Is The Sims 3 a Filled Glitchy Game?

A lot of people call The Sims 3 a glitch filled game that causes them a lot of problems on their computer. I believe many of these people don't meet the minimum required specs to play the game or they are running the game on higher options than their computer can handle. I also believe of the people who do meet the specs, many of them are complaining about features they think are glitches but are really not. These features are just annoyances. Another thing many people do is complain just to complain about the game. The say that The Sims 3 has a bunch of glitches but when you ask them about the glitches, they can't tell you a single one or mention a glitch that was already fixed. There is another group of people who install mods, CC, etc and don't manage them. This group also may have bad CC installed because they use the exchange and they don't take notice. There are also those who pirate the game, expansion packs, stuff packs, or store content and have a game full of glitches and still think it is EA's fault they experience glitches.

A lot of people who experience glitches don't contact EA and report the glitches. Instead they go onto other websites and report the glitches. When a patch is released and their glitch is not fixed, they complain that EA is being lazy when they were the lazy one who never reported the glitch to EA. Posting the glitch on The Sims 3 form is not reporting the glitch to EA. The Sims 3 forum is designed for players to help other players with technical issues just like EA Answers HQ. Sim Gurus may post on The Sims 3 Technical Support from time to time if there is a major issue that keeps getting reported but it is mainly for players to help other players.

Reporting the problem at EA Answers HQ is more productive than posting it in the official forums because there is actual EA staff monitoring that forum. To really report a glitch in the game, a player should contact an EA Game Advisor. When a player contacts an EA Game Advisor, a report of the problem is sent directly to the studio. Several Sim Gurus are on Twitter so contacting them directly is another way to report a glitch although most times they tell people to contact an EA Game Advisor.

The amount of people reporting the glitch does make a difference. If EA sees that just one person is reporting the gltich then they don't see it as a major problem that needs to be fixed but if they see 100 people reporting the glitch then the glitch becomes a higher priority.

Instead of calling EA a bad company, lazy, and complain about a game, users need to be more proactive and actually figure out what the problem is in their games and if there is really a problem before passing judgement. I know there are some people out there who have legitimate glitches and who do contact EA and can't have their glitches fixed but many people don't try and just complain.

I apologize if I'm going to sound harsh but your whole post sounds a bit arrogant and uncalled for at some parts. People spent probably hundreds of dollars in the Sims series, because they love and want to support the series, and they have the damn right to expect a quality product out of it... as well as for EAxis to do their job. I'm not saying that some people aren't rude and obnoxious or misinformed in the forums, I know many are and I know some stuff just take time to fix, but still... When you get to face the amount of glitches and problems that some people have, you have to understand their frustration and disappointment. I don't mind reporting bugs and glitches but how much am I supposed to do and know about the game to be able to help EAxis in THEIR OWN JOB? If EA wasn't known for rushing games just for the sake of cashing in money, it wouldn't be so bad either.

The problem I experience is actually bad optimization from their part. How am I supposed to help them fix that out? Ins't that something a dev is supposed to do while he works on the game and the coming years after release? The problem is that every expansion released actually makes the game run even worse than before! There's season effects, pets, more npcs, events and a whole variety of factors that all combined together builds up to an unsustainable level!

As for my machine, I just built it just a few months ago to stand the most demanding games and it STILL has issues running TS3 with almost every expansion. At this rate, TS3 is almost as demanding as a over-populated MMO with EVE graphics and everything on max! Every time I try to change my house's decors and interiors through CASt, the lag-spikes are almost unbearable. My screen freezes for 30sec - 1min and my graphical options aren't even on Ultra.

Again, what kind of constructive criticism am I able to extract from this? Tell EAxis to remove CASt because its a source of performance issues and lag? To get better coding-cleaning lessons? To remove unnecessary crap off their game? Well thanks for fixing that out in TS4 at least! Such a shame that its a "fundamental" part that was sold along since TS3 though! If they keep their promises about better performance in TS4, then this is basically their way of saying "I'm sorry, here's a better game that we weren't able to deliver with TS3". And I'm totally fine with it.

All PC games have glitches and it is up to the developers to fix them. EA dos a better job than a lot of other companies at fixing their glitches. You have to understand everyone has a different PC built and it is more difficult to find every glitch on PC than it is for console games. If players who experience these glitches don't report them then EA won't be able to fix them. By not reporting your glitches to EA, you are telling them your game is running fine. Therefore, they don't know to do their job.

Not everyone experiences a ton of glitches. I am one of the players that don't. The people who experience a ton of glitches are smaller than the ones who don't. If these people pay hundreds of dollars for a product and they have a ton of glitches, why aren't they taking the time to notify EA of the glitches?

I wasn't saying you need to figure out how to fix your own games. I was saying, people need to go to EA's support for help and report their problems to EA. Bad optimization is a broad term. How is EA supposed to figure out what is wrong with your game if you use broad terms.

I have a custom build and I don't experience any of those problems. I never did. The game is not taxing my system. My game plays just fine. The only thing that runs slow is CAS and that is because I have it filled to the brink with store content. Using the filters EA provided helps it run faster. I have had other glitches and I still do. I have reported the glitches that I found and I am able to work around those glitches. Those glitches do not break my game, they are more like annoyances.

I really don't understand the point you are trying to make in your last paragraph.

I remember very specifically mentioning the CASt in my previous post as one of the main sources of lag spikes in my game. If this is a "broad term" for you, then I'm afraid this is all you will get.

If you have a guide with a dictionary that helps us analyze the problems for a more detailed explanation, please do elucidate us. All I know is what I see and feel when I play the game, therefore I'm going to base my opinion and my help requests based on that. I can't suggest EAxis about which lines of coding need fixing, I can't tell them where's a major RAM leak located and how to fix, I can't tell how to simplify the program to take less CPU bandwidth. "Broad terms" is often times the only thing most people know.

If you want a detailed explanation on what I think the problem is then here it goes:
1.) The game is open-world therefore it will tax the computer to a higher level.
2.) There's TONS of events, NPCs, pets, seasonal effects and other stuff happening ALL around the map (if you have these expansions). This will tax the computer further.
3.) CASt is an extreme slow-down hog for the game because it has to load all the different patterns and colors, on a world already slow because of everything else.
4.) Glitches can be annoying but they too weight on the system if all happening at once.

More than this I cannot say... What suggestion do you think EAxis is going to get from this? To remove all these features because they're "bad"? Or get the general ideal and see what they can do in said areas to improve them?

And do you assume that other people don't try to do that? In fact, after reading your first post again it seems the issue here is the kind of EXPECTATIONS you have on other people and what they should do about it, and HOW they do it. You expect them to report all the glitches they find (which already happens, more than you think), in a very specific way and in a very detailed and clear explanation. That's not going to happen, son. We're not all computer whizes.

Whenever I contact EA I usually complain about glitches. Hopefully the Sims 4 will run smoothly and doesn't have any glitches.

I'm actually kind of glad that the Sims 4 won't include an open world, CAST, pools, and toddlers, because I think that means less glitches and it will run much smoother.

I agree! I think the game will be much more fluid without the open world. I didn't really think the open world was necessary either. Just made the game look unstable for me. I won't miss CASt that much if The Sims 4 comes with plenty of good color presets, and I think I made about 2 toddlers over the course of three years, so I won't miss them too much either. It's just the pools that I use in many of my houses and that I'll probably miss the most.

That kind of sucks, but I do get it. They probably don't want to get involved with helping because they don't want too much to do with third-party content.

At least you are honest. There are a lot of people who say they don't have CC installed when they actually do.

CAS only uses resources when it is open. As long it is closed, it is not using system resources.

You don't have to be tech savvy to report your glitches in detail. If you can't report your glitches in detail, it will make it more difficult for others to figure out the problem and help you.

A lot of problems are solved by EA staff or volunteers. You can see a sample of what people are reporting about the game on EA Answers HQ. EA usually address common glitches quickly.

This post is directed to the people calling the game a glitched filled mess and they don't take the time to report glitches.

Yeah pools are the only thing I will miss. I never ever used CAST, the toddlers were annoying, and the open world was just weird.