It sounds dreadful. It costs a lot to develop and produce a life simulation game so it is understandable the company might want to recoup some of the cost from the players. The players on the other hand want a game that is both entertaining and value for money. Most simmers cannot afford to be constantly paying out to progress through the game or improve their sims and their homes. EA knows this and therefore, know the company is more likely to lose customers if the micro transaction button is pressed too hard.
As for being multi player or not it has been tried. The principle problem with Sims City was lack of servers to allow everyone to play when they wanted. I would like to think EA learned from that experience so the company would at least offer a single player alternative. I am very protective of my games, I am, after all, mistress of all I survey and my word is law. Therefore the thought of having another player being involved makes me very unhappy. I am not alone in my thinking and I think EA is fully aware of how many players feel about the issue.
I agree to a certain extent about the emotion system and how we, not unnaturally project our own emotions on to our sims. I would like to see the emotions system which came with TS4 gone. Due to the programming the sims's behaviour is psychotic with rapid mood swings which have no relevance to the situation whether game created or player induced. IMO. I prefer my sims with a modicum of AI as was the case in TS2 and 3. I hope EA have a rethink about the emotions system for any future sims game. Otherwise I will not be investing.
