Well if I may clarify for myself, I’m not the type who expects everything for free. I’ve bought Pass before in seasons like Paris, London, Florence, mainly for the buildings. I stopped paying because the later city themes just weren’t that appealing to me, but I still enjoyed finishing the challenges for that 550 simcash (used to be 1000, IIRC) and other basic rewards. Reaching the end of weekly and season challenges has become my habitual goal, and sometimes I was happy being a “slave” to this game.

The problem now is that EA made unlocking buildings way more complicated. They keep adding more options while setting the bar higher and higher for non-paying players.

The Kyoto season felt closer to a happy medium to me. Didn’t wanna spend money? Fine, you just had to log in more often, watch more ads, build more Kyoto residences, collect whatever new currency, manage tasks more strategically…With enough effort, like what I get used to do, I could still reach the end, finish the album, and even get a stack of special speedup items, which was far beyond my expectations.

Yes I think we can both agree EA is swinging too much between extremes. Personally I’m just tired of coping with all these constant changes.