I'm going to come out and say it: I think EA is getting a bum rap in regards to their most recent controversy with the game The Sims 4. Now about three days ago I never thought I would say those words. I was prepared to write a scathing piece on EA's business practices. Why remove pools and toddlers in The Sims 4?! On its face it seems valid criticism. Nothing riles up gamers more then companies removing content, only to sell it back to consumers at a later date. But if we step back and observe what we are truly getting worked up about, I think we may be getting worked up over nothing.

I am not a Sims fanatic by any stretch of the imagination. According to Origin, my playtime of The Sims 3 is hovering around nine hours. I did play both The Sims and The Sims 2, but that was so long ago I hardly have any recollection of them. I actually had to do quite a bit of reading in order to reacquaint myself with the series. While I think their fine games, I wouldn’t call myself a fan of them.

For those of you who may somehow be unfamiliar with The Sims series let me sum it up simply: the sims is a life simulator which consist of a base game ( The Sims 1, 2 and 3) and a series of expansion packs for each. These expansion packs tended to introduce similar themes to the game, for example all three had a “Pets” expansion. Each of the core games cycles last around four years, with The Sims 4 set to launch this September.

The current ire EA is facing is striping content from what is considered “vanilla Sims” or the base version of the game. The problem is that what constitutes “vanilla Sims”changes from person to person. It's a game about life, and as in life, people find different things to focus on. Some people think weather should be in “vanilla sims . Others think pets should be part of the basic game.To expect the base game to have everything is absurd. What Maxis has done in the past is release base versions of the game that change from iteration to iteration. The gameplay difference between the Sims 2 and the Sims 3 is pretty substantial. Even if you think The Sims 3 is a worse game than its predecessors, they are at very least showing some level of attempt at progress in the series. In a market where we criticize games for not taking risks, The Sims I think has struck a nice balance of keeping its core gameplay from previous iterations while introducing new systems that better simulate life. I'm actually really interested to see how the emotion system they are introducing into the Sims 4 works out. Sure it may turn out to be a huge pile of shit, but at least they are trying something new, not just updating graphics and sending it on its way. The problem with the criticism levied against the Sims 4 is not that it is being compared to the Sims 3, rather that it is being compared to The Sims 3 plus all of it's expansions.

Now I know some people hate expansions, especially when games have dozens of them, but in the case of The Sims I think it's perfectly okay for them to do. Let's look at this another way. The Sims 3 was released in June of 2009. Its final expansion pack was released in October of 2013. That means EA support The Sims 3 with new content for well over three years. In an age of the yearly sequel this is really quite extraordinary. To think, we could be playing The Sims 2015 in a couple of months time. Now each of the content packs weren’t for everyone. But each of them did add a fair amount of content for the price, content we probably would not get if The Sims received a yearly sequel or went unsupported. Now I admit some of the stuff packs were a bit weak in terms of what they added, and the online store prices for items bordered on downright insane sometimes, but again all of it wasn’t necessary to own. If you wanted it you could add it to your game. And none of it was required to get full enjoyment of the game. The Sims 3 released as a completely playable game. The problem with a game like The Sims is the amount of possibilities it could have. Fans seem to latch on to them as things it should have.

That brings me back to the toddlers and pools. Are they really necessities in The Sims 4 the way fans seem to be responding to their absence. No. Are they things some people love? Absolutely. Are they things that were part of the “base game” in the Sims 3? Yes. But are they as big a deal as people are making out? Not really. I think if Maxis or EA had any good will left with fans this would be much less of a deal than it is now. But as their favor stands with fans, this announcement was bound to be met with cynicism and calls of greed. I admit I was among those in the “greed” camp at first as well. But to be fair there are other perfectly reasonable reasons for their omission. Take toddlers for example; The Sims 4 main design push was focused on emotion. Fitting toddlers into their emotion system is probably very difficult. They may be simply unready for release. That's not a company being evil, that's just a design choice that needs to be made sometimes. Content isn't ready for release sometimes. That happens all the time in the industry. Just because they were able to do it in a previous version of it in a previous game doesn’t mean that it works well enough with the current version. Overall it's two relatively minor things they are omitting. As long as other things are added there's really not much room to cause a fuss.

What EA does moving forward is what they should be judged on. If we see toddlers as a $15-$20 dollar add on a month from now that's one thing. If they're something that's bundled in with enough other content in an inevitable expansion pack I don't think that's too big of a deal. Same with pools. If we see pools on sale in the Sims store for $10 a pop that's absurd. But if they are released with a vacation or summer expansion fine. If they’re important to you, you can add them. If not, whatever. If you hate The Sims you don’t have to buy any of this shit in the first place. The Sims 4 was never going to meet all of our expectations. But its existence is a good thing for gaming. It's a giant franchise that people who don't play games regularly know about and experience and enjoy.

This is not to say EA should get a free pass if The Sims 4 releases and is unplayable. Or if it is lacking in changes whatsoever from previous iterations. I'm not a psychic. I have no idea what the final version of the game will be like. But I think both fans and the gaming community as a whole needs to take a huge deep breath. Let the game come out and then judge it on its merits. Don't be so quick to throw the toddler out with the pool water.