EA made The Sims 4 free to play last October and I really hope you're taking advantage of it. This was a $60 game that they decided to start giving away because they figured, "Hey, it's basically shit until you buy our DLC." And, yes, EA has about $1500 worth of DLC just for this one game.
This is the raison d'être behind my new Sims 4 Starter Kit page. There is absolutely no need to spend a dollar, euro, pound, peso, or yen of your own money on official DLC for The Sims 4; see, what EA thought was going to be a windfall sunset for The Sims 4 turned out to be the biggest mistake of their lives. ModTheSims has things on it that are better than the official DLC by orders of magnitude—entire custom stuff packs full of incredibly detailed objects that are 100% faithful to the game's native design aesthetic, hairstyles with such high polycount it'll make your video card beg for mercy, mods that correct Sims Division's intentional oversights or add completely new functionality, things that make you ask "Why would anyone buy DLC for this game?"
What The Sims 4 Starter Kit is, is a curated list of MTS offerings that require no prerequisite DLC and will immediately enrich a clean install; stuff that will make it seem like you've spent a cool hundred on DLC, when really you haven't. The point is to show people that, even with a corporate-controlled product like The Sims, you are not beholden to the company to improve it for you. You don't have to wait around for years and years for the company to change a thing that's been bothering you, because there's a community solution right there, and it's free. Ultimately, I hope the Starter Kit paves the way for product liberation in people's minds; because it doesn't have to stop with The Sims—once you've freed your mind from the grip of corporate tyranny, who knows what you can accomplish? Maybe the Starter Kit will lead you to liberated official DLC, which will lead to game console emulation, which can lead to DVD copying, and ultimately to grassroots solarpunk movements. That's sort of my whole reason for living. The corporate feudal state has shackled our legs and left a pair of boltcutters nearby, warning you not to touch them, and then walking away. I'm here to get you to reach for the boltcutters.
"Is that some sort of piracy reference?" Mate, anything can mean anything you want it to. ModTheSims is not piracy, even though EA owns a similar custom content website now. The amount of EA-made content on MTS right now is 0%, and the US 9th Circuit court of appeals has determined that custom content of the type available on the website is considered a "transformative work", so EA can never order the website taken down. Even if all you do is download from MTS and you don't bother ever looking into liberated official DLC, you've still cut the chain because EA can't yank on it and charge you $19.99 for the privilege. As for game console emulation, well, I've been over that already.
--22 July 2023--