Why I sometimes think EA is smarter than we think:

I went on MTS today to check the latest downloads for TS3, and found CmarNYC's new "hairinator."  I'm fucking thrilled.  As soon as I saw body hair in-game, I was fucking thrilled!  Not only is EA reducing our need to have a shitton of custom skins and sliders in order to successfully create diverse characters, but some of these new features since base game are incredibly useful for things other than what they were originally created.  Tattoos, breast sliders, and now body hair?  They're all things that the community wanted and were then implemented into the game.  EA's probably thinking "well shit, why didn't we think of that?"  They did.  They thought of all of these things long ago, but in order to keep the interest of every simmer, they are releasing them over time.  Ambitions, Late Night, Generations--they all included a new element that was a huge deal to simmers and creators.  EA's not stupid.  They know how to sell a game to every audience.  They include new building features (basements, elevators, spiral staircases, curved pools, laundry, hot tubs...) for the "architects", new CAS features for the "modelers", and new gameplay for those who just want to have fun.  Win-win situation--we get new features, they get more money.

But EA also knows that we don't just use what they give us and that it literally.  They know that we will always go above and beyond.  Body hair is a great new tool that, similarly to tattoos, can be exploited to add more personalization.  Body freckles no longer need to be accessories applied to every outfit.  Fantasy players can add spots, stripes, and all sorts of other things that aren't size-based like tattoos.  And, for robokitty's old accessory tattoos, they can be added without disappearing when your sims go skinny dipping.

EA has gotten to the point where they don't give us a whole bunch of new items.  They know we can make clothes, tats, makeup, etc., by ourselves.  What they concentrate on are relatively simple things to add to the game that would be difficult for just modders--but things that we still get very excited over.

Those tricksy EAxians.