You know after a couple of days ago, I actually approve of downloading my Sims games digitally. Keep in mind, though I was born close to the very end of the late 80's when Carl was still in elementary school, Leto was 4 days away from his child birthday, Pam Metro, and our moderators (excluding Leto) were still under the age of 30, and Pam was counting down the days until her 30th birthday, so I'm close to the generation of our younger forum members, still under the age of 18, which means because I have a real life job, driver's license, bank card, I have the funds and access, to go through with the digital downloads.
I actually like it better because I don't have to worry about losing the disc, or wearing it out (I notice that's actually the main source of a crashing game.). My game actually runs a whole lot smoother, too because I'm not overheating, my hard drive. However, maybe reducing my amount of third party content has something to do with it, but my game is less glitchy, and more smooth than it was when I played Sims 3 with the hard copy. So to our younger forum members, when you finally obtain the financial dependence a bank card, and a real life job, I highly recommend you chose the digital copy over the physical copy. It's so much better than worrying about losing, and over stressing a physical copy.