Thank you for making this thread. I'm going to add my concern here and my support for a product boycott until this icon is removed.
To EA/Maxis: I think you'd agree the sims community tolerates a lot from you. Such as wedding stories, dine out, retail stores and others being broken from launch, and still being broken to this day. Relying on the modding community (once again) for fixes for these buggy and broken additions. We still don't have cars, abilities to edit lots or add new lots, color wheels, etc.
I can only speak for myself but the inclusion of this icon only confirms what I already knew. That you are only interested in new sales and will continue to allow modders to fix your content. Not only is this offensive to your consumer base but completely unfair to your "free" patching team of modders.
I promise you will not see another cent from me until it is removed and I will be actively encouraging others to speak up here and join the boycott.
Well if they want feedback, to me, this is disrespectful to the customer.
It says to me that they only exist to extract as much cash as possible from us instead of a being company that makes great games that make us want to throw cash at them. Is simply says we don't care about your enjoyment, only urging you to buy more.
Keep this out of the game and keep it at the loading page where it belongs.
This is madness. Out of all the things to FIX, EA decides to add a button that aggressively begs for more money. And to top it off, it pulsates (even if you have all the packs). It’s almost as if they want us to go to Paralives and Life By You. Thanks for reminding us how much you don’t appreciate the money we already give you.
As someone that has been playing this game from the very beginning, I can honestly say I am done. They will get no more of my money.
Not happy with this one bit. You can't even pretend it's something some of us want. Nobody asked for this, nobody wants this. I wouldn't even be bothered if it didn't pulse, but I am going to be distracted to the point of not being able to play with it pulsing. Congratulations, your attempt at getting people to spend more money is a shipwreck. I will be actively spending LESS money. I had planned to buy the EP I don't have and the 2 SPs I don't have in the near future, but not now. I will be spending NOTHING on any EA/Origin/Sims games as long as that dumb button is harassing me.
I am very upset about this. I recently came into some unexpected funds and planned to drop some money on the recent packs I don't have yet. However, I promise I won't spend another cent until this icon is removed. Taking up space in the middle of the UI in control of actually *playing* the game? I enter the game through origin which prompts me to buy stuff and arrive at the start up screen that prompts me to buy stuff and now I can't even *play the content* without being harassed? They fully know people are going to be clicking it regularly as their muscle memory adjusts and it's going to be so irritating. EA has done a lot of stuff to make me unhappy but putting a big button with a moving icon (the only moving one!) in the center of the game controls is without a doubt the worst. EA makes mistakes and I grant a lot of leeway when things are unintentional or overlooked or even kind of thoughtless. But there's something so intentional, so active about this *choice* that it hits different.
I have the icon in-game but not the pulsating feature, so that must be one of the options that they are testing.
As for my feedback, I can get migraines, so no, I don't want anything triggering. I haven't minded the ads in the corner of the home screen. There's a pop-up that I click through before starting the game that I could do without.
Please do keep feedback coming in this thread, we are actively monitoring the situation and using this thread as well as the AHQ counterpart here as sources of information from the community at large on this.
Thank you for sharing with us, and as always keep an eye out here as well as @TheSimsDirect on X for updates.
Found a Bug? Let us know here. Having a technical issue with your game? Reach out to us here.
I can figure out which packs I want or don’t want without a pulsating shopping cart, so I’m not even sure how this is supposed to encourage new purchases. A constant reminder that I don’t own things I don’t want can blink at me until the heat death of the universe. I’m not going to suddenly want them.
I’m also prone to migraines and don’t think something pulsating on my screen is going to help.
It's good to know that EA is actively monitoring our feedback on this. But it begs the question: What did they expect? Seriously, what, if not exactly this? I'm genuinely curious.
Not for the first time, I'm wishing I'd been a fly on the wall in the boardroom where someone (probably from marketing) got a pat on the back for a fabulous idea... that the entire TS4 community ended up hating.
I have ADHD and other sensory issues. I am easily distracted by any visual stimuli, to such a degree that I cannot even have a flashing notification dot on my phone anywhere in my eyeline while trying to work because I will be looking at it constantly, and cannot concentrate on what I am doing. This update will be incredibly frustrating to people like me who struggle to focus on things when there is a repeated, flashing stimulus drawing attention away from the game. I play games to relax, and this will not be relaxing.
Every update EA has made of this nature is greedy and disrespectful to the player base. From the initial UI change where they greyed out the "Not Owned" icons to try to manipulate completionists, to the latest homepage change where it is one giant advertising board, to this new icon. It isn't even subtle, it's a very vlear attempt to try to force more buggy, broken, garbage packs down people's throats. We don't want this, we don't need this, and we don't appreciate it. I know what packs I am interested in, and what packs I do not want. This icon is not going to persuade me to buy packs I already decided I don't want.
I was fully planning on buying the new Stuff Pack on release on Thursday, but I have now decided I will not update my game and simply play in Offline Mode so long as this icon is present. As a result, I will also not buy any new packs since I wouldn't be able to download the content anyway. You have lost my business, EA.
Disappointed but not surprised... It's just the level of greedy and pathetic I expect from the same game that barely resolves bug fixes, put out packs and kits that were just extra content from other packs and has a new pack coming out while Dine Out is still broken :#
Comments
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To EA/Maxis: I think you'd agree the sims community tolerates a lot from you. Such as wedding stories, dine out, retail stores and others being broken from launch, and still being broken to this day. Relying on the modding community (once again) for fixes for these buggy and broken additions. We still don't have cars, abilities to edit lots or add new lots, color wheels, etc.
I can only speak for myself but the inclusion of this icon only confirms what I already knew. That you are only interested in new sales and will continue to allow modders to fix your content. Not only is this offensive to your consumer base but completely unfair to your "free" patching team of modders.
I promise you will not see another cent from me until it is removed and I will be actively encouraging others to speak up here and join the boycott.
Thanks @simgirl1010 now I know why I don't have it.
Disgusting but not unexpected move from EA.
Get to it, modders, the race is on!
It says to me that they only exist to extract as much cash as possible from us instead of a being company that makes great games that make us want to throw cash at them. Is simply says we don't care about your enjoyment, only urging you to buy more.
Keep this out of the game and keep it at the loading page where it belongs.
I'd support it in a heartbeat.
As someone that has been playing this game from the very beginning, I can honestly say I am done. They will get no more of my money.
As for my feedback, I can get migraines, so no, I don't want anything triggering. I haven't minded the ads in the corner of the home screen. There's a pop-up that I click through before starting the game that I could do without.
Please do keep feedback coming in this thread, we are actively monitoring the situation and using this thread as well as the AHQ counterpart here as sources of information from the community at large on this.
Thank you for sharing with us, and as always keep an eye out here as well as @TheSimsDirect on X for updates.
Thank you for being such an awesome and passionate community
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-Pulsating-Shopping-Button/m-p/13519671?utm_campaign=sims4_hd_ww_ic_soco_twt_ahq-bugs-1&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&cid=79572&ts=1709079102547#M271413
To be clear, the mere existence of this button is offensive to me. Sure, making it constantly flashing is worse, but existing is still unacceptable.
I’m also prone to migraines and don’t think something pulsating on my screen is going to help.
Not for the first time, I'm wishing I'd been a fly on the wall in the boardroom where someone (probably from marketing) got a pat on the back for a fabulous idea... that the entire TS4 community ended up hating.
Every update EA has made of this nature is greedy and disrespectful to the player base. From the initial UI change where they greyed out the "Not Owned" icons to try to manipulate completionists, to the latest homepage change where it is one giant advertising board, to this new icon. It isn't even subtle, it's a very vlear attempt to try to force more buggy, broken, garbage packs down people's throats. We don't want this, we don't need this, and we don't appreciate it. I know what packs I am interested in, and what packs I do not want. This icon is not going to persuade me to buy packs I already decided I don't want.
I was fully planning on buying the new Stuff Pack on release on Thursday, but I have now decided I will not update my game and simply play in Offline Mode so long as this icon is present. As a result, I will also not buy any new packs since I wouldn't be able to download the content anyway. You have lost my business, EA.
It's just the level of greedy and pathetic I expect from the same game that barely resolves bug fixes, put out packs and kits that were just extra content from other packs and has a new pack coming out while Dine Out is still broken :#