Episode 56: Quit Playing Games With My Heart

TRANSCRIPT OF “QUIT PLAYING GAMES WITH MY HEART”

[rock guitar music]

MALE VO [00:03]
This is Bad Attitudes.

[rock guitar music]

LAURA [00:20]

Hello friends and strangers! Welcome to another episode of Bad Attitudes: An Uninspiring Podcast About Disability. I’m your host, Laura.

Oh my god, we’re back again! Maybe I’ll just start cramming Backstreet Boys references into my episodes.

Today’s episode is sponsored by Lance Davis. Thank you, Lance!

If you would like to sponsor an episode, visit ko-fi.com/badattitudespod and make a donation. Every donation gets a shout-out in a future episode and your donations help keep the pod running.

If you like this episode, share it and the podcast with your friends. Word of mouth is absolutely the best way to grow this podcast and our community. And please make sure you are rating and reviewing the podcast on your preferred platform. It really helps me out!

For questions, comments, or ideas, email badattitudespod@gmail.com or reach out through social media. Follow @BadAttitudesPod on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

As always, I want to remind you that disability is not a monolith. My experience as a disabled person is going to be different from the experiences of other disabled people. I am one voice for the disabled community but I am not the only voice.

[rock guitar chord]

LAURA [01:49]

Well, here we are once again. My break was a little longer than anticipated, but I promise it was for a good reason. On February 5, I tabled at a craft fair for the first time in almost three years, and all the time leading up to that was devoted to preparing. It took all of my attention and energy, but was so worth it. So thanks for patiently waiting and I hope you’re ready for more Bad Attitudes!

I had a plan for the first episode I would do coming back, and this wasn’t it. But, alas, you know what happens when you make plans.

I did an episode last year about the Sims game franchise and the fact that they need to start including disabilities in-game. Well, on January 31, they released a game update, with additions and bug fixes to the existing game on PC and console. Something they have added to the game is “medical wearables,” specifically hearing aids and glucose monitors. Lots of players — specifically players with hearing impairments or diabetes — are really excited by this addition. My excitement is tepid, at best.

See, the first thing to know is that custom content creators have been making items like this for YEARS. So this feels a whole lot like EA is piggybacking on the hard work of independent creators without giving credit where credit is due. And it’s not really adding anything “new” to the game. If a player doesn’t use custom content, then, sure, it’s technically new to them. But, realistically, EA is revisiting old territory.

Secondly, these “medical wearables” are nothing more than accessories. They’re the in-game equivalent of earrings. No additional gameplay comes with them. So, like, what’s the point?

No, no, no, no, no. I KNOW what the point is. The point is so that Sims players can see themselves more accurately represented in game. The point is to promote inclusivity. I get it. But, when things like hearing aids are relegated to being “accessories,” it sends a dangerous message. Hearing aids are assistive devices with an actual purpose beyond how they look. People don’t wear hearing aids for aesthetics. Hearing aids are a device that have an actual use, but by not expanding gameplay to include that fact, the Sims are ignoring the reality of deaf and hearing impaired people.

Am I overthinking this entire thing? Very possibly. But it feels like a half-assed effort to make it LOOK like the Sims team is doing something to promote disability inclusivity, when in actuality they’re just doing something that independent creators have already been doing and been doing well. Was it a necessary step?

On one hand, YES, absolutely it was necessary because this is “official” Sims content. It is Sims-branded, it is EA-branded, it is, for lack of a better word, “canon” in the Sims game. It was one hundred percent necessary for EA to add this to the official game, and it was a long time coming. Too long, if we’re being perfectly honest. Considering how long custom content creators have had things like hearing aids available, you have to wonder WHY it took EA so long to add this content to the base game. Truly, what was the hold up?

On the other hand, I have to ask if it was necessary for EA to create hearing aids et al. from the ground up, again, considering how available they have been in the arena of custom content. I have no way of knowing what EA’s process was, but it at least seems feasible that they could have used items from custom content creators and included them as “official” content without reinventing the wheel. Surely they could have adjusted an existing item to fit within the game.

While we’re at it, why stop at ONLY hearing aids and glucose monitors? Why not cochlear implants? Why not prosthetics? I mean, if you’re going to relegate these things to accessories, surely you could have done the same with the others? 

Ultimately, it feels like they’re giving players this little taste of disability inclusivity, in the hopes that we’ll ignore the fact that they’re not really giving us anything. Kind of like how big corporations drew so much attention to the use of plastic straws that we all ignored the fact that these same corporations create 70 percent of pollution. It’s smoke and mirrors so we don’t question them on the big stuff.

If I’m being honest, I don’t expect to see any kind of real disability inclusion until Sims 5. I feel like since they’re at square one for Sims 5, and they have already said it will be YEARS before it’s ready, they can build disability into the foundation of the game and the gameplay. Whereas adding disability to the Sims 4, I feel, would require significant overhauling of the entire system and may just not be feasible at this point. I’m not ignorant to the realities of game development.

And, if I’m being REALLY honest, I don’t hold out a lot of hope for the inclusion of disabilities in the Sims at all. It simply doesn’t feel like a priority, despite the fact that it seems like a large portion of the Sims community is disabled in some way. But, the game has made huge strides in terms of LGBTQ+ inclusivity, so is it too much to hope for that it will make the same improvements when it comes to disability?

A lot of players — both disabled and non-disabled — were vocally excited about this update, so I feel a bit like a Debbie Downer offering my opinion. However, I feel the need to remind people not to be too happy with crumbs when we should be getting an entire cake. Hmmm, cake. It’s totally fine to be excited by this update. Just don’t let down your guard when it comes expecting more disability inclusion. Again, I worry that EA is using this update to appease us while not making any significant improvements to the presence of disability in the game.

Thanks for listening and I’ll talk to you in the next one.

[08:30]
[rock guitar music]