Sims Workshop

[Krazy King]

I've always wondered...why is there no Workshop for the Sims like with Skyrim or Civ 5? There's so many people creating good mods and I think it would make things easier rather than having to input mods into files and hoping they work.

[Gropax]

there is its the exchange and is run by EA. and since there are 2 different ways of getting files into Sims 3 either using sims3pack files or .package files it would be a pain to make on steam. and then there is the Currupt CC that is all over the exchange. most real sims 3 players that use Custom content use Custard to make sure there is no currupt files in them. it would be hard with a steam workshop file system that wants to redownload CC everytime you launch the game. and then there is the 500 or so .package limit before the game starts to act funny.

[Stymie]

They have an exchange section on the Sims 3 website where you can download CC. There are other third party websites where you can download mods and CC. Mods are pretty easy to set up and download, you just got to do it manually.

[Derek]

It's because Steam is just a reseller of EA's products. EA don't want Steam to contribute with anything else as it may affect people's decision of where to possess the game, since they've already got a very competetive client known as Origin.
In other words, EA wouldn't want anything to do with their game features on Steam, that could trigger people become more attached to Steam, than being dependent by Origin.

That's why you cannot redeem EA games on Steam, or have any support from Valve on such games. Everything regarding EA games is always redirected to Origin/EA, except from Steam purchases.

Summary: EA hates Valve, but only uses it to expand their sales to increase their profits.

[zerbylein]

thats the reasen why ea don´t support steam games 100%

[Stymie]

And they are greedy, making us pay more at the Sims 3 store for added little content.

[Edelweiss ✿]

Originally posted by Stymie™:

And they are greedy, making us pay more at the Sims 3 store for added little content.

this is why places like modthesims exist, for moutnains of free content

[The_ARCHITECT]

Will manual installation of mods work on a steam product? Am I better off buying the game on origin?

[marstinson]

Originally posted by mthomsonr:

Will manual installation of mods work on a steam product? Am I better off buying the game on origin?

Aside from necro'ing a 6-year-old discussion rather than starting a new one...

Mods for Sims 3 have to be installed manually. As far as I know there is no "mod manager" for the game, although Origin's launcher kind of works like one for the EPs and SPs (you can activate and deactivate them without the hassle of installing and uninstalling), but not for other stuff. The "manually" part isn't any great shakes. You drop a file in a folder to install something and delete it to uninstall.

As for whether you'd be better off buying on Origin, probably not. If you purchase on Origin, you are locked into Origin. Some people care about this and some don't, but if you buy the game and stuff from Steam, you can activate it on Origin or stay on Steam, so there is a bit of choice available. It's the same game either way and the only difference is the launcher.

As far as price goes, I haven't seen TS3 stuff on sale on Origin at more than half off since about the time the Sims 4 was released. It's typically either not on sale ($20 a pop) or 25%-50% off. Steam commonly puts it on sale for about 75% off (about $5) a few times per year. It's been pretty consistent during the Summer and Winter sales, a bit less consistently on sale during the Spring and Fall sales but still pretty common, and shows up as a weekend deal or midweek madness sort of thing every once in a while.

Other vendors are anyone's guess, but they're going to be Origin only. I'm a bit leery of places like ebay and a few other key sellers since you don't have much of a guarantee that you're getting a new key. Some of the cheaper vendors resell used keys and EA deletes those from your library when it does one of its periodic sweeps and finds one. There's no notice with this; you fire up Origin and find that your game is missing. Other authorized vendors (Amazon, Walmart and such-like) will sell you a good key, but their sale prices look a lot like Origin's.