28 years of life, over 25 years as a devoted player, and I give up.

You pay a subscription fee for the game? Personally, I use the EA app for free and have not spent money on the game in almost 2 years. I only buy packs that fit my style of gameplay when they are at 50% off or more. I can even update my own game without spending money. It is up to each person that they spend on video games as a form of entertainment. As a Gen X, I have played the franchise since my early 20s. I do get that the game may disappoint some people, but that is a personal issue they need to explore.

• The Sims 3 : $2000
• The Sims 4 : $1500

Both games are broken, these $3500 seem to be a "bad investment" so it's not surprising if long-term players decide to leave after being patient for decades.

And I don't count the other bad investments :

• Mass Effect Andromeda
• Anthem
• Dragon Age The Veilguard
• Star Wars The Old Republic
• SimCity (2013)
• Apex Legends

This situation does not work in EA's favor.

How about us who already have bought packs and have a "full" game?  Do you really believe we would accept someone else to get their missing packs for free, just because they had some pause playing? 😆

OP I feel like some simmers have been rude to you in this thread. 

Your opinion matters and there is no argument when you are expressing your opinion on how you feel about the game. 

people need a place like Off Topic to blow steam and it looks like some of these simmers took their steam off on you. 

You have every right to post how you feel about the game and I would just ignore any simmers that have upset you with their comments in this thread. I agree with you on most of your points.

I love your avi by the way!❤️

I don't understand why somebody expects a popular game as Sims 4, just to stand still. It's expected to go forward and to explore more ways for the players to enjoy their game. I've played the Sims from the start 25 years ago and find it satisfactory to spend some time playing the Sims 4. The new feature to not have all packs active at the same time, open up new "old" ways to enjoy the game. So in my humble opinion, nobody needs all the packs to have fun! - BTW California is a very expensive state to live in, I just wonder when EA leaves it.

Parenthood, Growing Together, and My Wedding Stories came out 5 and 6 years from each other. How on earth "could they" have been one pack, short of a time machine? Parenthood was developed in 2016 and came out in 2017. My Wedding Stories was developed in 2021 and came out in 2022. How could they have EVER been the same?

Even if we agree they make sense together, that doesn't mean they "could have been one pack". They were developed years apart...with different budgets...by people in different countries. You can't look at multiple packs, say "These make sense together thematically if you squint", and declare "therefore, it is a problem they came out separately". That's patently unfair.

GTW, the very first pack for the entire series, "could have been" one pack with B&H and EL, the two latest packs released TEN YEARS LATER? Come on, you have to be fair here, that doesn't make any sense. And that's without even getting into the gritty details of how these packs work, like B&H relying on systems that didn't exist in the game for 8+ years. B&H can't exist without For Rent's development giving the game the means to split up buildings, for example. The means to *make* B&H did not exist 10 years ago. 

I get how you're feeling OP and yes they are splitting up content when others could've been in one content or just content is missing

. like I get how the occults can be split up because they use different gameplay and as such but what about Parenthood, GrT and MWS could have been included in one pack. GTW, and B&H, and EL could've been one pack. CL and FR could've been one pack. 

Stuff missing GrT is missing strollers, HSY simmers wanted an interactive classroom the entire pack is about school however the main theme is hollow and what's worse B&H has it, also a rabbit hole football game like DU, Pool tables are still missing, the sprinklers, trampoline, kids playing tag, miss Mary Mack, playing make believe. 

No one is forcing you to buy anything. All purchases are voluntary last I checked.

The Sims 4 is pretty much in a monopoly, even though there are competitors showing up now. And the game is also heavily monetized.

My advice, which is something that realized myself is don't play only The Sims 4, play other games for variety or have other hobbies. When you do that then it's easier to choose to not engage with their content. Being dependent on just one game monetized by a large corporation like EA is not a good thing.

And also do what you think makes you feel better, don't let others decide if you should be having fun playing with a game or not. I am not happy with the development for the sims4 and no sims5 in development either.

Your mental health and you feeling well matters, focus on that.

beachandrats​ looking at it a different way, what type of player are you? That's if you have a certain gameplay style? Certain packs might appeal to your style and some may not. So for example my gameplay style centres around building lots, neighbourhoods and family networks. My favourite type of Sims are collectors and crafters who travel around a lot, have pets and have family members in different places. I also prefer them to be self employed. So certain packs fit my gameplay style like Horse Ranch, Cottage Living, Island Living, Business and Hobbies, Eco Lifestyle. Also as a builder I'm all about kits. I'm not a big occult player and have Werewolves and Vampires purely for the content, I don't play those Sims and clear most of them out (but I do love Greg 🐺 and the werewolf lore). These things also occupy me and help me relax with my disability when I'm stuck indoors quite a bit.

To be honest even if someone handed you all the packs free right now it would be a lot and I mean a lot to handle. Packs like Growing Together, Business and Hobbies, For Rent and Enchanted by Nature for example add loads of new gameplay mechanics that are IMO best integrated into the game one at a time. I'm still catching up with Business and Hobbies and haven't even gotten into fairy gameplay yet except for the new skills.

So my advice would be to look at packs that fit your style. Seek any advice you need from the forum and when it comes to the expansion packs take a bit of time with each one. You can also browse our bug reports to see which packs still have some issues, like For Rent.