The Sims 4 developers hope to include customisable in-game pronouns and neopronouns for players to choose from.
Last week (18 January), the game’s developers announced plans to include pronouns during an online livestream.
The Sims 4 fanbase has long petitioned for the inclusion of pronouns to be added to the Sims franchise. Last year fans put together a petition calling for the social simulation game to include pronouns.
The page, which calls for pronouns inclusivity for trans and nonbinary sims, has gained over 22,000 signatures.
“Recent packs have been adding more gender-neutral language or choosing to call a Sim by their name instead of he/she, but the gendered language still lingers,” the Change.org petition reads.
The game’s development team announced they were “working towards” making the addition shortly after the call for inclusion.
During last week’s livesteam, The Sims 4 developers revealed that players will be able to create the name of their character and assign their pronouns on the “Create-a-Sim” screen.
Users will be able to pick from a selection of existing pronoun options such as “she/her, he/him, they/them” from a drop-down menu.
Players will also be able to enter custom pronouns from the same page. The option will include a profanity filter which will help prevent the option from being misused.
“It’s really validating to see your pronouns, I really can’t underscore that enough,” said game designer Rachel Gilbert. “It’s reassuring and it’s like a little checkbox – we’re all good here, we know who we are.”
Sims 4 developers are working alongside LGBTQ+ charity It Gets Better, GLAAD, Maxis, the developer of The Sims 4, to implement the LGBTQ-friendly changes.
“Our language shapes the world around us and how we interact with the world” explained Rae Sweet from It Gets Better. “The day that I tried on they/them pronouns for the first time was the day I was first ever able to recognise myself in the mirror. Which, as you can imagine is life-changing.
“I just know that giving people a space to play in The Sims and play with pronouns and be who they want to be just gives them so much room to explore and find themselves and be their true authentic selves. Especially in a society where they might not be able to in real life,” they continued.
Gilbert added: “I just think adding pronouns to the game will make [The Sims 4] feel even more welcoming and kind. It’s really validating to see your pronouns – I really can’t underscore that enough. It’s reassuring and it’s like a little checkbox – we’re all good here, we know who we are.”
According to Digital Spy, EA’s localisation lead Veronica Morales expressed hopes of implementing the gender-neutral inclusive pronouns functions across the 18 different languages the game is being translated into.
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