Our readers are already intimately familiar with the anti-consumer behavior that won EA its second gleaming Golden Poo trophy in a row. One issue that we haven’t heard a lot about, though, is the continued suckiness of the current generation of “The Sims.” You know, that other Maxis title.

No, not because it’s boring, or marketed to women, or because everyone gets pixelated when they’re naked. The problem is that for many customers playing on Mac computers using Apple’s operating system, the game is more or less unplayable.

We specify “Apple’s operating system” because you can play The Sims 3 on a computer made by Apple. You just have to install Boot Camp, which lets you run Windows on your Mac if you feel so inclined. Why don’t customers just buy a copy of Windows so they can play? You know, that game that they were sold with a big old “Mac” symbol on the box.

Hardcore gamers may sneer at the Sims, but the series remains popular. For the first versions of the game (and its many expansion packs) EA licensed the game to Aspyr, a company with a niche business in porting Windows games to the Mac. With The Sims 3, EA cut out the middleman and did the port using Transgaming’s Cider engine. The problem? The ports are terrible…and no one at EA particularly cares.

An innocent PC player wandered in to the Mac forum of EA’s own Sims forum and was astonished, posting:

How is it that EA has not seen this stuff? Its pages upon pages of mac related issues. Its almost like you guys are getting ignored.. WOW

The forum even has an entire thread specifically explaining that users should pretty much ignore everything that EA support tells them to do. Just for starters:

– If EA’s customer support tell you to open Activity Monitor and quit processes – DO NOT DO IT. Your Mac will freeze resulting in you needing to power it off using the Power button which can be harmful.

– They will also tell you to insert the install disc that came with your Mac in order to access Disk Utility. Macs haven’t shipped with install discs since Lion came out [in July 2011] so if you have a newish Mac you’re probably wondering what on earth they’re talking about.

So, EA, if you notice that sales figures for SimCity for Mac aren’t all that great in a couple of months, maybe it’s because a lot of Mac users who like to play micro-God have already sworn off buying any games from your company again.

The ongoing saga of Mac OS X Lion, The Sims 3 and EA’s inability to acknowledge a growing problem [Bluebellflora’s Blog]

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