The End of an Era…

No, I don’t mean it being the end of my Blog. (Heavens no! 😉 )

I mean the big announcement from the Sims forum. I’m sure most of y’all have heard about it by now. (Since it’s been over a month) It’s taken me a while to write this post, as my emotions have been all over the place about it.

If you’re like me, you were there from the beginning, when the forums started, although I wasn’t fully active and posting regularly on them until 2015.

I know we all knew this day would come and that “all good things must come to an end,” but that’s an uncontrollable part of life that always saddens me. 😔 The good times can seem so rare in life anymore and that’s why I always want them to stay. 💗

A few of my dear friends from the forum panicked after hearing the news, including myself 😄, so we frantically sent PMs to each other asking to be friends on Facebook or whatever social media platform so that we could stay in touch. 👍🏻 The friendships I have made on the Sims forum I have cherished greatly, and will last a lifetime no matter where we all go in life. Each of those friends will always hold a special place in my heart. 💗

The news especially sparked panic among us avid Sims 3 players; fearful that EA was finally putting the old iteration games and threads on the chopping block and “forcing” us to all move on to The Sims 4 and/or Project Rene.

I’ll admit, I had the same fear…

Until I was invited by an EA_Guru to be a part of the Community Connections Program. (To which I honestly felt honored to be extended the invitation). Which now grants me the rank of Champion on the Sims AHQ forum. 👍🏻 A rank that’s up there with PuzzleAddict, Crinrict, and many other familiar names among the Sims 3 community. 🙂 At first I was little hesitant to accept, I told the EA  Guru that if it requires me to engage in the Sims 4 community then I honestly won’t be of any help there… Quoting myself:

I am an avid Sims 3 player (sometimes I revisit Sims 2) and I don’t play Sims 4 at all…  Will that be an issue? (Like will I be expected to offer help and support with that game, cause I don’t know anything about it.) 🤷🏻‍♀️ Sorry, it just wasn’t my cup of tea when I’m very much an Open World gal.  We were DYING for that as avid Sims 2 players and when EA delivered with the Sims 3, it was a dream come true!!  I guess that’s something that will always stick with me. 

To which she so kindly replied, Quote:

That is absolutely okay that you don’t play The Sims 4, we were actually interested in having you join this program because of your strengths with The Sims 3. We just want you to keep doing what you’re currently doing and continue being awesome 

Y’all that was quite the pleasant surprise to hear, and kinda touched my heart. 💜 And gave me hope that despite all the negative things we hear about EA, many who work for them really are on the same wavelength as we – as the players – are. Many of them have been Sims players themselves for the past 20 years… So I really do feel that they too want to keep the older iterations a part of the community for as long as possible.

Some might call me too trusting or naive in this situation…but I’ve always been somewhat of an empath. And even if I can’t see the person’s face and feel their spirit physically, I feel it in the sincerity of their words on the screen. There are rare times when I’m wrong in my feeling, but most of the time I humbly say that I am not.

Something that further assured me of those feelings I just mentioned was discovering a thread where  EA_Cade asked for nominations on which threads we felt should be saved and moved over to the new forum. ⭐I think that was quite kind and considerate of them to do.

Over the past month as I’ve been interacting with more of the EA_Guru folks on our own forum, I’ve found them to be quite welcoming, kind, and funny! 😊 It’s been nice getting to know them better and seeing just how human they really are. 😉

What brought even more peace to my soul about this whole shutting down of the long running Sims forum to make way for a new one was a conversation I had yesterday with one of the EA Guru’s (I’ll keep his name private just in case he would prefer that, but he’s a very well known one 👍🏻 ) to which I mentioned that I hope they allow us to stay signed in on the new forum for months on end without having to sign in again (cause that’s annoying!) and that there wouldn’t be a bug where people wouldn’t get notifications of my tags to them! (Y’all that was a pain over the years with the current forum! 😣 Drove me nuts! And those who always missed my tags! ) He kindly assured me that those two things are certainly being addressed.

Then he said, Quote:

I will miss the Forums.TheSims site terribly in July, but if only I could show everyone there how much duct tape was holding that place together…The new EA Forums will be much, much more friendly to both us and you.

He’s not wrong about the mess it was reporting bugs to the people that ran that site, even I could see that.

To which I responded, with a warm smile on my face:

I bet.  I’m beginning to feel more and more positive about the new forum.

Then he said, Quote:

If I thought it wasn’t the right move, I wouldn’t still be here.

And there you have it y’all. 😊 I hope that by sharing this it might offer you the same comfort as it did me in that moment, and especially as we all move forward to a new Sims forum after July. 💗👍🏻

It’s all going to be ok my friends. I can feel it. 🤗 Change is not always as daunting as it can originally seem.

I apologize that I haven’t shared much Sims content lately…I’ve been playing too much Animal Crossing NH lately since I found out about Treasure Islands! 😆 (Sorry, I’m not a purist. I’ve always liked cheats and mods! 😜 ) But it’s only because we restarted our island and our new one is SO much better and there’s some things we just didn’t want to go through all the “bells (get it?😏)  and whistles” to get! Those who are familiar with the game know exactly what I’m talking about. 😉

Anyhoo, I’ve really been hoping to revisit Sims 3 more, revamp some more of Bridgeport, and start another story in the near future(?) We all go through different seasons in life and I hope that this next season I’ll be more inclined to play and write. 🙏🏻🤞🏻 I thank y’all for continuing to follow me on here and engage in all of my Sims adventures. 🥰

Until my  next post,

Em 💗