The alarm bells started ringing pretty much straight away when I saw this:
There’s only one reason why the game would need to connect to a server – money, money, money! This appeared after my phone went to sleep for about 5 minutes. I have plenty of games on my iPhone, none of which require an internet connection.
After playing for a couple of minutes, playing not really being the right word because the game pretty much tells you what to do all the time, I was told to buy a loo for my Sim because she didn’t have one, strange:
I clicked on the one costing 3,500 to see what would happen:
But of course I would, how helpful of you to point me in the right direction…….
I knew EA would be ripping off the little kiddies who have downloaded this onto Mummy and Daddy’s iPhones/iPods/iPads but even I couldn’t believe how criminal the charges would be:
Seriously? Wow. I’m impressed at how obvious EA have become in their desperation to make money from a game franchise that seems to be turning off more people than it’s turning on.
The game is, of course, free to download but if you want to play for any considerable length of time you have no option but to buy ‘money’ and LP points. Otherwise you’ll get very bored very quickly.
I did get very bored very quickly so I did what any sensible person would do and deleted it from my phone.
EA have made a fantastic, ironic point though. They couldn’t care less about Mac users who have bought TS3 but they bring out the Sims FreePlay on iOS devices first, ignoring the millions of Android users around the world. Apple has a produced a great halo effect when it comes to their products. Get an iPod/iPad/iPhone into a consumer’s hands and they’re then more likely to buy a Mac when they decide to buy a new computer. Buy a Mac computer, buy an EA game and then realise that EA don’t support Macs and your new game plays appallingly compared to Windows users. Swear off spending anymore money on EA’s products. See where I’m going? 😉
Bluebellflora 
Sims Freeplay is a free download game. If you don’t like the idea of in-app purchases, then don’t play. Yes, it IS easier to play the game if you pay for in-game money and life points, but it is not mandatory. You can make money within the game.
You seem pissed that they decided to make a Sims game for the iphone and neglect the Mac users. Whatevet. Most people have PCs anyways. Bite me. Nobody would buy a Mac for gaming anyways. Disagree? You must be furious over the fact that MOST big games (Starcraft II) neglects Mac users as well. Too bad.
By the way, EA is not as bad as you think. Yes, Sims Freeplay is a shitty game, but they have a X-Mas promotion going on where you can download other FULL games for FREE. No tricks. No in-app purchases. I paid $4.99 when they first came out and now it’s free. Sweet deal for the people who didn’t buy it yet. 🙂
LikeLike
The game quickly becomes very boring if you don’t buy the points though as it takes an age to do anything. It’s a marketing and quick buck maker, not a game.
I have a problem with EA marketing a game for Mac users who do not get the same gaming experience as PC users, yet we pay the same amount of money. And contrary to your ignorant comment, if a game is coded natively for a Mac it will play beautifully, like TS1 and TS2 did. TS3 is wrapped in an emulator because it would have been cheaper for EA to do that than licence Aspyr to re-write the game for the Mac OS. Did you only come on here to start the pathetic PC vs Mac argument? Get over it. You carry on on your PC and I’ll happily carry on on my Mac.
LikeLike
Tell that to mo my 10 year old girl
disgusting
last time i let anyone in the family use that company for anything
LikeLike
Many of the game’s features are only accessible using a huge number of LPs, while the game “generously” gifts you one or two LPs every day or so. There is no action queue, meaning you either have to keep coming to the game every couple of minutes or keep speeding everything up using – you guessed it, massive amounts of LPs. The first day gives you an illusion of actually being able to play the game without buying anything – houses don’t cost much, everything takes a reasonable amount of time and if it rarely does not, quests give you a handful of LPs you can spend on instantly finishing them. That stops quickly, because prices of new houses and their building times skyrocket, while your sims still make roughly the same amounts of money every day. After the “showcase” tutorial marriage it becomes nearly impossible to make more couples, as the rings that would allow you a reasonable success rate cost LPs. Quests start requesting the use of LP items as well. Then you actually look at the prices and can’t help but laugh hysterically, because it’s literal theft and I would be ashamed to even consider putting these up. And the gameplay itself? It’s a rough, non-functional facade of The Sims, with a run of the mill pay-to-play town building game hidden underneath. EA reached a new low with this.
LikeLike
Sorry for The follow-up comment, but I just wanted to let people know you CAN turn off in-app purchases, so kids don’t spend tons of $$$ playing these games without you knowing.
And not to mention TONS of FREE games on the iphone rely on in-app purchases to survive and are based all around it. World War, Original Gangster and PETS Live to name a few.
LikeLike
Of course you can but sadly a lot of people don’t use their brains and switch off in-app purchases or they just give their kids their account password. They’re the first to moan when they get a whopping bill. I have no sympathy for them.
Kind of ironic though that EA have released this solely on iOS devices, for now, given their disdain for the Mac community though huh?
LikeLike
BluebellFlora,
you assume that us parents in our 40’s and 50’s are as up on our technology as you and our kids are. My kids are 12 and 13 and I just got one of those whopping bills your talking about, by the way it racked itself up in two days. As soon as it posted, (today) I was on the phone, canceling cards and looking up information which is how I found your site. I do appreciate your very detailed information.
If you could be so kind as to explain what an in app purchase is and how to switch it off, I would love the help. I did shut off all of these features on our children’s cell phones, so I am not a complete idiot, however, in terms of all this app stuff I am tragically needing your sympathy.
My kids have always been very honest and have always asked if they can “purchase” an app. They were told if anything ever showed up on the bill all devices would be removed from their possession. Having said that, they did not even know they were actually purchasing things.
In the pictures on your site, where you are showing the purchase option, there are not any dollar signs present, so they were confused. Also, connecting to the server, is not the same thing as, “YOU ARE ABOUT TO BE CHARGED $XXXX.00 FOR YOUR PURCHASE!” When I showed them your site, they genuinely believed they were in a SIMS store, much like club penguin. They had no idea at all what they were doing.
It in unfortunate that a company like this takes advantage of children by not properly advertising and assuming people will figure things out.
Thank you for your help.
A frustrated Mom
LikeLike
Settings > General > Restrictions:
– Enable Restrictions by choosing a 4 digit number – don’t give it to your kids!
– customise as you wish. Turn In-App purchases off and change Require Password to Immediately
All it requires is a little bit of time looking at settings and you can tweak the iOS device easily.
LikeLike
It is quite clear that you have to pay real money for the points. In the fifth picture down you can clearly see £ signs indicating how much each bundle is (I’m in the UK, not the USA).
LikeLike
Okay miss ‘frustrated mum’, I just wanted to say that I’m 14 and playing the sims and if your kids aren’t old enough to understand when they’re making in app purchases and are still playing club penguin, THEY SHOULD NOT BE PLAYING THE SIMS. It isn’t appropriate for them, sure at first this game comes off as a nice kids game but it isn’t actually for kids. I don’t care what the age rating is on the App Store; you can have sex in game. That, right there, is enough proof to me that your club penguin playing children are too young to be playing this. The reason why the store is so ‘obscure’ -which it isn’t, by the way. There are very clearly prices above each item you’re about to purchase, and these prices are made with a pound/dollar sign, rather than the simelonian sign, which is the sign used before anything purchased with in game currancy- is because they assume that the people playing this game which has sexual material in it are going to be old enough to tell a pound sign from a simelonian sign. My advice? Don’t let your kids play this game. It’s not appropriate.
LikeLike
That isn’t the point tho.
Its ridiculous the amount of simoleans and LP’s etc you need to advance.
I have gave up trying tbh.
Im not going to play for a few months, go back get a days play hopefully out of the cash made over the month and then do that over and over.
: 0
LikeLike
Clearly this is EA showing how innovative they are. Always providing us with new ways to purchase over-priced virtual toilets 🙂
LikeLike
LOL, you aways make me laugh with your comments Caspin 😉 They sure know how to make people pay for crap.
LikeLike
Ugggggh….. There goes my idea of buying the app.😭😢😥😪☹️🙁😟😞😠😡😡🤑😒😒😒😒😒😒😒😒😒😒😒😒😒😐😐😕😕😕😕😕😕😕😕😔😔😔😔😖😖😖😖😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
LikeLike
I mean COME ON PEOPLE I HATE YOU NOW EA!!!!!!☹️😥😥😥
LikeLike
I’m not going to spend $10+ just for a bunch of virtual money (obviously it’s not the same since I’m in the US but still). I’ve already dumped enough money at EA’s feet paying for Sims 3 as it is. I won’t even get the app for my iPhone, I already have enough junk on there to fool around with in my free time. It’s just absolutely stupid. EA is trying to attract money like…um, oh yeah! They’re pretty much trying to attract money mosquitoes to bugspray! 😀
LikeLike
Iv been playing the game only for about a week but pretty much non stop, and I havnt even considered using my own money to purchase LP, I have currently 98 LP and havnt even needed to use them… I obviously do things during the day and I have my sims working/growing whilst I’m doing my usual things so Im not constantly on it but always kind of an.
LikeLike
But there’s really no need to spend your own money you can still enjoy the game, I actually like the way it’s so easy to e able to get LP in other games sometimes it’s not even possible, you actually HAVE to spend your own money to get the ‘special credits’ like LPs.. I was pretty pleased and love the game 🙂
LikeLike
How did you get so much LP? I need help. I’m addicted to the game and in a weak moment I spent $1.05 for seven LP.
LikeLike
EXACTLY. I have 20,000 simelonian and I’ve only played for about 3 days, and I not on all the time. Of course it’s going to ask you if you want to buy in game currancy with real money if you try to buy something expensive when starting up the game, it’s not going to give you a load of best quality items right at the start.
LikeLike
i want to have kids on this app and it wont let me. i play it on my ipod touch. how do i make them have kids?
LikeLike
Well, you might have reached the town limit for sims, but you need married sims and a crib to have a baby.
LikeLike
i mean like i play it on my ipod and its the sims freeplay. is it possible to have kids on it? i have tried to do woohoo and its creepy and it doesnt do anything. so help!! idk if its possible or not. is it?
LikeLike
Buy a crib from the baby section. then tap the add sim icon hovering over it.
LikeLike
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=prdOEX1swb8.
Natalie if you what’s ALL of aviatorgamez videos of sims 4 millionaire you WILL know how.😊
LikeLike
No idea about kids, sorry Natalie. I gave up on it.
LikeLike
You just have to wait till your level 15 then when it comes up with ” tap for new goal” then quickly get. Your sims to be romantic the new goal will soon come up as get your sim engaged . Follow the steps it tells you till they are married. You will then be able to tap on the crib and wait for the baby to come
LikeLike
EA is really just trying earn more money and freeplay was a huge diss off. Hacked the game however, using IAP cracker from Cydia
LikeLike
My wife is playing right now, and has a dog that digs up money in the ground. Why can our real dogs do that? 🙂
LikeLike
Ha ha, that would be perfect!
LikeLike
Bluebell! I think I figured EA’s plan out!
Someone buys an iPhone and gets The Sims 3/World Adventures/Ambitions/The Sims Freeplay to fool around with. They think it’s great, so when they get their first Mac, they buy The Sims 3. It sends EA money, and when they play it…they end up buying a new Mac because they punched the screen in while playing. Okay, I did not punch my Mac Mini’s screen in, but I did swear mentally several times.
EA knows that their Mac customers are leaving them. These apps make the person more likely to give EA more money. Although I will be asking someone at the Apple store to warn people next time I go if they stock the game, so that will slow down.
LikeLike
Like your thinking Sugar 😉
LikeLike
I tend to think on the logical side, but even my logical side has to be funny or else I get bored 😀
LikeLike
i want t go on it
LikeLike
Oh my god ur name is Morgs is that short for Morgan !!!!!!!
LikeLike
I want to know the free sims,play free,downloud please I have the samsung andriod glex but it s only for,ipods ect but,not, my phone I see, 😦
LikeLike
I’m also in the US, its not any better. I have the Sims 3 for Macs and I was soooo turned off when upon installing ts3 pets I saw that they had updated the Mac game to include internet purchases using real currency. It was disgusting.
Anyone who played the Facebook Sims app has had enough if this sort of thing!! To include in a regular computer game is just wrong and irritating. To be honest, I’ve given up ts3 and have gone back to playing ts2 on my PC… which was in my opinion a much better game to begin with.
LikeLike
For all of u who do like the Sims free play, enjoy it while it last! I don’t remember wich level I was at but my town value was at about 600 000 when the screen went distorted and black! And then my game was deleted!!!! That wasn’t at all annoying! Nooo. It was a delight to start all over again after everything u achieved!
LikeLike
I think whoever wrote this artical is an idiot. If you play the game like you are suppose to you do not need to spend your own money. I’m on level 27, have 16 sims and have millions of dollars. Play the game right and stop being a cry baby.
LikeLike
I totally agree! Plus, I have discovered you cannot rate up comments twice.
LikeLike
Exactly, sure the game can get slow at times but it’s in that genre of games that makes you wait for annoyingly long periods of time, because otherwise the game would be really boring because there’d literally be nothing to do. If you actually play it, you don’t have to spend real money at all.
LikeLike
The game does take some time to level up. I have had mine a few weeks, I play a lot but the more Sims you have the easier it is to make money. I don’t like how the prices go up with every new sim for a house or sometimes for the businesses but other than that, you’d be an idiot to spend money on a real game. Not only that, but you do have to earn to get the things you want, that’s just how it is. It isn’t Dream Sims Free Play. You do still have to work or plant to earn money to get things.
LikeLike
Bottom line is this: No one made any one of us download and purchase n e thing related to this game, so if you are too lazy to work the game and earn your $, then you can simply go to the store and purchase it. EA is not responsible for ppl who do shop instead of work.
GROW UP AND GET A REAL LIFE IF YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE ONE IN SIMS FREEPLAY!
LikeLike
errrrr, my blog has MY observations on EA and the simming world. EA are a shady, money grabbing company who churn out sub standard products which never seem to come out of beta. They use the customers as play testers and take forever to release a patch which MAY fix the problem but more often than not breaks something else in the process. They are obsessed with DLC and only release half a game, fully expecting the sheep to pay even more to download what should have been in the game in the first place – shall I carry on?
LikeLike
I do not agree. Obviously, we have ver different views: I view EA as a money grubbing game company that releases good games, but include an option for lazy people that incidentally involves money. Also, if you have a PC, JUST PLAY THE SIMS 2/3 ON YOUR PC IF YOU HATE THE SIMS FREEPLAY SO MUCH!!!
LikeLike
Instead of bitching about the Sims games for whatever device you play it on…shut it off. Unplug. Walk away. Easy peasy and you save the useless effort and time it takes to make a blog just to bitch when you can be doing something more productive.
Like uninstalling and walking away.
LikeLike
Instead of bothering to comment on a blog you quite clearly hate, simply navigate to another page in your browser. Easy peasy and you save the useless effort and time it takes to comment on doing something more productive.
See what I did there? 😀
LikeLike
how can i do it
LikeLike
how can i do it
LikeLike
Have to disagree with this. Been playing for a month and never spent a penny. Spending your own money is basically a quick way for inpatient people to cheat. If you can’t cope with actually getting involved and making the effort then you shouldn’t be playing these types of games.
LikeLike
Lol the only possible way this could be close to being true is if you are very impatient & you want to get far in the after one day. I’m close to level 20 have an unbelievable income (seriously it’s unbelievable), 10 different created Sims, a mansion, haunted house, & a skate pad. Of course you wouldn’t know anything about that because you deleted the game like an asshole.
I’ve never spent actual money lol a totally free & fun game
LikeLike
I’ve done the same thing, except I restarted like 25 million times because I do really weird sims. So now I have 4 completely identical sims that live in this one tiny square. It’s weird.
LikeLike
I’m having this problem with the sims freeplay! I think it’s a awesome game but when ever I try to buy some thing from the store with MY ITunes money it won’t let me buy it!! All it says is ERROR 3333 and it’s getting really old but instill enjoy the game. If you have any suggestions please suggest away!
LikeLike
It’s kind of pointless that first when we find cool cheats so we can enjoy more, they always update the app! I am happy that I haven’t used any money but wasted a lotta time!
LikeLike
I’m struggling to understand how my child can spend real money on this and not know about it. It has been explained to me that he didn’t touch any button to purchase anything however he did do a cheat. My question is did it cost money to do the cheat and also on the credit card purchase it come up simalins( excuse the spelling). I have no understanding of this game and feel as though I’m being taken for a ride. I also see there is something you can turn off so no purchases can be made , could someone please tell me how to do this.
LikeLike
My kids unknowingly racked up a ton of charges from this game. Turn off in-app purchases in Settings / General / restrictions . Not in the actual app, but in the device settings
LikeLike
This game is great! Stop criticising it…. They’re a company and of course they want to make money, but you don’t need to buy anything, you just farm and get your sim a job to earn more. If you play it the proper way it is really fun.
LikeLike
no it’s a crap game
LikeLike
You can’t expect everyone else to enjoy taking a full day to bake a cake after having to spend LPs to buy it, and completing a quest that takes 3 days to complete just to find out that you still can’t age your baby to a toddler. It’s frustrating. LPs aren’t something you earn by working, or by completing a quest. I’ve looked up articles on how to receive more of them, and it’s a joke. This game does work on your patience, not because your lazy (why do people insult someone if they think differently) but EA has intentionally made it so one is more likely to pay real money. When faced with waiting 12 to 24hrs to complete one action can you seriously tell me you jump up and down with joy screaming YIPPEE!! EA has made a game that appears free for the most part but the way they geared this game shows that their true intentions are quite obvious…In game purchases. That part really isn’t what frustrates me, they do have to make money somehow but for me it’s the level of unfairness. I have 16 sims, my town is worth 2.8 Million, and my daily income is ONLY $4,500??? When compared to the cost of items and building costs this just doesn’t make sense. Also I’ll spend so much time, and Sim money on completing a quest only to find out that I’m still unable to do what the quest was telling me I would be able to do once completed. I feel like a dog running around a track with a chew toy dangling in front of my face. The fact that EA makes you jump through so many hoops points to the fact that they are preying on people giving up and spending real money. N this in everyway involves LPs. Defend the game how ever you want, it is a fun game because it’s a great franchise. But I personally feel you can’t really dispute with how unfair certain aspects of this game are. Realize that it’s not the players fault for losing patience but the way the company made the game out to be. I’m trying to play my way around the downsides but very often it has made the game un-enjoyable at times. I’ve always been a fan of this franchise which is why it sucks that this one leaves me disappointed . I think it’s great that some have been able to enjoy the game at the pace that the game was intended, very very slow, but just like some people can’t stand playing monopoly because it takes too long, that’s just how we feel about the Sims freeplay. Doesn’t mean were lazy just says that we’d rather not spend hours of our day looking at a screen.
LikeLike