Hi everyone,

So I've been a devotee of the Sims since I was about 8, but I've noticed a consistent issue: there are no sims with disabilities in any of the games. To make matters worse there is almost no custom content to create characters with disabilities, either. Whether or not they meant to, what the Sims has done is create a fantasy world where we can marry aliens, but people with disabilities don't exist.

When I talked to the EA representatives, they said that the devs put in toddlers by popular demand from the players. I'm thinking if enough people ask for it, we can get sims with disabilities too.

So keeping that in mind, I made a petition! Please sign it so we can get the word out.

https://www.change.org/p/ea-games-i...s-in-the-sims-4

Depending on the disabilities they'd have to make new animations for all of them.

EAs not going to do that.

Sims is for all-aged. It could be a dark game if sims has sim-disabilities.
Imagine there is a sim sat on wheel chair passing your house by themselves, then sim without leg, a blind sim walking by their own... No.
It's a good idea to enhance the gameplay when your sim is at elder state, but these gave me goosebumps.

I don't see how having a disabled Sim in the game is dark in any way. In fact, it's quite possible that more people have disabilities than you realize, since not everyone has a wheelchair. That it is seen as something that causes discomfort is actually an argument for having it included in The Sims. Instead of seeing someone as "disabled", try to think of them as "differently abled". It's enough of a shift to try to see that disabled people are simply people who struggle with one thing or another. And who among us doesn't struggle with something?

My brother's type 1, I'm dyslexic, my sister has a super heavy period. Why are these aspects of life not apart of the game? Vote from me.

I don't have much to say to this. Everything you said here is disgusting.

Sorry that's what in my mind. It's creepy

Kompaktive: People like you are why I am suggesting putting sims with disabilities in the game in the first place. You think independent people with disabilities are weird, dark, and creepy. If EA made sims with disabilities, maybe you could start to understand that people with disabilities are not scary or weird or "not for all ages."

A lot of people are pretty sensitive when it comes to people who are disabled. If I was EA, I probably wouldn't want to even go near the subject in fear of accidentally touching a nerve. It only takes one very unfortunate bug to cause an uproar.

I mean at this point they're pretending they don't exist at all, which I would argue is worse. They got gay marriage and trans* sims without offending anyone but Russians. I don't see why they can't do something similar.

No, not weird. I'm just so sad watching people having dissabilites. sometimes I'm even cry for watching a homeless. Most of them said they are happy with their life, that's just heartbreaking.
I just don't want to happen in my game.

As someone who's disabled in more than one way, it gets really tiring having people being "sad" seeing me be disabled. What people fail to understand is that disabled people don't live every day of their lives moping around and feeling sorry for themselves because they can't be the way abled people are. There's nothing sad about me being disabled, I just live in a different way than other people do, and the biggest problems I have are actually caused by the way I'm treated by abled people. There's nothing heartbreaking about it unless you see being abled as the "normal" way of living, or as the only way to live a good life. I would be so happy to have disabilities in the Sims because if it's a game simulating life, than how is it realistic to exclude such a very real part of life for many people? Representation is more important than you'd imagine, especially for something like this. I would love to have a sim who's actually like me.

If there's something to be sad about for disabled people, it's how we're treated by others, misrepresented and underrepresented positively, and seen as inadequate. Not that we don't live the same way that you do. Just try to remember having disabilities in the Sims would be something for disabled people, not for able people.

^This! Especially in this day and age where people get offended over the silliest things. I'd wager it'd be very hard to implement disabilities in a way that wouldn't piss people off. Especially in a game where virtually every aspect of life is made silly and over the top. Physical and mental illnesses might be something that's best left to the modders and CC creators (TS3 actually has a pretty neat amputee slider. Now if only we could get a functioning wheelchair)

That said, if they wanted to take that risk, I'm all for it. Though I can already hear Rachel Franklin turning down the idea because it's not lighthearted enough. Isn't she the same one that got triggered over her sims yelling at each other or some dumb shit like that?

You know...the more I think about it, the more curious I am about how they'd go about implementing mental illnesses.

I would honestly love a "Real Life" pack that adds all sorts of things, like disabilities, that the real world has but idealized ones usually don't. Infertility, for example. It doesn't exist in the game, but around 10-15% of couples in reality are infertile or have fertility issues. Some choose to adopt and others don't. That would be a nice thing to add to the game.

The infertility example is invisible, but I imagine that they would be able to implement other physical disabilities to the game, though they would likely only make a small number considering how much animation time it would take to represent all disabilities.

Things like visual and hearing impairment might be a bit more difficult to implement, though, and any form of mental disability would clash heavily with the user-input based controls of the game.

EA can't even make a decent teen stage height, you think they will give themselves work to make disabilities? Secondly many disabilities are not things you will notice, not unless you know someone well. Many of us have whats known as invisible disabilities. If EA did try to make it, no doubt it would be done terribly. I have epilepsy, I do not want EA to tackle that-thanks but no thanks. Also don't want people to think it's somehow dark or sad, it's just normal life.

I just reread my own post and it's pretty rambling and unclear. My posts are ambiguous that's why people getting my words differently. Sorry everyone.
and yeah I agree with nitromon. I never thought that disabled people are weird dark creepy.

What I meant is I often thinking something creepy of something unusual, then I said dark because it's sad. But I never thought they are weird.

Ok, thanks for clarifying that. I would still challenge you to re-examine your thinking. Disabled people struggle with things, and as joeandsarah77 said, not all disabilities are visible (which is what I meant when I said not everyone has a wheel chair). But that does not make their lives sad.

Here's what I see: Some people see others with physical disabilities and they feel uncomfortable and all they see is the disability and forget the humanity of the person themselves. I even saw this recently at an event where a friend has an injury and was confined to a wheelchair. Normally, this person would be in the center of any group, but suddenly, people stopped noticing him. He became invisible with the chair. I think it made people uncomfortable and they didn't know how to reach past that. I fetched him a drink and that sat down for a chat. After a while, I stopped noticing the chair and only saw my friend. We had a great conversation and were later joined by a couple of others. The only thing different about him is that he needed a little help to navigate movement and food and drink.

This is why I would like to see some sort of an attempt at including disabilities, even if it's only physical, in the game. As GlitchhWitch pointed out, representation is important. And if we saw it more frequently, it would help to make it more "normal" to people who are put off by it.

We all struggle with something and it's not always obvious to others what that struggle is. Get to know someone who is disabled and you will most likely feel less sorry for them or sad by their disability, while gaining an appreciation for what they have to overcome.

Okay, I may get it what you mean. I hope I didn't do anything wrong this time.
So, Did you mean disabled people aren't just physical disabilites, but there are people having some like behaviour disorder that can't be seen directly / barely noticed.
but they all act normal because it's ordinary and They became uncomfortable when they become sort of attention.
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and when for the first time normal people noticed that someone has physical disorder, they show their simpathy to that person. But, for a short time, people started ignoring that person and started to treat him/her like other normal people do, because they (normal people) think that's how life works and that's obvious.

Not really, EA had the occasional agreement with companies ... TS2 had a IKEA pack, besides Katy Perry Sweet Tit...Treats there were also the "Ford set" (free) ad way back in The Sims we had a free McDonald Food Kiosk.

They just ranged from advertisements to actual licenses, the IKEA pack contained actual IKEA designed items, someone at EA simply thought that was a good idea, they had done it before with IKEA before, I also have very strong suspicions based on the price that Katy Perry is taking royalty payments (since that pack is more expensive).

But back to the topic, it would very expensive in terms of resources to implement, also a challenge to implement gameplay wise, if you create a single player game with someone that is say deft, you can build the game around that but when you start to create different physical disabilities then it became a larger problem, even just being mute you would have to create a system for sign language, a system for sims to either know or not know the system and associated animations.

The game already has such things as morbid obesity. And for the life of me, for want of a valid explanations, the array of silly walks that sims can find themselves afflicted with have simply got to be due to some form of disability, disease or a particularly nasty case of cystitis.

The game is about escapism more so than a grounding in reality. Given the vast amount of disabilities reality has to offer, where do you begin implementing a few possible types into the game? What about the ones you leave out? The reality of disabilities is that those who find themselves afflicted are on a journey for the rest of their lives seeking medical knowledge and advancements to lessen or even rid themselves of the affliction. What similar system would be in place for our sims? Or are you happy to have them crippled permanently as a town aesthetic, with no hope of recovery as they are just "surreal art."

I'm sure there are a great many disabled players who would simply not what their sims to be as such.

Absolutely. As someone who was a fit, healthy and highly active person but now physically disabled and mostly housebound due to neurological disease, I definitely wouldn't want disability in my game. I play games to have FUN and forget my problems for a while, not to make myself even more depressed by being reminded of diseases and disability. It's something I feel strongly about and I've already weighed in on this topic in previous threads where it was brought up, such as here: http://www.modthesims.info/showthre...912#post4280912 . The general consensus has tended to be that most people don't want disabilities in their game.

The best way for those who do, would be to mod these things in if you really want them, although there will of course be the issue of getting animations to work right for people in wheelchairs or similar scenarios. In any case, I definitely wouldn't want to see EA put this type of thing in the game - it's easy to guess that their way of handling such a sensitive issue would very likely be inept, embarrassing and patronising!

IMO there is no way they will do this. Many of us feel this version has no depth compared to the prior versions. This is very much an app style version geared to the tweens. This is the Disney version compared to the prior versions. No drunken gnomes, it is darn near impossible to kill a sim even if you try, etc. EA is not going there I am pretty sure. And in this world where people are offended by things so split-second easily no matter what they would do they would get complaints about how they were done. This does not mesh with their main target market IMO and does not mesh with the overall vibe of this game.

Hmmm...this is a broad and sensitive subject to talk about. Idk how to properly discuss this because I am torn...so if offended blame....EA! Ha!

I have several questions. Would pets be disabled? Would mental illnesses be implemented? Can people in wheel chairs play sports like they do in real life? Can having disabled sims help people in real life better communicate with people with disabilities or mental disorders so a person won't feel scared or sorry for them but treat them like regular human beings? Would sims be born or gain disabilities over time, and how would players control or not control who gets what? What disabilities would be added? What about adding more realistic diseases (err don't like this question because realistic diseases suck and will forever suck! But...um research purposes I guess)? My head is swimming! There's sooo many more questions!

On one hand, I understand the need for more realism since I like some realism added into my game. I wouldn't mind having a sim on crutches or a depressed sim. I had (don't like to claim anymore since I feel soooo much better) depression and anxiety and have had it for the longest. It would be interesting from a story telling perspective to see my sims handle their situations. Sims games are a form of creativity and expansion.

But on the other hand, Sims are to escape from reality. You don't know how many times I've booted up my sims games just to escape from my issues. Being constantly reminded of what you have is not a selling point and a complete turn off.

So, for me personally, I don't mind if disabled sims and sims with mental health issues are added for storytelling purposes. HOWEVER, if a few people feel offended or are saddened by the constant reminder of whatever disorder, disability, health issue, or illness they have or someone else has, then it's not a big deal not adding such into the game. A majority of simmers are perfectly content with the games they have now. Why change something that works..or is supposed to work in Sim 3 and 4's case....4's case, eh hm... I don't trust EA to perfect this at all, let alone give players cars and diving boards! It's too risky and costly for them to add disabled sims and have over half of the player base mad at them (way worse than pitchforks). Imagine if they made these sims "wacky" for fun just like they tried and failed to do for TS4....*shutters*

Let the people speak. If they don't want these sims in their game, their decision is perfect with me. I'm a happy little camper with the Sims 2 as is...with some mods added...and drama caused by ACR, Inteen, and much more and not by me. GAH! I love the Sims and all of the delicious mods!!!

Don't worry, op. This is a very interesting topic to discuss. Think about other things that can be added like fluffy, little bunnies!

I totally agree and this is why I am pretty sure EA will not go there. This is a game and designed for entertainment. This is not designed to reflect all people and the unique lives we lead. And as stated, how to pick which disabilities would be represented? And how would they be done? No matter what they would do there would be people who have those disabilities who would be unhappy about how they were done odds are, and there would be folks with other disabilities upset as their one was not represented. This would be a no win for EA probably and odds are they will not touch this IMO.