EA you are violating your own terms
If you have not updated your game past 1.67 don't buy anymore stuff packs or sets for Sims 3. EA is forcing update if you do. I bought 2 stuff packs and was not able to install them unless I updated...
Forum Discussion
@faytheful
Arriving a little late to this thread but just wanted to say I agree with most everything you have said and while I often frequent these boards/threads on a regular basis I was away for a while learning other things at one point so was never up to date with any new info regards EA/Origin terms and conditions or the 1.69 patch which for me updated even with automatic updates switched off....
Before I type anything further I want to point out have no idea about other gaming companies strategies or terms and conditions of digital games as I only buy and play Sims games and when I started my simming life with Sims 3 ( I believe it was post 2012) I am sure that it was sold as a game that could be played offline? someone please correct me if I am wrong, plus I do not call being able to play offline only after I have been forced to sign into Origin first a truly offline game. Like many other players I live in an area where the internet can be problematic so even a non experienced gamer like me knew I would require the ability to play offline for those reasons.
Fast forward to 2016 and now I have to sign in to Origin to start my 3 game before I can play so if the internet goes down I can no longer fire up my game..this is no good to me as I want to play more if I am waiting for the internet to come back on :)
Then suddenly in one week I had Nvidia informing me I could no longer update my drivers without a verified email address followed by posting messages in my game start up until I found out how to turn that off then finding I had been patched to 1.69 patch and it was no longer possible to either patch back down to 1.67 or play my game without having to sign into Origin first which apparently does not close down Origin entirely even when clicking turn Origin off in game? My question is why? why do we actually need all this going on? surely all this extra stuff going on in the background may have a negative effect on an already sensitive game? In this one week I felt so angry and annoyed at everything I started looking into how I could avoid all this rubbish because I only wanted to play/enjoy a game and never asked for all the rest of it..
Then it truly dawned on me I could now only either re-purchase the whole series on disc or wait for a steam sale to get Origin out of my 3 game and at first was adamant I was going to do nothing as I was not prepared to pay out twice for the same game no matter how much I loved it. This standoff with myself lasted only until I noticed on eBay that ( second hand) game discs were obviously becoming quite rare and the prices of some packs were ridiculous so I spent the next 4-5 days deciding who were the best sellers with the better quality discs and made sure I knew exactly when every auction was ending and how much I wanted to pay for them. I also noticed when searching UK shops and stores for new packs the only ones left at a reasonable price were ones such as town life and movie stuff pack so I purchased those new as they were reasonably priced. Most stores in the UK are selling the digital downloads codes now instead of discs. It took me 5 days in total to obtain the full series on discs at a price I was willing to pay. ( This also included a very good pre 2012 base game disc so nothing has to be registered with Origin to play)
Moving on from that what about the almost requirement to be a computer genius to play this game? When I first started the most I knew about PC's was how to switch one on for work purposes-) I believed the optimal game specs posted by players opposed to the minimum specs outlined by EA prior to purchasing a new desktop however It did not take long after a few game packs came out to realize anything shop bought was not going to cut it so for the first time in my life I contacted a local desktop builder and I started down this very expensive road of PC builds and fortunately for the most part a lot of my game problems went away. So now I have my all singing and dancing desktop build why I am still suffering from glitches and bugs which never appear to be fixed and then found other players also complaining about the same things so honestly at this time I thought this must be how all PC games work in that they must be quite imperfect as I had no experience of playing any other PC games whatsoever. During the many times of seeking a game fix for something if it had not been for our wonderful techie minded players on these forums providing help and information I would have been stuck so I greatly appreciate each and every one of you :)
Another annoyance is the after all these years of EA denying that playing with all packs can cause game lag or similar this is now admitted by adding that sort of message and the opportunity to un-tick game packs for a better game play experience in the launcher..which keeps on un-ticking my packs on a regular basis all by itself for some reason.
All this just to keep continuing playing this game ( we simmers are persistent-) I learn about Mods particularly Nrass mods and start adding a few to my game which helped greatly and in later years add more plus CC to enhance game play..but at the end of the series it was quite obvious some game glitches that could not be fixed by mods alone were just going to be left as they were by a company that has simply moved on to the next series apparently without much thought as to what has been left behind...
After my last most recent PC upgrade ( which coincided with all this other stuff going on) I have gone through nightmare after nightmare trying to play 2&3 series for a variety of reasons which is why at first I could not work out if my problems were from faulty PC parts or the updates/patches or a combination of both but now I am aware what the problem is with my recent upgrade the only possible way I could experience all these other problems is defo down to the new patch and/or the latest Origin upgrade where everything has gone wonky on an almost daily basis to the point I nearly put on a tinfoil hat and swore EA/Origin were deliberately trying to stuff up my 2& 3 games because the only series that was running properly on my system was 4 oh what a surprise I wonder why that game is the only one unaffected?
I also believe these companies are going too far now wanting to meddle in our games our stats and anything else they can dream up in the process to shove down our throats or in our games..
I have decided that if I have to do without one series to get rid of Origin if it keeps causing me these sorts of problems then Origin and 4 will have to go and while that will also take 2 UC with it I have already bought the 2 series on disc now as well so apart from the hassle and any other problems I may run into setting all the disc versions up I think I would finally breath a big sigh of relief to be rid of Origin for once and for all..
Apologies for the novel and when looking over what I have written it makes me realize the time and expense wanting to play these games has cost me ( like many other players I suspect ) so it proves we love out game..
I know many players may have not experienced problems with patches and Origin updates but I know many of my problems started and continue on after both these changes have been made on a regular basis..
Arriving a little late to this thread but just wanted to say I agree with most everything you have said and while I often frequent these boards/threads on a regular basis I was away for a while learning other things at one point so was never up to date with any new info regards EA/Origin terms and conditions or the 1.69 patch which for me updated even with automatic updates switched off....
Before I type anything further I want to point out have no idea about other gaming companies strategies or terms and conditions of digital games as I only buy and play Sims games and when I started my simming life with Sims 3 ( I believe it was post 2012) I am sure that it was sold as a game that could be played offline? someone please correct me if I am wrong, plus I do not call being able to play offline only after I have been forced to sign into Origin first a truly offline game. Like many other players I live in an area where the internet can be problematic so even a non experienced gamer like me knew I would require the ability to play offline for those reasons.
Fast forward to 2016 and now I have to sign in to Origin to start my 3 game before I can play so if the internet goes down I can no longer fire up my game..this is no good to me as I want to play more if I am waiting for the internet to come back on :)
Then suddenly in one week I had Nvidia informing me I could no longer update my drivers without a verified email address followed by posting messages in my game start up until I found out how to turn that off then finding I had been patched to 1.69 patch and it was no longer possible to either patch back down to 1.67 or play my game without having to sign into Origin first which apparently does not close down Origin entirely even when clicking turn Origin off in game? My question is why? why do we actually need all this going on? surely all this extra stuff going on in the background may have a negative effect on an already sensitive game? In this one week I felt so angry and annoyed at everything I started looking into how I could avoid all this rubbish because I only wanted to play/enjoy a game and never asked for all the rest of it..
Then it truly dawned on me I could now only either re-purchase the whole series on disc or wait for a steam sale to get Origin out of my 3 game and at first was adamant I was going to do nothing as I was not prepared to pay out twice for the same game no matter how much I loved it. This standoff with myself lasted only until I noticed on eBay that ( second hand) game discs were obviously becoming quite rare and the prices of some packs were ridiculous so I spent the next 4-5 days deciding who were the best sellers with the better quality discs and made sure I knew exactly when every auction was ending and how much I wanted to pay for them. I also noticed when searching UK shops and stores for new packs the only ones left at a reasonable price were ones such as town life and movie stuff pack so I purchased those new as they were reasonably priced. Most stores in the UK are selling the digital downloads codes now instead of discs. It took me 5 days in total to obtain the full series on discs at a price I was willing to pay. ( This also included a very good pre 2012 base game disc so nothing has to be registered with Origin to play)
Moving on from that what about the almost requirement to be a computer genius to play this game? When I first started the most I knew about PC's was how to switch one on for work purposes-) I believed the optimal game specs posted by players opposed to the minimum specs outlined by EA prior to purchasing a new desktop however It did not take long after a few game packs came out to realize anything shop bought was not going to cut it so for the first time in my life I contacted a local desktop builder and I started down this very expensive road of PC builds and fortunately for the most part a lot of my game problems went away. So now I have my all singing and dancing desktop build why I am still suffering from glitches and bugs which never appear to be fixed and then found other players also complaining about the same things so honestly at this time I thought this must be how all PC games work in that they must be quite imperfect as I had no experience of playing any other PC games whatsoever. During the many times of seeking a game fix for something if it had not been for our wonderful techie minded players on these forums providing help and information I would have been stuck so I greatly appreciate each and every one of you :)
Another annoyance is the after all these years of EA denying that playing with all packs can cause game lag or similar this is now admitted by adding that sort of message and the opportunity to un-tick game packs for a better game play experience in the launcher..which keeps on un-ticking my packs on a regular basis all by itself for some reason.
All this just to keep continuing playing this game ( we simmers are persistent-) I learn about Mods particularly Nrass mods and start adding a few to my game which helped greatly and in later years add more plus CC to enhance game play..but at the end of the series it was quite obvious some game glitches that could not be fixed by mods alone were just going to be left as they were by a company that has simply moved on to the next series apparently without much thought as to what has been left behind...
After my last most recent PC upgrade ( which coincided with all this other stuff going on) I have gone through nightmare after nightmare trying to play 2&3 series for a variety of reasons which is why at first I could not work out if my problems were from faulty PC parts or the updates/patches or a combination of both but now I am aware what the problem is with my recent upgrade the only possible way I could experience all these other problems is defo down to the new patch and/or the latest Origin upgrade where everything has gone wonky on an almost daily basis to the point I nearly put on a tinfoil hat and swore EA/Origin were deliberately trying to stuff up my 2& 3 games because the only series that was running properly on my system was 4 oh what a surprise I wonder why that game is the only one unaffected?
I also believe these companies are going too far now wanting to meddle in our games our stats and anything else they can dream up in the process to shove down our throats or in our games..
I have decided that if I have to do without one series to get rid of Origin if it keeps causing me these sorts of problems then Origin and 4 will have to go and while that will also take 2 UC with it I have already bought the 2 series on disc now as well so apart from the hassle and any other problems I may run into setting all the disc versions up I think I would finally breath a big sigh of relief to be rid of Origin for once and for all..
Apologies for the novel and when looking over what I have written it makes me realize the time and expense wanting to play these games has cost me ( like many other players I suspect ) so it proves we love out game..
I know many players may have not experienced problems with patches and Origin updates but I know many of my problems started and continue on after both these changes have been made on a regular basis..
