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Tibbinova's avatar
Tibbinova
New Adventurer
18 days ago

The Sims 4 Has No Place for Limited Bonus Items

I'll be honest: limited-time bonus items are one of the main reasons I've stopped buying new packs. Not because I don't want the content — because I'm tired of the model.

My proposal is simple. Keep pre-order bonuses if you want, but make them early access instead of permanent exclusives. Pre-order and you get the items day one. Then, once the pack goes on sale for the first time, patch those items in as a free download for anyone who owns that pack. And go back and do this for every past bonus item — the Conch Street Aquarium fish tank shouldn't still be unobtainable years later. Case in point: I was about to buy the SpongeBob packs today, but the one item I actually wanted was that fish tank, and it's locked away forever. So instead of a sale, EA got a pass. That's this model working exactly as designed.

Think about what exclusivity actually earns EA after the window closes: nothing on that pack. The only remaining value is as a FOMO threat — teaching players to pre-order the next pack or lose out again. At that point the model is pure capitalism showing — squeezing urgency out of players with zero benefit to anyone once the deadline passes. But here's the problem: that threat backfires on players who've already been burned. We don't respond by pre-ordering — we respond by buying nothing at all. I'm proof of that. All this model generates is frustrated players and bad PR. If anyone at EA is serious about improving the company's image with this community, this is one of the easiest wins available.

It also causes a real gameplay problem: gallery builds break. Streamers who own literally everything will tour a community build and see missing objects because a bonus item slipped past them once. The build the creator shared isn't the build people actually see.

Nobody loses under an early access model. Pre-order players still get their head start, everyone else eventually gets complete packs, and fewer people resort to modding these items in. Please consider it.

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4 Replies

  • Tibbinova's avatar
    Tibbinova
    New Adventurer
    16 days ago

    The daily check-in system doesn't actually let everyone finish it, and that's the real issue. I started playing late on day one, so I'm not just missing out on today's check-in — even in the best case, I'd still end up one check-in short of completing the whole set. There's no catch-up path once a day is gone.

    This isn't about people who skip the event or can't be bothered — it's about players who start a day or two late, or miss a day for something completely reasonable (work, school, chronic illness, whatever), and now have zero way to reach the finish line no matter how much time they put in afterward.

    Two ways EA could actually fix this: build in a catch-up mechanic so a late start or a missed day doesn't permanently lock you out, or at minimum, make the missed items claimable in a download once the event wraps up.

    That second point matters for more than just fairness, too. The Gallery is built around sharing creations, but if a build or CAS look uses event-exclusive items, anyone who downloads it won't have those items — so they're not seeing the creation the way it was actually made. Permanent exclusivity doesn't just cut players off from content, it undercuts the whole point of being able to share and download each other's work.

     

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    Not applicable
    15 days ago
    Tibbinova wrote:

    I started playing late on day one, so I'm not just missing out on today's check-in — even in the best case, I'd still end up one check-in short of completing the whole set. There's no catch-up path once a day is gone.

    Sorry but I also started the event a couple of days late, I continued to check into the game afterwards and I have completed all unlocks. I missed a log in day here and there during the event. But you just have to keep checking in and it will unlock. Sounds to me like you may have had a bug issue. Or if you are using mods in your game particlularly anything that changes something with the UI it might also cause issues with the event.

  • Tibbinova's avatar
    Tibbinova
    New Adventurer
    15 days ago

    I'm not sure I had the bug or not. But my check in time was originally around 12pm so it would not unlock each day till that time. I hope this means EA will drop the items for free in the next game update like Happy Home event. I hate these login events. It adds no game play. They only want more people playing daily to boost numbers of sales. That's it. I event tried removing mods a few times and I still could not check in till that time I originally checked in the first time. 

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    Not applicable
    15 days ago

    I doubt they will add these items in like they did with the Happy Home one. They only did that before they introduced rewards actually being tied to an account. I'm pretty certain you had a bug, as I said I was able to claim all of the unlocks even though I started slightly late. I play without any mods in my game, I know having mods in your game can really mess up things like the Events.

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