I am so out of patience with the Maxis teams right now I could scream. EL hasn't functioned properly since it was released, and today's patch was the best they could manage? How many more attempts is it going to take to get that error code 134 nuked, or the gardening issues resolved? And what about those new planters, the ones that were supposed to make gardening easier and plants take up less space while offering a bit of variety to the planters we were using? So few of the new features in EL actually work, I am regretting every dime I spent on that pack. And that update? If I had known then what I know now.....And hindsight is always 20/20, right? I had trust issues with Maxis before EL was released, and I have zero trust in Maxis now as my game limps along, and my mods folder grows as I try to sort out this mess. I can't disable the pack to stop it from loading and that wouldn't help at all anyway because the pre-ep update is what caused most of the bugs and glitches we're dealing with. One more argument against these mandatory updates can be made here and I am tired of being coerced into updating my game when the only thing those updates seem to do is bork a fragile game even more. Any and all hope I had for seeing the current issues resolved this month have gone right out the window. The worst thing about this patch is I will, once again, be forced to install it or Origin will punish me by taking away my access to the Gallery, plus the option to repair my game if I play off line to avoid patching, then spam me with notices to update before patching my game all on its own in spite having the auto update function turned off.
EA has been chipping away at our right to make choices even as it advertises Sims4 as being filled with ways to be inclusive of gender, nationality, sexual orientation, religion, etc. Which are all great additions to the game that were long overdue. But while making those possible, EA has been slowly leading us down a path where we have no choice but to quit the game, or deal with the game's problems on our own and be quiet about our unhappiness. That old phrase 'Play your game your way' EA tosses around, sounds a bit hollow when the game is filled with bugs that have haunted us for years, and every new pack, update and patch falls miles short of resolving even the most simple problems or adds exciting new content that actually works. No, that phrase should say 'Play your game the EA way and like it, or just go away'. Okay, EA, I get it. There is no interest being shown to fix the game, so I have but one choice left and that is to freeze my game where it is right now. And that means no new purchases or updates and patches. There are ways to go around Origin, and right now I happen to believe it is the only way to save my game from totally falling apart. After a very long year of testing and choosing mods that actually fix the game and adds relevant gameplay features that have been missing from Sim4 from the beginning, I choose not to lose the progress I have managed to make so far. EL and the lack of progress made to fix it, proves EA does not care about the franchise or how it is received as long as it continues to make money. And that just isn't acceptable in my world.
