Gay Sims easter egg and controversy in SimCopter

Jaques Servin, aka Andy Bichlbaum, of the culture jamming activist group The Yes Men and co-founder of RTMark (as Ray Thomas), was a programmer on Maxis’s SimCopter. Partly as a response to company working conditions and partly as a RTMark-sponsored prank, he inserted code that caused SimCopter cities to be populated by a bunch of men wearing swim trunks, holding hands, and kissing on specific dates of the year (including his birthday, his boyfriend’s birthday, and Friday the 13th). Reportedly, the male characters showed up more often than intended, and in greater numbers. A video of this Easter Egg is available here.

The Easter Egg was found after the game shipped and Servin was fired for adding the content to the game. Subsequent versions of the game were distributed without the content. A game patch also removed the content for players who had already purchased the game (Masaki, 2007). ACT UP, a direct-action AIDS activist organization, called for a boycott of the company until he was rehired, but Servin indicated he had no desire to return to Maxis.

 

Citations:

  1. Easter Egg (media). (n.d.). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_egg_(media)
  2. Frauenfelder, M. (1997, April 8). Secret Prankster Fund Goes Public. Wired. http://archive.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/1997/04/2997
  3. G., C. and Cantrell, M. A. (2012, March 26). The 5 ballsiest Easter Eggs hidden in video games. Cracked. http://www.cracked.com/article_19745_the-5-ballsiest-easter-eggs-hidden-in-video-games.html
  4. Lazy Game Reviews. (2015, May 15). LGR- SimCopter-PC Game Review. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4mh7Pc5MSI&feature=youtu.be&t=8m19s
  5. Masaki, L. (2007, June 6). Whatever Happened to…the man behind the SimCopter’s gay “easter egg”? The Backlot. http://www.thebacklot.com/whatever-happened-to-the-man-behind-simcopters-gay-easter-egg/06/2007/
  6.  An interview with Jacques Servin. (n.d.). http://libcom.org/history/interview-jacques-servin
  7. RTMark. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RTMark
  8. Silberman, S. (1996, December 11). Boycott Maxis? ‘Absurd,’ Fired Programmer Says. Wired. http://archive.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/1996/12/915
  9. SimCopter. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimCopter
  10. The Yes Men. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yes_Men