Comments on: The Sims 4: Gurus Discuss “Hot Topics” on Inside Maxis

By: KeiRo Multiverse

KeiRo Multiverse — Thu, 28 Oct 2021 22:54:00 +0000

Mobility as in wheelchairs/walkers for disabled people. They’re talking about representation for different types of people and basically they prioritize pronouns because text editing is cheaper than making animations for the wheelchairs.

By: Kenta

Kenta — Thu, 28 Oct 2021 07:57:00 +0000

No, Laura. Simulation lag can not be fixed. All they can do is implement small fixes to help with it. As for people sending in their saves, according to SimGuruNick, not many people actually send in their saves.

By: Jamie

Jamie — Thu, 28 Oct 2021 00:19:00 +0000

they already exist dude. nonbinary and even feminist movements have been introducing gender neutral language for years. don’t reduce it to “angst teenagers”. it’s not as if every gendered word like el or la in spanish for example will be replaced, just words used to refer to sims in game.

By: A Certain Runaway Gecko

A Certain Runaway Gecko — Wed, 27 Oct 2021 21:44:00 +0000

Yeah, for an entirely different game, that was supposed to be an online multiplayer. The engine wasn’t made for Sims 4 in the first place, simply salvaged last minute into what it is now. They operate by indie studio standards (money, schedule, dev count) under EAxis, even though it’s supposed to be a AAA game, what are they suppose to do?

By: A Certain Runaway Gecko

A Certain Runaway Gecko — Wed, 27 Oct 2021 21:37:00 +0000

There’s a pretty big difference creating that system for a game at the planning stage or its very early stages (which, specifically for a pronoun-only gendered language like English, would take ~10 minutes based on my experiences), versus replacing the whole already existing code with it. With over a dozen, quite different variations, each with their own logic, their own, unique set of UI and variables. Some of those languages conjugate, good luck with the illogical exceptions defying grammar. Oh, and you actually need to read through that huge wall of text for each language, because you can’t just simply Search+Replace. Did I mention the text is all over the place, to make the proofreaders’ life even more miserable?

By: Reclusive Eagle

Reclusive Eagle — Wed, 27 Oct 2021 21:15:00 +0000

“It is so exciting that you guys really enjoyed the Spa Day Refresh and the content that we added!”

….. This is literally spitting in our face. They are literally saying “We are so happy that you positively reacted to a pack that we released unfinished only to add the bare amount of content needed to continue to justify selling it at its current price”.

Like I’m sorry were you expecting a negative reaction from the community for attempting to add value to something? Because if that’s the case, would explain the state of TS4 content. Barren.

By: Tommy

Tommy — Wed, 27 Oct 2021 19:41:00 +0000

It is the devs fault. They’re the ones who created the code in the first place

By: Buzzvesley

Buzzvesley — Wed, 27 Oct 2021 17:23:00 +0000

Yeah, except gendered words is part of the foundation for many latin languages supported by the game, to change that foundation is to basically create a third language based off of those. Many words in spanish, portuguese, italian and french change drastically in grammar when switching genders. Finding a way to make it neutral would take the effort to create multiple new words for that same purpose. That could take ages, I don’t think game developers and angst teenagers are the ones that are gonna achieve that but go off.

By: Jayce Logan

Jayce Logan — Wed, 27 Oct 2021 15:35:00 +0000

I’ve seen visual novels(and what I’ve seen in the shady Paralives stuff) create the coding for neo-pronouns/xenogender pronouns. Like sure the coding in most visual novels is much lower, but it is doable. As a user of neo pronouns, this is something I’ve got higher expectations for.

By: A Certain Runaway Gecko

A Certain Runaway Gecko — Wed, 27 Oct 2021 08:26:00 +0000

Maybe my wording wasn't the best, but my above comment was all about coding neo-pronouns, and the supporting UI. Gendered languages aren't necessarily just gendered in their pronouns, but in conjugation. That's a different set of UI per language, different number of texfields, different number of variables, different grammar logic. Thus, rewriting text with those variables needs human eyes, not automation, or we'll get a sloppy job like with the CAS gender update (see: bad morphs and meshes, to this day). That's why I said it's less about the research into what to use, but how to add it in the game 1) without breaking the spaghetti code further, 2) while not doing a lazy job, 3) keeping in mind that some players would never see the system based on language settings.