The latest Sims 4 update fixes two Black hairstyles and adds better representations in paintings and posters, a few months after a major skin tone update.
The Sims 4 patch notes detail the long-awaited bunk beds, but the more interesting and inclusive updates are centered around representation and diversification. Considering The Sims 4 skin tone update was a long time coming, and Simmers spent years using custom content (or "CC") to create more diverse skin tones, it's nice to see EA is focusing on inclusivity in recent updates.
The first update focuses on two Black hairstyles that have notoriously looked off, with textures that were far too flat and strange: Puffball and Short Afro. The updated hairstyles look great, and now they can be used across any Sim, no matter their age. The second update focusing on diversity revolves around wall art, specifically portraits and posters popularly used in both children and teen rooms.
Now, posters like 'Kick it Sally' which features a female soccer player dribbling a ball, have several variants showcasing a diverse range of racial and ethnic groups. Where there was once just a blonde white girl variant, there are four more variants. The same can be said for the following posters:
- 'Teen Idol'
- 'Rock My Universe Pin Up Girl'
- 'Dramatic Cooking'
- 'The Illustrated Sports'
- 'Henry Puffer'
- 'Just Justin'
The latest update also adds several new racially diverse options to three portrait options: 'Art in a Box', 'Mystery Poser Antique Portrait' and 'Portrait of a Marriage.' The 'Mystery Poser' portrait options originally only featured one face (a white man) depicted in sepia town, the update adds five more faces, including three women, all of which seem to be POC. The 'Art in a Box' adds another collection of portraits to the variants, many of which depict women of color. And 'Portrait of a Marriage,' which initially only featured a single Elizabethan era heterosexual white couple, now has two same-sex couples of color as a variant.
This diversity across portraits and wall art means that racially diverse Sims players who may create households that represent their identities can now decorate rooms with posters that look like them - this is a huge step for a game that until recently still had trouble depicting skin tone variance. That EA is releasing this as a free update is yet another show of good faith for members of the Sims community.
It's a far cry from when The Sims 4 Kits had the community raging about the cost of content.
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