Aw crap, no more Sims for me.

[sapote]

I didn't buy the Nightlife expansion pack because I knew that the "celebrity" feature meant that random strangers would harass your sim for having a child out of wedlock, but for some reason (stressful week?) I didn't remember that all that had happened and bought Generations anyway without realizing that your sim gets a "bad reputation" (with lots of teehee messages about how they've been Naughty) and gets harassed and yelled at if they aren't monogamous, even if they have the "no jealousy" trait. Fucksticks, EA, I know you're a crappy company that can't be assed to bugfix, but there is basically one game in all of gameland that I always enjoy and you decided to add slut-shaming. I am really close to feeling outright hatred right now.

At least I am probably finally angry enough to just not play video games instead of continuing to give them money. But goddamn, that's 100% of games I consistently enjoy playing. Whyyy EA why why.

Comments

[sarah]

Ugh. That's just... so pointless.

[sapote]

All I can figure is 1) they focus-tested it on people whose worldview I desperately disagree with 2) they decided to make it more of a reality-television modeling game, and cheating is a mainstay of reality television? But they seriously introduced a function that tracks how many people your sim has slept with and punishes them if it's the wrong number. There is a little chart! AUGH.

... For the record I'm the most pissed-off because I had created a lot of little Sim worlds with different family structures from science fiction and now those are broken forever. I could reinstall the base game and reconstruct the saves, but I'm not sure how happy I'm going to be spending any time doing that anymore now that I know that I want to play The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and EA thinks that I should play Desperate Housewives instead.

Really, really good news: I emailed Amazon Digital Downloads immediately stating my problems and asking for my money back if they deauthorized my machine. And they gave me my money back! Yay Amazon!

... If anyone ever creates a flexible, detailed society-creation game that doesn't have a major war component and isn't an MMO, I want to know about it. The two things I don't want in my introvert time are bullets and actual other people :D

[sarah]

But they seriously introduced a function that tracks how many people your sim has slept with and punishes them if it's the wrong number.

That's just... look, I know that my online and IRL social groups have a different concept of ethical sexual and romantic behavior than the general public, but really? It's really 2011 and we're still saying monogamy is the only proper structure of a relationship? Not just one of many forms?

I know that I want to play The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and EA thinks that I should play Desperate Housewives instead.

Oh, that is the *perfect* way to describe it! Yes.

The two things I don't want in my introvert time are bullets and actual other people :D

Ha, I'll buy a copy of that game, too. Most especially the non-MMO component; I'm totally with you on that.

Good on Amazon Digital Downloads for responding that way and providing you your refund. I'm really pleased to hear that.