Serious Feedback from longtime, all packs player
Developers, this is something you need to hear. I've played the Sims since The Sims 1. I have all the Sims 4 packs up to the latest. I buy every kit and pack so that I can download lots and sims off of the Exchange and not have anything missing. I play with all the packs active at the same time. I know we're not supposed to do that. But I don't want stuff missing. I bought a gaming laptop just to play the Sims 4 on it.
I'm burned out, I don't want to buy any more. The game is getting boring, it's been boring for years and the new packs aren't helping. I spend more time watching YouTube videos and downloading mods for The Sims 4 than actually playing it. I have at least 2.5 gigabites of mods, and the game itself is about 65 G so far, creeping up to taking up 70 GB of space. My computer can't take much more. I'm getting notifications that my computer's memory is getting full and I can't add more. The cost of the Sims 4 packs and kits are too expensive for what they are too.
The modders giving away free stuff actually make the game worth playing. But after getting so much free stuff from them I don't want to pay for it. I refuse microtransactions for a base game or as a part of the game to be able to play it. If a Sims game has microtransactions I will not play it. So I'm not interested in whatever new microtransaction games you have in development. Forget it.
There are so many bugs in the Sims 4 still too.
Why don't you look at what modders are creating to fix the bugs? Like LilMissSam, just look at everything she made for free that has "fix" in the title. Buy them from her, or just incorporate them into the game. Her fixes have been out for years and she updates them after every patch. So many modders do. Creators and modders are carrying this franchise.
But I'm burned out having to update my mods all the time. I do have The Sims 4 Mod manager and CurseForge are helping to update my mods, but most mods aren't on there and it's still a lot of work to update and check so many mods. Every time I have to update my mods it's a sense of dread. I want the bugs fixed BEFORE packs are released. I want all the bugs fixed at once, years ago, not a little here and a little there every two months.
The modders are what make the game fun and interesting. I can go get BetterSims or other personality rewrites that change gameplay. But once again, my computer can't handle so much.
Paying modders and creators for their work is a great idea, but after getting so much content for free from modders and creators, I'm not going to start buying it for The Sims 4.
Just start over with The Sims 5. I know you said you want to invest in The Sims 4 instead for another decade (ugh), and that there will be no Sims 5. Which is ridiculous. Just take the game mechanics of The Sims 2 and update it with graphics from the Sims 4, with added paint options for faces, hair, and clothes so they can be painted by hand in game. Add more sliders, and have all categories existing from the beginning. Work on it to start off by having a full, finished product with tons of content included, with NO BUGS, and have all the modders upload their extra creations and mods to the exchange to be purchased at very little amounts. Like 10 cents an outfit or something with most money going to the creator. Or make it all free and add a tip option and take 5% of the tip or whatever Patreon does. When things are updated, have them update in all our games automatically. That's the only way I would end up paying for more stuff. Only if it starts out that way before the free content exists.
There is something called the limit of trust, a level where people drop companies and their products. Once that limit is reached, customers don't come back.
You have reached that limit. If you increase price, or have more bugs on released expansions, or add f-ing microtransactions obviously exploiting your fanbase, then we're out. And we're not coming back. We're fed up. Tread carefully.
I'm going to go check out the other life simulators. We don't really feel like EA is investing enough in their Sims products. It's hard to care about the product when it feels like the company itself doesn't care about the product, just money and deadlines. Who is killing the Sims? There is so little content and the game is soooo buggy and released packs are unfinished. Just fix it already, EA! How much have I spent on The Sims? Sooooo much. I literally don't buy any other games.
And add your own video upload to the gallery. Add your own ads or something. Because right now YouTube is making money off of The Sims videos and creators more than you are.
Get better fans involved and in charge of releases, because right now the business model is killing the Sims.
That is all.
