It's days like this that remind me I'm not a typical gamer.
When Sims 4 came out, I put Sims 3 away thinking it was time for something bigger and better even though I'd had wishlisted DLC unpurchased. When Sims 4 clearly had basic content locked behind future DLC, I quit and didn't go back to anything because playing the old version when the new version is out "didn't make sense". Went from being a Sims player to not a Sims player, not in protest but because their business model "failed to monetize" me. Obviously, if I were the base case, EA would have backpedaled.
Reminds me of the "mini-outrigger and story collection" thing with fantasy literature. I've gone from being a diehard fan to no longer even reading simply because I didn't have the bandwidth and research hours to take it all in (Dresden and Iron Druid, lookin at you).
I've basically never seen a free to play title cost less than a paid one (for similar content). Typically free to play has some sort of completely uncapped money-sink as well. Given that Sims 4 already costs $500+ for all content, I can only surmise that Sims 5 will cost thousands for the same amount of content.
Thankfully paradox are making a contender. Although paradox overdoes kt with dlc, too, but they're not a scummy company like ea so it should be better. Plus they're trying to take marketsharr from es so doing the exact same thing would be counterproductive.
Usually Paradox has some content DLC but the vast majority is cosmetic, so you don't have to buy it but that money fuels their development of future content. Also with every content DLC they almost always release updates and extra content for free for the base game, I feel that Paradox is one of the only companies that do DLCs right.
Also they always allow mods, and a lot of their cosmetic DLCs can be immigrated by mods, so it's not like they block people from doing what they want with their game just to shove cosmetics.
For me for a game like Sims I need a big variety of cosmetics to keep me playing, new game mechanics are kind of secondary.(Although, if I trust any company to recognize that and adjust accordingly it'd be paradox) But still, you are completely right, paradox doesn't abandon players that don't buy the dlc but release content patches at the same time. Plus if you happen to play with other people only one person needs to own the dlc, which is one of my favourite things paradox does and more companies should do.
Also, I completely forgot about mod support. That makes a huge difference, too.
Want that couch? It'll take your sim 4 real time weeks to earn it with their pay, or you could just spen $15 in real dollars and get it now. Another for the guest room, or because you lost the first in a cooking fire? $15 more, please.
I really only want the house building. I had a blast in Sims 2-4 building my dream house and trying out floor plans, optimizing flow of everyday life and just the architecture/design aspects of making it look good. Sadly they always hit limitations which took the fun out of it due to not being able to build like you wanted. Especially roofs were tricky or impossible to get to look good. And slanted roofs wasn't in any base game and I didn't buy DLC (and haven't played 4 in like 5 years+).
If someone could make an house architect game I'd so love it! Build a house for a family of 4 with a budget of X with these bullet point demands. Then get scored on stuff like usable sq footage, how well the bullet points got satisfied etc.
what you're searching for is a game called house flipper. it's on steam, and after reading your post I am 100% confident you will love it and should look it up.
Cool game and thanks for the recommendation! But the first one is only focused on renovations and while it's fun to reimagine a space I'm not at all interested in the nitty gritty of renovations. I have my own house and have done a fair bit of renovation work so doing it in a sim game would be dreadful, I've never understood the whole genre of "do menial labour but as a game!" Like Euro Truck Simulator and it's ilk.
The coming second game however talks about building a house from scratch as well which does sound promising! If the build process isn't too time consuming and smooth it might be great. So I'll for sure check that out once it's out!