Ten Ways EA is Ruining Their Sims Empire
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Want to know what I was doing in the summer of 2000? I was hunched over a keyboard playing The Sims. These were the early days when design options were limited, no one ever aged, Sims were confined to a single lot, and the term “woohoo” has no meaning. As simple as it was, I spent hours building a loving family and designing the perfect household. Then, I’d set it on fire.
Toward the end of that summer, the first expansion pack was released. I was all too willing to spend my money so my Sims could be Livin’ Large, and I was officially part of the ecosystem. For the next few years, I would spend $30 on multiple occasions for expansion packs. My Sims could go on vacation, have pets, and use a little bit of magic.
The Sims has come a long way from its inception in 2000, but one thing has not changed. They’re always adding content into the game. The gaming industry is built on a system where DLC (downloadable content) has become commonplace. The Sims was having players add content to their games since discs were more effective than digital. Yet Sims players have found the game to have many flaws and the future isn’t looking hopeful.
Two decades have passed, and The Sims remains a juggernaut in the gaming industry. The Sims 4 has reached over 20 million people, but the game doesn’t seem to be growing. Hardcore fans have more complaints than compliments and the community is overwhelmed by the number of microtransactions required to make the game playable.
It’s hard to deny The Sims and its distributor Electronic Arts (EA) as a trendsetter in the gaming and software world. Now the story of The Sims is one with many successes, but many lessons. As we look at the current state of the game, we can see areas where EA has made software blunders.
1. Expansion Packs Have Become Necessary
Many video games offer DLC, and that’s certainly not going anywhere. When The Sims 4 came out, fans started to realize how boring the game was without expansion packs and additional content. In fact, they started to realize how many features from the Sims 3 base game were missing.
Reviews from the time were unforgiving, and there’s no doubt EA took notice. There wasn’t a lot to do in the base game before…
