From The Witcher 4 to Ghost of Yotei, including Tomb Raider and Life is Strange: Double Exposure, many popular games have found themselves at the heart of a cultural war that has been tearing the internet apart for several years now: the infamous "wokeness." Indeed, the growing notion of inclusivity in the video game industry is far from being to everyone's taste, which regularly triggers various controversies. The latest victim: The Sims 4, which saw the birth of a mod intended to remove all traces of DEI (Diversity, Equality, Inclusivity) from the game...
The Sims 4 targeted by the anti-woke community
Named "DEI Remover", it boasts of "replacing The Sims 4's DEI quotas with the explicit intention of parodying and criticizing DEI ideology […] by making all NPCs non-diverse." In other words, once installed, this mod removes all traces of diversity, leaving only white Sims who look "healthy (not fat)", cisgender and heterosexual. No more hair colors deemed "unnatural". And that's not all. Characters of color, homosexuals, and trans people, as well as all LGBT-friendly content, are also targeted.
The creator of the mod in question has admitted that he originally wanted to go even further. He plans to also remove from The Sims 4 all the elements that prevent Sims from having a purely Caucasian appearance. These include: Afro hairstyles, or even certain nose, mouth, and eye appearances. But this was impossible for him. And the worst part? The “DEI Remover” mod has been available for download for over a year, with its first release date dating back to March 2024.
La guerre aux mods
While it went under EA’s radar, it was nevertheless brought to light by Daniellebuilds, a content creator specializing in The Sims 4. She naturally invited her community of over 300,000 people to report the mod en masse. Suffice it to say that the publisher did not take long to react, demanding its removal from the forum administrator for non-compliance with the terms of use as set out in the user agreement, which all players must accept to access the title.
You must not interfere with another person's use of an EA Service, nor use EA Services to upload, distribute, or use harmful or inappropriate content.
Any reasonably objectionable content posted and directed at other people or EA employees or representatives is prohibited. In particular, content that is abusive, hateful, defamatory, sexually explicit, blasphemous, obscene, intimidating, as well as content that constitutes harassment or endangers minors.
Electronic Arts User Agreement, Article 6 "Rules of Conduct"
A request that was then described as "an act of targeted censorship" by the administrator, who nevertheless gave in to EA's demand... for a time. Because a few days later, the mod in question finally returned. And as one might expect, it is unfortunately only one mod among many others, with dozens and dozens of similar mods available everywhere. Suffice it to say, then, that this is only the beginning of a long war for EA and The Sims 4, which have indeed multiplied inclusive content in recent years.
Sources: Sims Community, Wired
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