Simmers can soon choose their Sims' sexual orientation in the immediate future.
SimGuruJessica, the design lead for The Sims 4's High School Years Expansion Pack, recently revealed that the game would soon let players set their Sim's sexual orientation to further enhance its sense of inclusiveness.
The feature will be free for all players of The Sims 4 whether they bought the game's upcoming High School Years Expansion Pack or not.
The Sims 4 Sexual Orientation Feature Details
The Sims 4's Sexual Orientation feature is said to be part of Maxis and Electronic Arts' (EA) efforts into making the game something that "respects and celebrates the nuance and color of everyday life," per SimGuruJessica's announcement.
The Sexual Orientation feature, as previously mentioned, allows you, the player, to assign a series of attraction parameters for your Sim whenever you're creating or editing your Sim in Create-A-Sim.
These paramaters include what gender is your Sim attracted to, whether your Sim will be exploring their sexuality or not (or "exploring romantically" as the game puts it), and if your Sim wants to WooHoo with a Sim of a particular gender or not.
A screenshot of Create-A-Sim showcasing the three parameters that lets players set their Sim's sexual orientation. Notice that the binary genders are the only available ones for the feature at this time.
If you want your Sim to be attracted to a specific or various genders, simply tick the corresponding boxes under the first parameter.
Meanwhile, if you want your Sim to explore romantically, you may want to tick the "Yes" box under the second parameter to allow your Sim to dynamically change their sexual orientation during their lifetime. However, choosing "No" means that your Sim will simply stick to the sexual orientation you chose for them.
Lastly, if you want to have your Sim be able to "WooHoo" with a Sim of a particular gender, tick the appropriate boxes under the third parameter, allowing them to be sexually interested in that gender regardless of romantic interests.
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This parameter allows you to play either as an aromantic Sim that can mess around with any gender but is not interested in pursuing romance, or the opposite - an asexual Sim, per Engadget.
However, Jessica points out in her announcement that players can still choose to have their Sim mess around with an aromantic sim by having their Sim ask them to be WhooHoo partners if they are close enough.
If the aromantic Sim accepts the proposal, they can now initiate WooHoo without the prerequisites of the first parameter. However, that is a big "if" as a negatory answer might result in an awkward conversation afterward.
As a result of these parameters being added to the game, players will have more control over the stories they want to tell.
The Sims 4 Sexual Orientation Feature Availability
The Sims 4's Sexual Orientation feature will be free for all of the game's players once its upcoming expansion pack, High School Years, is released. This feature will be automatically added to the base game even if High School Years are not purchased.
However, as of this time, the feature will only feature two gender options - men and women.
Jessica mentioned that despite their pronouns update, which allows players to choose their Sim's preferred pronouns, non-binary Sims don't exist yet in the game due to technical limitations.
Fortunately, other genders and sexual orientations will be added in a future update. These could take the form of more than just a checklist, though, as Jessica hints that players could modify their Sim's physical frame, clothing preferences, pregnancy, and how they use the toilet in the future.
"it's a journey still in progress, with many more steps to go," SimsGuruJessica said. "Proper mechanical systems to fully support non-binary Sims is another step in that journey."
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