is a reporter who covers the business, culture, and communities of video games, with a focus on marginalized gamers and the quirky, horny culture of video game communities.
The Sims 4 community is in turmoil. Its biggest stars are distancing themselves from the game with the support of their millions of subscribers. Then there are creators in the middle: those big enough to be known, but not big enough to be insulated. And they are struggling with a difficult choice of whether or not to keep playing the game they love and, in some cases, depend on.
Last month, The Sims’ publisher EA announced that it would be acquired for $55 billion dollars by a combination of investors including the Saudi Arabia Private Investment Fund, and Affinity Partners, an investment firm founded by President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
The news sent shockwaves throughout The Sims’ community. Players expressed concern that the company’s new owners would use their position to influence future content. The Sims and its community has long been celebrated for its inclusivity. It is a queer game played and loved by queer people. That it could soon be owned in part by an ultra-conservative, anti-LGBTQ government prompted the game’s most popular creators to act.
“Under this new ownership I feel I cannot maintain a direct association to the company.”
One of the biggest to respond was Kayla “LilSimsie” Sims who announced that she would be leaving the EA Creator program to her 2 million subscribers on YouTube. Members of the network get special perks like early and free access to content packs to show them off to their followers, along with affiliate codes that can potentially net them a cut of sales. In January, she even collaborated with EA to release her own content pack, allowing players to buy items she created to use in their own game. But now, she said she will be slowly shifting her content to other games. “Under this new ownership I feel I cannot maintain a direct association to the company,” she said in her announcement.
She wasn’t alone. Seemingly all at once, the life simulation game’s biggest content creators — including James Turner and Jesse “Plumbella” McNamara — all announced that they would be leaving EA’s creator program and distancing themselves from the game that made them famous.
Creators and fans are worried that queer inclusivity, like this update that lets you choose a sim’s sexual orientation, will go away. Image: EA / Maxis
A creator’s choice to abandon a beloved game is never simple, especially when money and their career’s future viability are at stake. But the game’s biggest creators have acknowledged that their choice to step away is easier for them than most. “I think taking this stand is the right choice for me,” McNamara wrote in her statement. “I’m in a privileged position to be able to say I’m leaving so easily.”
For others, it’s much harder, as making the choice to step away means potentially damaging a content creation career that’s just getting started. “[The Sims] has taken me places I didn’t think it would,” said one creator who requested anonymity as their current affiliation with the EA Creator program doesn’t permit them to speak negatively about the company. “I have quite a diverse community, lots of BIPOC people, LGBTQ people in my community,” they said.
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