I would never have believed people would buy into this gimmick, if I didn't come from Planet Earth too
It's true, but like what the mafia would say, where's the personalization and passion? It's like everything's made by mindless drones, not humans. There are no surprises, no creativity in games anymore. Games used to be about having big boxes and big manuals and tchochkes, in a time when collector's editions didn't exist. Games used to be about having a totally new, or at least unique, gaming experience, not building hype in the media about how feature X separates game Y from the rest of the genre. Now the lack of passion and drive to instill the "oomph" and spirit in games by the big companies has been forsaken to increase the profit margins
No use complaining now, since it's "get with the times or go indie". Therefore, umm....yeah I don't really have a conclusion to this

Microtransactions on a single player game? It's new DRM. They know the game will be pirated much easier so they need to charge to get the attractive stuff.

To be fair on this point however they have stepped back from the god awful stuff like securom for this title. There will only be a CD key required for install - no net activation etc bollocks.
In light of this I expect we will see a lot of sims 3 piracy for the game itself... however I also expect if it is a decent step up from the sims 2 (yes I am a fan and have all stuff packs and expansion packs for the sims 1 and 2) this could lead to a lot of people trying it via the torrent sites and then purchasing it to get additional content.... which would be a positive thing overall and might persuade EA et all to drop DRM for future titles.
Edit: So long as the for pay DLC is better than horse armor that makes no difference to gameplay for 5 quid <cough>Oblivion</cough>

Until people stop utilizing microtransactions, they will continue to survive and thrive.
Unfortunately, we have too many people willing to be micrtransacted to death...

See further, EA sports games on PC.

Straight up: that's bullshit.
I do really enjoy the Sims series, though. If it's up on Steam, I may get the base game at some point (I'm so cheap...), and possibly find all expansion packs...elsewhere

JUDAS :O

I'm aware. But many other games are something more. Game first, product second.
Dont forget Sims: Ikea Home stuff and H&M Fashion Stuff. Selling people virtual brand name furniture/clothes? What the fuck? How stupid are we?

I'd go for "very".

<cough/>
*raises hand*
I did buy both of those when they came out....
I felt it added another level of realism/immersion to my little virtual world....
When they brought out the first 'stuff pack' with no new features just items I initially felt it was pretty lame - however the items added were of good quality of course and were themed together - castles, mermaids, etc etc.... This was worth the tenner over spending ages at modthesims2 trying to find items to match what I was after....
The stuff packs need to be differentiated however from the more expensive expansion packs which added actual new features - university education, weather/seasons and gardening, vacations, pets, player owned businesses, apartments, etc...
Should they replace stuff packs with paid DLC provided the cost is okay I would have no problems with it. If the sims2 store is anything to go by however if the items just get added to a 'download' folder like any custom content I expect we'll see the store items on the torrent sites if they get overpriced - just like the sims 2 store content....
Oh well just a month to go till sims3 now.... already planning a collector's edition for the missus and a regular edition for myself....

Yeah... I saw this coming a long time ago.

THEJOE! XD

As much as I despise microtransactions, they do make sense in The Sims. Even the first series, which I have up through Unleashed, was as much about shopping as anything else. This move is a way to make real money from the same impulse that kept me going through the items list to buy my guy the perfect potted plant. A lot of people will be willing to scratch that itch with real money. I do hate it, but it makes sense.

WTF? They're PIXELS! Are you telling me they were good quality pixels, rather than some of the cheap, tinny pixels that other companies make?
The day I saw The Sims: Ikea in my preferred gaming store, was the day I lost all faith in humanity.

The day I read this post, and saw how horribly the prior poster's comment was taken out of context, I lost all faith in gamers.
He didn't mean it was good quality like the Dannes boots I just picked up from the military surplus store are better quality than the Wal-Mart pair I picked up about a year ago..
He meant that the graphic design on them was good, the item "sets" meshed well, and the in-game functionality of the items worked.
So the "Quality" was good, as opposed to the poorly designed/implemented items you can download for free.
And, Ikea has some cool stuff, so why not make an addon for the sims that adds Ikea stuff? I mean, people have been buying the stuff packs for years, the Ikea wasn't any different than "Holiday stuff" "Family fun stuff". *shrug*
If those that buy it are happy with the $20 they spent, more power to 'em.