Omg guys, I just got banned on the official forums, just because of my mere short response/reply with a rhetorical question that "maybe that mods are bunch of hypocritics". My comment was a replied to a person that had comment "sigh banned again?" that was posted on deservedcritism message wall. Both, that person comment I replied to and my reply: all got deleted. They're gone and so my presence. Should have screenshot before that happen, but didn't as I wouldn't have expected such actions being taken due to.

I dare you, people that don't care of what happens to your accounts in the official forums, to just come together in the feedback section of TS4 and tell the members of the community what MOD has been doing lately. If you all get banned together at the same time or gradually, people will suspect something fishy happening and probably (some) will start asking questions or flood the admin's pm inbox. Worse case scenario, the admin could just ignore,or unlike scenario ban those people as well. ETA: Some sort of transparency needs to be shed in light so somebody acknowledges the behavior of mod in the nick of time before these threads get deleted. EA shouldn't get away with such evil practice. They need to suffer the consequences of silencing/ bullying people.

P.S. And I didn't get a warning or a threat before and this is the first time I got banned in there ever.

Are you banned permanently?

What do you mean by tell the members of the community what MOD have been doing lately?

I dunno. Might be a short one, as the other who I said got banned had his one uplifted after a few weeks after it's initial one since somewhere at march. Now yesterday or day before that he got banned again. What's shocking I didn't have any warning or alike threat that I was misbehaving and I ought to consider stopping or else actions get taken.

By that I mean If you have an account in that forum that don't care sparing before you eventually get banned for the actions I will proceed of acting upon, which are (recommend you do one by one per day of the week, like person A goes today, person B tommorow, person C the next day etc) just making a lengthy post and share my rumour (assuming as you can't know for sure that I'm telling the truth) and what MOD did to me and deservedcritisicm (I'll share his story from his comment in here in a link between these brackets) and see If anything happens. Chances are you get banned and before your threads get deleted, some people will manage to catch either one of y'all posts and gets to read it and get the truth out.

Ugh, he has a horrible attitude but since he's backing up everything EA wants to hear, he goes unpunished.

Wow, I saw that earlier! Banned for that when it wasn't even a forum post. They really don't like dissent, do they?

Ah. I do have a an account. I got a warning for casting aspersions apparently, when i asked why the person (who is a huge sims 4 fan) did not get a warning for casting aspersions on sims fans as a whole I got no reply.

I saw Deserved was banned again. Not happy. Cannot say I am surprised though. The GOG loves to bait people.

I don't go to the official forums often, but this guy I remember. Noticed that he contradicts everyone. Even the ones who criticize something in the most polite way.
Who knows, maybe he works for them, or gets his stuff for free.

I got a warning for answering a question (Did Sims 3 perform terrible for everyone else too - no I said, it performs fine for me). I was blamed for the fact the topic was all about Sims 3 after that so I got a warning a day later (the topic was about a YouTuber who had listed a couple of Sims 3 features she never wanted to see back ever again in a Sims game so I am not sure how the subject Sims 3 could have been avoided in the first place).

It is a disgrace DeservedCriticism got banned again.

Proof of corrupted mod, after I checked back in to see having the ban uplifted after 24 hour timeout:


Actually, I was wrong, I did get a warning, which I forgot about it as it was a month back:



Maybe not corrupt, but I want to believe otherwise as I doubt DeservedAppraiseCriticism wouldn't be lying for no reason. His quite honest guy. Unknowingly he could have done something like discriminated a person in a private messages, but I hope that's not the case.

Refusing to allow people to discuss possible corruption of undemocratically appointed leadership and forcibly silencing them when they do, huh?

That doesn't sound shady at all...

I had no idea the Sims forum was run by Vladimir Putin

I am expecting a ban soon. But I am past the point of caring. Some on officials I swear have some kind of Stockholm syndrome.

Now I know why I never got on the O Forum and never will.

Interesting what happened with another community is happening with the Sims. Members who disagreed with the direction of the company got banned, employees either quit or got fired until there was nothing left of the community and company other than skeleton crew selling frill products. My hunch is that the Sims 4 is at a point where development is nearing its end finally. I am actually relieved the next fiscal quarter won't be releasing any Stuff packs. It's probably not a good idea to sell them at this point anyways especially with how badly the last one failed. It is like if the final pack this year is Seasons related and then moving on to the next iteration would be fine at this point. I'm ready to move on from the mess that was the Sims 4. Like rip off the band aid already instead of making the Sims 4 be a slow torture of community unhappiness. If anything this iteration has done is split the community. Sims needs to either get a fresh start or open the way for competition or even breaking off from EA.

What's this about? I'm not understanding the potential for a lie in this situation. Am I missing something?

It's simple: I was banned cause they're quick to jump on reports by overly-sensitive fans, and you were banned because they don't allow discussion of bans or moderation period. The only surprising part is that you were banned for posting on my wall instead of within an actual thread. Like wtf who cares and why were the mods patrolling my god damned wall anyways? Like "oh shit guys, we'll never sell copies of our game now! Obviously every new visitor is going to go to the profile wall of this random user first thing, and if they see other users lamenting that he's banned, they're sure to never play Sims 4 again!!" Seriously, wtf is the purpose here? I can understand not wanting discussion of bans on the forums since it invites drama, but that just seems excessive and pointless. The benefits of such a ban are zero, whereas the downsides are that it obviously gets people worked up cause they feel tone-policed.

If I had to take a guess, I was probably banned because I told that one guy he was using circular reasoning, then I linked this as an example of why circular reasoning gets nowhere. He probably got buttmad and took it as me insinuating he's an idiot cause of the movie's title, and instead of discussing it they just banned me. That's my guess anyways, since they've got this really genius system where you can't even see why you were banned until you're unbanned. (if that ever happens)

They're perfectly within their right to ban us, so I wouldn't call it corrupt. However, they are showcasing what their modding habits are and how they're pretty damned ridiculous, over-the-top and...yeah, it does seem more and more one-sided with time. Personally, let's assume I'm right and that guy got buttmad and reported me on the possibility I was trying to call him an idiot with that link. I don't understand why they don't simply message me about the problem and ask me to be mindful of it with a warning, if anything. Simultaneously, tell him to chill out and stop feeling like a victim over everything, cause the tone of that thread was also as though they were looking for a fight and "innocent until proven guilty" in regards to my intent; why encourage paranoia and jumping to conclusions in their member's mindset? That's a terrible idea! THAT will cause more drama! The ironic part is they have messaged me before telling me to change my tone, and while they've quoted examples to me, they've also failed to ever explain what was wrong. I've been given quotes before saying it's too provokative/hostile and when I asked why or how cause I sincerely didn't understand, they couldn't answer me. They just repeated themselves and told me to watch it. If they warned me in this case and said why, this would be the first case where I could understand it (disagree with it, but understand where they're coming from) and work with a warning to change my tone appropriately in future posts, but yeah here I am just doing guesswork for why I'm banned. It could be something completely different.

What their actions show is that - for example - in my case, a user was told by others that she was derailing a thread by baiting questions like "are you calling me stupid," then my post comes along. They don't critically assess if the hypersensitivity causes drama and fights, they just quickly come to shield those that cry foul play, regardless of if they had a hand in escalating the situation or not. They don't acknowledge that I never called the person stupid, and instead they gladly leap to the conclusions drawn by that fan without stopping to ask if maybe the fan wants to be offended and is hunting ways to be offended. This simultaneously makes the fan feel validated, and now they're more likely to submit overzealous, paranoid reports that jump to conclusions in the future, and yes this will spark more drama. What your ban shows...? As I said: WTF were they doing patrolling my wall? Either someone reported it like a child just looking for reasons to ban people they disagree with, or the mods are really going overboard with their tone-policing.

I say let them. Let them show their colors and show how poorly they run a forum: tone-policing and eager commitment to anyone that acts offended regardless of the reason. Last time I got banned I actually got a PM from the guy that more or less got me banned, apologizing and saying even though we disagree, he thought my ban was totally uncalled for. That. Let EA screw themselves by the simple fact that when a huge chunk of the forum is suddenly banned for frivilous reasons, people are gonna start asking why. It's their forum and they can do whatever they want with it, but their policies also speak volumes about their company policies and general goals. The current tone of those forums is pretty bleak, and if they think they're improving it by censoring any discontent, they're fools. That just causes the Streisand effect: people become convinced something is up and worth knowing if you make attempts to hide it.



I don't know that Sims 4 is ending, but I honestly do feel like we may be witnessing the beginning of the end for EA. Battlefront 2, Sims 4, Anthem....lately they don't have any good news to their name. I feel like EA's old textbook strategy was to release four horrendous cashgrabs in a row, then when people start walking away, release something good to reel them back in a bit and get them hoping. EA has not had a hit in over a year. (aside from their moneymakers like FIFA) Mass Effect Andromeda bombed over a year ago, and they've just been bombing out ever since. I'm beginning to question if EA even remembers how to put effort into a game, and while I think it'd take years for them to die out, I do think the problem is bigger than they realize. After all, every failed title is lost revenue. We may slowly see them retreat to nothing but the reliable money-makers like FIFA and Sims, but even Sims is pretty rocky. They've got time to change course, but I suppose for me, the thing that feels different is that this time I don't think they truly grasp how bad their reputation is. I think they're so used to a crap reputation they're not even trying to turn it around, and that won't end well.

I'm personally very curious about what the staff's general mindset is. EA/Maxis loves to present the Gurus to us as if they're OUR BEST FRIENDS FOREVER, but c'mon, these people don't know us and they're paid for what they do. They stream that game with a smile on their faces acting like every moment of the game is SO MUCH FUN while playing up every occurrance because they don't want to be FIRED. On a realistic level...Grant can't keep his mouth shut, Graham has exaggerated the excitement of upcoming releases like three times (either he has bad standards or he's knowingly exaggerating them for his paycheck), a select amount of other Gurus have fed us questionable excuses in the past, and Drake had a very sour attitude and sour opinion of the fanbase. It is entirely possible that she was not an outlier, but rather an example of the general culture of that office; maybe they all view us as ungrateful when we criticize. Sure would explain a lot. Unfortunately the only bit of "evidence" to go off would be pre-release rumors. A couple people claimed to be ex-EA workers that got laid off and worked on the Sims. If you believe their account (and they accurately predicted the game would bomb, calling it completely mismanaged), the office politics are horrendous there. I specifically recall them mentioning the team had waaaaaaaaaaay too many "managers" with the title being little more than prestige at that point. Who knows what's going on inside the minds of the staff, but I'd love to know. Way I see it, either:

A.) They slack off hardcore, know they lie through their teeth, but they don't care because yay this is the easiest job they've ever had in game development. I could sympathize with this one since game development is a tough business, and at least this one means they'd be self-aware.

B.) Perhaps Drake is a sign of the general tone of that office, and most view us as ungrateful for wanting Sims 4 to be more. If this is the case, then wow they live in a bubble but it certainly explains why change never happens.

C.) They know the game sucks and they're just as upset about it as we are, but they've got kids to feed so they keep their mouths shut and pretend everything is fine as they smile for the camera so hard their lips clip through their eyelids like the Sims themselves. Sadly, knowing the gaming industry, this is the most likely.

D.) Office politics are so awful the project leads are just in a constant competition to impress upper management and will do whatever it takes. Cut features to save on costs are the result, alongside complete apathy for what the fans think and total concentration on what the big wigs want.



I legit got curious like a week ago and looked up the symptoms and qualifications of Stockholm Syndrome. The symptoms mention:



Now look, obviously Stockholm Syndrome is a serious matter usually applied to hostages, victims of domestic violence and other such serious issues, so we can't seriously apply it here. However, I do find some interesting parallels in the sense there have absolutely been people on those forums (several, infact) that have made the argument "I know the game sucks, but if I don't buy it the franchise will die!" Hell, one of the Gurus used that as emotional blackmail when the game's release bombed. I find this similar to the parts about it being a survival instinct, except in this case it's not the person's own life on the line, but rather their favorite game franchise. The hostility towards any opposition to the game is also nothing new. Definitely some parallels there that made me laugh.

But anyways, don't stress over this crap. Let EA accidently burn down their own stuff and enjoy the show.

That's exactly what I'm suggesting people in here to do, in a form of a protest If you will. Let people question and get suspicion that something is wrong with how they manage things. It might eventually lead the forum to empty rotten corpses. Yes, pretty much repeating what I said on the previous page of this thread. Sorry, that was irrelevant, or actually not really. If people did made such threads that arises concerns of how MODS take absurd actions with little legimately reasons, that they quick to hit the "ban" button, it make start a waking call for those who read such posts and are aware of mods are just being overly absurd.

If I had to mark parts and sentences with a green marker that I agree thought, then pretty much your comment would be shining with highlighted text. You know how to word things better than I ever could. I really do enjoy how you always speak, despite albeit your 'essays' sometimes not fit in one whole screen besides having to scroll hahahah.


Though If I had took a guess, somebody was mischiefs enough to report my comment when they, one of the regular members, stumble your message wall for whoknowswhat. However, even then it's kinda odd that mod care to ban me like as you said: the chances of me causing drama would have been unlikely, as all this is just a message wall page and it's not like it has that traffic than a forum page. I do kinda find it somehow off that I was like banned a bit to instantly. My first and the very only one warning was way back a month. Situation like those feel odd, but and I do agree you didn't really deserved a ban because all you did is point somebodies non-critical argument logic.

One of the most free and creative gaming communities turns into a dictatorship (into a police city from SimCity Societies) Sadly...

TS4 pc and console is selling like crazy, the new mobile app is a WW hit and just got released. The only reason TS3 ended was because the game couldnt handle more content and sales were declining. Thats the reason they make almost empty packs, just to make the game last longer. Well have to put up with this for a loong time. They literally designed the game to rip everyone off.

Couldn't handle any more content? I could believe that.

The sales declining? I'm dubious.

I'd also believe "ran out of ideas for expansion packs."

"Couldn't handle more content"?! Where on earth did you get that statement from? The Sims 3 could certainly use a lot more content, that's for sure.

The devs insist that the game is unstable with all of the content they produced and recommend running only one pack at a time for a smoother experience.

Which of course is complete horseshit but that's where it came from.

Hell yeah the game is unstable when it’s patched up to the latest patch (the one that added the pack chooser). Played for years on two different computers, never had any stability problems, but after updating the game on my laptop it crashes every other click. Desktop runs perfectly and will never get the fatal last update.

EA definitely put some effort into making the game unstable with that last patch. All a ruse to try and get people onto TS4.

Those of you who don't own all the packs and are bothered by the greyed out icons, I found the mod for you ...

if only they made this before dozens of idiots already bought the pack for this reason :v

All this is simple texture override, extract the colored out and replace it with the grey one, but you still get the you do not own this pack message if you try to click it, and occasionally nagged on the splash you should buy it, also the next major patch will almost certainly break that, but then better than nothing at all I suppose...

Well....My game may run fine with everything installed...but the game is still an unstable mess and part of the reason it runs so well is due to Twallan's mods. But that's not because of the amount of content it has. It's because they built the damn game like they've never made a game before. So many different open world games they could use for reference and yet they kept acting like it was some foreign concept that's impossible to get right (with the excuse that TS3 is so different from other open world games that there's absolutely nothing they could have learned from them). So many missteps. So many things they didn't have to do (like making households you aren't even watching operate on their own. Causing routing issues up the ass). And yet...it's still a more fulfilling experience than TS4.

But oh well. I suppose it's all worth it so long as the game can run on a 1998 Macintosh.