>@Scrapdash said: >On the Russian Sims Launcher, their official page, if I'm not mistaken a pack with a drag queen on the cover and another with men in skirts.
Everything is absolutely right, all our covers are exactly the same as everyone else's. We also have identical trailers, just like in America. No content has been cut from the games. All preset homosexual families are in the game, starting with Cats and Dogs. In short, not a single cover has been redrawn for our country. EA just added a small 18+ badge back in 2014.
I will put one more proof, I think that this will be enough.
Here is screenshot of our trailer for Cats and Dogs.
https://i.imgur.com/xXIbzvo.jpg
We don't even have an 18+ badge on the trailers, only on the official page. Absolutely all trailers on the page are duplicated from YouTube, so no changes. As you can see, a homosexual couple. No one was indignant at this and no one tried to ban it.
The same goes for other trailers and covers. They quietly distributed covers in Russia with a homosexual couple (an pack about the interior), drag queens and other things. In other words, the phrase "they have the right not to redraw something" does not apply to us. Yes, it's their right, well, let them release it as it is) It's always been like that.
I will put one more proof, I think that this will be enough.
Here is screenshot of our trailer for Cats and Dogs.
We don't even have an 18+ badge on the trailers, only on the official page. Absolutely all trailers on the page are duplicated from YouTube, so no changes. As you can see, a homosexual couple. No one was indignant at this and no one tried to ban it.
The same goes for other trailers and covers. They quietly distributed covers in Russia with a homosexual couple (an pack about the interior), drag queens and other things. In other words, the phrase "they have the right not to redraw something" does not apply to us. Yes, it's their right, well, let them release it as it is) It's always been like that.
> @BlueR0se said: > > I don't believe the Sims team would willingly throw Russian simmers under the bus but at the same time Im struggling to comprehend what the issue is. Ive seen pictures on twitter of russian simmers getting ads on origin for the gamepack with Dom & Cam on the cover (and without them). So, marketing can't be the total reason (because it's still going on)? > > Edit: and yeah the image code issue is cause youre a new user.
I agree with that.
We don't have any communication whit them about the cover or any censorship. I work as a gaming journalist, believe me, I would be one of the first to know about this (at least from press releases). But there was no such information. The whole situation came as a shock, including for professional workers and bloggers, who ALREADY received promotional materials with Dom and Cam for publication. We have also received no reports from the government about tightening censorship. Again, we learn about these things very quickly. If that were true, we might even support EA's decision (not all of us, but many).
The problem is not so much with the restriction of content (although this is very unpleasant), but with demonstrative lies. No one has done this to us, ever. Other developers strive to adapt their marketing to our market. However, the games from CD Projekt released uncensored - we made a localization with obscene phrases, sexy adult jokes and other things in Wticher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 (this is our best adult translation of the game and we are proud of it).
Only and only the Sims team did this to us. And without explanation. And deceiving their Western players. Otherwise, we would not have raised such a cry. We ourselves don't know why. There was not a word about any laws in the letter for us. They said to us "We will not tell you this story, sorry, we have such values." What were we supposed to understand from this?.. Something along the lines of "you, bad homophobes, we don't want to play with you"?))
> @simgirl1010 said: > @Ben_Vorobiev you're getting close to becoming a member. > > Requirements: > Get 25 Points > Make 15 posts > Must be a New Member for 1 day
> @wolfkomoki1 said: > Fun fact I just learned from Russian simmers, > there is no such law stating that you can't sell LGBTQIA+ games.
Yes, I wrote about it above and even gave the number of the article from the law) Thank you.
That's why they changed the letter for us. When we compared the letters for us and the rest of the world, we were just in shock. The whole world was deceived - for what, for the sake of rating? They thought we would not say anything, would we be silent?.. Or that there is no Internet in Russia and no one knows English?)
Here is what they wrote to us. My translation is clumsy, but I tried to convey the essence. There is not a word about the reasons at all. Not a word about the law, because they knew they couldn't lie to us.
-------------- "We've seen how much you wanted to give your Sims the chance to walk down the aisle, say their cherished words, and invite to your celebration all friends.
During the creation of the Wedding Stories Pack, we were inspired by a number of ideas that we wanted to share with our global community. We wanted to give the opportunity to create their own, personal stories, feel the joy of new love and share it with the outside world.
The personal stories that players can tell in our packs are at the heart of everything we create. With the Wedding Stories Pack, we wanted to introduce you to Dom and Cam, whose love reflects the personal experiences of many of our community members and development team.
However, in the process of creating the set and developing the storyline, we realized that we would not be able to freely tell the story of Dom and Cam in all countries of the world in the way we present it.
At the heart of our work at The Sims is the ability to create any story without limits. By abandoning the history of Cam and Dom, we would be forced to compromise our values. We cherish the freedom to be ourselves, love and share our experiences without limits.
What does this mean for you, our players? Because we can't tell the story of Cam and Dom without major changes, we've made the decision not to release Wedding Stories in Russia.
Unfortunately, this means that Russian The Sims players will not be able to purchase this game pack.
Simmers from all over the world, you are the most important part of our universe!
We're sitting here and we have no idea why they can't tell us the story of Cam and Dom. The only reason could be possible negative reviews from our homophobes. But that's just childish. This is unprofessional. We PAY for the game, this is not a personal sandbox to assign VIPs.
I came online to read about new features on the blog post and all they did was release this letter.
So much trouble for russian players, because of the story of two shallow sims that will just run around in Tartosa, doing nothing. They will flirt around with anyone with no problems. There isnt even an attraction system.
Their story should be a side thing and not a main feature. I did not buy the sims 2 because they introduced Bella Goth. I did not rush to the sims 3 store to download riverview because of don lothario. Stop forcing your political correctness viewpoints on to MY game.
Have to agree... Representation (TM) over Gameplay and its so sad. Sims could already make a toast. Could already feed the cake to their significant other. They already sit down sometimes and for me as a PC player, i have a fix so they actually sit down during wedding ceremonys, during movies, during eating, they slow dance etc. Sitting down during a wedding should fall under bug fixes and not something to advertise. It better come with the free patch.
(When i dont win the giveaway of course)
It was always a sale for me, but now i might considering skipping this one. Makes me feel uncomfortable and the representation marketing is just crumbs and kinda boring.
> @wolfkomoki1 said:
> Fun fact I just learned from Russian simmers,
> there is no such law stating that you can't sell LGBTQIA+ games.
Yes, I wrote about it above and even gave the number of the article from the law) Thank you.
That's why they changed the letter for us. When we compared the letters for us and the rest of the world, we were just in shock. The whole world was deceived - for what, for the sake of rating? They thought we would not say anything, would we be silent?.. Or that there is no Internet in Russia and no one knows English?)
Here is what they wrote to us. My translation is clumsy, but I tried to convey the essence. There is not a word about the reasons at all. Not a word about the law, because they knew they couldn't lie to us.
"We've seen how much you wanted to give your Sims the chance to walk down the aisle, say their cherished words, and invite to your celebration all friends.
During the creation of the Wedding Stories Pack, we were inspired by a number of ideas that we wanted to share with our global community. We wanted to give the opportunity to create their own, personal stories, feel the joy of new love and share it with the outside world.
The personal stories that players can tell in our packs are at the heart of everything we create. With the Wedding Stories Pack, we wanted to introduce you to Dom and Cam, whose love reflects the personal experiences of many of our community members and development team.
However, in the process of creating the set and developing the storyline, we realized that we would not be able to freely tell the story of Dom and Cam in all countries of the world in the way we present it.
At the heart of our work at The Sims is the ability to create any story without limits. By abandoning the history of Cam and Dom, we would be forced to compromise our values. We cherish the freedom to be ourselves, love and share our experiences without limits.
What does this mean for you, our players? Because we can't tell the story of Cam and Dom without major changes, we've made the decision not to release Wedding Stories in Russia.
Unfortunately, this means that Russian The Sims players will not be able to purchase this game pack.
Simmers from all over the world, you are the most important part of our universe!
With love and gratitude,
Team The Sims".
Source: https://www.ea.com/ru-ru/games/the-sims/the-sims-4/news/our-commitment-to-you
We're sitting here and we have no idea why they can't tell us the story of Cam and Dom. The only reason could be possible negative reviews from our homophobes. But that's just childish. This is unprofessional. We PAY for the game, this is not a personal sandbox to assign VIPs.
Thank you, @Ben_Vorobiev for sharing your version of the letter and all of the information you've given. I'm so sorry that this is happening to Russian Simmers and others. That last line, "Simmers from all over the world, you are the most important part of our universe!" right after telling Russians they can't purchase the pack, hits like a direct insult. It reads like it's saying everyone else except the Russian players are important. Very poorly written.
This letter is very puzzling, and the only thing I can think of when reading this is that the devs incorporated a lot of LGBT gameplay specifically into this pack and this town and NPCs, maybe even new patches for the base game that alters something? I noticed that in the trailer there's a rainbow hot air balloon that can be seen in the background. Also, I believe there was a reference in the livestream about the lore of the town and learning more about the main characters who are in the trailer. But I honestly don't know what could be contained in the story that would disrupt even the Russian government's 18+ rating. As we've been finding out, Russia has many LGBT friendly games from various game companies and have never had a problem with getting them. What could possibly be different with this pack that would make EA decide not to release it there? I hope we get some sort of new information from the team on this so we can better understand why they made this choice. And I really hope there's a way they can change it so Russian Simmers can get the pack too.
While I'm upset about the LBGTQ community in Russia there are many other Simmers, not in those categories who will be upset too. I hope they also will protest to their government about this.
I'm afraid nobody is in the mood to appease the Russian Government at this very moment in time, it's all political and Simmers are some of the losers. We have no power at all except for EA to take a stand for their principles.
As this is political comment and not allowed on the Forum please take it out if you wish @EA_Cade
I’m fascinated by the many insightful posts from the Russian people on this issue, both here and on Twitter. Thank you.
Although it seems like poor decision making on EA’s behalf, excluding an entire country -and surrounding countries affected by this decision- from buying new, very popular content is not just a choice a business makes over a mug ‘o coffee and a slice of apple pie.
The letter is purposely kept vague and doesn’t state the exact reason why this pack won’t be released in Russia. Cam’s and Dom’s story sounds like a hazy cover story.
I wonder if there’s been a bigger legal issue going on in the background for a while now, compelling the team to make this decision at such an unfortunate time? As folks stated, the release of LGBT+ Sims content was never a problem in Russia in the past. Or was it? Perhaps there have been many complications with the release of this kind of content, yet EA just kept throwing it out there?
No one in the community really knows the finer details, so far it has all been speculation and the most we can do is guess what the problem could be and try and come up with solutions. However, it is impossible to devise a solution if one’s unaware of what the actual problem is. Either way, it’s devastating for those who’ve been looking forward to this pack to be blatantly told they cannot have this content in their game. Inclusion gone all backwards. A season of simthing to celebrate but not for all simmers does not call for a celebration.
Whatever the issue is, things don’t seem to add up here. I believe there’s a lot more to it and those who take this matter at heart deserve a clear answer. Turning your back on a nation of simmers and telling them you’re sort of sorry after years of them being loyal supporters of your game is just not enough.
This is when transparency matters the most. I hope the Sims Team is in a position to cast a floodlight on this issue before the pack’s official release this coming week.
Again, there has to be a solid reason for preventing part of the sims community from telling their stories.
I love drama, but I sure hope this is the kind of story that will end well for everyone involved.
Serious props for ea for still going through with adding a wlw couple on their gamepack cover and have the trailer revolved around said couple, even if it meant they wouldnt be able to sell the pack in russia due to that countrys incredibly h*mophobic laws. Heres a sad reminder for us that we've still got a long way ahead of us before lgbtq rights are fully established around the world. It is seriously disturbing that a gamepack that just has a cover picture of a gay couple is seen as criminal still in the year 2022.
Sadly Russia isn't the only anti-LGBTQIA Country where it's a crime just to be and love who you love. It's quite disturbing and disgraceful for any country to be that way in my opinion. You cannot choose who you are and who you love. I hope simmers in those countries can somehow get this game pack.
From the trailer, it looks great and I would gladly preorder it if and when that option comes or now is available. I give the Sims teams props for this. Sims Team Thank you very much for your forward-thinking. I play a lot of LGBTQIA sims and have them prevalent in my game. This will be an excellent pack for my sims. Good job Sims team.
Playtesting - not just tabletop games and card games any more. Really that should have been playtested in Beta and not [img]just with accounting and marketing but actual players. https://i.imgur.com/t48COW6.jpg[/img]
I wonder if there is something else in the game related to Camille and Dominique story that makes the game unsuitable? We know the trailer is not the issue, and they said in the live stream that Camille and Dominique are NPCs that tell the history of the town. Whatever it is I still can't believe they would forego income from an entire region just for kudos points and if their shareholders are OK with this.
> @wolfkomoki1 said:
> Fun fact I just learned from Russian simmers,
> there is no such law stating that you can't sell LGBTQIA+ games.
Yes, I wrote about it above and even gave the number of the article from the law) Thank you.
That's why they changed the letter for us. When we compared the letters for us and the rest of the world, we were just in shock. The whole world was deceived - for what, for the sake of rating? They thought we would not say anything, would we be silent?.. Or that there is no Internet in Russia and no one knows English?)
Here is what they wrote to us. My translation is clumsy, but I tried to convey the essence. There is not a word about the reasons at all. Not a word about the law, because they knew they couldn't lie to us.
"We've seen how much you wanted to give your Sims the chance to walk down the aisle, say their cherished words, and invite to your celebration all friends.
During the creation of the Wedding Stories Pack, we were inspired by a number of ideas that we wanted to share with our global community. We wanted to give the opportunity to create their own, personal stories, feel the joy of new love and share it with the outside world.
The personal stories that players can tell in our packs are at the heart of everything we create. With the Wedding Stories Pack, we wanted to introduce you to Dom and Cam, whose love reflects the personal experiences of many of our community members and development team.
However, in the process of creating the set and developing the storyline, we realized that we would not be able to freely tell the story of Dom and Cam in all countries of the world in the way we present it.
At the heart of our work at The Sims is the ability to create any story without limits. By abandoning the history of Cam and Dom, we would be forced to compromise our values. We cherish the freedom to be ourselves, love and share our experiences without limits.
What does this mean for you, our players? Because we can't tell the story of Cam and Dom without major changes, we've made the decision not to release Wedding Stories in Russia.
Unfortunately, this means that Russian The Sims players will not be able to purchase this game pack.
Simmers from all over the world, you are the most important part of our universe!
With love and gratitude,
Team The Sims".
Source: https://www.ea.com/ru-ru/games/the-sims/the-sims-4/news/our-commitment-to-you
We're sitting here and we have no idea why they can't tell us the story of Cam and Dom. The only reason could be possible negative reviews from our homophobes. But that's just childish. This is unprofessional. We PAY for the game, this is not a personal sandbox to assign VIPs.
Thank you, Ben_Vorobiev for sharing your version of the letter and all of the information you've given. I'm so sorry that this is happening to Russian Simmers and others. That last line, "Simmers from all over the world, you are the most important part of our universe!" right after telling Russians they can't purchase the pack, hits like a direct insult. It reads like it's saying everyone else except the Russian players are important. Very poorly written.
This letter is very puzzling, and the only thing I can think of when reading this is that the devs incorporated a lot of LGBT gameplay specifically into this pack and this town and NPCs, maybe even new patches for the base game that alters something? I noticed that in the trailer there's a rainbow hot air balloon that can be seen in the background. Also, I believe there was a reference in the livestream about the lore of the town and learning more about the main characters who are in the trailer. But I honestly don't know what could be contained in the story that would disrupt even the Russian government's 18+ rating. As we've been finding out, Russia has many LGBT friendly games from various game companies and have never had a problem with getting them. What could possibly be different with this pack that would make EA decide not to release it there? I hope we get some sort of new information from the team on this so we can better understand why they made this choice. And I really hope there's a way they can change it so Russian Simmers can get the pack too.
Yeah, I'm not sure if we should speculate about it, or if we will ever know. What we do know is that there was something that prevented Maxis from releasing the pack in Russia and we don't know if because of the rising tensions with Russia they had to change the cover, or they had to remove things from the pack like gameplay mechanics, sims or some clothing for children.
Standing up to what you believe in is important... but excluding entire countries because of it, that's too much. This decision has in my opinion ended up hurting the community and this franchise.
> @LiELF said: > Thank you, @Ben_Vorobiev for sharing your version of the letter and all of the information you've given. I'm so sorry that this is happening to Russian Simmers and others. That last line, "Simmers from all over the world, you are the most important part of our universe!" right after telling Russians they can't purchase the pack, hits like a direct insult. It reads like it's saying everyone else except the Russian players are important. Very poorly written.
Thank you, LiELF! We too are puzzled. A variety of games pass the 18+ rating without any problems, including games with things that are illegal in many countries in real life (well, for example, the use of drugs in the frame, etc.). We have no problem getting games with realistic depictions of war and murder, and anything in general. Even if the package is focused on the history of this couple, even if it is scripted - this is also not a problem, because we have Life is Strange and similar story games distributed on all platforms.
> @GemSixx said: > Just going to leave this here as it's the most plausible explanation I've heard yet. > > Corporations are not your friends. We'll all be a lot better off once everyone realizes that.
Brilliant. And sad. But it was obvious. In Russia, the simmer community has already been called "a lamb that was sacrificed in the name of PR."
Also I feel like everyone knows censorship exists in different countries? I don't think anyone would really care if it was censored in another country. Reminds me of a post I saw on Instagram a while ago where in an advert for a paddling pool in Saudi Arabia the woman was replaced with a Winnie the Pooh beach ball. Winnie the Pooh was even banned in China because people said the president looked like him, so who knows what that poor woman's turned into in China
Also I feel like everyone knows censorship exists in different countries? I don't think anyone would really care if it was censored in another country. Reminds me of a post I saw on Instagram a while ago where in an advert for a paddling pool in Saudi Arabia the woman was replaced with a Winnie the Pooh beach ball. Winnie the Pooh was even banned in China because people said the president looked like him, so who knows what that poor woman's turned into in China
I know I shouldn't, or maybe I should, but this made me chortle.
Also I feel like everyone knows censorship exists in different countries? I don't think anyone would really care if it was censored in another country. Reminds me of a post I saw on Instagram a while ago where in an advert for a paddling pool in Saudi Arabia the woman was replaced with a Winnie the Pooh beach ball. Winnie the Pooh was even banned in China because people said the president looked like him, so who knows what that poor woman's turned into in China
But people care about censorship. This situation isn't the same at all, but as someone said before if Asian or Black people were removed from cover art because of a country's racism, people would be extremely angry. And if a black person who designed the marketing materials didn't want the product to be sold in that country because it would require removing black people, many people would probably understand.
Again, this situation isn't the same and we don't have all of the facts here, but there are times when it's completely fine to not sell things to an area. It's okay to have morals. That said, people in Russia are smart and I'm sure many of them know how to get the pack if they want it.
Also I feel like everyone knows censorship exists in different countries? I don't think anyone would really care if it was censored in another country. Reminds me of a post I saw on Instagram a while ago where in an advert for a paddling pool in Saudi Arabia the woman was replaced with a Winnie the Pooh beach ball. Winnie the Pooh was even banned in China because people said the president looked like him, so who knows what that poor woman's turned into in China
But people care about censorship. This situation isn't the same at all, but as someone said before if Asian or Black people were removed from cover art because of a country's racism, people would be extremely angry. And if a black person who designed the marketing materials didn't want the product to be sold in that country because it would require removing black people, many people would probably understand.
Again, this situation isn't the same and we don't have all of the facts here, but there are times when it's completely fine to not sell things to an area. It's okay to have morals. That said, people in Russia are smart and I'm sure many of them know how to get the pack if they want it.
They won't be able get it.There not releasing it at all.There no way from them to have a copy.
I find it really disturbing how a big company is claiming they take a stand for a social issue when that's obviously not the reason they're doing it. Really disturbing. A company making up a woke reason to treat their customers badly, and assuming all of us would just 'buy into it' without thinking for ourselves. Not only is it insulting the entire Russian speaking world, but every single simmer. And it was actually working for a second, until people started to realize 'hey wait a minute this doesn't add up'.
Allons-y!
---> Afterlife Game Pack Idea - improved ghosts, cemeteries and funerals, psychics, new skills, new career and more! <---
I feel so sorry for Russians that can't be themselves if their not heterosexual, it must be horrible, I know the rest of world still have along way to go still, there needs to be zero discrimination, it's crazy knowing its still this alienated when it shouldn't be, it's not harming anyone, I also feel sorry for Russian simmers that can't enjoy this pack because of it, if your Russian and secretly not heterosexual and if your reading this i want you to know you are not a freak and I'm soo sorry you can't be truely yourself where you are from
I feel so sorry for Russians that can't be themselves if their not heterosexual, it must be horrible, I know the rest of world still have along way to go still, there needs to be zero discrimination, it's crazy knowing its still this alienated when it shouldn't be, it's not harming anyone, I also feel sorry for Russian simmer that can't enjoy this pack because of it
I am sorry unless we get more info.Its not Prussian laws the reason they can not enjoy this pack.Is the sims team fault they can not enjoy this pack.
Comments
>On the Russian Sims Launcher, their official page, if I'm not mistaken a pack with a drag queen on the cover and another with men in skirts.
Everything is absolutely right, all our covers are exactly the same as everyone else's.
We also have identical trailers, just like in America.
No content has been cut from the games. All preset homosexual families are in the game, starting with Cats and Dogs.
In short, not a single cover has been redrawn for our country. EA just added a small 18+ badge back in 2014.
> @Ben_Vorobiev No worries! You can't post images and edit your comments because you are a new member.
So that you so much!! Now the screenshots will be seen by a lot of people, this is important. <3
Here is screenshot of our trailer for Cats and Dogs.
https://i.imgur.com/xXIbzvo.jpg
We don't even have an 18+ badge on the trailers, only on the official page. Absolutely all trailers on the page are duplicated from YouTube, so no changes. As you can see, a homosexual couple. No one was indignant at this and no one tried to ban it.
The same goes for other trailers and covers. They quietly distributed covers in Russia with a homosexual couple (an pack about the interior), drag queens and other things. In other words, the phrase "they have the right not to redraw something" does not apply to us. Yes, it's their right, well, let them release it as it is) It's always been like that.
Adding image code.
Requirements:
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Make 15 posts
Must be a New Member for 1 day
>
> I don't believe the Sims team would willingly throw Russian simmers under the bus but at the same time Im struggling to comprehend what the issue is. Ive seen pictures on twitter of russian simmers getting ads on origin for the gamepack with Dom & Cam on the cover (and without them). So, marketing can't be the total reason (because it's still going on)?
>
> Edit: and yeah the image code issue is cause youre a new user.
I agree with that.
We don't have any communication whit them about the cover or any censorship. I work as a gaming journalist, believe me, I would be one of the first to know about this (at least from press releases).
But there was no such information. The whole situation came as a shock, including for professional workers and bloggers, who ALREADY received promotional materials with Dom and Cam for publication.
We have also received no reports from the government about tightening censorship. Again, we learn about these things very quickly. If that were true, we might even support EA's decision (not all of us, but many).
The problem is not so much with the restriction of content (although this is very unpleasant), but with demonstrative lies. No one has done this to us, ever. Other developers strive to adapt their marketing to our market. However, the games from CD Projekt released uncensored - we made a localization with obscene phrases, sexy adult jokes and other things in Wticher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 (this is our best adult translation of the game and we are proud of it).
Only and only the Sims team did this to us. And without explanation. And deceiving their Western players. Otherwise, we would not have raised such a cry. We ourselves don't know why. There was not a word about any laws in the letter for us. They said to us "We will not tell you this story, sorry, we have such values." What were we supposed to understand from this?.. Something along the lines of "you, bad homophobes, we don't want to play with you"?))
P.s. Thanks about your notice about code. <3
> @Ben_Vorobiev you're getting close to becoming a member.
>
> Requirements:
> Get 25 Points
> Make 15 posts
> Must be a New Member for 1 day
Thank you!!
Considering they're punishing an entire fanbase that lives in a country where being LGBTQIA+ isn't safe,
and lying about gaming laws that don't exist,
they deserve the criticism.
Fun fact I just learned from Russian simmers,
there is no such law stating that you can't sell LGBTQIA+ games.
What the law does say is that games promoting LGBTQIA+ have to be marked as 18+,
because Russia's law states
that it has to be marked 18+ because
"it's woohoo perversion."
Except it won't say woohoo,
but you can't say the actual word on here.
> Fun fact I just learned from Russian simmers,
> there is no such law stating that you can't sell LGBTQIA+ games.
Yes, I wrote about it above and even gave the number of the article from the law) Thank you.
That's why they changed the letter for us. When we compared the letters for us and the rest of the world, we were just in shock. The whole world was deceived - for what, for the sake of rating? They thought we would not say anything, would we be silent?.. Or that there is no Internet in Russia and no one knows English?)
Here is what they wrote to us. My translation is clumsy, but I tried to convey the essence. There is not a word about the reasons at all. Not a word about the law, because they knew they couldn't lie to us.
--------------
"We've seen how much you wanted to give your Sims the chance to walk down the aisle, say their cherished words, and invite to your celebration all friends.
During the creation of the Wedding Stories Pack, we were inspired by a number of ideas that we wanted to share with our global community. We wanted to give the opportunity to create their own, personal stories, feel the joy of new love and share it with the outside world.
The personal stories that players can tell in our packs are at the heart of everything we create. With the Wedding Stories Pack, we wanted to introduce you to Dom and Cam, whose love reflects the personal experiences of many of our community members and development team.
However, in the process of creating the set and developing the storyline, we realized that we would not be able to freely tell the story of Dom and Cam in all countries of the world in the way we present it.
At the heart of our work at The Sims is the ability to create any story without limits. By abandoning the history of Cam and Dom, we would be forced to compromise our values. We cherish the freedom to be ourselves, love and share our experiences without limits.
What does this mean for you, our players? Because we can't tell the story of Cam and Dom without major changes, we've made the decision not to release Wedding Stories in Russia.
Unfortunately, this means that Russian The Sims players will not be able to purchase this game pack.
Simmers from all over the world, you are the most important part of our universe!
With love and gratitude,
Team The Sims".
Source: https://www.ea.com/ru-ru/games/the-sims/the-sims-4/news/our-commitment-to-you
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We're sitting here and we have no idea why they can't tell us the story of Cam and Dom. The only reason could be possible negative reviews from our homophobes. But that's just childish. This is unprofessional. We PAY for the game, this is not a personal sandbox to assign VIPs.
I came online to read about new features on the blog post and all they did was release this letter.
So much trouble for russian players, because of the story of two shallow sims that will just run around in Tartosa, doing nothing. They will flirt around with anyone with no problems. There isnt even an attraction system.
Their story should be a side thing and not a main feature. I did not buy the sims 2 because they introduced Bella Goth. I did not rush to the sims 3 store to download riverview because of don lothario. Stop forcing your political correctness viewpoints on to MY game.
Have to agree... Representation (TM) over Gameplay and its so sad. Sims could already make a toast. Could already feed the cake to their significant other. They already sit down sometimes and for me as a PC player, i have a fix so they actually sit down during wedding ceremonys, during movies, during eating, they slow dance etc. Sitting down during a wedding should fall under bug fixes and not something to advertise. It better come with the free patch.
(When i dont win the giveaway of course)
It was always a sale for me, but now i might considering skipping this one. Makes me feel uncomfortable and the representation marketing is just crumbs and kinda boring.
Thank you, @Ben_Vorobiev for sharing your version of the letter and all of the information you've given. I'm so sorry that this is happening to Russian Simmers and others. That last line, "Simmers from all over the world, you are the most important part of our universe!" right after telling Russians they can't purchase the pack, hits like a direct insult. It reads like it's saying everyone else except the Russian players are important. Very poorly written.
This letter is very puzzling, and the only thing I can think of when reading this is that the devs incorporated a lot of LGBT gameplay specifically into this pack and this town and NPCs, maybe even new patches for the base game that alters something? I noticed that in the trailer there's a rainbow hot air balloon that can be seen in the background. Also, I believe there was a reference in the livestream about the lore of the town and learning more about the main characters who are in the trailer. But I honestly don't know what could be contained in the story that would disrupt even the Russian government's 18+ rating. As we've been finding out, Russia has many LGBT friendly games from various game companies and have never had a problem with getting them. What could possibly be different with this pack that would make EA decide not to release it there? I hope we get some sort of new information from the team on this so we can better understand why they made this choice. And I really hope there's a way they can change it so Russian Simmers can get the pack too.
I'm afraid nobody is in the mood to appease the Russian Government at this very moment in time, it's all political and Simmers are some of the losers. We have no power at all except for EA to take a stand for their principles.
As this is political comment and not allowed on the Forum please take it out if you wish @EA_Cade
Although it seems like poor decision making on EA’s behalf, excluding an entire country -and surrounding countries affected by this decision- from buying new, very popular content is not just a choice a business makes over a mug ‘o coffee and a slice of apple pie.
The letter is purposely kept vague and doesn’t state the exact reason why this pack won’t be released in Russia. Cam’s and Dom’s story sounds like a hazy cover story.
I wonder if there’s been a bigger legal issue going on in the background for a while now, compelling the team to make this decision at such an unfortunate time? As folks stated, the release of LGBT+ Sims content was never a problem in Russia in the past. Or was it? Perhaps there have been many complications with the release of this kind of content, yet EA just kept throwing it out there?
No one in the community really knows the finer details, so far it has all been speculation and the most we can do is guess what the problem could be and try and come up with solutions. However, it is impossible to devise a solution if one’s unaware of what the actual problem is. Either way, it’s devastating for those who’ve been looking forward to this pack to be blatantly told they cannot have this content in their game. Inclusion gone all backwards. A season of simthing to celebrate but not for all simmers does not call for a celebration.
Whatever the issue is, things don’t seem to add up here. I believe there’s a lot more to it and those who take this matter at heart deserve a clear answer. Turning your back on a nation of simmers and telling them you’re sort of sorry after years of them being loyal supporters of your game is just not enough.
This is when transparency matters the most. I hope the Sims Team is in a position to cast a floodlight on this issue before the pack’s official release this coming week.
Again, there has to be a solid reason for preventing part of the sims community from telling their stories.
I love drama, but I sure hope this is the kind of story that will end well for everyone involved.
Sadly Russia isn't the only anti-LGBTQIA Country where it's a crime just to be and love who you love. It's quite disturbing and disgraceful for any country to be that way in my opinion. You cannot choose who you are and who you love. I hope simmers in those countries can somehow get this game pack.
From the trailer, it looks great and I would gladly preorder it if and when that option comes or now is available. I give the Sims teams props for this. Sims Team Thank you very much for your forward-thinking. I play a lot of LGBTQIA sims and have them prevalent in my game. This will be an excellent pack for my sims. Good job Sims team.
Yeah, I'm not sure if we should speculate about it, or if we will ever know. What we do know is that there was something that prevented Maxis from releasing the pack in Russia and we don't know if because of the rising tensions with Russia they had to change the cover, or they had to remove things from the pack like gameplay mechanics, sims or some clothing for children.
Standing up to what you believe in is important... but excluding entire countries because of it, that's too much. This decision has in my opinion ended up hurting the community and this franchise.
> Thank you, @Ben_Vorobiev for sharing your version of the letter and all of the information you've given. I'm so sorry that this is happening to Russian Simmers and others. That last line, "Simmers from all over the world, you are the most important part of our universe!" right after telling Russians they can't purchase the pack, hits like a direct insult. It reads like it's saying everyone else except the Russian players are important. Very poorly written.
Thank you, LiELF!
We too are puzzled. A variety of games pass the 18+ rating without any problems, including games with things that are illegal in many countries in real life (well, for example, the use of drugs in the frame, etc.).
We have no problem getting games with realistic depictions of war and murder, and anything in general.
Even if the package is focused on the history of this couple, even if it is scripted - this is also not a problem, because we have Life is Strange and similar story games distributed on all platforms.
> @GemSixx said:
> Just going to leave this here as it's the most plausible explanation I've heard yet.
>
> Corporations are not your friends. We'll all be a lot better off once everyone realizes that.
Brilliant. And sad. But it was obvious. In Russia, the simmer community has already been called "a lamb that was sacrificed in the name of PR."
I know I shouldn't, or maybe I should, but this made me chortle.
But people care about censorship. This situation isn't the same at all, but as someone said before if Asian or Black people were removed from cover art because of a country's racism, people would be extremely angry. And if a black person who designed the marketing materials didn't want the product to be sold in that country because it would require removing black people, many people would probably understand.
Again, this situation isn't the same and we don't have all of the facts here, but there are times when it's completely fine to not sell things to an area. It's okay to have morals. That said, people in Russia are smart and I'm sure many of them know how to get the pack if they want it.
They won't be able get it.There not releasing it at all.There no way from them to have a copy.
I am sorry unless we get more info.Its not Prussian laws the reason they can not enjoy this pack.Is the sims team fault they can not enjoy this pack.