Yeah.. I kinda think this was a joke since we are all joking about how everything is offensive in the Babysit thread hahaha
Maybe so but honestly, I can see threads like this being taken up by the PC crowd and thrown at EA as proof that the game is not a safe space. Next thing we know, every things getting removed bit by bit and we are left with Stepford sims sitting around grinning at each other all day.
Dear Maxis. Give folks a toggle to disable alien abductions. Done.
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 !!!
COULD NOT AGREE MORE.
I feel exactly the same way about the actual in-game implications as does the OP. Absolutely nowhere in my storytelling gameplay style is there room for "forced to have the baby conceived as a result of sexual assault." Gross. SERIOUSLY gross.
The problem is that the feature is a throw-in to a pack that's otherwise about improving other gameplay mechanics. If they made aliens a Game Pack on their own, like magic, vampires, and other spooky/occult stuff, I wouldn't buy it, but I wouldn't begrudge its existence.
I feel bad for folks who can't get it to happen when they actually want it to. It happened to my sim and I used the resetsim cheat to stop it (and somewhere in one of the what-happened-in-your-game threads I made an in-universe justification involving the sim being a pious religious person and "the Watcher" intervening on his behalf.)
Point is, toggles are a GOOD THING. More choice, EA. Choice is good.
(he/him)
And remember this above all. Our Roman gods are watching. Make sure they are not ashamed!
My NBA site, Pace and Space
How do you know it was done without consent? Were you up in that spaceship with your Sim? Perhaps he willingly agreed.
Also how do you know any act of intimacy occured? Maybe it was a medical procedure done under anesthesia.
It could well happen like this: Your Sim is very interested in alien life. He has been studying them with the telescope and has even attempted to contact them. Finally they answer the call, and appeal to your Sim to aid them in their pollination program, which is now entirely consensual. All it requires is a short medical procedure and the willingness to give birth. At that point your Sim also decides whether to raise his alien baby on earth or to send it to a nursery on Sixam. Either way your Sim can bask in the knowledge that he helped keep an alien race from going extinct.
Admittedly, a little cold hard cash in the form of child support would be nice.
The point is any scenario in the Sims is only limited by your imagination. If, on the other hand, you want to dream up an evil planet of body snatchers, you can do that too. That's the beauty of it.
IN NO WAY should non-consentual pregnancy be forced into a teen rated game. If you support assault or forced pregnancy, well thats on you.
I've seen people referring to another thread about babysitting and honestly was no part/aware of it until it was mention here.
Per people referring to this as a game - yes I totally agree that games like movies DO NOT make people go out and do acts of violence or assault in real life. There have been tons of evidence to this point.
HOWEVER that does not mean it cannot be triggering TO PEOPLE who HAVE been assaulted in real life.
Honestly, I think it's a valid concern. I'm kinda of two minds personally. On the one hand, it is a sorta old trope about alien abductions and strange things happening and it is classic to the sims. But uh, those under tones are rather uh...undertone-y so to speak. I myself, have only done this sort of thing intentionally seeking for it for drama's sake. Though you can give the baby back easily though.
An unwanted pregancy is still an unwanted pregenacy for a lot of people and can actually, and I use this in it's proper, actually trigger them. Not to mention we have loads of realist players around here who do use mods like MCC to disallow this stuff. I don't know if a toggle is fesible but I do know it's been mostly nerf'd already. Not certian if there is much more the devs can do, since it's an older expac but hey. Who knows.
IN NO WAY should non-consentual pregnancy be forced into a teen rated game. If you support assault or forced pregnancy, well thats on you.
I've seen people referring to another thread about babysitting and honestly was no part/aware of it until it was mention here.
Per people referring to this as a game - yes I totally agree that games like movies DO NOT make people go out and do acts of violence or assault in real life. There have been tons of evidence to this point.
HOWEVER that does not mean it cannot be triggering TO PEOPLE who HAVE been assaulted in real life.
What's your point? Censor every event with “trigger” potential in the game so no one's feelings get hurt? Where do you draw the line on that? Have you considered the possibility that you might be overreacting - even just a little bit?
If all you're going to do next is double down until the thread gets shut down, then I don't know what else to say to you.
Just to make it very clear, no one in this thread is trying to offend or gaslight you. All we are asking you is to look at your own reaction from a less biased perspective. If you can't do that, then I really don't know what to say.
What's your point? Censor every event with “trigger” potential in the game so no one's feelings get hurt? Have you considered the possibility that you might be overreacting - even just a little bit?.
I was clarifying the subject matter of my topic was not a joke as a few people have asked. I agree that games should not be censored but BASED on the age rating of a game.
If a game is rated M and features assault, violence and gore - cool, lets go play Doom. I know what I'm in for, ect.
The Sims 4 is a teen rated game and its content should be appropriate to that rating. That doesn't mean a title should be censored but evaluated on its content for the ESRB designated content rating, if that content doesn't fit under that rating it should be removed or the rating changed.
Last time I checked forced abduction resulting in forced pregnancy didn't fall under the T rating.
Overall I simply wanted to start a conversation about this and see how the community feels, while giving my own opinion (obviously) as everybody else has and I welcome in discussion.
I agree that blanket censorship is not the solution, is never the solution but content appropriate to the age rating is.
IN NO WAY should non-consentual pregnancy be forced into a teen rated game. If you support assault or forced pregnancy, well thats on you.
I've seen people referring to another thread about babysitting and honestly was no part/aware of it until it was mention here.
Per people referring to this as a game - yes I totally agree that games like movies DO NOT make people go out and do acts of violence or assault in real life. There have been tons of evidence to this point.
HOWEVER that does not mean it cannot be triggering TO PEOPLE who HAVE been assaulted in real life.
Honestly, I think it's a valid concern. I'm kinda of two minds personally. On the one hand, it is a sorta old trope about alien abductions and strange things happening and it is classic to the sims. But uh, those under tones are rather uh...undertone-y so to speak. I myself, have only done this sort of thing intentionally seeking for it for drama's sake. Though you can give the baby back easily though.
An unwanted pregancy is still an unwanted pregenacy for a lot of people and can actually, and I use this in it's proper, actually trigger them. Not to mention we have loads of realist players around here who do use mods like MCC to disallow this stuff. I don't know if a toggle is fesible but I do know it's been mostly nerf'd already. Not certian if there is much more the devs can do, since it's an older expac but hey. Who knows.
With alien abduction you are free to use an in game object as I mentioned before to avoid it altogether. The event is completely in player control without any mods. If someone doesn't want it, it won't happen and if it happens despite then it's a game bug and not game design. And since it's in player's control, what exactly are we are talking about here?
With alien abduction you are free to use an in game object as I mentioned before to avoid it altogether. The event is completely in player control without any mods. If someone doesn't want it, it won't happen and if it happens despite then it's a game bug and not game design. And since it's in player's control, what exactly are we are talking about here?
Overall based on the overall feedback of this topic I think a toggle to allow alien pregnancy is probably the best solution because it is a form of consent especially on consoles where mods are not present/available.
With alien abduction you are free to use an in game object as I mentioned before to avoid it altogether. The event is completely in player control without any mods. If someone doesn't want it, it won't happen and if it happens despite then it's a game bug and not game design. And since it's in player's control, what exactly are we are talking about here?
Overall based on the overall feedback of this topic I think a toggle to allow alien pregnancy is probably the best solution because it is a form of consent especially on consoles where mods are not present/available.
I'm not against toggle, toggles are good. I'm saying that a form of toggle already is in the game and has existed since the pack was released and it's also available to console players.
I'm not against toggle, toggles are good. I'm saying that a form of toggle already is in the game and has existed since the pack was released and it's also available to console players.
Honestly I was unaware of the satellite dishes feature to prevent alien abductions until you mentioned it despite owning the expansion since release. honestly I was unaware there was a satellite dish since its not a common build object and requires cheats or career track to unlock.
Its feature to prevent abductions isn't mentioned in its description either so how would a new or unaware player even be aware? Its why I believe a toggle would be easier in options.
In my case I'd actually totally forgotten about the alien abductions too, so i was not prepared for it or the consequences so I would not have even thought to build a dish before I started on the astronaut career track for my sim. While I appreciate that there is a way to prevent them is definitely not made clear to the player in-game how to prevent them.
With that said I've also read that 50% of players never even go into options deeper than the screen settings to change resolutions, ect so even if their was a toggle that doesn't mean people would be anymore aware of it either. But at least its there.
I'm not against toggle, toggles are good. I'm saying that a form of toggle already is in the game and has existed since the pack was released and it's also available to console players.
Honestly I was unaware of the satellite dishes feature to prevent alien abductions until you mentioned it despite owning the expansion since release. honestly I was unaware there was a satellite dish since its not a common build object and requires cheats or career track to unlock.
Its feature to prevent abductions isn't mentioned in its description either so how would a new or unaware player even be aware? Its why I believe a toggle would be easier in options.
In my case I'd actually totally forgotten about the alien abductions too, so i was not prepared for it or the consequences so I would not have even thought to build a dish before I started on the astronaut career track for my sim. While I appreciate that there is a way to prevent them is definitely not made clear to the player in-game how to prevent them.
With that said I've also read that 50% of players never even go into options deeper than the screen settings to change resolutions, ect so even if their was a toggle that doesn't mean people would be anymore aware of it either. But at least its there.
The fact that you were not aware of it could be put as company fault as they did not advertise their product's feature well, but also as a fault of the user as they did not researched what they were buying, however in the case that the company explicitly states that such a feature exists ( abduction, even without mentioning that it can be avoided) it also makes the consumer that might have an issue with the said feature aware of it and they are free to not buy it. Again the player/consumer has the control.
Additionally wanting another form of toggle while being fully aware that people might not use it because they might not be aware it exist, but still "at least its there" is no different than the situation of the already existing toggle and you not being aware of it. I'm sure you know this. So....?
OP,
I am very sorry to hear that this terrifying thing has happened to you when you were a kid.
Although I understand the point you’re trying to make, getting rid of this completely fantastical feature altogether is not going to solve any problems. Really in that case the game shouldn’t exist because anything could trigger anyone.
In my opinion an added toggle is still the best solution.
Also, the game offers a tutorial and lessons regarding UI, gameplay and other features. This needs to be kept updated of course, but it’s up to folks to take the time and get familiar with these features too, especially if/ when there’s a chance something could trigger them.
My sims are rarely ever abducted, but I don't mind it either, it's easy enough to just send the baby back to home world. If they took away every single thing in the sims 4 that someone found offensive there wouldn't be anything left of the game.
NOOOOOOO
It's hard enough to play ts2 storyline without nerfing my beloved aliens
removing abductions would literally ruin my whole bella mystery and strangetown fun not to talk about other alien fun
if anything they should let my aliens abduct sims so its not always the same pollinator
but I believe there is option to disable abductions via the satellite thingy they get from science career
and i wouldn't mind if they add
OPTION
in GAME OPTIONS
to TURN OFF ABDUCTIONS
if one WANTS TO
no more nerfing occults
i said NO MORE NERFING OCCULTS.
thank you.
also i am sorry to hear of ops situation but its really, personal so it should certainly be treated as such = having personal option to not play with abductions = having toggle instead of taking thing out of the game as whole
I'm sorry that such an awful experience happened to you and I really hope that it has as minimal as possible negative impact on the rest of your life. There's really nothing that a stranger on the internet can say about that which won't sound trite or seem to lack understanding so I won't elaborate further.
As I said in my original post, I am absolutely supportive of people wanting toggles and they need to do a better job of them than they did with aliens. The scientist career satellite dish isn't good enough and wasn't clearly advertised.
The arguments you are seeing against you here are not because players want to force every one else to play the way they wish to. They are arguments fearing that instead of toggles, we will get content removed and challenges or obstacles to overcome simply not added at all in future games. While I am very vocal on wanting to portray some of the mistakes that are common in life, I am also adamant that everyone should be able to play how they personally wish too.
In real life consent is very important. But sims is not real life, it is a parody of life. The fact that this is about aliens and males, not females, getting pregnant makes it comical enough not to be confused with real life.
I like playing with aliens every once and a while but the alien encounters are practically non existent in this game unless you actively persue it, for example by playing a scientist. I really hope aliens don't get nerved even more. Besides as some others pointed out, we don't know what happens in that space ship. Some sims (and simmers) might actually want alien babies. And once they are born you can immediately send them back home from the crib if it doesn't suit you story.
A toggle would be a solution but please let those who actually want aliens in the game still play with them.
I am just wondering where this sort of reasoning will lead us in the end. A game where everything is rainbow and sunshine all the time and nothing bad is ever allowed to happen? Should they also take out other events people suffer from in real life like death, disease, divorce,...?
I like the Alien Abductions with the Human Males end up Pregnant. Just wish my Female Humans could get Pregnant that way. It's too funny. And personally, I think the Human Males are actually having a secret love affair with these unknown Female Aliens.
You don't need mods to prevent this. Just reset sim as he investigates weird light. It stops them going , no pregnancy and they still get the abducted buff. And, of course, you can send alien baby back to home world.
I usually follow what my sims want, that's the way I like to play but the only consent needed in my game is by myself controlling the mouse
I am sorry about what happened to you when you were young, but just because this was triggering for you does not mean that many other people should go without (what is now very rare) our alien abductions.
Without getting into the whole 'are sims giving consent or is it the player' conversation again (see the babysit thread), in my opinion, it is up to the individual to research a game or pack before purchase to ensure that the content of that game or pack is suitable for them.
If you look on EA's own site at the launch information for Get To Work, they have a picture of a sim in the process of being abducted by an alien, they mention the satellite dish and state that it decreases chances of abduction: therefore this gives the prospective buyer the knowledge that alien abductions occur: https://ea.com/games/the-sims/the-sims-4/news/get-to-work-launch and if said buyer did not want alien abductions in their game then the opportunity was there not to buy the pack.
Many people may have purchased the pack with the excitement that they would be able to have alien abductions as part of their play. It is unfair to take away something they paid money for, something that was mentioned when the pack was launched. And this is happening far too often already.
After reading the replies I do agree that completely removing the feature or at least abductions isn't the answer, I do believe the pregnancy feature should be either optional though or toggled (after all you have to try for a baby to get a baby and not based on a 1 to 4 chance) as should a more direct toggle to enable or disable abductions.
I understand they are part of the lore of the Sims, I love the x-files myself but when I sit down to watch it I know what I'm in for. Honestly it takes a lot to trigger me and I suspect the reason it did this time was because it happened to me in-game and so very randomly I felt I had no control over it and wasted so much time reloading saves to find a point before the abduction. originally I just went with it until I discovered he was pregnant and that combination really bothered me.
As for abductions themselves maybe more gameplay should be added to them to give them more depth than a rabbit hole abduction resulting in pregnancy, like waking up on a alien ship your sim can explore and make friends on. At least your sim is still some form of control.
It also sounds like a hard toggle switch could also work good for people who want to be abducted and struggling to have it happen, where in a toggle on would not only allow it but also increase chances.
I agree that nerfing a game to make it as non-offensive as possible is not the solution too, but a good game designer knows the difference between giving players control and forcing situations on them. That doesn't mean those situations can't be present in a game but rather how you let a player interact with them is left to them to decide.
Give us a toggle, and allow our females to get pregnant from an abduction if we want them to. I have a female level 10 scientist that would not see this as a bad thing. Give us choices,... each person plays as they see fit.
Well I think there are ways to handle it other than disabling it totally. For one thing, allowing us to cancel the "Investigate light" action and changing the moodlet afterwards to happy rather than dazed/uncomfortable would be a great start.
EDIT And as others have said, make the satellite dish available to all in Build/Buy and usable by all.
EDIT2 And alien abductions are an issue because most other significant actions including woohoo require player consent in some form but the "investigate strange light" interaction cannot be cancelled.
Comments
Maybe so but honestly, I can see threads like this being taken up by the PC crowd and thrown at EA as proof that the game is not a safe space. Next thing we know, every things getting removed bit by bit and we are left with Stepford sims sitting around grinning at each other all day.
COULD NOT AGREE MORE.
I feel exactly the same way about the actual in-game implications as does the OP. Absolutely nowhere in my storytelling gameplay style is there room for "forced to have the baby conceived as a result of sexual assault." Gross. SERIOUSLY gross.
The problem is that the feature is a throw-in to a pack that's otherwise about improving other gameplay mechanics. If they made aliens a Game Pack on their own, like magic, vampires, and other spooky/occult stuff, I wouldn't buy it, but I wouldn't begrudge its existence.
I feel bad for folks who can't get it to happen when they actually want it to. It happened to my sim and I used the resetsim cheat to stop it (and somewhere in one of the what-happened-in-your-game threads I made an in-universe justification involving the sim being a pious religious person and "the Watcher" intervening on his behalf.)
Point is, toggles are a GOOD THING. More choice, EA. Choice is good.
And remember this above all. Our Roman gods are watching. Make sure they are not ashamed!
My NBA site, Pace and Space
The Sims 4 hasn't introduced a new musical instrument since 2017
Also how do you know any act of intimacy occured? Maybe it was a medical procedure done under anesthesia.
It could well happen like this: Your Sim is very interested in alien life. He has been studying them with the telescope and has even attempted to contact them. Finally they answer the call, and appeal to your Sim to aid them in their pollination program, which is now entirely consensual. All it requires is a short medical procedure and the willingness to give birth. At that point your Sim also decides whether to raise his alien baby on earth or to send it to a nursery on Sixam. Either way your Sim can bask in the knowledge that he helped keep an alien race from going extinct.
Admittedly, a little cold hard cash in the form of child support would be nice.
The point is any scenario in the Sims is only limited by your imagination. If, on the other hand, you want to dream up an evil planet of body snatchers, you can do that too. That's the beauty of it.
IN NO WAY should non-consentual pregnancy be forced into a teen rated game. If you support assault or forced pregnancy, well thats on you.
I've seen people referring to another thread about babysitting and honestly was no part/aware of it until it was mention here.
Per people referring to this as a game - yes I totally agree that games like movies DO NOT make people go out and do acts of violence or assault in real life. There have been tons of evidence to this point.
HOWEVER that does not mean it cannot be triggering TO PEOPLE who HAVE been assaulted in real life.
An unwanted pregancy is still an unwanted pregenacy for a lot of people and can actually, and I use this in it's proper, actually trigger them. Not to mention we have loads of realist players around here who do use mods like MCC to disallow this stuff. I don't know if a toggle is fesible but I do know it's been mostly nerf'd already. Not certian if there is much more the devs can do, since it's an older expac but hey. Who knows.
If all you're going to do next is double down until the thread gets shut down, then I don't know what else to say to you.
I was clarifying the subject matter of my topic was not a joke as a few people have asked. I agree that games should not be censored but BASED on the age rating of a game.
If a game is rated M and features assault, violence and gore - cool, lets go play Doom. I know what I'm in for, ect.
The Sims 4 is a teen rated game and its content should be appropriate to that rating. That doesn't mean a title should be censored but evaluated on its content for the ESRB designated content rating, if that content doesn't fit under that rating it should be removed or the rating changed.
Last time I checked forced abduction resulting in forced pregnancy didn't fall under the T rating.
Overall I simply wanted to start a conversation about this and see how the community feels, while giving my own opinion (obviously) as everybody else has and I welcome in discussion.
I agree that blanket censorship is not the solution, is never the solution but content appropriate to the age rating is.
With alien abduction you are free to use an in game object as I mentioned before to avoid it altogether. The event is completely in player control without any mods. If someone doesn't want it, it won't happen and if it happens despite then it's a game bug and not game design. And since it's in player's control, what exactly are we are talking about here?
Overall based on the overall feedback of this topic I think a toggle to allow alien pregnancy is probably the best solution because it is a form of consent especially on consoles where mods are not present/available.
I'm not against toggle, toggles are good. I'm saying that a form of toggle already is in the game and has existed since the pack was released and it's also available to console players.
Honestly I was unaware of the satellite dishes feature to prevent alien abductions until you mentioned it despite owning the expansion since release. honestly I was unaware there was a satellite dish since its not a common build object and requires cheats or career track to unlock.
Its feature to prevent abductions isn't mentioned in its description either so how would a new or unaware player even be aware? Its why I believe a toggle would be easier in options.
In my case I'd actually totally forgotten about the alien abductions too, so i was not prepared for it or the consequences so I would not have even thought to build a dish before I started on the astronaut career track for my sim. While I appreciate that there is a way to prevent them is definitely not made clear to the player in-game how to prevent them.
With that said I've also read that 50% of players never even go into options deeper than the screen settings to change resolutions, ect so even if their was a toggle that doesn't mean people would be anymore aware of it either. But at least its there.
The fact that you were not aware of it could be put as company fault as they did not advertise their product's feature well, but also as a fault of the user as they did not researched what they were buying, however in the case that the company explicitly states that such a feature exists ( abduction, even without mentioning that it can be avoided) it also makes the consumer that might have an issue with the said feature aware of it and they are free to not buy it. Again the player/consumer has the control.
Additionally wanting another form of toggle while being fully aware that people might not use it because they might not be aware it exist, but still "at least its there" is no different than the situation of the already existing toggle and you not being aware of it. I'm sure you know this. So....?
I am very sorry to hear that this terrifying thing has happened to you when you were a kid.
Although I understand the point you’re trying to make, getting rid of this completely fantastical feature altogether is not going to solve any problems. Really in that case the game shouldn’t exist because anything could trigger anyone.
In my opinion an added toggle is still the best solution.
Also, the game offers a tutorial and lessons regarding UI, gameplay and other features. This needs to be kept updated of course, but it’s up to folks to take the time and get familiar with these features too, especially if/ when there’s a chance something could trigger them.
It's hard enough to play ts2 storyline without nerfing my beloved aliens
removing abductions would literally ruin my whole bella mystery and strangetown fun not to talk about other alien fun
if anything they should let my aliens abduct sims so its not always the same pollinator
but I believe there is option to disable abductions via the satellite thingy they get from science career
and i wouldn't mind if they add
OPTION
in GAME OPTIONS
to TURN OFF ABDUCTIONS
if one WANTS TO
no more nerfing occults
i said NO MORE NERFING OCCULTS.
thank you.
also i am sorry to hear of ops situation but its really, personal so it should certainly be treated as such = having personal option to not play with abductions = having toggle instead of taking thing out of the game as whole
🏡 Gallery 📖 Stories 🌍 World Project 🥔 MOD/CC Free
As I said in my original post, I am absolutely supportive of people wanting toggles and they need to do a better job of them than they did with aliens. The scientist career satellite dish isn't good enough and wasn't clearly advertised.
The arguments you are seeing against you here are not because players want to force every one else to play the way they wish to. They are arguments fearing that instead of toggles, we will get content removed and challenges or obstacles to overcome simply not added at all in future games. While I am very vocal on wanting to portray some of the mistakes that are common in life, I am also adamant that everyone should be able to play how they personally wish too.
[direct quote removed - EA_Leeloo]
I like playing with aliens every once and a while but the alien encounters are practically non existent in this game unless you actively persue it, for example by playing a scientist. I really hope aliens don't get nerved even more. Besides as some others pointed out, we don't know what happens in that space ship. Some sims (and simmers) might actually want alien babies. And once they are born you can immediately send them back home from the crib if it doesn't suit you story.
A toggle would be a solution but please let those who actually want aliens in the game still play with them.
I am just wondering where this sort of reasoning will lead us in the end. A game where everything is rainbow and sunshine all the time and nothing bad is ever allowed to happen? Should they also take out other events people suffer from in real life like death, disease, divorce,...?
I usually follow what my sims want, that's the way I like to play but the only consent needed in my game is by myself controlling the mouse
Without getting into the whole 'are sims giving consent or is it the player' conversation again (see the babysit thread), in my opinion, it is up to the individual to research a game or pack before purchase to ensure that the content of that game or pack is suitable for them.
If you look on EA's own site at the launch information for Get To Work, they have a picture of a sim in the process of being abducted by an alien, they mention the satellite dish and state that it decreases chances of abduction: therefore this gives the prospective buyer the knowledge that alien abductions occur: https://ea.com/games/the-sims/the-sims-4/news/get-to-work-launch and if said buyer did not want alien abductions in their game then the opportunity was there not to buy the pack.
Many people may have purchased the pack with the excitement that they would be able to have alien abductions as part of their play. It is unfair to take away something they paid money for, something that was mentioned when the pack was launched. And this is happening far too often already.
I understand they are part of the lore of the Sims, I love the x-files myself but when I sit down to watch it I know what I'm in for. Honestly it takes a lot to trigger me and I suspect the reason it did this time was because it happened to me in-game and so very randomly I felt I had no control over it and wasted so much time reloading saves to find a point before the abduction. originally I just went with it until I discovered he was pregnant and that combination really bothered me.
As for abductions themselves maybe more gameplay should be added to them to give them more depth than a rabbit hole abduction resulting in pregnancy, like waking up on a alien ship your sim can explore and make friends on. At least your sim is still some form of control.
It also sounds like a hard toggle switch could also work good for people who want to be abducted and struggling to have it happen, where in a toggle on would not only allow it but also increase chances.
I agree that nerfing a game to make it as non-offensive as possible is not the solution too, but a good game designer knows the difference between giving players control and forcing situations on them. That doesn't mean those situations can't be present in a game but rather how you let a player interact with them is left to them to decide.
Again, giving players choice.
EDIT And as others have said, make the satellite dish available to all in Build/Buy and usable by all.
EDIT2 And alien abductions are an issue because most other significant actions including woohoo require player consent in some form but the "investigate strange light" interaction cannot be cancelled.