Re: EA Buyout Deal

Sul Sul Simmers and Developers,

     It is with great forethought that I write this missive.  First, understand that I reviewed the rules and TOS documents that are relevant to this post. It  is my understanding that this post does not violate any of those requirements. 

     With that being said, I want to address the current issues that have plagued our community for the last 4 or so years. I've been a Maxis game player since Day 1 of Sim City, Sim Ant, and Sim World, long before The Sims was released in 2001.  I gleefully took up The Sims 1, and all it's add-ons/expansions. I later continued that trend with both Sims 2 and Sims 3. I've watched the franchise grow from a new niche option to the large global community it has become.  I've been a beta tester for sims titles in the past, including the much maligned (and in my opinion badly designed) The Sims Online. 

     I've never shied away from commenting and calling out Maxis / EA on their failings, and deceptive marketing (even getting banned not once, but twice from the beta of The Sims Online for questioning the honesty of the public marketing in the face of the reality of the beta testing software, things which were never actually corrected in the released game). This is as close to discussion of moderation actions as I will get, and only for the purpose of background, not debate over.  All through it, I've still continued a game that I liked and believed in.  

      We all know for better or worse how The Sims 4 came about. It was released in an unfinished and sad state, and to this day still has not fixed many of the issues that have arisen, regardless of the number of patches that have been released.  Of course The Sims is not a simple game under the hood, and as such some of these things are just the artifacts of software development, there is truly no such thing as a bug free code base that has more than 1 line, and even then it's not a guarantee.  This therefore is not entirely directed at the game developers themselves, but they are included by necessity. 

    This game should not have been released when it was, and it's been milked for all the cash it can be like a larger milk cow herd at an industrial dairy.  The games base premises have flaws that diverge the game from the formula and expansiveness that the Sims community not only desired, but craved.  In this latest iteration, we saw our options and features gutted because the software architecture was geared towards bandwidth optimization and an always-on game modality.  Even with the newest project, Renee (which is still being called a sim-adjacent project rather than Sims 5), is geared towards online interactions, something that most simmers have no interest or desire to engage in.  

     I want to state for the record, that Sims themselves are the least of my interest in this game. I like building lots and structures, so I've not been affected much by the bugs that are specific to Sims, their actions, their routing, and other common issues.  I don't play the game for farming, or weddings, or anything of the sort.  I've not bothered making Sims custom content since The Sims 2, because I just am not that invested in the sims characters. But I empathize with every one of the community that has issues that break their game. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be EA / Maxis' priority. No that priority has become very obvious that "Show me the money" is the philosophy at EA, and not just in their The Sims IP. Every patch, every expansion, every game pack, every stuff pack, every kit, has introduced new issues or glitches, though kits seem to have the least issues.  We ask for fixes and instead are given new things to pay money for.  I quit buying The Sims 4 add ons, about the time of the Grim Reaper pack. I just don't care anymore. 

     I saw the article a bit ago about the EA Buyout. I've also see the EA/Maxis post:

"Our mission, values, and commitment remain the same. The Sims will always be a space where you can express your authentic self". 

      I call that BS. Your mission is what your owners set it as. Your values are what they determine, and your commitment only will last before your bosses tell you to change or clear out your desk.  That's business, that's how the systems work, and to try to claim otherwise is just blowing smoke into the exhaust ports of your customers.

     The reality is that your company is being bought out by a Fascist, and a Religious Dictatorship that doesn't care about women, LGBTQ+ and Non-Muslim people.  They don't believe it free expression, religious freedom, and self-expression.  It's not in their culture, their politics or their beliefs.  To say that your positions will not change in the face of new owners is just naive at best. 

     In addition, the QA and level of value and design in The Sims has continually degraded until it's at the current point. Many people have left the game, and don't have interest in returning. New sales were dropping severely ( you don't give away a successfully selling game, regardless of how much you expect to make off the DLCs, as successful games still sell the same (or more) amount of DLCs). This newest event, the sale, has now cost EA their core word of mouth advertising, with the likes of Lil Simsie, Mr. Turner, Plumbella, Fantaysia and many of the other big names in the community parting ways with official associations with your company. 

     Whoever is in charge over there, failed to keep in contact with the pulse of the community, and the state of the competition, as The Sims is far from the only game in town anymore, and many of the other games aren't just cheap knock offs, be it Inzoi,  Paralives, or any of the others, EA is no longer the king of the Life Sim game, they're more like the Roman Empire under Nero. 

     I'm no big name in the community, I've not been active for years now in the CC and community forums, and I have no intention of changing that. I've grown past The Sims and it's teenager mentality, and the insane cost associated with the series.  All told I've probably spent over $4,000 on Sims games and related materials over the course of the franchise. At this point, my money is better spent elsewhere. 

    I miss the EA that used to be a game developer, and not a publisher, back in the days of the C= and Mail Order Monsters, or Pinball Construction Kit. I miss the games from the Westwood studios, and Maxis before they were gutted to be EA Brands.  Perhaps EA will change in the future, but I expect it to be more of the same and worse, until EA is a footnote in the annals of gaming history that no one really  cares about, and only discusses in the context of the good old days before they were sellouts and greedy corporate raiders. 

Respectfully,

 A former Sims Player