Maxis performed an exorcism on The Sims 4's cursed main menu

Among the many unearned stereotypes about millennials, the one unanimous truth is that we are horrified by unexpected phone calls. And getting repeated unexpected calls? Well I may just choose to chuck my phone out a window. Maxis has harnessed that primal fear and brought it to life in the guise of The Sims 4's notorious "Ring Ring Girl", now an official Sim you can download from the gallery and harbinger of a main menu game update.

The much reviled Ring Ring Girl has been on The Sims 4's start menu for a while, torturing players with her adoring gaze every time they boot up. She may seem overbearing, obsessive even, but she was honestly just delivering genuine advice that you can check your Sim's phone to get them a job or call their friends. 

Maxis rolled out a small game update yesterday to overhaul the game's start menu and with it, unleashed Ring Ring Girl.

She's everywhere. She's calling you. Why aren't you answering? Won't you just look at your Sim's phone?

Obviously everyone noticed Ring Ring Girl's rise to prominence. Obviously they were all horrified. Obviously they expressed their terror on Twitter and on Reddit.

Maxis doubled down on the Ring Ring Girl takeover and decided to offer her up as a downloadable Sim on the public gallery. Her name is Callia Maebey and she is erratic, self-absorbed, high maintenance, and aspires to be a friend to the world. Yes, she is a reference to a 2012 meme. She truly is the light and dark of millennial Simmers.

I briefly feared that players would give in to their worst instincts and start tossing Ring Ring Girl into pools without ladders, but it turns out Callia doesn't need to fear retribution. Opting for creation rather than destruction, Simmers have decided to give her a makeover, deploying favorite hairstyles, fashions, and no shortage of Sims 4 CC to make her vibe a little less, ah, intense.

In the midst of all the Callia fever was yesterday's actual game update to The Sims 4. In its patch notes for April 26, Maxis explains some new modular main menu features. The big one, relatively speaking, is that you can now start playing your last saved Sim directly from the menu instead of loading a world and then continuing, which will let you skip an intermediary loading screen.

The Sims 4 main menu is now back to normal, or new normal, anyway. Callia has gotten the boot, but she's found a new legacy in everyone's save games instead.

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