Xmiramira has slammed The Sims 4 over lack of vibrant skin tones.
The Twitch star - whose real names is Amira Virgil - regularly streams the virtual dollhouse game to her 50,000 followers on the platform but admitted that while the game is known for its customisable content, she finds the skin tone of black characters to be "washed-out."
She said: "There’s like this gray, ashy-like undertone, and looking at it is the equivalent of nails on a chalkboard for me. Where’s the undertones? Where is the contrast? Where’s the vibrance? [On Twitch] we always like to make jokes about how sims look ashy as hell all the time."
The gaming expert got "so tired" of not being able to create the characters she really wanted to that she took to 'modding' - a modification process whereby a fan can alter settings of a game through third-party software - in order to create what she wanted.
She told The Verge: "I got tired of not being able to create the type of content that I wanted to create in The Sims 4. I wanted to fit what I know people look like in real life. I would use Photoshop to edit the skin tones, edit the files, and then use the programs that the community made to export and test."
Amara went on to explain that her work - along with others from The Sims modding community -became so popular that it was noticed by EA - the developers of the video games franchise - and it caused them to "overhaul the art in their base game" to become more inclusive.
She said: "I’d highlight them, put [their artwork] in the game, then they got like traction on their stuff. It was like an exchange. EA actually overhauled their base game with more inclusive art. Now there’s Black folks in the art, there’s people of color in the art. There’s queer couples in the art. But [poor representation in video games] is damn near everything. My mom always taught me ‘Be the change you want to see,. So that's what I do."
