Problems with The Sims3 begin with EA™

As an introduction, I'll give a quick explanation as to why I write about Sims things here. Simply, it's because the Sims games are used to make machinima, and it is the game engine that I use. And for all of those who are experiencing the latest Sims release as a nightmare, there may be some helpful information in this posting.

Now, without further ado ...

I think it's important to establish how far back my love of EA™ games goes. I was playing console games when I first discovered those such games released by EA™. In fact, the first EA™ game I played was, "Mutant League Football", and for those of you who have never heard of the creature I will tell you that the game was released in the 80's. So, I have been a fan of EA™ games for almost 3 decades.

I have been playing The Sims games, including Sim City, since these games were first released in the 90's and created then by Maxis™. I have all the Sims EPs and all the Sims2 EPs, and with all the problems I have encountered with the Sims3 game, I have decided I have bought my last EA™ game. And it's not the problems that prompted me to make this decision, but the lack of support from EA™. It's one thing, and it's annoying that EA™ released a game that is riddled with bugs to the degree that the Sims3 game is, but it's a completely different matter and completely unacceptable that they do not provide support and fixes to these major problems.

I have been experiencing one problem after another with the Sims3 game, and none of these problems are in any way related to my system performance. All of these problems are a direct result of poor programming of the game coding. All of the "fixes" or solutions to the problems I have either figured out on my own or searched through fan sites, hoping to find that someone else had a similar problem and was kind enough to post a fix.

Before I made any attempt to play the game, I had a look at the list of "cheats", and when I came across the "resetsim" cheat, all sorts of flags went up. Still, I loaded up the game and crossed my fingers. I have had to use the "resetsim" cheat more times than I am able to count, and now completely understand why that cheat was implemented.

The first annoying problem came with the "story progression" feature of the game.
I am one of those players who likes to have several families going in the game. With the Sims3 that is pretty much a disaster. By the design of the game, if you abandon a family to play a different family, the game program pretty much "plays the abandoned family". When I returned to my abandoned family, they either weren't there, or I found some of them there with different jobs and with different partners and some pregnant.
There is a feature in "Options" that is supposed to turn off the "story progression" feature, which on the surface is the only way to stop your families from being destroyed, BUT ... that feature was "bugged" ... go figure. So, EA™ offered a work-around.
I will provide the details here, as I have found this quite useful, even though, in my game it did not fix the problem with the "story progression" mode ... my sims are still in the household when I return to them, but they often have different jobs.
OK, here's what you do ...
You create a short cut to the game.
Right click on the new short cut and click "Properties".
In the "Target field" you will see this ...
"C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Game\Bin\TS3.exe"
Place your cursor at the very end of this path, hit your space bar one time and type this ...
-disablestoryprogression

Now, what this does is create a short cut that launches the game directly. In other words, it bypasses that annoying launch window that connects you to the "Exchange" and the download manager. However, if you want to play the "story progression" mode, you will have to use the original short cut.

The next problem came with the"teach to talk" interaction between toddler and adult. There seems to be no specific trigger or cycle. The two sims involved with the interaction just simply get stuck, but if you use the "resetsim" cheat on the adult sim, it unsticks the sims and the game continues.

The third problem appeared in the form of hundreds of thieves popping onto one of my residential lots. Because of my system specs I was still able to actually play that neighborhood, but the lag was incredible. I was never able to find a fix. In the end, I had to delete that one lot.

And then I did that stupid thing of "patching" the game. As suggested by other sites, I removed my custom content before patching. After patching I replaced my custom content and launched the game. I thought that if it launched without any problems I was home free. So, I continued to build this incredible beach lot which was a commercial lot and contained a pier. The idea was to have a "cool" beach front location to have a wedding. I spent about 5 hours on it before I had decided I needed to stop for the day. When I returned, all my commercial lots were gone, and in their places were blue flat squares. I searched online for a fix ... found nothing. I went through the painstakingly tedious process of trying to find a bad custom content file. Nothing worked. So, I reinstalled the game.

Finally, I installed the, "World Adventures" EP, and of course, I installed more bugs and problems. To make an already long story somewhat shorter, I was unable to access the "Travel" feature. For those who don't know, for the sim to "Travel", you click on a sim's cellphone or a house phone and receive a menu. From that menu you click "Travel", which is supposed to launch another menu. Well ... in my game the sim would freeze every time I clicked the "Travel" option. I tried different sims, in different houses, in different neighborhoods ... they all froze.

I searched online ... and didn't find anything. So, on November 30, I sent an email to EA™, and instantly I received the standard automated reply ...
"Your question has been received. You should expect a response from us within 24 hours."
OK ... that was 4 days ago, and I've not received a reply to my "help question", but, I did receive an email from EA™ today, offering me free stuff if I order the Sims3.

So, for any of you facing this problem, I can tell you what I had to do to work around this ...
I had to uninstall and reinstall the base game and the EP. I have actually taken a sim to China, but, I have not patched the game or replaced any of my custom content.

If I decide to continue with the Sims3 and try the game with the custom content installed, I will let you know if the bug returned or not.

My best to anyone struggling with this game, and my final assessment of this game is that it's simply not worth all the trouble it takes to be able to play it. As for EA™, they have finally succeeded in disappointing me, and I will never purchase another one of their products. And as a dissatisfied customer, I will of course tell all my friends and family ... we all know how it works, and this dissatisfied customer can reach many more customers online than what was possible before by word of mouth.