For many neurodiverse people, 'The Sims' has been a lifelong comfort

[serf]

a great franchise ruined by DLC release strategy and generalized EA-scumminess.

[mattigames]

Pretty sure even the first version around 20 years ago had expansion discs filling the exact same role, perhaps less insidious as there weren't that many available. You could say they just copied Barbie's™ timeless upselling strategy, doesn't make it any better of course.

Just out of curiosity I checked and it costs around $840 to buy Sims 4 with all it's DLCs, just... wtf.

[realjhol]

Neurodiverse isn't a real medical term

[machinawhite]

The Sims is not a medical device

[wsostt]

The article defines it as “non medical”. And that doesn't mean that people can't find identity in it.

[nix23]

And Doom too.

[smegsicle]

> “The Sims” is an open-world game, meaning there is no right or wrong way to experience it

that's a 'diverse' definition, maybe confusing it with the concept of 'open-ended' ? (the sims is not generally considered an open-world game)

[kastagg]

The Sims has only very weak goals and scoring and functions perfectly as a sandbox.

[Stevvo]

The Sims 3 was an open world game by most definitions. The Sims 2 and The Sims 4 can still make a case for being open world; you can explore at will, but with many loading screens.

[qwery]

I think 'open-ended' would be selling it short. A Halo 'combat arena' is open-ended. The Sims is absolutely an open-world game.

The simulated (game-)world is open to the player -- they are free to interact with it as much or as little as they like, in a manner of their choosing. Importantly, the simulation will proceed (in meaningful ways) with or without action by the player.

[rasalas]

"Software toy" is the term most famously associated with Will Wright's products.

[dqpb]

Everyone is “neurodiverse”, no?

[faeriechangling]

It's supposed to be the counterpart to "Neurotypical". Neurotypicals are especially more neurologically typical than average, and the Neurodiverse are especially neurologically diverse. While we may all be unique, some are less unique than others.

I tend to hate woke disability jargon like this because jargon has the incredibly ironic flaw of being less accessible to people with learning disabilities, who are ESL, or who are young. Neurodiverse is one of the more common bits of jargon though, wiki has a big page on it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurodiversity

[2fast4you]

I think they mean neurodivergent, which makes a lot more sense

[blooalien]

That gets kinda to the heart of the problem of "labels" right there. It's just a way for people to label groups of "other" to make them easier to target for fear and hatred. Everyone is different (even so-called "identical" twins), and you can group 'em together a billion billion different ways.

[9991]

Individuals can’t be diverse. Only groups.

[the_omegist]

Sounds like newspeak to me...

[gruez]

>Why do people constantly invent labels to comfort themselves.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemism#Euphemism_treadmill

[jamiltron]

Neurodiverse is a wider collection than autism. It's useful to describe a variety of circumstances without needing to enumerate through them.

[faeriechangling]

If you say you have Aspergers on certain forums nowadays people will flame you, call you a Nazi, and mods will ban you. In these same communities, without exception, neurodiverse is totally safe and won't raise an eyebrow.

People go with what's practical.

Also "Neurodiverse" is just a group label for the "mentally disabled" as a whole, and also non-disabled people with disabled characteristics, and for disabled people who hate the word disabled because of the stigma attached to it.

[burnished]

Same reason you use whatever labels you prefer; to express themselves both as an individual and as part of a group.

[binbashthefash]

Because Asperger's was removed from the DSM for being invented by a Nazi.

https://time.com/5255779/asperger-syndrome-nazi-germany-hist...