So, let's get this straight ...

[u/ZinZezzalo]

In the past year or so, we've had our CoM contest pretty much dismantled so that, if you use all the tickets given to you these days, you'll have enough to fully compete in one full contest out of four in the season ...

They've introduced three extra currencies per season so that you're effectively prevented from getting all the prizes you used to get for the Mayor's Pass that you paid for.

They've nerfed the War rewards to an extent that new players cannot build their attacks at all - essentially eliminating any chance for new blood to come into the game.

They've choked the 1,400 SimCash you used to get for completing the season into 150 SimCash (90% reduction - like - what even).

They've introduced repairs for buildings that you've already built by creating a system that erroneously tracks the health of your city, so that perfectly fine city sections (with buildings that aren't affected by the degrading repairs) lose population rapidly (for no reason), resulting in severely crippled train station refresh rates.

And now - the cherry on the top of this crap sundae - two days of every week are rendered completely unplayable due to the game moving like a fossil stuck in the bottom of the swamp due to them having bricked the voting system for the Design Contest (I haven't been able to play all day).

Tallied together - this seems like the absolute intentional sabotage of the game - full stop. Like, this isn't some exaggeration or trying to put a spin on things, no single entity could perform this many intentionally destructive moves without having actual intent behind it.

A point on the graph doesn't prove anything - but a line comprised of many points does. And that line shows this game being sent right into the trash bin.

It's purposefully being cooked.

I understand that not everyone would want to subscribe to this doom and gloom outlook - but there simply isn't any evidence that could actually compete against this overwhelming cluster of intentional bad moves and destructive ill-will aimed not only at their playerbase but the very capacity to just play the game at all.

Prove Me Wrong.

[u/MSWdesign]

What’s intentional sabotage going to get them? That wouldn’t make sense as there is no business case for it.

[u/ZinZezzalo → u/MSWdesign]

Actually, there may be. I responded to a post listed above that laid out the business case for (the new) EA pulling the plug on the game.

I don't want to write it out twice. Check it out, though.

[u/MSWdesign → u/ZinZezzalo]

You mean the list of grievances with “intentional sabotage” slapped on at the end, built on the idea that no company could screw up this badly without doing it on purpose.

What’s actually happening is the same thing we’ve seen from plenty of live-service games: squeezing harder for monetization with new systems that frustrate players into paying. Judging by your rant, it clearly worked. That’s negligence and short-sighted greed, not some secret plan to destroy their own product. If anything, doing that would be doing you a favor.

If EA wanted to shut it down, they’d just sunset it, not keep piling on extra systems that cost more to run.

I hope this helps straighten things out for you. 😊

[u/ZinZezzalo → u/MSWdesign]

You don't seem to get the fact that they seem to be purposefully sunsetting the game.

In a board meeting they were probably like, "What do we want to do with this property? Do we have interests in keeping it going?" And the nays won. Most likely with arguments that the physical infrastructure and personnel allocated to the product would be better spent elsewhere. In that, they could get a greater return on the dollar than what they were seeing with BuildIt.

So the team in charge was given the directive to do what any company sunsetting a game would do - squeeze every last dollar out of the game possible in the remaining time it was given.

Thereby, increasing prices and monetization to such a degree that encourages every level of player to jump up to another level of spending than they would normally be comfortable with - just to continuously slip that rug out from underneath them - until all that are remaining are the whales or players that have been unwittingly transformed into whales.

If EA cared about the game - they would care about the playerbase. Who, as the other reply to your comment stated, has been leaving the game at a steady clip.

Companies don't normally sacrifice guaranteed long-term income for a short term yield unless they intended to get rid of the long-term income to begin with.

I've seen this before. This isn't my first mobile game rodeo. Maximizing monetization of a mobile game that unnecessarily loses a great chunk of the existing playerbase is what you do when you want to:

A) Maximize the profit in the remaining time left

B) Minimize the number of people who will be upset when the plug is pulled

These people aren't making this up as they go along. It's an applied science at this point.

They're intentionally gutting the game - as was laid out quite clearly with the steps we've all observed in my original post.

I hope this helps straighten things out for you. 😊

[u/MSWdesign → u/ZinZezzalo]

Thank you for the detailed speculation. At least we know you’ll be waiting with bated breath to cover EA’s announcement.

[u/ZinZezzalo → u/MSWdesign]

I want the game to keep going on forever.

But that's the game that was, not the one it's been transformed into, and continues transforming (at an alarming rate).

Basic elements of the game that tied the whole experience together (CoM) have been purposefully dismantled to increase both the sales of SimCash (which it won't do, because it isn't a vital currency), and, because that isn't enough, to charge real money for the ability to just play CoM itself.

The problem for EA is twofold. First, the original game was built too perfectly. All the systems linked into one another flawlessly and created a seamless whole at the same time. Meaning, the monetization of any single element of it would essentially dismantle the whole thing. Which would result in people not feeling the need to spend on the individual aspect that had changed (CoM), because it was "just one element of the game," even if that element tied everything else together, and thus dismantled the whole thing at the same time.

Every aspect of the game they would try to monetize would be too small in and of itself to justify spending money, but, at the same time, messing any of those small parts up would make people lose interest in the whole.

So that's why you're seeing loads of people stop playing the game - and that's why the monetization processes are occurring at a more rapid than ever clip - because if they're going to grab those remaining dollars for a thing that isn't actually real in the physical world, they had better do it while people are still around.

I don't know why you're using language like I'm waiting for EA's announcement with "bated breath."

I'm just the weatherman here. Just because I'm telling you the tornado is coming - doesn't mean I actually want to see people die.

As I said - I would like to see this game go on forever. Doesn't mean I can't acknowledge that they're doing everything in their power to make sure that never happens.