Video game Sims 4 gets a bug that makes characters become incestuous

Life simulation game Sims 4 received an update that unintentionally makes characters want to date family members.

The Sims 4, a video game where you can simulate life with digital humans, recently received a few updates. Unfortunately, the updates are causing Sims to want to date their family members, or age rapidly — from child to elderly in a span of minutes.

In The Sims 4, players can create a digital human and raise it through life — help them get a job, find a romantic partner, and do other wholesome endeavours. Or you could trap them in a bathroom and set it on fire, you know, whatever works for you. Developer Electronic Arts recently pushed out a major update for the game which gave all Sims “wants and fears”.

The “wants and fears” system, released with the new High School Years expansion, is designed to give all Sims more personality — they will have one long-term want (such as getting a job or learning a trade), one short-term want (going to the bar or going on a date), and one contextual want (if at a restaurant, for example, to order french fries).

The new Wants and Fears system in Sims 4 could make some of your sims want to date a family member. Picture: Electronic Arts

Unfortunately, a bug in the update is giving Sims the “want” to date their family members. From a mother getting a whim to date her son to twins wanting to date each other, the bug is easily reproducible and has been reported multiple times by players.

While this bug is pretty major, another bug that is equally game-breaking is occurring at the same time. Players who have their Sims’ ageing setting to “short” or “long” are experiencing rapid ageing. If left alone, kids will become adults and adults will become geriatrics in the span of minutes. While players can circumvent this by setting it to “normal”, it’s still annoying to check in on your Sims and find them all in nursing homes.

Both bugs have been addressed by the development team. Quality Designer “SimGuruNick” responded on Twitter stating: “I just wanted to acknowledge that the Want to date a family member is something we know about. We’ve reproduced ourselves, we’re working on it.” The Twitter post continued: “We’re of course working on the aging [sic] bug too.”

Written by Junior Miyai on behalf of GLHF.