Dying of embarassment, etc

I agree with you. 

You don't continue to cook and add food to the menu when a restaurant is slow...

EA cooks even when they don't have enough cooks...my point...slow down production and allow maintenance to take place in the game(fixing ongoing bugs).

A lot of summers are still discovering how to play this game after 10+ years.

There's enough DLC to keep us busy while EA makes adjustments and fixes for current bugs in the game.

They don't need to rush new content that's most likely borrowed from other sources in the game. 

I prefer fixing an old game over sugar coating new DLC.

Nightgypsy, fears were not part of the base game until after the high-school years EP.  They replaced the old wants system that people disliked at that time. The current emotional state was a part of the game from day 1. In fact it was what they higly marketed the game to have as the centerpoint these sims. The way sims get into emotional states is based on how you play and they can be influenced by in-game objects as well as how sims act or even their traits. Later they even introduced lot traits that influence the emotional states. I am not saying how you play is wrong, but giving you the heads up on why it happens. 

To get a sim the first level of playful, I actually have to really work hard at it. By doing multiple actions in a row that stack happy moodlets. Like I said, a majority of the time my sims only have the fine moodlet. I don't have mods that alter the emotional states either. One way to avoid it is to not allow so many happy moodlets to stack. One way to help is to purposely not always keep their stats green (like hunger, sleep, or even bladder and hygiene). If you allow them to go yellow and red, it helps to not have them always be happy which will stack to get to the first playful emotional state. Tjey are then concerned about fulfilling the need. I also do not allow my YA to elder sims to take purposely take baths. For some reason they always play in the tub if that is available, so I cue a shower to prevent it. I have only seen the very playful and hysterical emotional states when I worked extremely hard to actually kill a sim for my black widow challenge. That even took me using rewards points to buy the playful potion help me achieve it. Oh and there is a moodlet solver potion in the rewards store, if you really need it.

I hear what you're saying but I'm not going to run my sims with low motives. It ruins many other things. I basically don't have tell them to do anything. They will do everything they need to do to take care of themselves and spend time together and utilize their hobbies and skills and not obsess on any one thing anymore. At least not for long periods of time. They actually take care of their cat too and neither has any animal lover trait. It is kind of beautiful and I can just sit back and watch but instead I decorate and redecorate and get lost in plotting and planning and next thing I know, poof, a dead sim. It seems to happen mostly when they're working out together so I guess I will take away their gym tvs and see if that helps bc I bet they are watching comedy while they work out and then start cracking jokes. I just wish I didn't have to worry about death happening this way. It's rather stressful. I appreciate all of your tips I really do but the only thing that will really solve anything is for EA to give me more control of what features I want in my game instead of forcing everything on me. Options are good and then everyone is happy bc they can use or not use to their hearts desire. Win, win.  

Current emotional states are not going away. In fact they seem to be using them more extensively in a way with the new EP. Emotional states have always been the main gimmick for this iteration since day 1 in 2014. The only other suggestion I have is to look for a mod that disables emotional deaths. I think MCCC has a module for that, but there might be a stand alone mod to help. My first suggestions were how to help in a mod-free game, as some people can't or just don't use mods.

Last night I was working on the event quests and took my sim fishing to get one level of a nature aspiration completed. His son called while he was fishing so I had him take the call. As soon as the the call ended he was instantly in a playful mood. It's just that easy lol. I had him go back to fishing and watched carefully in case any npcs might come by and try to chat with him. Between his mischief and joke cracking it probably wouldn't take much.