I loved The Sims 1 and 2 as a youngin', and when 3 came out, I tapped the extensive modding community for content and REALLY got into it. I got all the expansions except for Generations (all my Sims are young and sexy, sorry), and utilized enough behavioral mods and user-created items and clothing that I was able to open a profitable brothel. I had an army of hoes and a pimp grandmother named Nan, and nobody needed to know anyone in order to be able to WooHoo with them.
Then, when Into The Future came out, I recruited myself a purple alien guy to go around and spread his seed throughout town. It was neat using the time machine and seeing my purple progeny out walking around.
I guess I'm just a perv. I've zero interest in Sims 4, though.
FWIW, I can reconcile my love of Sims games with my immense hatred for EA and Origin by, erm... utilizing my CyberGhost subscription.
This game is the best example that I have ever encountered for an educational game. (assuming it's the thing I think it is, I'm not in a position to actually play it right now)
http://www.notdoppler.com/cellcraft.php
But, it does a great job of balancing educational aspects with a game that is actually fun. I certainly played it initially because of the mechanics and incidentally ended up remembering a lot of my highschool bio.