🐸 Streaming in Protest: Why I’m Reclaiming The Sims 4 for Animal Welfare

By Christian Pace The recent $55 billion buyout of EA by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners, and Silver Lake has sent shockwaves through the gaming community especially The Sims gamers—and for good reason. This isn’t just a corporate reshuffle. It’s a consolidation of power by entities linked to regimes that actively persecute LGBTQ+ people, suppress dissent, and profit from systemic violence.

As someone who creates educational content around animal welfare and systemic change, I can’t ignore this. I won’t.

🧠 Why This Matters

The Sims 4 has long been a space for creativity, diversity, and storytelling. But when the platform itself becomes entangled with oppressive power structures, continuing to support it financially feels like complicity.

I’m not alone in this concern. Major creators like Lilsimsie, Plumbella, and James Turner have stepped away from the EA Creator Network, citing values misalignment and ethical discomfort. Their decision reflects a growing awareness that our digital spaces are not neutral—and that our choices as creators matter.

🐾 My Plan Going Forward

I’m not in the EA Creater Network and still make no money from my live streams, but I am not abandoning The Sims 4. I’m reclaiming it, because I am also sure this too shall pass.

• No more official DLC purchases: I will not financially support a company now owned by entities that persecute real people.

• No Horse Ranch, no Cottage Living: I will find other games that allow me to explore the welfare of livestock and wild animals without funding injustice.

• Custom content and mod creators only: I will promote and use community-made content that reflects creativity, ethics, and resistance.

• Streaming in protest: I will continue live streaming The Sims 4—but defiantly. My Sim will wear a frog costume. I will use in-game features to talk about animal welfare, systemic harm, and the politics of indifference.

This isn’t just gameplay. It’s protest. It’s education. It’s refusal to bend the knee.

🧩 Why It’s Bigger Than Gaming

The systems that harm animals are the same ones that harm people. They’re built on exploitation, silence, and spectacle. By refusing to fund those systems, even in our leisure, we send a message: that joy, creativity, and advocacy can coexist—and that we won’t be silenced.

So if you see a frog-costumed Sim ranting about ethics on stream, know this: it’s not just a game. It’s a stand.

A protester in a frog costume stands in front of a line of federal law enforcement officers outside a United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland, Oregon, on October 6, 2025.Photograph: Stephen Lam; Getty Images