I like a mix because I don't want everybody in town looking the same and I don't really think of sims being a certain race. I just like to create totally different looking sims so I don't have a town of clones.

I normally make Asians or whites. Just because I'm obsessed with Japanese/Korean culture. Then my families become a huge mix because I start marrying random game peoples that EA gives me.

The Sim I'm playing with right now is Asian The other sim I occasionally play with is black. I don't limit myself to the "race" I just make them look like whatever I want.

I'm white/caucasian btw :P

I've known people whose skin tone was so dark it was very nearly coal black. I also once had a neighbor who was an albino, and although his skin was not truly snow white, it was very, very close. He sunburned super easily. Humans come in a wide variety of skin tones beyond minor shade differences.

Yeah, that's largely why I didn't finish the survey. I have sims of all skin colours, sure; but not many of them really have a race - I don't think about the bone structures, body types, facial features and so on which are common in particular races, when I'm making or marrying sims. Without all that it's pretty impossible to define a sim's race, so I can't get much more detailed than "black", "white", "Scottish white", "tan", "olive", "mixed" (as in mixed white and black/Indian, as that's what mixed race means in my part of the world) and so on.

Unless I have something specific in mind like Oriental, Western Asian, Eastern Asian, Indian, Scandinavian, African, European, North American... and a lot of other ethnicities I might have missed mentioning, my created sims are usually boring old light to medium tan. I never play with canned EA sims because I don't like them. Just to test my understanding - are you looking for "races" as in black, white, yellow, red or ethnic backgrounds because they're two different things to me. I tend to be more specific in my sims ethnicity than their race. So if I need to create an African American sim, that's what I create... they don't need to be black... they can be chocolate or cafe au lait ... does that make sense?

Thank you everyone for your responses! I didn't expect to get this much response!

I do have to agree with what all of you are saying about it being skin tones in the Sims and not necessarily race. As I've learned, race is not something that is biological, it is something that we create. We create our identities and the views that we have on others. That is why I think the Sims is so great, because the actual game doesn't discriminate against skin tones. It's us as players who construct those differences, and I'm not saying that's in a bad or a good way. It's whatever you make of it!

I read an article early in the semester about how people are attracted to those of the same race. And I thought that was a pretty true statement, obviously with plenty of exceptions. That's why I was curious to see how much we project ourselves onto the game based on that natural attraction. Honestly I guess that's why most of my games start out with a white male. I like that I'm finding out that most people's games are pretty diverse, especially with the help of the random generators and the stories that are created. Kudos!

I also apologize if the survey offends anyone. I don't mean to...I'm just trying to collect information. To make it clear, I'm someone who very much realizes the beauty of each individual person, and that we are all human. No matter our background, we all have the same basic need to be loved. That's the philosophy that I live my life off! Thanks again for all your answers

I use all kinds of different skin colours. I always make them after what ethnicity I want them to be, i.e African with African features.

And I then love to mix them together with a another ethnicity like a light skinned Russian person and see the outcome Makes for some very beautiful sims, and people in real life!

I am an African-American and I did start off playing more darker skin tones in my game, but after a while I started making sims of all skin tones. I have them from pale with very light hair color to darkest skin that I can get away with and still see the features and may have white hair. I make them with features from all over the world when I look at pictures and want to try those facial features in my game. Also I make fantasy sims too, with green, blue, red skins from light to dark. Every sim I create I do play them a while before going to another household. I do love seeing how the town change after a few generations, even though I don't play the same sim for generations.

My sims are supposed to be aliens. Sady, I cannot find an ingame skin that matches their right tone. One is supposed to be fuschia, the other silvery. I can't wait until the next expansion so I can make sims that suit my vision!

I don't think it's necessarily an accurate view of diversity. I have dark brown sims with purple hair and much paler peach sims with blue hair. Those really don't fit any of the criteria. All my sims are fantasy, even those that look like their coloring could be based on real life races. Although I will say, I have a distinct lack of Asian facial features in my game, because I find them incredibly difficult to replicate in game.

But I find Sims who look too much like you are creepy and weird to play. I get too worried about who they'd marry and if the other Sim is pretty and I want to control every part of their lives. I like playing sims that are obviously not me. I get more detached to their story, until I play them enough to let their traits show, and then I get very attached.

I usually make sims of different racial backgrounds or mixed because life would gets boring playing a with a sim that mimics the way I look. I do have to say that I have a lot more mixed race couples in my game than others probably do. I guess that is just the environment I live in that I have projected in the game. As far as playing individual sims, I play with sims from every spectrum of the rainbow.

Interesting way to go about the assignment! I just took the survey. I'm white (very, very pale white to be specific) and I do play white sims, but I do play a good amount of other races/'ethnicities' as well. I put 'ethnicities' in quotations because the only thing to go on in sims is their appearance and your perception/intentions, so aside from WA-related sims, all ethnicity is pretty much imagined.

That being said, my last legacy was hispanic (I was thinking Mexican as I played them). My current legacy started off Welsh (using Welsh names, anyway), but is now about half black. I'm playing the Nothing is Free challenge, so everyone is pretty much related, and variety is pretty difficult to achieve as your only options for procreation for the first few generations are pizza guys/girls and mailpeople. The family tree has mostly white and black sims, with a few asian descent sims more recently (I was just able to send my sim to Shang Simla) and even more recently three sims of Egyptian descent (I sent another sim to Al Simhara and he married a local and they have two children with two more on the way). My towns are usually rather diverse. My starting sim just depends on a look I'm aiming for, and sometimes it's a very dark girl, sometimes it's a very pale guy, sometimes it's somewhere in the middle. I'm the same way with the sexual orientation of my sims.

Cool survey. I play a lot of different-coloured sims (my go-to-sims are medium skin, and I'm white) but when I actually have a specific ethnicity/country in mind, I spend hours in CAS to make sure I get their features right beyond hair or skin colour. Right now I play a (very stereotypical) Indian family: I made Aishawarya, a very Indian looking sim, moved her to a small house, put her into the Medical Career, married Rehman Sagar (who looks kind of Indian-ish, I figure he's half.) and now....well they areboth workaholics, they rarely see each other. Aishawarya has started wanting a child, but Rehman has Commitment Issues, so no want from him yet.

Actually race really is biological. It's very important in medicine because people with different racial backgrounds may be more or less prone to developing certain health conditions. Culture is also very important to consider in practicing medicine, but that's a different topic.

I play in a custom southwestern small town so most of my town's inhabitants are Latino, Native American, or mixed. The Caucasians are definitely outnumbered. I even filled the bin with Latino looking sims so that they would be created by Story Progression when new members moved into town.

While I completed the survey, I realized that it really did apply to some of my games, because I tend to play with themes. If I make a Pacific Islander-type sim, I usually play them with a tribal theme for a legacy or challenge.

Of course, the grand majority of my sims are unnaturally rainbow-colored, so a good chunk of my gaming was also non-applicable. :D

I understand where you're coming from but we ascribe race to biology. It's been scientifically proven that people of the same race are just as genetically different as two people of different races. Skin color doesn't effect what goes on inside of our bodies. It's the environment (such as socioeconomic status, geographic regions, etc.) that contributes to different health conditions. We just tend to assume that can be determined by a certain racial category but I believe it goes much deeper than that. (Sorry....I'm very much in the sociology paper writing mindset right now )

My five favorite Sims I have made so far in Sims 3 are a Middle-Eastern/Italian/Spanish guy, a Hungarian bisexual vampire woman, and three Asians (I was totally unable to make Asian Sims in Sims 2 so when I got Sims 3 I got a little crazy). In Sims 2 one of my absolute favorite Sims was an Indian witch. I also really enjoy non-human characters, which is why I'm loving these rumors about a magic EP because this means my neighborhood is going to EXPLODE with supernaturals! I try to make the other Sims in my neighborhoods racially/ethnically diverse, but mostly I do leave it up to Story Progression. I do play lots of sexually diverse characters, though, mostly bisexuals (self-projection).

Took the survey and advertised it on my simblr - hope you do well on your task!

Thank you! I appreciate it

I'm an Asian male, born to Chinese parents, but raised in a white American society in an area where people who look like me are a very tiny minority (1.5%). However, the majority of sims I make are Caucasian, followed by Indian. I also tend to make 3 times as many females than males. Contrary to most people, I find myself most attracted to people who DON'T look like me, so that's probably why I always feel like making White and Indian women because I find them very attractive! However, my towns do tend to be much more ethnically diverse than where I live in real life. I enjoy making sims that are Asians, Blacks, Whites, Indians, Native Americans, pretty much every major race, and mixes of races.

Perhaps because I'm a minority myself, that I'm very cognizant of race. When I create a new sim, I always think about what race the sim is, what his or her ethnic background is. I usually stick to real life races, because I often see interesting facial features unique to a person of a certain race, and I want to try to capture that in my sim. I appreciate and embrace real life differences in peoples' looks, their background, and culture, and I want that in my game. That's why I usually even take it a bit further, for example, my sims can be Russian, Italian, French, Irish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, African, Middle Eastern, etc. One of the reasons I installed Twallan's Storyprogression and Register was to end immigration, as I don't like random computer-generated sims that aren't a realistic race - like very dark sims with Caucasian features and straight blonde hair. No human exists like that, naturally. Granted, I do occasionally dabble with fantasy races like aliens or elves, but I feel like it's different because they're not human.

I grew up very well assimilated, all my friends are white, I married a white girl, and I don't identify with my parents' culture or speak a lick of Mandarin Chinese at all. However, I recognize there are subtle and not-so-subtle differences in how people treat me, and my experiences growing up as a minority were definitely different. It makes me feel different, and I realize that I am different. I think most other minorities feel the same way. This is why I don't agree with a colorblind ideology in real life or in my game. It feels as though when people try to diminish or ignore that such differences exist, it makes these differences seem like a negative thing when it very much isn't. I know a lot of people think racial colorblindness is the same as being "not racist", but In fact, a colorblind ideology is often considered a form of racism in itself. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog...-is-form-racism

Most diseases attributed to race, such as sickle cell, are genetic. This means they are passed down through families. The chance of someone having the disease increases if more than one family member has the disease so therefore, the disease is more prominent of people of certain ethnic backgrounds. But people who are considered Caucasion can carry the gene for sickle cell if they have African ancestors. So it is not race that makes some groups of people more susceptible to disease, it is genetics.

I have a daughter who looks biracial (African/Caucasion) but she also has Native American and Spanish ethnicity. Genetically, she could carry the gene for any diseases that is prominent in one of her ethnic backgrounds. I am white and as far back as I know, my family is white, from very white cultures (Swiss/German). So it is unlikely that I would carry the gene for a disease common among Africans or Native Americans.

Well....so many answers to this question....here goes....

I am Caribbean American *Black for all y'all that hates political correctness*. My avatar pic is my simself, and she is in every city/hood I create.
My HUSBAND is a German national. So white he doesn't even tan! He somehow always makes it into my city, too....but he never gets with my simself....hmmmmm
We have 5 children...and NONE OF THEM have the same eye or hair color! It's freaky!! so anyways, in my city/hood *especially the custom hood I play* tends to be extremely diverse. Races I am unskilled in creating, I download. *Did I mention my daughter married a Korean American?? Baby due any minute??*

I play the world my kids live in......one that celebrates our differences as much as our similarities.

Keep in mind there are other reasons there might be low diversity in the games. For instance, up until recently I had a skintone that absolutely would not make realistic-looking black people. At all. It looked like you dipped them in brown plastic. So I didn't make them, because when I did they looked like crap. If the super palest shades had looked like plastic instead, I probably would have wound up with neighborhoods of medium-to-dark sims.

And of course, there's the longrunning problem of it being completely freaking impossible to find decent ethnic hairs.