Thank Grog It’s Firday!!
Yes…it has continued to be one of those weeks/months/years that just keeps piling on the fun. But, I won’t take up more space here to talk about all of the family challenges in our neck of the woods. Especially, when we have a new update, and those woods are scary!
Well…maybe not as scary as many hoped for…but, at least it’s “hellish?”
And that’s really kind of what life has become at this point. Anticipating something great…counting down the days and hours…only to be disappointed in the outcome. And, let’s be honest about it. Almost everything that is highly anticipated leaves someone feeling disappointed.
But for me, there was one surprise that I have been begging for over the course of more than 18 months. Yes…those that know me, know that I am patient when it comes to begging. And, there are a few things that I have been hoping to come true, even longer than 18 months. But, my desire to be the nation’s first WWI Fighter Ace/Cowboy/Astronaut becomes more and more distant with each passing year.
However, I’m not going to complain. Because EA…in their infinite wisdom…FINALLY INCREASED THE HARD ITEM LIMITS!!!!!
I found out, via the email we got, including this message from “Cat,” the latest in a long line of Associate Producers for TSTO: “One thing not mentioned in the document that we’d like to make you aware of – with this year’s THOH we have increased the building cap by 1,000, bringing it from 13,000 to 14,000. We know this has been long requested, and we are pleased to grant that wish!”
We are pleased to grant that wish? After 18 months? Not one to look a “gift Item Increase in the face” (mostly because they don’t have faces), I immediately went about testing said limit, by adding back a ton of my bonus Wailing Walls and Tennis Courts! And BOOM! I got the warning.
Whaaaaaa?????
But then, I remembered that they do that kind of a warning all of the time, way before you reach the actual limit…So, to test the limit, I added another 65 tennis courts, which would have put me over the old limit of 13,000…and BOOM!!!!!
Nothing. They REALLY DID Increase the Item Limits! Woot! Woot!
However…as the title of this post suggests…it took almost no time at all, before I began trying to decide what I wanted to add back into my town. So many decorations and flourishes had to be sacrificed over that past 18 months, that I had to go back through the lists of stored items to see what I wanted to add back, knowing now that I had at least 800+ of something I could add back.
As I pondered the reality of getting back to my original “High Water Mark” of Bonus %, and knowing that I still had a ton of ticks left on the Item-Limit-O-Meter, I suddenly realized that I was a changed man. The 18 months of anticipation…wanting something I couldn’t have…had made me figure out how to manage without. How to deal with “enough,” while finding contentment in what I had, not what I thought I needed.
Was I suddenly happier, fulfilled, and secretly redeemed for my reward for waiting? Did it actually change my life for the better?
HELLS2theYES!!!
Because the fact is…having the FREEDOM to have more, or less, and not being FORCED to have less, by a mandate from an entity who “makes the rules,” is really what the whole “pursuit of happiness” and “justice for all” bit is all about.
Yes. It’s a game. Yes, it is going to have limitations that are created for the betterment of all who play. But, limiting creativity, and the freedom to build, design, and enjoy the game freely, makes it “lesser than,” for a good portion of players.
Take the analogy any way you want. Rules, religion, politics, and all sorts of day to day limitations in life are created, mandated and enforced in ways that always seem restrictive to those being restricted. But, I also acknowledge that designing “way above the warnings” for years, brought about the obvious “Hard Limit” results over time. There are ramifications for breaking the rules and policies in life, especially if they effect others around you.
Wait…are we still talking about the game?
I am just glad that EA has found a way to bump it up. Not sure if this will be an annual thing…a semi-annual thing…or “one last time.” But, for now, it doesn’t matter. Flowers…shrubs…and rock-work around some of my water features has returned!
We Are Free Again! Thanks, EA!
Finished concrete work around water just looks better…especially when it butts up against heaven…
For far too long…the good people of Shelbyville and Springfield have been denied flowers, fences and shrubs to beautify their towns!
I had forgotten how much more fulfilling and fun it is to be able to decorate with all of the tools! Trees, shrubs, random fences…all make a town look more livable, and less “cartoony.”
And then I started thinking…”Who Finally Pulled the Trigger on the Item Limit Increase??”
I reached out to “Cat,” who reached out to Tom, who reached out to the guy who sits in the weird little room that used to be a secret in the server room, who sent me the evidence. And, I wasn’t surprised.
There is a tradition between White House staffs when a transition between old and new administration takes over. They leave little notes of encouragement for one another, little bits of paper that prove that an ordered, polite transfer of power has taken place, as it has since the first time in 1796.
But, back at EA…the desk that has been passed down from “Assistant to the VP of Server Integration” (AVPSI), from a wide range of employees using it as a stepping stone up the ladder, contained just such a note, from one of the original occupants.
Written on a sticky note, and stuck to a variety of crud in the “junk drawer” of the desk, was this simple, furtive plea. 
Good old Bob.
Perhaps knowing this might be the last time that Bob has had influence on the game, long after finally taking that promotion as Ops Manager for Door Dash, I will treasure each item that I am now able to place in my town.
We may not always get everything we want…but, over time, perhaps we can learn to appreciate what we have. Right?