Playing without internet access the sims 3

@gtrgrl I've moved your post into its own thread, since the original thread was several years old, and Origin has changed quite a lot since then.

The way Origin works, you're supposed to be able to sign in while offline and then play your game.  The catch is that you can't uninstall Origin, or clear your cache, after you disconnect from the internet, because then Origin won't have your login data anymore.  But you're not the only one who's recently had trouble trying to play while offline.  A couple of weeks ago, I asked around on behalf of someone else, and based on what I was told, I wrote out this advice:

So if you could try these steps, you should be able to login while your computer is offline.

• If you haven't already, clear Origin's cache, then uninstall Origin the hard way.
• Delete the OriginThinSetup from your computer's Downloads folder, then download Origin again and install it.
• Login to Origin while connected to the internet. Check the option to "keep me signed in."
• Launch TS3 while online. This may have been the missing step.
• Quit TS3, put Origin into offline mode, and close it. You can disconnect from the internet now.
• Do not clear Origin's cache again, or it will erase your login data.
• Restart your computer and try to login to Origin while offline.

(Here's the full thread.)

The person who I replied to hasn't responded since, so I have no idea whether it helped.  But you could try; if it doesn't work, I'll pass that information along and see if there's anything else you can do.

As far as playing without ever having to login, yes, you could theoretically do so with a disc install.  However, you'd need a base game disc manufactured before September 2012, and disc copies of all the packs you owned.  Even one digital install would force you onto patch 1.69 and back to the mandatory Origin tie-in.  There's also no guarantee that your computer would authenticate discs; some newer ones don't cooperate well.

Additionally, you'd need to be online long enough to download the Super Patch and run it to patch your game to 1.67, or you'd have a mismatch in patch levels among your base game and various packs.  This could make the game completely unplayable.  The Super Patch wouldn't force you onto patch 1.69, though.

The otehr alternative is to buy the game from Steam.  You'd need to be online the first time you launched it, so that Steam could authenticate your install, but after that, you could play entirely offline, and without even logging into Steam in the first place.  I switched to a Steam install seven months ago, and I've been launching my game via a TS3w.exe shortcut ever since; the only time I've signed into Steam was to gift a friend.

As it happens, Steam has a sale going on right now (it ends January 3 at 10 am PST/6 pm UTC), and the base game and all packs are $5 U.S. each.  In fact, there are a couple of bundles that are even cheaper: one for the base game, Pets, Seasons, and Generations; and another for stuff packs.  (Steam doesn't sell Katy Perry's Sweet Treats, but it has every other pack.)

For both disc and Steam installs, you could register your codes in Origin and get 1,000 extra SimPoints each for the base game and World Adventures; this wouldn't affect your ability to play while offline.  You could also reinstall all of your store content, although you'd need to track down the store content patches (which is doable).  All custom content would work as well.

P.S.  All of this assumes you're running Windows, since you don't need to sign into Origin to play in mac OS.  But that's not really a viable solution either, especially with all packs installed—TS3 in mac OS can only use 2 GB RAM, and it's almost impossible to run Pets and Seasons without your game going over the memory limit and crashing.