I was ten years old when the virtual world of The Sims was released. After popping the CD into my desktop computer in my parent’s basement, hours would easily pass by, whole lives would be lived. Reality moved fast in Sims time. Building my dream house, making my fake family (with the occasional murder by fire), and forcing everyone to “woohoo” are some of my fondest memories.
Electronic Arts released its cover art for The Sims 4 last year which featured the first same-sex lesbian couple. This new release also includes gender-neutral bathrooms and Pride month options in build mode. In my newest game on Sims 4, my child (named Strudel after my IRL cat) has a rainbow flag hanging in her room. Recently, Russia added R18+ onto Sims 4 due to their law restricting same-sex relationships to minors. The history of queer evolution in Sims has been growing. During the game’s original creation, openly gay engineer Jamie Doornbos went into the game’s code—totally rogue and without consulting anyone—and programmed the game to allow same-sex relationships. In the 1999 E.A. Expo, a demo of the game premiered an unplanned wedding with two same-sex characters who had fallen in love. They passionately kissed in front of a live audience and essentially changed queer characters in gaming forever. In 2009, The Sims 3 allowed gay marriage, preceding the legalization of real-life marriage equality by six years. Essentially, every Sim is bisexual. They can marry, cohabitate, woohoo, and have kids together. All of this is to say that The Sims franchise was radical in video games as the early 2000s were still uneasy about queerness. But it’s a queer world, after all.
Bow love depwa, Sims (translation: I love you, Sims). v
