-tanned and obsessed with football and pizza, the Sims with a French name would all wear a striped top and carry a baguette under their arm and the Jamaican ones all wear their hair in dreadlocks and wear black/green/yellow t-shirts. I'd rather create my own diversity in the game than have that sort of silly stereotypes forced on me.

In fact, I actually appreciate that computer generated NPCs often have names reflecting a specific culture and a skin colour that you wouldn't immediately associate with it if you base your idea on stereotypes (such as black-skinned Sims with a Japanese name, or a Sulani native with a local name and blond hair). It's actually refreshing as we're humans, not pedigree show dogs (this whole idea of "races" based on skin colour is antiquated and detrimental).

You mentioned that it was incoherent in your point of view that the presentation Japan received was in the Snowy Escape pack, in association with winter sports and mountain climbing. As someone who lives in Switzerland, I am actually relived that they didn't set the pack in a location inspired by the Alps, with characters yodelling all the time and dressed in Bavarian lederhosen. Instead, they merged two new interesting game aspects, a Japanese setting and mountain sports and created a very good pack IMO. At first I too was surprised by the pairing, but my friend who's into mountain climbing and has been on climbing trips to Japan twice told me it is actually a thing. For those in the know, Japan is, indeed, a climbing destination. So the devs did their homework after all. Kudos to them for doing so, instead of opting for a more banal choice like the Swiss Alps. And while they did incorporate some timeless, traditional elements of Japanese culture (like the onsen spring, the shrines, the architecture, etc) I appreciate they did not overplay other elements that would have turned Mt. Komorebi into a cartoonesque version of Japan and itself.

There is a very thin line between paying homage to a culture and depicting a silly caricature of it.

Also, we have to keep into account that in the recent past, several people from minorities or native cultures/ethnicities have expressed disdain when mainstream entertainment (such as games) incorporated elements of their culture that are actually deep and have a sacred meaning. Would the average simmer know and appreciate the deep meaning of hula dancing? Or would it be just another interaction to be used in gameplay when flirting with other sims or having a beach party? I think we can still play to our heart's content without the need to add elements that are sensitive to the native culture they belong to and trivialise them in the process.

Said so, what I would like to see in terms of representation is an element of disability. Once again, the spectrum is too rich to give representation to all the different types of experiences, but I think it would be manageable to implement at least Sims with blindness (they'd carry a white cane when moving around, other than that they'd do anything like other Sims) and Sims who use a wheelchair (there are wheelchairs that climb stairs too, so, again, a wheelchair bound Sim can still enjoy anything other sims can).

That, and more CAS outfits/hairstyles to be able to create our very own representations of whatever cultures/identities we wish to, and more BB objects/decorations that remind us of a wide spectrum of different locations/cultures of the world, to choose from when we personalise our homes/lots.


edit: typos