Sweet Treat Showdown Event

What I Loved:

• I loved the anticipation and teasers from the FM SimGurus leading up to the event. It seemed that everyone was on board, engaged with the community, and hyping the players up. The teasers were a lot of fun and showed the SimGurus as being personable and excited about the release of their new event. 
• I loved, loved, loved the newness of concept and style of event. For months TSM become very routine and the events didn’t change much. It felt like I was following a recipe when going through the walkthroughs. This event ripped up the playbook. It was creative and out of the box. Honestly, it was brave. Regardless if the event was a success or a failure in the eyes of the players, FM tried something new, and that was amazing. Furthermore, it required players to come together to figure things out and brainstorm on the best approaches to reap the most rewards. I loved working together with players to simply figure things out. It was very communal.
• I loved the details and design. The graphics were beautiful, the colors and details on the cooking stations were really well thought out. The writing was fun. Even the little disaster pop-up that looked like the poo emoji with sprinkles was hilarious! I got a real kick out of that. The animations were fantastic. I think this really showed off the talent of the devs and the beauty they can bring to the game.
• The prizes were diverse and included something for everyone: furniture, decorations, clothes, hairstyles. The bedroom furniture has energy bonuses.
• Removing duplicate prizes. Well done! That was great. 
• It was really difficult to understand from the instructions and even the UI, but I liked how the Sweet Treat Challenge attempts refilled and then stored up to 3/3. It was similar to head start items in past events, like a cauldron of candy filling up, but then maxing at a certain number.

What I Disliked:

• Oof - this event sure did drain all my resources. It was difficult, and TSM players aren’t used to this level of difficulty and spending. On one hand, I’ve played countless games with loot boxes full of prizes, and the player gets what they get, and they don’t get everything they want. TSM players who work really hard at the game and follow the walkthrough are used for getting everything, or nearly everything from an event, and don’t have to spend much to get it. Honestly, it doesn’t feel all that great needing to spend all the resources for a chance at prizes, especially if you lose. Players who are left with nothing (no prize and a loss in resources) have much to complain about. Overall, the event was difficult for a daily, overzealous super fan. It must be really difficult and unobtainable for newer players. 
• I’m not a fan of LlamaZooms, but we used to get tokens when completing them, and that was not an option here for another chance. I think it should have been another source of tokens. 
• The activities did not yield as much sweet treats as one would like. Only 30, unless a player had a cupcake to get the bonus. Either the rewards were too low, or the activities and cool downs were too long, because it felt like it took too long to reach 425 to open a box. This part wasn’t fun. 
• It would have been really cool if the grand prize fireplace or wood shed offered a 75-point party action. Players like items with party actions. 
• The details on the front of the bedroom furniture prizes, like the drawers and hardware, left something to be desired when comparing it to other furniture we’ve received. 
• I was not a fan of the simultaneous release of the Top Secret quest. I tried to complete that with my alt account, and instead of succeeding at the quest and/or the Sweet Treat Showdown, I did extremely poor at juggling both, and that was disappointing. I hope the quest comes back at a time when a live event isn’t going on. 

What I Hated:

• This event separated the haves from the have nots. Players who completed it quickly, like too quickly to be true, were met with animosity and jealousy from other players, either for flaunting their wealth, or for having blatant hacked accounts. This event style rewards the players who hack the game and have unlimited SimCash and cupcakes, and punishes the players who are trying to complete it to the best of their ability around their real life commitments. Players who hack the game and complete it within 24-36 hours give off unrealistic expectations to other players, especially newer players, who don’t understand why they’re so far behind the players who finished quickly. I don’t know what EA can do about this, if anything, but this style of event does not provide equal opportunity to succeed and win prizes. And honestly, I would hate to perform poorly after working so hard and not get the grand prizes, but see other players have them who won them unfairly. If anything would make me leave the game, well it’s this.

What I Hope to See:

• It would be great to unlock one of each prize before unlocking any colors for said prizes.
• After this event, it would be amazing to have an event where the prizes were resources, instead of furniture, clothes, hair, etc. It would be really cool to have prizes be a generous amount of simoleons, SimCash, cupcakes, fashion gems, and life tickets. That would be a nice balance between resource-draining events.