The Lesbian Kiss That Saved The Sims

In 1999 the prospects for The Sims were not looking good. E.A. had already abandoned the project a few times, and the company hid the game at E3, denying it space up on the big screen.

“We all knew that if we couldn’t generate any interest at E3 that year, then the game would be cancelled for good,” Patrick J. Barrett III, one of the game’s programmers, told The New Yorker recently. “E.A. did nothing to help us. They hid us away.”

But everything changed when two Sim women kissed in front of a bunch of reporters.

According to The New Yorker, the game’s design document, which dictated how the characters would interact with each other, had been updated to prohibit same-sex mugging, but Barrett was handed an older version when he started the job and the rest was kismet.

A few reporters were watching a demo at E3 of a marriage scene…a couple digital women decided to make out…and the buzz had begun.

Never underestimate the power of enamored simulacra.

h/t The New Yorker