Are you guys enjoying my money??? Nice paychecks? Hope so!

@toddzgrl Hi, this is a fairly long post, I'll try to address the issues you mention.

You mention backing up stuff, you can absolutely do this and you can find a guide to it here: https://help.ea.com/en-ca/help/origin/origin/backing-up-and-restoring-your-origin-games/

Most people would do this with a portable hard drive or a large flash drive, but it's also possible to burn this content to discs as a backup. 

Disc versions of the game are also available, but these will require you to be online to register, and usuall require some updates before they'll be playable.

You mention issues with not having full online connectivity. You can set Origin to Offline mode from within the client. Click "Origin" in the top left, then "Go Offline". You'll need to go online for registering new content and for updates, but otherwise you shouldn't have any more issues.

If you're using a laptop and don't regularly have an internet connection, you can bring it to somewhere that has a connection, register your content, update it and then go to Offline mode. Then you can just play your content without needing to worry. 

I'm not too familiar with Sims standing around idle, but I think that happens if they have an issue with how their actions are queued. Apparently a quick pause and unpause may help. 

I hope this info is helpful for you. Needing to be online to register content is unavoidable, but past this you should be able to play the game offline without problems. 

@toddzgrl The issue of having to use Origin for DRM for The Sims 3 was not the choice of EA. The Sims 3 was released with SecuROM and SafeDisc DRM. SecuROM had an install limit and was considered a rootkit. SafeDisc required the latest released to market dis your own be in the optical drive to play the game. Laptops are now being produced with out optical drives so SafeDisc is being made out dated. Windows 10 and El Capitan operating systems no longer support SecuROM and SafeDisc so EA had to replace the outmoded DRM. Steam by Valve has proven to be a non evasive way of DRM. If you want to blame some one blame the users who pirate software. With SecuROM users still had to authenticate online to play the game. There are other games on the market that used the SecuROM DRM so the question is will they still work. With Origin you CAN choose an option to save the installers and these installer images can be saved to an optical disc. I play the Tombraider games and today the only way to obtain these games is from Steam - there is no physical media. Apoint I'd like to make is that you do not OWN that software you pay for. What you have is a license to use the software according to the terms of service as put forth in the EULA you agreed to the first time you run the game. Licensing has been in the software industry for a long time but up to now has not really been in the forefront and many software companies have a vested interest to keep their customers happy. As time progresses internet access for the masses continues to grow. There are connected cities and this trend is growing. DSL is often an affordable internet connection although basic DSL is slow compared to most cable plans, DSL provides an always on. Many smart phones have a hot spot function but be careful of your data plan limits. There are other ways to use the internet which I won't go into here. I too am sad about the fact you don't get a physical item when you spend big money. Back when you bought record albums part of the pleasure was the art work in the record jacket. As far as your sims standing around there is an option to change the autonomy. As far as companies "listening" to their market - those days are gone. Companies hire other companies to tell them what their customers want. After that the company usually acts accordingly and the the company they hired moved on to the next client. Today's mega companies seem to loose sight of how they became mega companies.