Monday, 03 October 2011
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The Sims: Polygamy, Homosexuality, and Acceptance
A couple of weeks ago, I meandered into my friends' across the hall from my apartment. We were hanging around looking for something to do when we discovered that their roommate owns the Sims 2 for GameCube. PK and I created characters and started playing. We quickly grew obsessed in the same way that we obsessed over the Sims Hot Date some number of years ago.It didn't take long to discover that the Sims is extremely open-minded when it comes to relations. The sim I had created had a personality that led him to desire constant relations with other sims. In order to advance in the game, it required that he "woohoo" with 10 sims, propose to two, have a crush on one, and kiss another. What was more interesting to me than the polygamy was the fact that all sims appeared to be gender neutral or, at the very least, pansexual. In my attempts to help my sim advance, I found that I didn't run into any gender specific issues.
While I don't necessarily condone polygamy, I rightfully respect how far the game itself has come from its origins some 10 years ago. The Sims now seems to quietly, yet powerfully, advocate acceptance, tolerance, and normalcy towards bisexuality and homosexuality.
As for my sim, he is currently married to an older man, has a boyfriend, three girlfriends, and is expected to propose to two women.
When was the last time you played the Sims? Did you have the same kind of dating experience I'm having? How do you feel about the polygamy and sexual acceptance that the Sims is promoting?
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- From: TheDailyDane
- About Me: I'm Dane and I'm 20. Follow me on Twitter @danefeldman. I am a huge supporter of long-term relationships. What's the fun in knowing something will end in a week? Stick around for some long-term bloggin'.
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Comments (50)
I've never played Sims, but I kinda wanna. I have played with Second Life though which I think is similar to Sims.
iv've got the sims for the pc, and they start out gender neutral. if you have them do romantic things with a male, they'll become attracted to males, and vice versa. if after they're attracted to a certain gender you switch it up with forcing romantic interactions with the other gender, voila! you sim is bisexual. and eventually i would use pansexual, since they can also be attracted to robots, werewolves, aliens, etc. lol
and so, yes. props to maxis for being open-minded. gay couples can adopt (as can singles) as well as opp-gender couples, which i think is super :)
I simply loooooooove the Sims. I can remember the first time I played The Sims for the PS2 and I was instantly addicted. I loved being able to have free roam and have my sim do whatever. Awesome game.
I haven't touched my Sims in a while due to work (and that my computer is starting to drag).
My Sims used to live in a gaybourhood. There were no straight people, hah. That got old after a while though. Some straight folk are moving in!
I loooove the sims, and I like to make my characters super awesome (and you do that by getting skills and making relationships, duh) so I make my sim fall in love with every friend she makes :D
Haha. I've been playing the Sims all day.
It's not very accepting. Sims get mad when they find out about other lovers, and Sims can get reputations as cheaters. I have one Sim who kissed someone during his midlife crisis, and his wife's friend saw him. As soon as he came home, she divorced him with no input from me.
It was quite dramatic. LOL.
I started playing The Sims over the summer. I don't remember which one. I haven't played it recently. But I made a female Sim that I wanted to be bisexual, so I decided to find out if I could get her to flirt and "woohoo" with another female Sim, and it worked. Well, the flirting did...I didn't play far enough to get her to "woohoo" with one of them. haha. I was pretty happy about it though. It's just nice to know that the game allows anything to happen between each Sim. The relationships are realistic.
i love the sims!
I got hooked on the Sims a while back; had to give it up as I was wasting a lot of time on it. Seems like most of my characters were in love with each other--I wanted the relationship levels high in order to get the job promotions. Of course, they were constantly slapping each other, so there was a downside to that method. (But that wasn't nearly as bad as the family of non-nice, highly social Sims. They were a real pain.) Anyway, the open-ended nature of the game is part of what makes it great. If you don't want your characters doing something, you can make them stop. (In theory anyway, it's hard to keep track of all of them at times.) I'd like to be able to choose the sim's sexuality, but someone would be sure to complain about that. You can't please everyone; there will always be complainers. My experience of Simian(?) polygamy has been characterized by dysfunctionality as much as by acceptance.
I don't think this necessarily means they've progressed at all. The Sims have always been like this.
I used to be obsessed with the Sims. They've always been like that, though. If you get them to flirt with a guy, they'll be attracted to guys, and if you get them to flirt with girls, they'll be attracted to girls.
@Anonymous - Well, yes and no. Second Life is a 3D simulation world, but it isn't so much a game and the entire world is structured very differently, plus the influence of many other people on Second Life. It's more a virtual environment than a "simulation game" or "god game". I wouldn't group them similarly at all, but that may be my deep bias against Second Life.
I love The Sims. I've been playing since The Sims 1 for PC when same-sex marriage was NOT an option. The Sims 2 introduced civil unions, the marriage equivalent for same-sex Sims, and now The Sims 3 has them all on equal ground. They're not blatantly advertised features, but they're available IF players go out and seek them, which is brilliant because:
a) they avoid the backlash of people who are vehemently against gays/gay marriage, polyandry, etc.
b) they don't exclude; if players want to play that way or simulate their lives that way, they can
I'll echo that they've always had a gender-neutral preference that has to be manipulated and they'd always been able to adopt into whatever family setting was built, but the game hasn't always been open-ended in setting a long-term "traditional" lifestyle. I've never played Gamecube versions of Sims, but the dynamic is quite different from PC versions (which I highly recommend. compared to DS, iOS, and PS, PC is way way way better)... like those options for advancing are available, but it's a lifetime wish, so it's a one-time thing (heartbreaker, gold digger, surrounded by family, etc. and they're separate things the game will ask you to do, but you can always do the first in accordance with the game, and then deviate for your own enjoyment).
i love the sims. i'm playing sims social on facebook and i'm dating my friend who is a girl... ahah
WOO CAN'T WAIT TIL PETS COMES OUT! OCTOBER 18TH BABY! lol
I don't know which one you played, but in the one I played, even though they were pretty polyamorous, there wasn't much of a way to get the love interests/girlfriends/boyfriends to accept each other. And it wouldn't let me be officially married or engaged to more than one at a time.
I'm so addicted to this game for some of the reasons you stated above. <3 Sims since 2001!
The Sims is one of my all time favorite games. I'm currently playing Sims 3, can't wait for the Pets expansion, (I really don't live in my parents' basement, I promise) but I still pop in Sims and Sims 2 into the PC every now and then.
you can but not at the same time. Sims don't like to get cheated on and the sims will be attracted to whomever you make a move on.
I had SIMS for PC and none of the "adult" characters can have romantic feelings for "child" characters, however you can like a woman or a man, so gender neutrality was welcomed. However, rather than build on relationships, I used to be obsessed with getting a cheat code to incrase money that my sim has to build luxurious homes, buy awesome wall paper and furniture gallore!! my sim would be depressed if it's in a plain room.....O_o
Sims is awesome. I loved the cheats....
must play the Sims again. I thought the Sims on facebook is not the same as the original sims. :(
I love the sims. :) I had to leave my disc at home while I'm away at college so I wouldn't play all day.
I don't think the Sims advocates for any of that... I think the creators are smart business people who realize that leaving the door open as to who your Sims can date, etc., will attract the most amount buyers. They leave it up to the player to make their own choices.
So what exactly is wrong with polygamy?