“The Sims 4” finally adds pronoun customization
The video game industry has made significant progress in inclusiveness over the past few years. God of War Ragnarok revealed a complete list of more than 60 accessibility features last week. The Saints Row reboot will unveil a new customization suite that is unrestricted according to gender.
The Sims franchise is a champion for inclusion. Although the Sims has always welcomed and supported same-sex relationships since its inception, there are still necessary steps that the franchise can take to ensure inclusivity. A recent Sims 4 update finally introduced customizable pronouns.
Players will be able to edit their pronouns using the ‘Create a Sim’ menu. You can choose from the options she/her/her, he/her and they/them. You can also set possessive independent, possessive dependent, subjective, reflexive, possessive dependent and possessive dependent pronouns in ‘Custom Pronouns.
This update was done in partnership with LGBTQ charity GLAAD and the non-profit It Gets Better Project. It Gets Better was the first Sims 4 partner with It Gets Better in 2019 when they added Pride items and inclusive build items such as a gender-neutral bathroom.
John Faciane, EA’s Associate Producer, commented on the update, saying, “We reached out to the It Gets Better Project and GLAAD and worked with them to learn more about pronouns, especially by transgender nonbinary people. We’ve discovered all the complex areas where binary gender was present in The Sims 4 through this research and deep-diving into the game. We then collaborated with our team to create wireframes to help us make this feature a reality.
The bad news is: The update is only currently available in The Sims 4. Faciane confirmed that they are working to adapt the feature for other languages…
