So Nobody Was Gonna Tell Me The Sims In Sims Medieval Looked THAT Good

so nobody was gonna tell me the sims in sims medieval looked THAT good

justice for raj rasoya - a quick rant about townie makeovers

so i was casually scrolling on my dash and i saw someone playing with the city living townies. i was appalled when i realized that one of these sims was intended to be raj rasoya, a sikh chef living in the spice market of san myshuno. the sim in the post looked drastically different to raj, he was barely recognizable until i checked the tags. i then began looking at his tag on tumblr, and it’s lowkey making me sick to my stomach.

i don’t know why i’m uncomfortable with this, or it it’s just me but it’s so unsettling to see people either white wash, slim down, or remove raj’s turban when they make him over. i don’t understand the need that people have to change raj into something completely unrecognizable because he doesn’t fit western beauty standards. why must we make him have a chiseled bod and lightly tanned skin? why do we feel the need to make his nose smaller and remove his nose bridge? why do we feel the need to remove his turban?

the turban and even the kara (bracelet raj and geeta wear) are both symbols of their faith. it begs me to ask the question, would the perpetrators that have white washed raj do the same to an EA townie that’s hijabi? probably not - at least, i would hope not. 

this is weird and lowkey not okay. it’s quite clear that EA intended for the rasoyas to be sikh. why are we trying to erase their ethnic features and backgrounds?

now before you guys come at me, i’m going to say that - it’s your game i’m not policing you - however, i am pointing out how weird and disrespectful it comes across to actively erase the features and religious qualities of townies that were specifically given these identities. 

thank you for coming to my ted talk. please let me know if this is just a me issue, i’m genuinely curious to see how other people feel about this. my inbox is open, and i’d be happy to chat. it says my comments are enabled, but people have had trouble with commenting on my posts before, so just shoot me an ask instead!

The early hours at Moonwood Mill 🌲

🌲🌙

Simblr accessibility tips

I was browsing through the #s4cc tag the other day. I saw this one post which had the download link labelled as "dl (ea)". I spent a good amount of time wondering what "ea" stands for. My first thought was "Electronic Arts" which made me go "huh", second thought was "I need to click this to figure it out". Turns out it means "early access" lol

Quick disclaimer: I also still fall into a trap of not using plain langauge when creating Tumblr posts or adding links. But, recently I started to work a lot with digital accessibility. I thought I'd make a list of tips as a reminder of things to consider, for myself and for others.

Avoid unusual abbreviations. Not everyone knows what "bgc", "dl" or "ea" stands for. Here's a bad example of abbreviations in my own old post. Use "base game compatible", "download", "early access" instead.

Use meaningful link text. Don't make people wonder where a link would take them. When using a screen reader, navigating to a link with a label "dl" outside of post context can be confusing.

Avoid using Unicode characters. Using stylized Unicode characters may look cool, but here's what Unicode sounds like when using a screen reader.

Tumblr autoplays all GIFs. It's good to add a "gif warning" tag to your post if you use GIFs. Another option is to omit GIFs altogether. Motion can be a source of distraction to some, and very harmful to others. Read more about digital accessibility and motion

Tumblr gives an option to add alt text to images. Alt text is a summary of graphic content. Keep your alt text short and descriptive.

Try to use plain language. Also, pay attention to how you format text. Read more about clear language on Readability Guidelines

There's so much more to talk about when it comes to digital accessibility. I tried to keep this short and keep this list Simblr-related. I hope that you will find these tips and resources useful!

Oh, where you from? (Where you from?) Must be heaven You’d be rich if looking good was your profession Think I’m in love, ‘cause you so sexy Boy, I ain’t talking about you, I’m talking to my own reflection