It’s not long before The Sims 4 High School Years Expansion Pack will be coming out, and with that means another big update for The Sims 4 base game. This one will introduce a new feature that will further embrace diversity and inclusivity, particularly for the LGBTQIA+ community. This new feature will be called Sexual Orientation. This will basically allow you to choose who your Sims will be attracted to and you can control certain romantic actions.
The blog post that announced this upcoming feature explains how the Sexual Orientation system in The Sims 4 will work. In Create-A-Sim, the Choose Gender option will be updated to include the Sexual Orientation feature. Here, you will be able to determine what genders your Sim will be attracted to, as well as whether they’re romantically exploring and who they can Mess Around (Teen)/WooHoo (Young Adult and older) with.
In the next free update to The Sims 4, Create a Sim will offer more options to customize your Sims!💕💑
From who they are attracted to, to whether or not they are interested in Woohoo, learn more about the upcoming feature in our blog deep dive: https://t.co/SYcfNmgA50 pic.twitter.com/Kd7by1gxZC
— The Sims (@TheSims) July 15, 2022
When selecting a gender to be attracted to, you can choose from Women or Men, choose both, or neither. As of yet, there are no options for non-binary Sims, but this will possibly be added in the future. How this option works is that if another Sim who is not your Sim’s preferred gender tries to perform a romantic interaction with you, it’ll get rejected.
The second option determines whether or not your Sim is romantically exploring, set as either Yes or No. If you set it to Yes, your Sim’s attraction to either gender can change through gameplay. If you set it as No, however, nothing will change.
The third and final option affects who your Sim can WooHoo with. Like the first option, you can choose from Women or Men, or both or neither.
The blog noted that due to the current system of The Sims 4, non binary Sims don’t mechanically exist in the game at this time, which explains why the Sexual Orientation options may seem a bit lacking. In Create-A-Sim, you can only create a male or female Sim. However, in the 8 years since the release of The Sims 4, the game has undergone big steps to become more inclusive and diverse, particularly in support and awareness of the LBGTQIA+ community. The creators behind The Sims 4 have worked closely with GLAAD and the It Gets Better Project to make this progress. These steps have included Gender Customization, Customizable Pronouns, and now Sexual Orientation. There is still progress to be made in this area, including fully-functioning non-binary Sims, so this is something that should come in the near future.
This free update introducing Sexual Orientation to The Sims 4 base game will release around the time that High School Years comes out, which will be on July 28th for PC, Mac, PlayStation consoles, and Xbox consoles. A replay of The Sims 4 High School Years Expansion Livestream, which took place at 11am PDT on July 15th, is now available to view at Twitch or on YouTube.
