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Lets talk about non-consentual alien abduction pregnancies...
TOLKIEN
Posts: 1,594 Member
I've been playing the Sims 4 a lot recently, exploring aspects of the game I've forgotten such as becoming an astronaut when my recent sim was abducted after using his telescope.
He was returned and on the path to "motherhood" a feature of the Sims 4 get to work, I'd totally forgotten and was totally unwanted in my current game or any game. I literally had to load back 3 save files to reverse this - and I was not happy to do so especially because my sim had a pregnancy forced on them by an unknown person without consent.
I don't care if this only effects male sims, its STILL a NON-CONSENSUAL act of pregnancy that is only possible by being abducted.
Did I just quote a adult mod or something? Nope, its the Sims 4 rated teen!
If somebody told you that they were abducted and forced to become pregnant with a strangers child - you would not be laughing. In the Sims its still a game yes - but its a very annoying and violating experience for my sim to experience no matter HOW THEY IDENTIFY or who/what abducted them. I don't find it funny, I don't find the results funny and in no way was it wanted.
Terming the abductor as "alien" in a game still doesn't remove the fact that this is a non-conseual intimate act that is changing their body and being forced on my sim by other sims I have no ability to stop other than not to use telescopes. Seriously? I have to restrict my sims from doing an activity than anybody of any gender or age should enjoy (star gazing).
Sure I could use mods to disable or get rid of the baby forced on my sim - but lets just sit on what I said for a second. I have to USE MODS to CANCEL a FORCED pregnancy. That in itself is just wrong.
You can argue that I'm being sensative, thats fine but the fact is abducting somebody and forcing pregnancy on them (real or not) is just not funny, its frustrating to deal with in-game and violating in general as a non consentual act. Just look at how many topics have been started on this forum alone going back to 2015 about how to avoid this "feature" or reverse it.
If your sim wants to have an alien baby than they should do it the old fashion way...build a spaceship and go meet some.
EDIT 2: I agree and believe a direct toggle option to disable or enable this feature, should be added to give players more control over it is probably the best option. It allows players who want it in their game to be present and possibly even buffed, but just as importantly an option to turn if off. Giving players the ability to give or remove consent of what content they feel comfortable playing with in their game without censoring it either.
EDIT 1: THIS IS A VALID THREAD dealing with assault, it is not a joke thread. The content mentioned above can be triggering for people who have been victims of assault. Games like the Sims can to be safe spaces for some people, even if its "by aliens" its still a form of assault and its 2021, we can do better for a teen rated game.
Simply laughing it off or making light of assault in media has deeper society consequences because it desensitize the issue until real harm to a person is done.
Often the victims of assault are the last to be heard and the most common.
He was returned and on the path to "motherhood" a feature of the Sims 4 get to work, I'd totally forgotten and was totally unwanted in my current game or any game. I literally had to load back 3 save files to reverse this - and I was not happy to do so especially because my sim had a pregnancy forced on them by an unknown person without consent.
I don't care if this only effects male sims, its STILL a NON-CONSENSUAL act of pregnancy that is only possible by being abducted.
Did I just quote a adult mod or something? Nope, its the Sims 4 rated teen!
If somebody told you that they were abducted and forced to become pregnant with a strangers child - you would not be laughing. In the Sims its still a game yes - but its a very annoying and violating experience for my sim to experience no matter HOW THEY IDENTIFY or who/what abducted them. I don't find it funny, I don't find the results funny and in no way was it wanted.
Terming the abductor as "alien" in a game still doesn't remove the fact that this is a non-conseual intimate act that is changing their body and being forced on my sim by other sims I have no ability to stop other than not to use telescopes. Seriously? I have to restrict my sims from doing an activity than anybody of any gender or age should enjoy (star gazing).
Sure I could use mods to disable or get rid of the baby forced on my sim - but lets just sit on what I said for a second. I have to USE MODS to CANCEL a FORCED pregnancy. That in itself is just wrong.
You can argue that I'm being sensative, thats fine but the fact is abducting somebody and forcing pregnancy on them (real or not) is just not funny, its frustrating to deal with in-game and violating in general as a non consentual act. Just look at how many topics have been started on this forum alone going back to 2015 about how to avoid this "feature" or reverse it.
If your sim wants to have an alien baby than they should do it the old fashion way...build a spaceship and go meet some.
EDIT 2: I agree and believe a direct toggle option to disable or enable this feature, should be added to give players more control over it is probably the best option. It allows players who want it in their game to be present and possibly even buffed, but just as importantly an option to turn if off. Giving players the ability to give or remove consent of what content they feel comfortable playing with in their game without censoring it either.
EDIT 1: THIS IS A VALID THREAD dealing with assault, it is not a joke thread. The content mentioned above can be triggering for people who have been victims of assault. Games like the Sims can to be safe spaces for some people, even if its "by aliens" its still a form of assault and its 2021, we can do better for a teen rated game.
Simply laughing it off or making light of assault in media has deeper society consequences because it desensitize the issue until real harm to a person is done.
Often the victims of assault are the last to be heard and the most common.
Post edited by TOLKIEN on
16
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
I have to use mods to get this to happen in the first place.
Its very much a feature included in the game.
"Alien abduction returns in The Sims 4: Get to Work. An abduction can occur anytime at night (10 pm- 4 am). When an abduction does occur, the Sim will stop whatever they're doing and go to "Investigate Weird Light". The Sim will then be beamed up by a blue light into a UFO and be flown off. The Sim will be returned a couple of hours later with a moodlet pertaining to aliens and abduction.
The interaction "Investigate Weird Light", which replaces all items in a Sim's queue at the beginning of the event, cannot be canceled.[3] However, it can be stopped by blocking the Sim's way to the weird light, such as locking the doors for the Sim.
Both female and male Sims, including aliens, can be abducted. Only males will return with a 25% chance of alien pregnancy, while females will only receive the moodlet.
Sims in the scientist profession are more likely to be abducted. The satellite dish, the worm hole generator, and space rocks also increase the odds. The satellite dish can also be used to contact aliens, which may trigger an abduction. "
It in no form requires mods, only that you own Get To Work expansion and has been a feature of the Sims series since Sims 2 when pregnant abductions were introduced by Maxis.
I mean it's been nerfed to the point of practically not happening sorry. I spent an entire normal lifespan trying to get abducted and it didn't happen even with all of the in-game methods.
Indeed, alien abduction, male pregnancy...it’s all as weird as it can get.
It’s also totally acceptable in The Sims.
So, again, dear Maxis, I say this with all due respect:
!!! DON’T YOU DARE TO NERF THIS FEATURE !!!
Same, managed to get happen once. Just once.
Sea may rise, sky may fall, My love will never die..
My heart, my heart, My drowning heart, Oh all the tears I've cried
Oh I may weep forevermore, My love will never die..
Awesome and insightful.
Toggles devs, toggles...
Second off, i believe it adds interesting science things to the game. For instance, sims know that there are intergalatic life out there, and finally they meet them- but careful, because they may go experimenting. If you don't want any aliens don't play get to work or any sims game for that matter. it's not at all funny, but it inspires people to play. A little story inspires people to play. just think i met aliens and they got me pregnant! oh dear, but i'll keep the baby/ or put it up for adoption
Third off, EA please just have a toggle button to take it off, but i'll leave it on.
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I mean Tragedy is a familiar tone in my game, It makes the game more fun, makes my evil sims more threatening, which is very hard to achieve. I Play with Vampires and Spellcasters a lot, and I have to get creative when I use their powers to compel and Mesmerize and cast mind control spells on my victims, So as wrong as it is, I wouldn't want to see it go away.
My Mood:
However.
We humans as a species, really really love messy things. Not when they happen to us of course. But. There's a reason reality tv shows, all of Shonda Rhimes tv shows (love her), gossip, scandals, Jerry Springer, soap operas, just plain old DRAMA, etc etc. entertains us so. We can't really enjoy these things in real life much (because who wants to see other people suffer when their long lost wife who just recovered from amnesia returns to meet the new wife but the new wife is the one who tried to kill her! (hire me tv writers)) so we watch it on tv and play it in out in our Sims games. That's what makes the Sims 4 feel so boring sometimes doesn't it? That lack of drama. Where you just want to see something happen to your sim from the random outside world, so we can just watch them suffer and be amused. A violating experience for your sim? The pixels can't feel it. I promise you.
Instead their lives should just continue along, nothing special, until they die. How puritan.
As for consent. Who's consent? Yours or the sim? If it's yours, then randomness has to be eliminated. Nothing can ever happen to any sim ever. Too great a chance it may be something not found funny. If it's the sims', then I'm afraid you're too early for AI to be that advanced yet.
I usually use this feature on purpose as a way of giving my male couples or single male sims children, or as a way of giving a family of human sims an alien child. Usually, in the story I am creating as I play, the sim in question is deliberately trying to get noticed and picked up by aliens (going into the scientist career, contacting aliens, going to alien night at the bar etc.) because he wants to get pregnant with an alien baby. It's important plot development in several of my stories. I like it, and I would be upset if it were removed. Alien abductions and alien pregnancies are the main reason I bought Get to Work in the first place.
But I am always in favor of giving players options. Even just for myself, I want the ability to play differently in my various different saves (in some saves I want abductions to happen frequently, in other saves I don't want them to happen at all).
There should be options in the settings menu to control whether alien abductions happen and whether or not they can result in pregnancies. This choice should be in the hands of the individual players. As should all kinds of other random events. When not everyone likes a feature, don't remove it or nerf it. Give the players settings options.
They should have included a toggle from the beginning in the game options. If you use MC Command Center, then I think removing abduction ages from the Occult_AbductionAges setting will disable abductions.
Yeah that literally reads like the description of some parts of adult mods that even folks who use those mods often have to insist have tweaks to let them be disabled...
Sexual assault and forced impregnation are NOT teen topics. Many folks don't care for these kinds of topics in even their XXX adult content...
I get how these things ended up in a game... because it's such a genre trope of 'conspiracy theory fiction' that aliens are all proctologist, but it's one of those genre tropes that has really aged poorly, and doesn't belong in something meant for a light hearted audience.
If this aspect of gameplay was part of a mod on a certain 'l-lab' website I'd shrug and download one of the other mods instead, but as a core gameplay feature it just doesn't belong.
If this feature can be easily turned off without needing to use a mod, then that's enough for me at present though I would add that it should NOT be in Sims 5 at all - let this one be something modders do, not EA.
I'm not saying they need to get rid of aliens, but the proctologist mixed with bad tentacle anime angle might in future be a sub-plot best left to modders.
I'd prefer my un-Modded alien's take on reproduction be a little less 'me too' and a little more benevolent;
That was legit the only way you could get aliens at all, and it was only the male Sims that could produce them. You could use cheats, but the legit way was interesting.
In Sims 2, you had to use a telescope, and hope it would happen, males and females got abducted, the only ones that came back pregnant were males.
With Sims 3, you could make Aliens from the get go, but since I never got to play it much, so I don't know how the abductions work.
Sims 4, we got them with Get to Work, and we could make them or get them from abductions. You have to actually avoid the scientist career to not become a target.
I for one live for abductions, and plan to have a Sim enter that career.
Also, as for your point, at the time it was the only way to get aliens (Sims 2), and it has been in a good chunk of the franchise.
And everyone needs to leave Ozzy alone! He's the Man!
Does this still happen, male sims being impregnated after alien abduction, if your sims has the "Can get pregnant" check mark off in CAS?
Afaik, yes, the default setting for male has that checked off by default. But you can always have this feature off entirely by having the satellite dish in your household (via cheat if not in the career) and pick "prevent abductions" option.
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/924539/features-that-needs-depth-and-ways-to-improve
Your sim is a character in a game. He cannot give consent to anything, because he has no consent to give. He's not a person. Imagine how dull our entertainment industry would be if writers were told to consider the feelings and consent of the characters they are writing.....
I do believe that YOU should be able to consent or not though and would whole heartedly support you if you were asking for a better toggle than the one currently in game. The satellite dish from the scientist career can prevent abductions, (buydebug if not in the career). It's a pain to remember to do it every day and I think they should have given you a complete on/off toggle.
Don't ask to take away features that other players love.