The Sims 4 must have slept wrong every day for the last month; since the early October patch, the Sims have become much meaner than usual.

As SimsCommunity (opens in new tab) pointed out, there is an entire thread on the EA forum (opens in new tab) dedicated to flagging how bitchy the Sims have become. It was first flagged on October 11, when the patch was applied, and the first report said this: "My sims have suddenly become autonomous and insult each other incessantly. They are all close family members, have no mischievous traits or skills, and have never had any problems before. It had never happened before that my sims would autonomously insult anyone, but now it was happening more than once in a minute's play."

Yes, for some reason, it seems that the sims have decided to be mean to each other of their own volition. Usually there is no mischievous or disrespectful trait, and you have to poke them yourself to elicit the mean behavior. This is likely due to the "loyalty" trait that was recently added to the base game. The result is that families are falling apart and having to babysit the family's every move. In addition, more than 1,000 people clicked the "me too" button on the original post, indicating that they too are experiencing this problem.

After weeks of sims yelling, insulting, and fighting with each other, EA now admits that the rampant bitching is an unresolved issue. According to a post on the forum thread, the team is "actively working on a fix" and hopes it will be fixed as soon as possible.

I am a builder rather than a gameplayer, so thankfully I am not dealing with complaints. However, it has proven to be a game-breaking bug for many as relationships have deteriorated and negative moodlets and emotions have built up. Hopefully, all the sims will eat their meals, take a nice nap, and wake up feeling refreshed and much kinder after the hotfixes.