Dire Weasel: I see what you're saying.  You didn't get to see your father whenever you wanted him.  His contributation to the making of games was at the inconvience of not seeing his family and having to deal with a job.  End of story.

As for other things, I am not surprised by EAxis in any way.  In a business, you do whatever you can to get as much profit as you can.  EA is a business.  They're bloodsuckers and the blood is money.  Not much more to say about that.

The EPs--I never played TS1, but it was one of the most successful games of its time, which led me to buy TS2.  Now we have TS3, which seems to be giving everyone a headache, but at the same time, gives us something to discuss/argue about in this forum. However, the EPs from TS1 to TS2 were just replicas of each other with better graphics and options.  Code: Hot Date=Nightlife, Vacation=Bon Voyage, and Unleashed=Pets.  They did not make an expansion for Magic, but kind of input it into other EPs, such as the creatures (zombies, vampires, and especially the witches/warlocks).  SuperStar, I believe, was the reason for career options.  Now for TS3, Vacation=Bon Voyage=World Adventures, nothing that wasn't already totally predictable.

As for making a game to rival EAxis and The Sims--good luck with that.  The Sims is one of the most successful games ever and trying to suede a whole world to change over to another contributer of a similiar game is no picnic.  But if someone would like to try, I have no problem with it.  I'll even test it for you, but expect a lot of comparison.

Last and least, the bubbles--I use the Sims as a storytelling tool so I turn the bubbles off.  They're very annoying to me, but that's just opinion of one gamer and gives reason to why they have a cheat to turn them off.

Sorry, if there is any improper grammar--I'm kind of not in the mood to double check.

Cheers

I'm wondering, maybe out of stupidity or curiosity, if you delete all the locals except say English, will the sims speak English?