Will Wright on gender-inclusive design

One of the things we fundamentally decided when we designed the first Sims was that we wanted people to be able to put in their family, no matter what kind of family it was, without any judgments, like, "Oh, we don't allow those kinds of families in our games." In general, we try to make our games... not as politically correct, but as inclusive as possible. The same thing is true just in general gender issues. The only difference between males and females in The Sims is whether they leave the toilet seat up. Otherwise, they have the same social abilities, the same sexual options, whatever. The idea is that games should promote some sort of gender equality, especially in a game like this, where players are meant to read in and become the authors.... If the game itself is an open vessel that we want the players to pour their own imaginations into, then it feels like we want to put the least number of limitations on that system as we can get away with.

From The Onion A.V. Club (via Robin Hunicke)