Text and look and feel are another story, though. In this case EA is alleging that The Ville is a derivative work not because it borrows mechanics but because it meets the 'substantially similar' test by meticulously cloning the look of The Sims Social, right down to copying the exact RGB colors of specific elements.
As someone who doesn't play Facebook games, looking at the images, they certainly look like two different ways of expressing the same game. Some icons are similar - e.g. the 'heart break' icons, but they don't seem to be that novel for what they are depicting.
Text and look and feel are another story, though. In this case EA is alleging that The Ville is a derivative work not because it borrows mechanics but because it meets the 'substantially similar' test by meticulously cloning the look of The Sims Social, right down to copying the exact RGB colors of specific elements.