OK...
I found the old EA Answers HQ thread from 2016 that gave me the answers in the past and I even found my comments about it. It still kind of sucks because it means that I would have to install an older version of Origins to get it to work.
The forum thread was for the time the Origin launcher pop up page stopped working and there was nothing but a blank screen for many of us. We couldn't play the game back then. But not only were we showed how to play without Origin being launched but the blank screen problem eventually got completely fixed.
I don't want to install the old version of Origin this time around. You couldn't purchase anything with the older program. And now you absolutely have to have the newer version of Origin to purchase Sims points or game packs. The old method might make more problems for me than solving the issue of playing the Sims 3 when I unexpectedly have no WiFi whatsoever. 🤔
