Hopkins’ website points out that the version of same-sex romance he outlined in the document wasn’t the version that actually made it into the game.
“Anyone who is afraid that it might offend the sensibilities of other people (but of course not themselves) is clearly homophobic by proxy but doesn’t realize it since they’re projecting their homophobia onto other people.”
“It would make for a much more interesting and realistic game, partially influenced by random factors, and anyone offended by that needs to grow up and get a life, and hopefully our game will help them in that quest,” reads the document. He argues that the previous version of romance in-game is “heterosexist and monosexist,” and having a sim’s default response to a same-sex advance be a slap was “a somewhat violent negative interaction" that was "clearly homophobic.”
In snippets from the design documents Hopkins shared to his website, he passionately advocates for their inclusion in The Sims. Barrett III telling The New Yorker that the actual implementation in The Sims 1 was more or less unintended, since Barrett was going off of an older design document from before same-sex romances had been vetoed over worries of controversy. That tale emerged back around The Sims 4's release, with programmer Patrick J. Meanwhile, the document also adds another layer to the story of how same-sex romances landed in the decades-old game. Those familiar with the game might recognize some of the basic doodles would later inform the game's UI, or notice that some of the decisions discussed in the design document aren’t reflected in the final release of The Sims, (or even eventually showed up later on in the series as recently as 2014's The Sims 4.) The Sims has spawned a prolific series of management games that task players with building enthrallingly mundane lives for digital families, and Hopkins’ documents offer fellow game developers a look at some of the early conversations and design decisions the team had to make to get the series off the ground.
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