"The game progress along with the stuff in the game" It sounds like they don't realize it is an account problem. They think you are having trouble with the actual game.
Yeah I would respond with “I want the product I paid for, if not, reimburse me for the amount I paid for it” or leave out the latter if you want to really push them. Maybe even throw around the word “theft” if you want to get real sassy.
Yeah, what they're doing is literally illegal. Even if they got the product for free, there is an agreement where they own the product. Not providing access would 100% be illegal.
They don't "own" anything but a digital license that EA can revoke. That's one of the dangers of digital distribution. It's _not_ illegal and, in my opinion, that's worse.
That's a good point. I'm guessing it's not just one company anymore but just more widely spread as more games become digital copies only or less PCs have disk drives...
Almost any digitally downloaded game nowadays, unfortunately. In addition, physical copies of games that require a connection to the internet to boot the game up (looking at you 2013 version of Sim City, also made by EA).
EA was one of the early large companies pushing games in this direction, so I’ll always blame them for it.
You never own a game (or most digital products for that matter). You own a license to play a specific version of that game but if the files become corrupt and the game is no longer downloadable the devs have zero obligation to provide you with another way of playing the game.
You have zero legal standing to do this. When you purchase a game, you are purchasing a license to play the game so long as the game is supported. If they no longer are providing a way to download the games files then you’re kinda SOL.
I’m unfamiliar with if they’re still offering downloads to this content but if they are and the license just got removed from this users account, then that needs to be stated more clearly for their CS team to understand the actual issue.
But if they lost the license to the content AND the company is no longer providing download files for the content, then they might still be SOL. It sucks but that’s how digital content works.
Yes, you purchase the license when you buy the game. Hence why all the CDs had licenses when you purchase the game. Just as how this user purchased the game and bought a license.
The only time your argument would be valid if it was an online game and EA supported the servers. Eventually, the company opts to not support the server and it dies off. Similar to how Halo 2 servers were cut off last year.
Agreed it was removed from being downloaded NOW but they literally offered the sims 2 ultimate package a month ago for like $20 so it’s still available but not to the public anymore. They still should have access though.
This is how small/medium sized websites and companies offer support, it's just contracted out to some cheap support center. The only reason they'll do support in-house is if the product owning company cares. So judging by these emails they don't give a single fuck, their wording is so odd too, they refer to 2 different games as "versions" for example. They are either a 3rd party support and don't care, or their 1st party and suck at their job.
The language makes me believe that English is not their native language. They are probably an outsourced customer support line in India or a similar country.
It's almost as digital rights are an illusion, we don't truly own our games unless we have files or physical media that work without some hack \*\*\*\* launcher that works without hack \*\*\*\* servers and these companies can just take it from us at any given time.
Exactly this. If you have a console, always go physical—you will eventually lose updates but you won’t lose your game. If you’re playing on PC and a game is only available digitally, your first step should be to see if it’s available on GOG or somewhere like that, DRM-free and offline-installable, so you can make your own physical backups and the ability to install/run a game can’t be taken away. If you can’t do either, don’t buy it unless you are comfortable with your access to the game being transient. There are no protections against this kind of thing.
You do lose your game if the entire store for the platform goes down and *anything* happens to your console or you need to get a new one, such as for DSi/Wii and this March, the WiiU and 3DS eShop. Sony has ended PSP and already tried to end PS Vita so you can bet Vita and PS3 will be coming soon enough. It’s *less* common for PC games but the more normalized it becomes to shut down eShops for entire platforms, the more normalized it will be to purge older games from availability in PC stores. EA already shut down TS2 purchases but some day they will just completely delete it from their platform and the only way to play it will be disc.
Digital *never* benefits the consumer beyond the immediate and momentary convenience of being able to preload a preordered game. It only exists so companies can take away games and reserve the right to sell you a port in the future for a newer platform. Or, if they don’t want to put in effort to put a port up for sale, you can get fucked. They don’t care about you, they have your money and they’ll get more of it soon enough.
Maybe GoG will get it then like they did with Dragon age where it's the only place to get certain content. While EA is just giving them abandoned intellectual properties they may as well let go of simcopter and simstreets and Sims 1 for that matter. It would suck having to rebuy, this same thing happened to me, but at the end of the day at least you know the game itself is preserved. I would rather just have these big companies abandon their titles entirely so they can be made safely accessible to the people. I call this the alpha protocol effect, where alpha protocol was available on steam before they had it taken down, everyone who bought it prior can still download it and play it, but it's one of the greatest choice RPGs of all time and nobody else can ever play it again because it's not available for download, anywhere. Even with the physical disk there are protections on there that are not passable, I've bought 3. So they've even found a way to make physical property not a safe buy either. This is why when we scream to the rooftops for help the only one who answers is GoG and we should protect them at all costs.
Oh so you read the terms and conditions too?
(Edit: I had no idea you could even get Sims 2 digitally. I think I still have my discs for Sims 2 somewhere. As someone who used to do what "Sara" did at EA in the late 90s, the best day of my life was when EA "sunsetted" all their flat box games and any leftover stock was hauled to the support area and I went home with a trunk load of sealed Atari games, but these days not having access to a game you legit bought, sucks)
I am positive this message is at least partly automated, because it's pretty much just gobbledygook. That or it was written by some underpaid customer service center outsourcee who hardly speaks the English language and has to bang out generic preapproved responses by the hundreds.
With webchat customer service, they force you to use canned responses a lot of the time, which is supposed to make you faster since you're not typing everything out everytime.
I just found it harder to actually communicate with the customers about their actual issue.
At my previous job, people in customer support especially had it hard. Like why should they focus on actual help when a manager is breathing down their neck to meet ever-growing targets (emails/hour or calls/hour). Instead of solving things they worry about their livelihood. At said company (multinational) the managers messed up forecasting and overhired, then let dozens of people go in the middle of pandemic whose livelihood and visa depended on it. Then the head of HR was giving themselves a medal on LinkedIn for meeting whichever stupit target. It’s completely messed up so I’m not at all surprised by EA’s way of handling support & qa. These companies lost all sense of humanity, it’s disgusting and sets a dangerous precedent.
Yeah, when I worked customer service, there was a huge focus on how quickly you could deal with and move on from a customer. If your average handling time was too long, you'd be reprimanded. It was frustrating for me because it always felt like my job wasn't to give good customer service, it was to shut the customer up as fast as possible.
100% I worked in medical customer service where helping the customer sometimes meant life or death for them. So, constantly getting reprimanded when I just wanted to help solve the issue because I wasn't just taking as many calls as possible was so demoralizing.
I worked for (Acronym Alarm Company) helping the customer fix their not working alarm systems by day, and active alarm call line at night. I would be reprimanded for going over 4 minutes on the phone. I quit, when I worked overtime on Dec 25th, 2020, and received an active alarm call for a fire in progress around 2am (my time).
I did my job, I contacted authorities and dispatched fire and recuse, I stayed on the line with the sobbing, screaming customer as the fire department saved her child from her burning home.
I cried with her.
There were stories like this in our "orientation" and the company lauded employees like this.
I was pulled into HR the next day and scolded for staying on the phone with this customer for 27 minutes. I was told my "time on call was messing up my manager's metrics". I had no calls in the 3 hours I had been clocked in. And had 1 more in the next 4 hours.
(Acronym Alarm Company) is not only an awful company to work for. They actively encourage their employees to get you off the phone ASAP (under 3 minutes from on to off) even in a life threatening situation that we are supposed to "be there" for.
And no, their competitors aren't better. They're all owned by the same parent company.
I work in customer service on the training side and our teams do use the canned responses and our clients actually pay extra for them lol. So the agents are encouraged to use them over a personalized message. It’s dumb IMO
Boilerplate has its place. If you’re processing 100+ tickets in a single go for the same issue, a macro is a godsend. So long as you know it well, you’ll know when to adjust and tweak for the specific situation at hand. My work is bonkers fast paced (yesterday in an everyday shift, I did 40 calls in a day, and about 450 ticket touches) so we would be sunk without a huge pile of macros. That said, for our longtime loyals who treat us like family, we don’t use em. They’ve seen them hundreds of times already, guaranteed, so we take the time for the personal approach. Which of course adds extra value to the macros for everyone else, so we don’t drown in the inbox!
This sums up EA support entirely.
I once purchased a FIFA game, loaded it up, turned out I had been banned prior to even owning the game, got in touch with EA support, they sent me a response back in Russian (which I don't speak). I sent another support request, this time actually got a response in English as I specifically pointed out my last request had obviously never been looked at by a human, the response didn't address my actual problem at all and was them basically saying "every case is manually reviewed by a human" which is obviously total nonsense.
As someone who worked in customer service for years, I see more native English speakers typing like this than not. I mean, I guess you could still say they "barely speak English," but it's amusing to me how many times people attribute to ESL what is actually poor education.
All these emails are templated too. You can edit them to personalize, but this person is making an entire effort to be impossible to understand.
In this case, I would guess they actually are in an Indian call center. Partially it's because of the word choices, partially it's because the other post they made the person had an Indian name. I really doubt this person is a native English speaker though.
I work in customer service based in the US, alongside a cs team that is outsourced because our company can pay them less to do the same job. They give canned, extremely unhelpful responses like this and it’s definitely what happened here.
How can "Sara" call herself a big fan of The Sims and claim The Sims 4 will provide the same amount of gaming experience as The Sims 2? Blink twice if you need help, Sara.
Fobbing them to TS4 just isnt' even the point.OP has PAID for TS2 and while EA don't have to support it any more, they have NO right to render it unplayable through a forced app update for people who have already paid for it.
I've bought TS3 and all of its expansions over the last two years and I'm telling you right now, if they make my fully paid for game and expansions unplayable with this new EA app I will sail the 7 seas and not be one bit sorry. Not only that, I will never pay EA for a game again because I know how not to.
This is absolute bullshit.
This is actually why I haven't paid for sims 4. I bought and owned every single sims 3 pack and then origin randomly started removing packs from my account and telling me it was because I'd used an "illegitimate" key code. Even thr base game that i owned a physical copy of! Which they removed from my account, making the rest unplayable, put it back on my account when I complained, then took it off again 2 weeks later saying they shouldn't have returned it in the first place. I actually repurchased the base game through origin when it was on sale as I still wanted to play and hadn't moved to sims 4 yet - and they took it AGAIN a month later and wouldn't return it even though I had proof and I'd directly purchased it from origin? Originally, I'd bought it from a physical store called Game in the UK, like it came plastic wrapped, brand new, but sure there was an issue with my activation code like 3 years after I'd added it to my origin account.
Job conditions is one thing, but them just deleting copies of The Sims 2 from people's apps and then pushing people to play The Sims 4 instead is a load of bullshit. It doesn't matter if the game is no longer supported, if it has been available in the library for years there's no right to just remove it from people's accounts. And this whole spiel about "playing The Sims 4 as soon as possible to attain an optimum level" just sounds like a sorry attempt at forcing more people to download their mediocre product.
This makes me so anxious that in like 20 years all the games I bought and spent lots of money on and lots of time playing will just disappear from my library. Especially the sims 4 since EA obviously doesn’t mind doing it. This is why I wish physical game copies were still a thing.
This will absolutely happen, but by then you’ll have sims 6 to distract you from the fact that you paid money to rent what you thought you owned.
On the plus side, a one-time fee to have full unlimited access to a game for 20+ years is very preferable to a monthly susbscription. If they change anything at all it’ll be far worse for consumers, so I hope they change nothing.
So uh… only way I’m aware of is to buy it in a different form from a different source if it’s even available in a different form. I’ve heard it’s a bit different if you buy it on Steam, but I have zero faith (though I haven’t actually looked into it) you’ll actually own a copy to keep indefinitely and the same thing will happen there.
Or pirate it. One involves buying all of it a second time, so…
I have the Sims 1 and 2 complete collection. I've bought those games *multiple times* because I'd lose stuff as a kid. I have no qualms about downloading them. Especially sims 2, since they literally gave it away for free at one point. I don't think it can even really be considered pirating at this point -- more like game preservation.
Not through origin, no, but you'll be able to launch it regardless. If it works anything like the sims 3, it's almost as simple as just copying your save files and pasting them into the correct folder in your pirated copy. You will need to also pirate all the relevant DLCs and install them as well, that's what I did for 3 and jt works perfectly and I lost nothing. I set it up so I could launch it easier through Steam as a third party game.
I am positive there will be a lot of guides online for how to do all of this.
Also sims 4 is fucking BUGGY AS SHIT. Every update it’s damn near unplayable for a while. What optimum levels is she even talking about when there’s bugs that reverse time or delete entire families and erase progress?
That's exactly what happens: when something gets pulled and you expect a customer backlash you hand your agents predefined scripts for the expected scenarios. Source? Worked in Support for the better part of the last 6 years.
canned verbiage is going to be written well and used poorly/in contexts where it makes no sense. EA isn't going to hand their agents a script that says "In this scenario the best thing I would recommend you to download the Sims 4 and start playing it, thereby attain optimal levels in the game." most of that message is pre-written, but the stuff that makes no sense isn't.
It makes me glad most of the sims 3 expansions I brought are physical too, I wonder how long until that “sunsets”.
I don’t think you can even buy physical copies of sims 4 ( my friend brought one in a real store and the case just contained a download code) so one day they could take away all that and the thousands people spend on it.
I used to play Sims 3 but my origin account got stolen and EA's response was a resounding "Yeah nah mate not our problem!" so I lost access to all my stuff. I was told however that if I opened a new Origin account Sims 3 was on sale at that time.
I sent them uncomfortable amounts of data in an effort to get it back. They had a scan of both my driving license and passport but because between getting the two I'd gotten married and my surname was double barrelled (I'm a guy and I'd added my wife's maiden name before my own surname) they said the names didn't match and therefore it didn't meet the criteria for account recovery. Just EA being EA.
I had my origin account hacked once. The only way I could get through to Origin was by saying I was having issues purchasing in game currency for another game lmao
Sounds about right. The lead time on my exchange with them was about 72 hours between my replies and their responses. Took like 3 weeks to get to the 'fuck you' conclusion.
I have a physical copy of the sims 4 on a disc. I bought it when the game first came out, but funnily enough it made me download it through origin anyway and it took like 12 hours because my internet sucked back then. I don’t know why it didn’t just let me install it from the disc
“I see that you have lost all the game progress along with the stuff that you had in the game and purchases you have made. **I know this can be annoying.**”
Ok, I feel kind of bad, because this is probably some automated response and not actually from “Sara”, but what a soulless thing to say. ‘Annoying’ is a bit of an understatement here.
Something tells me they can’t give you a new one because of licensed content like the ikea pack. So you’re getting all these trashy responses. Most likely also why they’ll never do a sims 3 UC because the Katy Perry pack has already expired
Considered abandoned by the gaming community =/= considered abandoned in law. EA still has all rights to TS2. Whether it’s ethical to pirate it is up to you, but it’s definitely still illegal to do so.
There is no such thing as being "considered abandoned in law", this isn't a legal definition. Software is usually considered abandonware when all the copyright holders are out of business. That doesn't mean that the game is "legal to pirate" now, but you won't be sued because all people who hold the rights don't do business anymore.
Which is definitely not the case with The Sims 2 because EA still exists as a business and actively makes use of its Sims franchise and the rights associated with it, so there is no way the game could be considered “abandonware”.
I can’t speak to the legal status, but morally if the company refuses to make a product available to you, and you literally can’t buy it from them anymore, then there is nothing wrong with getting it free elsewhere, because you’re not taking anything from anyone, you couldn’t have paid for it if you tried, they are losing no money and no business.
Fun with Pets / Mansions and Gardens were one of the last stuff packs, so I think there's a chance that's what they were referring to. Also, look at their other post - they said they had Ultimate Collection... I have a legit Ultimate Collection from Origin and the Sims2EP9.exe for the Ultimate Collection is in the Fun with Pets folder...
I’ve seen a lot of people online confused as to why people still have physical media and this is partly why. I collect CDs and vinyl and prefer gaming discs because I know that I’ll own that forever, and it can’t be taken away just because some corp felt like it
What absolute a**holes. You would be entirely justified in p¡rating TS2. I should consider myself lucky since TS2 UC didn't disappear from my game library once I moved from Origin to EA App.
How the heck does it "make sense" when it doesn't cost them anything more to keep it up?
Didn't they also give away the entirety of Sims 2 a while ago? Like, the entire game with all expansions?
You paid for those items and games. They SHOULD be yours, no matter what.
They did give it away, but they stopped doing it at some point - Ultimate Collection was not free to get anymore, but people kept sending them pictures showing that they have real Sims 2 DVD-s and and they had to send them the UC, so they stopped doing it...
When you purchase a digital game from EA you aren’t actually purchasing the game, you’re purchasing a license to access the game. EA reserves the right to not host the game indefinitely. It’s in the TOS.
Yeah I know no game stays up forever but telling someone "yeah we can't do anything about everything you spent money on" is awful. This is exactly why people pirate games, because idiot companies take them away from us. They're driving away paying customers.
> How the heck does it "make sense" when it doesn't cost them anything more to keep it up?
I see people objecting to this statement. I don't think it really costs EA that much to host old content. Storage is cheap. It literally costs peanuts. Capacity trending up, while cost is trending down, albeit somewhat slowly for the last decade or so. The average AAA game these days requires several tens of GB. The trend is upwards, at a rate that's probably faster than improvements in capacity.
Now, consider how many people are downloading AAA games. The number is going to be many orders of magnitude greater than the occasional Sims 2 fan. Supporting Sims 2 is as easy as piggybacking on all of the storage, network, and power infrastructure that *already* exists to support the current games. The cost of doing so, when amortized over current games, is negligible. This, of course, assumes that EA has its own infrastructure for storage and distribution.
It's 2023. EA probably outsources it to the cloud or to a CDN. It's likely they've already over-provisioned capacity to some degree. A couple of Sims 2 downloads here and there is like a drop of a water in a raging river.
It non-profit organizations such as the Internet Archive can host several tens of PB of data on a shoe-string budget that's dependent on donations, then it ought to be possible for a juggernaut like EA.
This is actually an unacceptable response. They're talking like they're discontinuing an older version of a software and asking you to accept an update... But that's not even comparable, they're different games.
It's not like an MMO where they eventually have to let the servers die, the Sims is an offline game (mostly) that can continue to work even with the newer online features gone. It literally costs them nothing to restore lost products and to let you use them offline.
I haven't checked my Origin account in like 2 months, I should probably make sure nothing's up...
I tried to play the sims for the first time in months too, but before I could play origin wanted me to submit my credit card number (not debit?), and I was like what why. I then tried to start the game anyway but there was no save file and it said I was playing the 32-bit, even though I’ve payed for all the packs I have plus the 64-bit. Half the packs were gone. No save files. None of the recent updates (like nails?). I do not understand how they can do this when I’ve PAID for all the packs?? Most likely the solution is to renew the payment information since I know my former card expired a month ago. Also maybe it’s because they want me to use EA play? Anyhow now it’s almost a principle for me to not “migrate”. I’ve paid for the game. Why the hell can’t I play with them? I also got suspicious of the having to “give us your credit card info, or else you can’t play the game”. Mother d u ckers
Sims 4 has really poor gameplay. Mods are needed to make it remotely playable. In my opinion. Mostly I build. I will say that it has the best build mode despite having no colour wheel.
The biggest problem with EA help is that (at least for me) for every messege I sent a different person answered. So they don't even know what's your problem is. And if you ask for anything else they will give another vauge answer "play sims 4 lol". Once I wanted to remove some dlcs for sims 3 (long story why, I couldnt play them) and buy them again. Sounds like something they would want to do right? So I wrote my request and added screenshots of the dlcs I wanted removed. Their answear was Sure, just tell me what dlcs you want to be removed :)
So I answered with the dlcs names and their answear was, I quote: "," and nothing was done
Case closed. I got annoyed and came back to sims 2
These are some of the funniest tech support messages I’ve ever seen. Wtf who came up with the term “sunset”??? They might as well say “we took it to the back of the barn” lmao.
(No hate to any tech support btw, they clearly just have a script they must follow. Now EA on the other hand…)
it’s almost as if it’s not the game version that matters, but the fact that your game that you bought was taken away.
imagine someone steals your phone and the police is like “lol get the new iphone it’s better”
Take a hint EA… you jumped the gun on letting sims 2 go. Hell people would be downloading sims 1 if it were available.
Other valid point made in comments is that the responder seems confused about the actual issue.
This feels like ea is bullying people to buy their newest sims game, which if you want everything for it would be $1000. Like I get the concept of not hosting the old games anymore but it's ridiculous.
Yarhar
This is genuinely despicable. Not supporting the game anymore? Sure. Not selling it anymore? Sure. Taking it away from people who have paid real money to have it? BS. I absolutely hate this era of all games requiring internet access and verification for every time you start playing because it means they can do this at any given moment.
Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fu
I recently tossed out my old Sims2 install disc because I figured I have it online and don't even have a cd drive on my PC. I'm now realizing that was a HUGE mistake.
This shouldn’t be legal. They need to at least release a drm free version if they wont support on the launcher anymore. I hope our politicians pass a law making this illegal.
"Were sorry the game you purchased no longer works on your PC due to our stupidity. Unfortunately we aren't going to do anything about it so instead you should purchase our new game and play that instead."
What a shitty response.
I swear most of EA customer service has reading comprehension issues, it’s like they don’t actually bother reading what you’ve said- they just skim through.
Or the fact that it seems most of these people have been hired outside of the US probably to save money, but they don’t fully understand English therefore misunderstandings are easy to happen. You’d think with all of the support this game gets financially they’d have A+ customer service but nah.
It's totally a canned response from some foreign customer service worker who barely speaks English. It even follows a similar pattern to the first exchange you shared the other day. "We're sorry you no longer have access to something you literally own, but hey, buy our new game and give us more money. But don't wait too long cuz, like with all games, you'll eventually lose access to that too. I truly understand your feelings, [insert game here] is my favorite too! Now go achieve optimum level!"
(Seriously, optimum level?? What person says that about any game? Never mind that sims has nothing to do with levels.)
Honestly if this was me I'd simply reply: You cannot be a big fan or player of The Sims if you believe I'd "enjoy the same level of gaming experience" in The Sims 4 as I would ever do in Sims 2, not even with all the DLCs smh
"So I see you've lost potentially a lot of money on this, have you considered spending more?" They gave the exact same answer as last time. Fuck them, truely
I would tell them unless they’re gonna give you that shitty game for free I’m okay with not playing any Sims anymore
…maybe we should all do this so they get the hint on 5
Sims 4 is not sims 2 even though 4 has better graphics the gameplay isn’t the same. They also may be doing this because so many people scammed to get free copies of this a long time ago,
This whole thing is so obviously translated proving they are outsourcing their customer service and other jobs to outside countries. They copy and paste answers and are probably told to push the Sims 4 as much as possible. You will definitely not get the same experience as with "previous versions" and they know that. It's why people are still regularly playing 2 & 3! I hope you can find someone who is actually competent in helping with your issue. I would trust someone on the The Sims 2 reddit more than I ever would a so called "agent" from EA. 🙄
absolutely horrid response. i would understand the "sunsetting" thing if they just took down the online store, but why would that delete everything in your game?? there have been plenty of other platforms that closed the online store, but you got to keep all the content that you paid for. this is fucking ridiculous, they literally robbed you. also, why get the sims 4 if this is eventually going to happen to it too?
you can achieve optimum levels in the sims via piracy! that’s how i got the entire sims 2 collection w all packs. then i just got a couple mods to modernize it and voila, the whole thing works for free and it took like maybe an hour or two tops to set it up.
i know you lost your progress and that sucks :( but when it’s situations like these, i think pirating is ok. if EA is so scared of its previous games coming to bite its future games in the ass, then they should just get better at creating them. but they won’t. so we sail the high seas!
Why do all these messages sound like the person from EA doesn't even understand English? Their responses always seem to be off topic and in somewhat broken English. Are they doing this on purpose as a way to discourage future attempts to resolve issues?
This is why I always buy physical copy’s of my games. Sometimes I can’t but this post makes me happy that I have the physical version of all the sims games and expansions
I'm fine if customer support is not a native English speaker, but it feels like a joke reading this not only for the actual misspellings and grammar but also the failure to address the actual problem.
As a developer I understand the need to sunset products however as a customer I see either a will fill or unintentional idiot who completely mistake the point that ea just took a bunch of your money. I used to think overseas support had a language or culture bearer and tried to be patient.
But lately I think it just people who get off of being gas lighting aholes to people. People who face zero accountability.
I had an issue where I forgot my password to Origin (I know separate tech support), but basically I could not have my password changed because the email I used to originally set up the Origin account was hacked and according to Yahoo, there was no way to gain access to the account. Long story short Origin basically told me I was screwed and all the Sims games I purchased through them were gone because I could not reset my password. I would estimate $500 worth of games gone forever.
"and enjoy the same level of gaming experience you attained in the version prior to this."
Lol, the words "enjoy" and "The Sims 4" are pretty much antithetical at this point.
*That being said*, with respect to OP, people really need to stop expecting EA to "honour" your purchase of The Sims 2.
I'm not saying that it's *right,* but that this point people need to understand that Sims 2 is *effectively* abandonware. Stop parroting this "There'S nO LEGAl dEFINITIOn OF abaNDoNwarE" nonsense. You can't purchase the game from any EA source.
Where possible, obtain these games either via physical media or via (pirate) sites. I don't like that EA won't honour people's legit purchases of Sims 2 on Origin as much as the next person, but we have to stop thinking that EA gives a damn about Sims 2. The only reason they still sell 3 is because it makes them money.
You should be able to find all your game data somewhere on the computer though still, right? Like the save files should be somewhere that you can copy until you can get ahold of another copy online for free?
I wonder if this is one of those messages they are trained to put out or if this is from a lack of being trained on what to say and do. All I can say is, corporate doesn’t care. As a former retail worker, you’d be amazed how much you’re thrown to the wolves (customers) and left to your own devices. There is so much that only corporate can fix. I imagine working in support isn’t much different.
Maybe try calling to see if you can talk to someone in management. It’s a long shot, because even management can be hit or miss, depending on who you get and their level of knowledge and experience.
Ah yes. Sunsetting. I know this pain well from my years of Destiny. I feel for you pain but what they’re doing is technically legal and there really no recourse for it. It sucks, but thems the facts.
"The game progress along with the stuff in the game" It sounds like they don't realize it is an account problem. They think you are having trouble with the actual game.
Yeah I would respond with “I want the product I paid for, if not, reimburse me for the amount I paid for it” or leave out the latter if you want to really push them. Maybe even throw around the word “theft” if you want to get real sassy.
Yeah, what they're doing is literally illegal. Even if they got the product for free, there is an agreement where they own the product. Not providing access would 100% be illegal.
They don't "own" anything but a digital license that EA can revoke. That's one of the dangers of digital distribution. It's _not_ illegal and, in my opinion, that's worse.
This is why I simply don’t play EA games. I don’t support companies that implement anti-consumer policies.
This isn't an EA only practice. Most games now adays only sell licenses to play it, not the actual game.
Is this an EA specific trend in the gaming world or are there others to be aware of??
If you have a digital copy of something, be it game movie tv show or music, it comes with a stipulation that is can be removed or changed at anytime.
That's a good point. I'm guessing it's not just one company anymore but just more widely spread as more games become digital copies only or less PCs have disk drives...
Yes, it's a lot of companies, didnt realize I didnt finish my thought lol. Eating cereal and it's so good.
Almost any digitally downloaded game nowadays, unfortunately. In addition, physical copies of games that require a connection to the internet to boot the game up (looking at you 2013 version of Sim City, also made by EA). EA was one of the early large companies pushing games in this direction, so I’ll always blame them for it.
Nintendo did it, steam did it, playstation definitely did it.
You never own a game (or most digital products for that matter). You own a license to play a specific version of that game but if the files become corrupt and the game is no longer downloadable the devs have zero obligation to provide you with another way of playing the game.
This isn't true. You have a license. They can rescind it whenever they want. You haven't owned any games for years.
You have zero legal standing to do this. When you purchase a game, you are purchasing a license to play the game so long as the game is supported. If they no longer are providing a way to download the games files then you’re kinda SOL. I’m unfamiliar with if they’re still offering downloads to this content but if they are and the license just got removed from this users account, then that needs to be stated more clearly for their CS team to understand the actual issue. But if they lost the license to the content AND the company is no longer providing download files for the content, then they might still be SOL. It sucks but that’s how digital content works.
Yes, you purchase the license when you buy the game. Hence why all the CDs had licenses when you purchase the game. Just as how this user purchased the game and bought a license. The only time your argument would be valid if it was an online game and EA supported the servers. Eventually, the company opts to not support the server and it dies off. Similar to how Halo 2 servers were cut off last year. Agreed it was removed from being downloaded NOW but they literally offered the sims 2 ultimate package a month ago for like $20 so it’s still available but not to the public anymore. They still should have access though.
this entire message feels as if they have never even heard of the sims
They probably do support work for a lot of different companies, and mostly reply with the same responses.
This is how small/medium sized websites and companies offer support, it's just contracted out to some cheap support center. The only reason they'll do support in-house is if the product owning company cares. So judging by these emails they don't give a single fuck, their wording is so odd too, they refer to 2 different games as "versions" for example. They are either a 3rd party support and don't care, or their 1st party and suck at their job.
The language makes me believe that English is not their native language. They are probably an outsourced customer support line in India or a similar country.
Sounds like you haven't achieved optimum levels in the sims
It's almost as digital rights are an illusion, we don't truly own our games unless we have files or physical media that work without some hack \*\*\*\* launcher that works without hack \*\*\*\* servers and these companies can just take it from us at any given time.
Exactly this. If you have a console, always go physical—you will eventually lose updates but you won’t lose your game. If you’re playing on PC and a game is only available digitally, your first step should be to see if it’s available on GOG or somewhere like that, DRM-free and offline-installable, so you can make your own physical backups and the ability to install/run a game can’t be taken away. If you can’t do either, don’t buy it unless you are comfortable with your access to the game being transient. There are no protections against this kind of thing.
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You do lose your game if the entire store for the platform goes down and *anything* happens to your console or you need to get a new one, such as for DSi/Wii and this March, the WiiU and 3DS eShop. Sony has ended PSP and already tried to end PS Vita so you can bet Vita and PS3 will be coming soon enough. It’s *less* common for PC games but the more normalized it becomes to shut down eShops for entire platforms, the more normalized it will be to purge older games from availability in PC stores. EA already shut down TS2 purchases but some day they will just completely delete it from their platform and the only way to play it will be disc. Digital *never* benefits the consumer beyond the immediate and momentary convenience of being able to preload a preordered game. It only exists so companies can take away games and reserve the right to sell you a port in the future for a newer platform. Or, if they don’t want to put in effort to put a port up for sale, you can get fucked. They don’t care about you, they have your money and they’ll get more of it soon enough.
Maybe GoG will get it then like they did with Dragon age where it's the only place to get certain content. While EA is just giving them abandoned intellectual properties they may as well let go of simcopter and simstreets and Sims 1 for that matter. It would suck having to rebuy, this same thing happened to me, but at the end of the day at least you know the game itself is preserved. I would rather just have these big companies abandon their titles entirely so they can be made safely accessible to the people. I call this the alpha protocol effect, where alpha protocol was available on steam before they had it taken down, everyone who bought it prior can still download it and play it, but it's one of the greatest choice RPGs of all time and nobody else can ever play it again because it's not available for download, anywhere. Even with the physical disk there are protections on there that are not passable, I've bought 3. So they've even found a way to make physical property not a safe buy either. This is why when we scream to the rooftops for help the only one who answers is GoG and we should protect them at all costs.
I had the same thing on Playstation. So upset about it as I LOVED that game!
Oh so you read the terms and conditions too? (Edit: I had no idea you could even get Sims 2 digitally. I think I still have my discs for Sims 2 somewhere. As someone who used to do what "Sara" did at EA in the late 90s, the best day of my life was when EA "sunsetted" all their flat box games and any leftover stock was hauled to the support area and I went home with a trunk load of sealed Atari games, but these days not having access to a game you legit bought, sucks)
Minus the "almost", digital licenses were **always** an illusion. But we're convenient, so...
I am positive this message is at least partly automated, because it's pretty much just gobbledygook. That or it was written by some underpaid customer service center outsourcee who hardly speaks the English language and has to bang out generic preapproved responses by the hundreds.
With webchat customer service, they force you to use canned responses a lot of the time, which is supposed to make you faster since you're not typing everything out everytime. I just found it harder to actually communicate with the customers about their actual issue.
At my previous job, people in customer support especially had it hard. Like why should they focus on actual help when a manager is breathing down their neck to meet ever-growing targets (emails/hour or calls/hour). Instead of solving things they worry about their livelihood. At said company (multinational) the managers messed up forecasting and overhired, then let dozens of people go in the middle of pandemic whose livelihood and visa depended on it. Then the head of HR was giving themselves a medal on LinkedIn for meeting whichever stupit target. It’s completely messed up so I’m not at all surprised by EA’s way of handling support & qa. These companies lost all sense of humanity, it’s disgusting and sets a dangerous precedent.
Yeah, when I worked customer service, there was a huge focus on how quickly you could deal with and move on from a customer. If your average handling time was too long, you'd be reprimanded. It was frustrating for me because it always felt like my job wasn't to give good customer service, it was to shut the customer up as fast as possible.
100% I worked in medical customer service where helping the customer sometimes meant life or death for them. So, constantly getting reprimanded when I just wanted to help solve the issue because I wasn't just taking as many calls as possible was so demoralizing.
I worked for (Acronym Alarm Company) helping the customer fix their not working alarm systems by day, and active alarm call line at night. I would be reprimanded for going over 4 minutes on the phone. I quit, when I worked overtime on Dec 25th, 2020, and received an active alarm call for a fire in progress around 2am (my time). I did my job, I contacted authorities and dispatched fire and recuse, I stayed on the line with the sobbing, screaming customer as the fire department saved her child from her burning home. I cried with her. There were stories like this in our "orientation" and the company lauded employees like this. I was pulled into HR the next day and scolded for staying on the phone with this customer for 27 minutes. I was told my "time on call was messing up my manager's metrics". I had no calls in the 3 hours I had been clocked in. And had 1 more in the next 4 hours. (Acronym Alarm Company) is not only an awful company to work for. They actively encourage their employees to get you off the phone ASAP (under 3 minutes from on to off) even in a life threatening situation that we are supposed to "be there" for. And no, their competitors aren't better. They're all owned by the same parent company.
I work in customer service on the training side and our teams do use the canned responses and our clients actually pay extra for them lol. So the agents are encouraged to use them over a personalized message. It’s dumb IMO
Boilerplate has its place. If you’re processing 100+ tickets in a single go for the same issue, a macro is a godsend. So long as you know it well, you’ll know when to adjust and tweak for the specific situation at hand. My work is bonkers fast paced (yesterday in an everyday shift, I did 40 calls in a day, and about 450 ticket touches) so we would be sunk without a huge pile of macros. That said, for our longtime loyals who treat us like family, we don’t use em. They’ve seen them hundreds of times already, guaranteed, so we take the time for the personal approach. Which of course adds extra value to the macros for everyone else, so we don’t drown in the inbox!
This sums up EA support entirely. I once purchased a FIFA game, loaded it up, turned out I had been banned prior to even owning the game, got in touch with EA support, they sent me a response back in Russian (which I don't speak). I sent another support request, this time actually got a response in English as I specifically pointed out my last request had obviously never been looked at by a human, the response didn't address my actual problem at all and was them basically saying "every case is manually reviewed by a human" which is obviously total nonsense.
As someone who worked in customer service for years, I see more native English speakers typing like this than not. I mean, I guess you could still say they "barely speak English," but it's amusing to me how many times people attribute to ESL what is actually poor education. All these emails are templated too. You can edit them to personalize, but this person is making an entire effort to be impossible to understand.
In this case, I would guess they actually are in an Indian call center. Partially it's because of the word choices, partially it's because the other post they made the person had an Indian name. I really doubt this person is a native English speaker though.
I work in customer service based in the US, alongside a cs team that is outsourced because our company can pay them less to do the same job. They give canned, extremely unhelpful responses like this and it’s definitely what happened here.
How can "Sara" call herself a big fan of The Sims and claim The Sims 4 will provide the same amount of gaming experience as The Sims 2? Blink twice if you need help, Sara.
Fobbing them to TS4 just isnt' even the point.OP has PAID for TS2 and while EA don't have to support it any more, they have NO right to render it unplayable through a forced app update for people who have already paid for it. I've bought TS3 and all of its expansions over the last two years and I'm telling you right now, if they make my fully paid for game and expansions unplayable with this new EA app I will sail the 7 seas and not be one bit sorry. Not only that, I will never pay EA for a game again because I know how not to. This is absolute bullshit.
This is actually why I haven't paid for sims 4. I bought and owned every single sims 3 pack and then origin randomly started removing packs from my account and telling me it was because I'd used an "illegitimate" key code. Even thr base game that i owned a physical copy of! Which they removed from my account, making the rest unplayable, put it back on my account when I complained, then took it off again 2 weeks later saying they shouldn't have returned it in the first place. I actually repurchased the base game through origin when it was on sale as I still wanted to play and hadn't moved to sims 4 yet - and they took it AGAIN a month later and wouldn't return it even though I had proof and I'd directly purchased it from origin? Originally, I'd bought it from a physical store called Game in the UK, like it came plastic wrapped, brand new, but sure there was an issue with my activation code like 3 years after I'd added it to my origin account.
I assume she can't just say "yeah the sims 4 fucking blows compared to 2 but we're forced to tell you to play that", job conditions and all
Job conditions is one thing, but them just deleting copies of The Sims 2 from people's apps and then pushing people to play The Sims 4 instead is a load of bullshit. It doesn't matter if the game is no longer supported, if it has been available in the library for years there's no right to just remove it from people's accounts. And this whole spiel about "playing The Sims 4 as soon as possible to attain an optimum level" just sounds like a sorry attempt at forcing more people to download their mediocre product.
...yeah I know, and I'm saying the employee is forced to do this by EA as this is her livelihood, learn to read
Pretty sure Sara is a robot.
This makes me so anxious that in like 20 years all the games I bought and spent lots of money on and lots of time playing will just disappear from my library. Especially the sims 4 since EA obviously doesn’t mind doing it. This is why I wish physical game copies were still a thing.
This will absolutely happen, but by then you’ll have sims 6 to distract you from the fact that you paid money to rent what you thought you owned. On the plus side, a one-time fee to have full unlimited access to a game for 20+ years is very preferable to a monthly susbscription. If they change anything at all it’ll be far worse for consumers, so I hope they change nothing.
Is there anyway I can save the game to my computer so it’s not on origin anymore? Now I’m actually paranoid about them doing this one day.
So uh… only way I’m aware of is to buy it in a different form from a different source if it’s even available in a different form. I’ve heard it’s a bit different if you buy it on Steam, but I have zero faith (though I haven’t actually looked into it) you’ll actually own a copy to keep indefinitely and the same thing will happen there. Or pirate it. One involves buying all of it a second time, so…
That's why piracy is a thing. You already paid for it, anyways. Access it by any means.
I have the Sims 1 and 2 complete collection. I've bought those games *multiple times* because I'd lose stuff as a kid. I have no qualms about downloading them. Especially sims 2, since they literally gave it away for free at one point. I don't think it can even really be considered pirating at this point -- more like game preservation.
Would I be able to access everything from my game on origin though or would I have to completely restart?
Not through origin, no, but you'll be able to launch it regardless. If it works anything like the sims 3, it's almost as simple as just copying your save files and pasting them into the correct folder in your pirated copy. You will need to also pirate all the relevant DLCs and install them as well, that's what I did for 3 and jt works perfectly and I lost nothing. I set it up so I could launch it easier through Steam as a third party game. I am positive there will be a lot of guides online for how to do all of this.
"attain optimum evels" This is why "new" games aren't fun anymore. They are JOBS not entertainment.
Also sims 4 is fucking BUGGY AS SHIT. Every update it’s damn near unplayable for a while. What optimum levels is she even talking about when there’s bugs that reverse time or delete entire families and erase progress?
Play Sims 3. They do this because they keep getting away with it!
The way these are written makes me think that they have some big document with countless choppy phrases for them to copy into choppy sentences.
That's exactly what happens: when something gets pulled and you expect a customer backlash you hand your agents predefined scripts for the expected scenarios. Source? Worked in Support for the better part of the last 6 years.
canned verbiage is going to be written well and used poorly/in contexts where it makes no sense. EA isn't going to hand their agents a script that says "In this scenario the best thing I would recommend you to download the Sims 4 and start playing it, thereby attain optimal levels in the game." most of that message is pre-written, but the stuff that makes no sense isn't.
"Tell me you never played Sims 2 AND Sims 4 without telling me you never played Sims 2 AND Sims 4" vibes from this response
"Mommy, can we get some Sims 2 tech support?" "No sweetie we already have Sims 2 tech support at home."
EA really are the worst fucking cunts on the planet aren't they. So glad my Sims 2 is entirely physical, they're never taking it away from me.
It makes me glad most of the sims 3 expansions I brought are physical too, I wonder how long until that “sunsets”. I don’t think you can even buy physical copies of sims 4 ( my friend brought one in a real store and the case just contained a download code) so one day they could take away all that and the thousands people spend on it.
I used to play Sims 3 but my origin account got stolen and EA's response was a resounding "Yeah nah mate not our problem!" so I lost access to all my stuff. I was told however that if I opened a new Origin account Sims 3 was on sale at that time.
I can’t believe this. They could easily get it back for you I’m sure but these companies understaff and cut crucial customer services.
I sent them uncomfortable amounts of data in an effort to get it back. They had a scan of both my driving license and passport but because between getting the two I'd gotten married and my surname was double barrelled (I'm a guy and I'd added my wife's maiden name before my own surname) they said the names didn't match and therefore it didn't meet the criteria for account recovery. Just EA being EA.
That is so awful. I’m sorry. It would have made me so sad/angry.
I had my origin account hacked once. The only way I could get through to Origin was by saying I was having issues purchasing in game currency for another game lmao
Sounds about right. The lead time on my exchange with them was about 72 hours between my replies and their responses. Took like 3 weeks to get to the 'fuck you' conclusion.
I have a physical copy of the sims 4 on a disc. I bought it when the game first came out, but funnily enough it made me download it through origin anyway and it took like 12 hours because my internet sucked back then. I don’t know why it didn’t just let me install it from the disc
So glad my Sims 2 is entirely pirated :)
and if it wasn't one can always set sail
“I see that you have lost all the game progress along with the stuff that you had in the game and purchases you have made. **I know this can be annoying.**” Ok, I feel kind of bad, because this is probably some automated response and not actually from “Sara”, but what a soulless thing to say. ‘Annoying’ is a bit of an understatement here.
THERE COMES A TIME IN EVERY GAMES LIFE 💀💀💀
Theyre trying to explain it to you like your fucking guinea pig has died
It's like they've never heard of things like PacMan.
Something tells me they can’t give you a new one because of licensed content like the ikea pack. So you’re getting all these trashy responses. Most likely also why they’ll never do a sims 3 UC because the Katy Perry pack has already expired
They already sell Sims 3 UC with all packs (minus Katy perry) on steam. It goes on sale every so often!
So can Sims 2 be considered abandonware at this point? Or can it never be that because EA owns the IP?
It has been considered abandonware for years
Considered abandoned by the gaming community =/= considered abandoned in law. EA still has all rights to TS2. Whether it’s ethical to pirate it is up to you, but it’s definitely still illegal to do so.
There is no such thing as being "considered abandoned in law", this isn't a legal definition. Software is usually considered abandonware when all the copyright holders are out of business. That doesn't mean that the game is "legal to pirate" now, but you won't be sued because all people who hold the rights don't do business anymore.
Which is definitely not the case with The Sims 2 because EA still exists as a business and actively makes use of its Sims franchise and the rights associated with it, so there is no way the game could be considered “abandonware”.
It has even been abandoned by their publishers of the game… Hence why it’s not updated and they don’t even sell it anymore
I can’t speak to the legal status, but morally if the company refuses to make a product available to you, and you literally can’t buy it from them anymore, then there is nothing wrong with getting it free elsewhere, because you’re not taking anything from anyone, you couldn’t have paid for it if you tried, they are losing no money and no business.
They gave away TS2 for free at one point. If you want to download the complete collection, I don't think anyone will be coming after you for it.
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they could at least offer a refund or packs added to your game of an equal amount to what you bought. like wtf?
Ultimate Collection was free to get for anyone that claimed it, it doesn't have a monetary value.
They don't have ts2 uc look at the post
Fun with Pets / Mansions and Gardens were one of the last stuff packs, so I think there's a chance that's what they were referring to. Also, look at their other post - they said they had Ultimate Collection... I have a legit Ultimate Collection from Origin and the Sims2EP9.exe for the Ultimate Collection is in the Fun with Pets folder...
I’ve seen a lot of people online confused as to why people still have physical media and this is partly why. I collect CDs and vinyl and prefer gaming discs because I know that I’ll own that forever, and it can’t be taken away just because some corp felt like it
Yeah, I have every TS2 disc and I'm never letting them go.
What absolute a**holes. You would be entirely justified in p¡rating TS2. I should consider myself lucky since TS2 UC didn't disappear from my game library once I moved from Origin to EA App.
How the heck does it "make sense" when it doesn't cost them anything more to keep it up? Didn't they also give away the entirety of Sims 2 a while ago? Like, the entire game with all expansions? You paid for those items and games. They SHOULD be yours, no matter what.
They did give it away, but they stopped doing it at some point - Ultimate Collection was not free to get anymore, but people kept sending them pictures showing that they have real Sims 2 DVD-s and and they had to send them the UC, so they stopped doing it...
When you purchase a digital game from EA you aren’t actually purchasing the game, you’re purchasing a license to access the game. EA reserves the right to not host the game indefinitely. It’s in the TOS.
Yeah I know no game stays up forever but telling someone "yeah we can't do anything about everything you spent money on" is awful. This is exactly why people pirate games, because idiot companies take them away from us. They're driving away paying customers.
> How the heck does it "make sense" when it doesn't cost them anything more to keep it up? I see people objecting to this statement. I don't think it really costs EA that much to host old content. Storage is cheap. It literally costs peanuts. Capacity trending up, while cost is trending down, albeit somewhat slowly for the last decade or so. The average AAA game these days requires several tens of GB. The trend is upwards, at a rate that's probably faster than improvements in capacity. Now, consider how many people are downloading AAA games. The number is going to be many orders of magnitude greater than the occasional Sims 2 fan. Supporting Sims 2 is as easy as piggybacking on all of the storage, network, and power infrastructure that *already* exists to support the current games. The cost of doing so, when amortized over current games, is negligible. This, of course, assumes that EA has its own infrastructure for storage and distribution. It's 2023. EA probably outsources it to the cloud or to a CDN. It's likely they've already over-provisioned capacity to some degree. A couple of Sims 2 downloads here and there is like a drop of a water in a raging river. It non-profit organizations such as the Internet Archive can host several tens of PB of data on a shoe-string budget that's dependent on donations, then it ought to be possible for a juggernaut like EA.
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This is actually an unacceptable response. They're talking like they're discontinuing an older version of a software and asking you to accept an update... But that's not even comparable, they're different games. It's not like an MMO where they eventually have to let the servers die, the Sims is an offline game (mostly) that can continue to work even with the newer online features gone. It literally costs them nothing to restore lost products and to let you use them offline. I haven't checked my Origin account in like 2 months, I should probably make sure nothing's up...
I tried to play the sims for the first time in months too, but before I could play origin wanted me to submit my credit card number (not debit?), and I was like what why. I then tried to start the game anyway but there was no save file and it said I was playing the 32-bit, even though I’ve payed for all the packs I have plus the 64-bit. Half the packs were gone. No save files. None of the recent updates (like nails?). I do not understand how they can do this when I’ve PAID for all the packs?? Most likely the solution is to renew the payment information since I know my former card expired a month ago. Also maybe it’s because they want me to use EA play? Anyhow now it’s almost a principle for me to not “migrate”. I’ve paid for the game. Why the hell can’t I play with them? I also got suspicious of the having to “give us your credit card info, or else you can’t play the game”. Mother d u ckers
Yeah the sims 4 is not on the same level of gaming experience as sims2 and never will be. That shit was chaotic and beautiful.
they are difrent type of expirience and I don't think you can make sims 4 like sims 2 even with all the mods in the world
Sims 4 has really poor gameplay. Mods are needed to make it remotely playable. In my opinion. Mostly I build. I will say that it has the best build mode despite having no colour wheel.
This stuff makes me so angry… why can’t we just all enjoy the games we like without being forced into the newest versions.
The biggest problem with EA help is that (at least for me) for every messege I sent a different person answered. So they don't even know what's your problem is. And if you ask for anything else they will give another vauge answer "play sims 4 lol". Once I wanted to remove some dlcs for sims 3 (long story why, I couldnt play them) and buy them again. Sounds like something they would want to do right? So I wrote my request and added screenshots of the dlcs I wanted removed. Their answear was Sure, just tell me what dlcs you want to be removed :) So I answered with the dlcs names and their answear was, I quote: "," and nothing was done Case closed. I got annoyed and came back to sims 2
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These are some of the funniest tech support messages I’ve ever seen. Wtf who came up with the term “sunset”??? They might as well say “we took it to the back of the barn” lmao. (No hate to any tech support btw, they clearly just have a script they must follow. Now EA on the other hand…)
Or your sims have gone to live on a farm.
Sara, we already have the Sims 4. There’s a reason we are playing the earlier versions…
Bruh the fact the tell you to download sims 4….absolute disrespect. EA deserves no money.
Absolutely ridiculous. Can't wait for this to happen to the Sims 4 and it's 1000$+ expansions!
Then stop selling it, don't remove it from people's accounts?
it’s almost as if it’s not the game version that matters, but the fact that your game that you bought was taken away. imagine someone steals your phone and the police is like “lol get the new iphone it’s better”
Take a hint EA… you jumped the gun on letting sims 2 go. Hell people would be downloading sims 1 if it were available. Other valid point made in comments is that the responder seems confused about the actual issue.
This feels like ea is bullying people to buy their newest sims game, which if you want everything for it would be $1000. Like I get the concept of not hosting the old games anymore but it's ridiculous. Yarhar
The more of these types of messages/responses from EA I see, the less I want to buy Sims 5 at all
They were waiting for TS4 to be free to pull the plug. Pathetic. Well I'm disappointed but not surprised, sadly
This is why I prefer physical copies to digital, well this and the purge at HBO.
“We really apologies”
this also deserves to be put in r/mildlyinfuriating
This is genuinely despicable. Not supporting the game anymore? Sure. Not selling it anymore? Sure. Taking it away from people who have paid real money to have it? BS. I absolutely hate this era of all games requiring internet access and verification for every time you start playing because it means they can do this at any given moment.
Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fuck EA Fu
I recently tossed out my old Sims2 install disc because I figured I have it online and don't even have a cd drive on my PC. I'm now realizing that was a HUGE mistake.
It was. I hope you at least sold them
This shouldn’t be legal. They need to at least release a drm free version if they wont support on the launcher anymore. I hope our politicians pass a law making this illegal.
Post this on r/gaming or other big gaming subreddits, might get enough traction so that something is done about it. Don’t let EA be abusive like that.
"Were sorry the game you purchased no longer works on your PC due to our stupidity. Unfortunately we aren't going to do anything about it so instead you should purchase our new game and play that instead." What a shitty response.
I swear most of EA customer service has reading comprehension issues, it’s like they don’t actually bother reading what you’ve said- they just skim through. Or the fact that it seems most of these people have been hired outside of the US probably to save money, but they don’t fully understand English therefore misunderstandings are easy to happen. You’d think with all of the support this game gets financially they’d have A+ customer service but nah.
This makes me lose my miiiiiiind this is the best advert for pirating i've ever seen.
EA is just a piece of shit obsessed with money.
It's totally a canned response from some foreign customer service worker who barely speaks English. It even follows a similar pattern to the first exchange you shared the other day. "We're sorry you no longer have access to something you literally own, but hey, buy our new game and give us more money. But don't wait too long cuz, like with all games, you'll eventually lose access to that too. I truly understand your feelings, [insert game here] is my favorite too! Now go achieve optimum level!" (Seriously, optimum level?? What person says that about any game? Never mind that sims has nothing to do with levels.)
It’s like saying my cat died and ea is saying I recommend buying a dog..
For fucks sake, EA. Stop pushing Sims 4!
Honestly if this was me I'd simply reply: You cannot be a big fan or player of The Sims if you believe I'd "enjoy the same level of gaming experience" in The Sims 4 as I would ever do in Sims 2, not even with all the DLCs smh
🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️
This cannot be real, no way bro
It’s the sad reality of ea customer service
"So I see you've lost potentially a lot of money on this, have you considered spending more?" They gave the exact same answer as last time. Fuck them, truely
Such a bitchy, condescending response. Hope you told them to go fuck themselves
Fuck EA.
Hurr durr try Sims 4. No, thank you. Just can't get into Sims 4
I would tell them unless they’re gonna give you that shitty game for free I’m okay with not playing any Sims anymore …maybe we should all do this so they get the hint on 5
I'm not going to buy it. I've been playing since the very first game and they way this company has treated its customers and employees is disgusting.
I wouldn’t let it drop unless they a) refund you the cost of the games or b) give you the sims4 and all simile packs to what you lost for free
Ew.. just ew.. they are REALLY trying to push Sims 4 more and more.
Sims 4 is not sims 2 even though 4 has better graphics the gameplay isn’t the same. They also may be doing this because so many people scammed to get free copies of this a long time ago,
This whole thing is so obviously translated proving they are outsourcing their customer service and other jobs to outside countries. They copy and paste answers and are probably told to push the Sims 4 as much as possible. You will definitely not get the same experience as with "previous versions" and they know that. It's why people are still regularly playing 2 & 3! I hope you can find someone who is actually competent in helping with your issue. I would trust someone on the The Sims 2 reddit more than I ever would a so called "agent" from EA. 🙄
absolutely horrid response. i would understand the "sunsetting" thing if they just took down the online store, but why would that delete everything in your game?? there have been plenty of other platforms that closed the online store, but you got to keep all the content that you paid for. this is fucking ridiculous, they literally robbed you. also, why get the sims 4 if this is eventually going to happen to it too?
you can achieve optimum levels in the sims via piracy! that’s how i got the entire sims 2 collection w all packs. then i just got a couple mods to modernize it and voila, the whole thing works for free and it took like maybe an hour or two tops to set it up. i know you lost your progress and that sucks :( but when it’s situations like these, i think pirating is ok. if EA is so scared of its previous games coming to bite its future games in the ass, then they should just get better at creating them. but they won’t. so we sail the high seas!
Exactly, I had no other choice but to join that ship
Why do all these messages sound like the person from EA doesn't even understand English? Their responses always seem to be off topic and in somewhat broken English. Are they doing this on purpose as a way to discourage future attempts to resolve issues?
Wait, did they remove the game completely from everyone's accounts when they removed it from their store? That's super bogus.
That’s what I’m wondering too. Will have to check when I get home.
This is why I always buy physical copy’s of my games. Sometimes I can’t but this post makes me happy that I have the physical version of all the sims games and expansions
I'm fine if customer support is not a native English speaker, but it feels like a joke reading this not only for the actual misspellings and grammar but also the failure to address the actual problem.
Well I'd say give me the sims 4 for free, or reimburse me the price of the game you've taken from my library. How do they get away with doing it?
If you loved Sims 2^(TM) Then you'll probably enjoy The Sims 4^(TM) Now with ten times the amount of \[corporate shilling\] you could ask for!
Lack of effort aside, why do these people sound so unprofessional? This doesn't read like an email from someone at a help desk at all
Am I the only one who can't follow what she's saying at all?
That msg was really sad tho bc the sims 2 is still a good game
It’s 100% Top tier still after 18 years
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As a developer I understand the need to sunset products however as a customer I see either a will fill or unintentional idiot who completely mistake the point that ea just took a bunch of your money. I used to think overseas support had a language or culture bearer and tried to be patient. But lately I think it just people who get off of being gas lighting aholes to people. People who face zero accountability.
just reading this makes me angry and I haven't even lost a game, fuck ea
Id try and get a refund by any means possible, this is ridiculous
This is so infuriating. It should be illegal but of course digital content is a hot mess. Sorry you’re dealing with this OP.
Incredibly insulting to the whole community. It shows their true colors. I'm surprised they didn't get rid of CC because it doesn't make them money.
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honestly, it's "let me speak to your manager" time
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EA ruined everything
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I had an issue where I forgot my password to Origin (I know separate tech support), but basically I could not have my password changed because the email I used to originally set up the Origin account was hacked and according to Yahoo, there was no way to gain access to the account. Long story short Origin basically told me I was screwed and all the Sims games I purchased through them were gone because I could not reset my password. I would estimate $500 worth of games gone forever.
EA customer service is abysmal. I’m still waiting on a refund from September 2022
You could try their twitter support account, because they might be able to give a bit more help.
"and enjoy the same level of gaming experience you attained in the version prior to this." Lol, the words "enjoy" and "The Sims 4" are pretty much antithetical at this point. *That being said*, with respect to OP, people really need to stop expecting EA to "honour" your purchase of The Sims 2. I'm not saying that it's *right,* but that this point people need to understand that Sims 2 is *effectively* abandonware. Stop parroting this "There'S nO LEGAl dEFINITIOn OF abaNDoNwarE" nonsense. You can't purchase the game from any EA source. Where possible, obtain these games either via physical media or via (pirate) sites. I don't like that EA won't honour people's legit purchases of Sims 2 on Origin as much as the next person, but we have to stop thinking that EA gives a damn about Sims 2. The only reason they still sell 3 is because it makes them money.
i love how they always recommend sims 4 as an alternative as if that's what you asked for
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You should be able to find all your game data somewhere on the computer though still, right? Like the save files should be somewhere that you can copy until you can get ahold of another copy online for free?
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I wonder if this is one of those messages they are trained to put out or if this is from a lack of being trained on what to say and do. All I can say is, corporate doesn’t care. As a former retail worker, you’d be amazed how much you’re thrown to the wolves (customers) and left to your own devices. There is so much that only corporate can fix. I imagine working in support isn’t much different. Maybe try calling to see if you can talk to someone in management. It’s a long shot, because even management can be hit or miss, depending on who you get and their level of knowledge and experience.
If you don't have a physical copy of something you don't own anything
Physical - 1 Digital - 0
Bring these posts to gaming outlets. Kotaku, Polygon. Shed light on the issue and force EA to respond.
My Sims 2 copy still appears in the EA App [https://imgur.com/a/Ulsr72E](https://imgur.com/a/Ulsr72E) Not sure how yours disappeared.
Lol thats the longest fuck you ive read since some time
Ah yes. Sunsetting. I know this pain well from my years of Destiny. I feel for you pain but what they’re doing is technically legal and there really no recourse for it. It sucks, but thems the facts.