User blog comment:Lost Labyrinth/EA to go 100% digital. What does this mean for The Sims series and players?/@comment-3562935-20120821215625/@comment-67.171.95.214-20130324232243

6 to 12 hours to download a Sims game? Ummm, where did you get THAT information? I have Sims 3 on a mixture of hard disks and digital downloads. Not a single Expansion Pack, or Stuff Pack ever took as long as 6 hours to download. Certainly, it never took 12 hours. Jeeze! I've never had to wait more than an hour or so for ANY Expansion or Stuff Pack to download, neither via Origin, OR the old system, called EADM (EA Download Manager). Of course, I bought the Base Game on Disk. I took my Brother-in-law's advice and bought the Special Collector's Edition which cost me $79.99. I still use the super cool, and very handy, Sims 3 Plumbob Keychan/2GB Flashdrive, that came with the Collector's Edition, but got ripped off by Wal Mart because the Prima Game Guide, which was suppposed to also be included with this edition, was missinbg from Mine, and everyone elses' Collector's Package. Turns out that Wal Mart's manager had all of the Prima guides removed from the Collector's Packages, and sold separately! So Wal Mart made a lot of extra money selling Prima Guides which were shipped out with the Collector's Edition Packages of Sims 3, and were supposed to be free. In short, Wal Mart sold what didn't legally belong to them. Everyone who bought the Collector's Version of the game had already PAID FOR THOSE PRIMA GUIDES. Wal Mart took, what we had paid for, and what legally belonged to us, and sold them individually to other customers. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't selling something that belongs to someone else illegal? A case of selling stolen property, right? So, why wasn't Wal Mart prosecuted for selling stolen goods? When I complained, telling the store manager that there was supposed to be a Prima Guide included in every Collector's Edition Package, he acted like he didn't know what I was talking about!

But, enough about that. I never had to digitally download the base game, but still, I highly doubt if it would take 6 hours to download the thing! You must have a VERY slow internet connection. Still;, I wouldn't want to have to live with all digital downloads, because, if I forget to pay my Cable Bill, or run short of cash and CAN'T pay it, and my Internet service is shut down, I won't be able to play the game, because it insists on being connected to the Internet for all of the new Social Features that started with the Showtime Expansion, and for players to be able to make in game purchases from the Sims 3 Store! That Sux! I can sometimes bypass the Sims 3 launcher, but not always. I thinbk EA really needs to rethink this. I know a lot of Simmers who refuse to buy the digital versions because they claim there is invasive software attached to it that tracks what you do on line.