It's been almost a 1 year Anniversary since the Life Dreams update which introduced the controversial aging feature. The problem was that The Sims FreePlay didn't allow aging to be disabled unlike The Sims 3 which did. Also, players had to use LP in order to keep them from aging up which were criticized as this would translate to paying real money.
The Sims FreePlay already has several disliked features such as the Internet connection require (BTW, this is the only Sims game that
requires an Internet connection), Sims' need falling when they're not doing actions & not playing the game (which could get annoying if you don't play FP regularly), and the real time (also used in The Sims 2 for DS). Also the fact that FreePlay renames Child to pre-teen and Elder to Senior (thankfully The Sims 4 kept the old names) although it depends if you like the changed name in FP or not.
Pretty much every Simmer were angry and they have threatened to delete the game which pretty much almost the people did. Heck, one of the users said that half of her 100 Game Center friends have stopped playing. If you did check the Firemonkey forum, everyone was upset due to the aging. People on Facebook (which you can see
here) are also unhappy.
The Life Dreams update pretty much caused a case of
They Changed It, Now it Sucks. Also the fact that FreePlay suffers a
Broken Base along with The Sims console, The Sims 2, The Sims 3, and The Sims 4.
Origin ID: GothicSimmer, YouTube:
GothicSimmer
Comments
Having said that, I lost one of my S3 teens for the first time yesterday. She somehow burned up in a fire. I quit the game and went back in to make sure that didn't happen again! I DON'T WANT MY SIMS TO DIE!!! So there
https://youtu.be/X2eiCUQDNvQ
Probably makes sense because when I would play FreePlay, I would do the quests. EA didn't care what the old players think. Also what made things worse is that adopting in SFP used real money so people would feel ripped off when the Sims they paid for dies. I think in FreePlay, there are people who do the goals and those who enjoy making their Sims, decorating, and building.
The opponents of aging thought The Sims FreePlay was a good game and now they say that the update ruined FreePlay. Another reason of hate was it was compounded by the fact that TS3 allowed aging to be turned off. In fact, The Sims 2 had a cheat to disable aging to not anger The Sims 1 fans. Since people (including me) of the Mac and PC games usually play without aging, this could be a reason why the auto-aging was disliked.
Like you, I really don't like to see my Sims die and I also play with aging off.
I love video games because of the things that I could never do in real life... For instance, in the sims you can get a job and a house.
Origin ID: Mainmanvs100
When 99% of your customers hate an update (specifically the death update), why not change it? I have this thought in the back of my mind but I've never said it out loud. I don't really understand the relationships between EA, Firemonkeys, Maxis and Origin. So many companies, and who does what?! And I don't care enough about it to do the research. However, I do think EA is like the boss of all of them and makes money from all the Sims games, right? Well, I had vaguely heard of sims back in the day when you built a city and was always completely uninterested. Freeplay introduced me to actual Sims. And when Firemonkeys ruined Freeplay I decided to check out S3, which I ABSOLUTELY love and which I have spent WAY more money on than I ever spent on Freeplay. So maybe there is a method to their madness...
https://youtu.be/X2eiCUQDNvQ
The sims free play is not garbage. That's an insult to garbage everywhere.
My W/list: http://store.thesims3.com/myWishlist.html?persona=rosey1579
FreePlay is pretty much part of the broken base between people who think it's a bad Sims title (especially post-Life Dreams) and those who think it's good. The reason might be The Sims 2, The Sims 3, and The Sims 4 being out on Mac and PC causes most to dislike FreePlay similar to the The Sims Console vs PC/Mac. FreePlay also has some disliked mechanics such as Internet Connection requirement, Sims' need dropping when you don't play, the real time (like in TS2 for DS), etc.
I would agree. The Sims 2 introduced aging but had a cheat to turn it off. The Sims 3 as well as the console releases had the option to disable aging. Now FreePlay doesn't allow people to turn it off but The Sims 4 restores this ability while FreePlay still doesn't provide the option to do so.
The lesson that should be taken from this: only play The Sims on PC. Anything else is poorly developed and very watered down compared to the PC experience.
The fanbase is pretty much divided between The Sims 2, The Sims 3, The Sims FreePlay, and The Sims 4. There's also a broken base between PC/Mac versions and the console versions most notably The Sims 3. Sure, The Sims 3 on PS3/Xbox 360 had several disliked features such as the fire meter (object limit), lack of open world, and Sims that you leave behind or kick out will be deleted from the game. It would make sense because there's the PC vs Console and some people (including me) were prefer a PC or Mac while some favors consoles. If it's The Sims, almost everyone will like the Windows/Mac games and hate the console games.