Twitter Q&A Today 6/29 with SimGuruGrant

"MadameLee;c-16582614" wrote:

"Elyssandariel;c-16582612" wrote:
Thanks MadamLee. Very strange, that a staff person would use that "term." Since Grant discussed it though, I think it would be all right to talk about. But thanks for the info, I appreciate it!

@Elyssandariel I don't know if it came from all the arguments that happened at least for me, during Sims 3. And *might* have happened during Sims 2.

Since there were like 2 sides but there were 2 sides on each side..

There were people who wanted disabilities either because they themselves were disabled or knew someone who was disabled and want to create them.

Then there were the people who were disabled or knew someone who were disabled and didn't want disabilities to get "mocked" or they consider "disabilities not fun" or didn't want to be reminded about their disability.


Then like someone said earlier that Sims is a utopia but everyone's idea of a utopia is different.

One person who I wouldn't name had a daughter who died who was disabled and she always get saying "Disabilities didn't sell" and tried to claim ...that the Becky Wheelchair doll (Barbie's friend) was an example of a doll not selling. My research showed otherwise.. the Wheelchair doll had the issue of not being able to get into Barbie's DreamHouse, or Van basically " Becky was the friend who couldn't go where Barbie want"

Admittedly, I wasn't really following this forum during the Sims3 era as often so wasn't aware the wheelchair debate came up in that sense. However, I remember going back to the Sims1 era, there were simmers who requested wheelchairs or wanted to see some acknowledgement of sims with disabilities. I even had a friend (and fellow simmer) back then who was left confined to a wheelchair at an early age and wanted to make a sim version of herself to reflect that part of her as it was just a part of who she is and she often brought it up at some forums during that era just as I remember some simmers (when we got elevators) hoping to likewise see wheelchairs happen in the Sims2 era or some disappointment in the Sims3 era on various fan forums that only the elderly could use canes (as some had hoped it might mean more attention possibly being paid toward creating sims with various disabilities and younger sims potentially being able to use them, as happens in real life sometimes).

However, the issue ironically reminds me of what you were saying about the Becky doll from the Barbie franchise (I remember when that happened--and the issue that was brought up about how she essentially couldn't go where Barbie went, as you pointed out (which I even remember seeing some video of back then illustrating that point, especially with the dreamhouse where the wheelchair wouldn't even fit in the elevator)). I keep wondering if it goes back to some of the same reasons why we've never really successfully been able to adjust certain attributes such as height with sims where there's a certain scale in which they design things to function within (again, going back to the Becky-Barbie thing).

Regardless, the whole issue reminds me of something I remember reading a number of years ago in an interview with a member of the team which developed the very first Sims game and their mentioning of the different topics that were discussed to include in that game and which they felt comfortable with addressing and including (at that time) versus which ones should not have been in the game and sometimes how to address them (especially for topics that were considered very controversial back then).

On a side note, I appreciate that one of the Simgurus appears to be addressing or listening to players--and wish I had known about it going on on Twitter much sooner!