I read the other thread about EP's and a survey but didn't want to hijack that one.

So.

What I felt was the biggest problem with TS3 and its EPs (and to some extent, TS2 and its EP's as well), was the lack of consistency among the other EPs and that some of them could've been slammed together, to create a fuller experience.

For example, lack of consistency (I don't know a better word for that, so I shall try to explain):

Late Night and Showtime - Both had the same theme, but I felt that the developers hadn't even talked to each other. I was actually at a preview of Showtime and got to talk to one of the producers who seemed completely oblivious of previous Sims-titles. I felt that the team behind it hadn't even played the game. It was as if the people behind Late Night and the people behind Showtime were completely different and just did their own thing without talking to each other.

I feel that this is the case with most of the EP's. There's no thought behind them, I feel that they just come up with something and then go along. They treat the EP's as separate extra games, instead of trying to incorporate it all with each other. I guess they have to do this because some players won't by 10 EP's to a game.

And see... that's why they should make fewer EP's but that they include more.

For example.

Seaons and Pets (where pets is Animals and features cows, chickens and sheep as well) could easily be the same EP. Wasn't Unleashed, except for weather, a bit like that? The EP that introduces Seasons, weather, extensive gardening, farming, animals.

Showtime and Late night could easily also be the same.

Base Game and Generations should be the same, meaning the features we got in generations should already BE in the base game.

World adventures and Vacation/IP theme could be the same. That we now have hotels but no way of traveling from other neighborhoods (except for mods) to that island where the hotels are... WTF?!

I haven't played it much yet, but I felt University is one of the few games that was a good stand-alone EP. The same goes for Supernatural, even though I'm not a fan of supernatural stuff. But they clearly had their own thing going... Maybe they could've added some more into University, like more stuff for younger Sims but yeah. A school EP is definitely a stand-alone EP.

Ambitions could probably be mixed with the base game and University. Or be more similar to Open for Business.

Yes, I know this will mean that EA makes less money - but why not keep Store updated and nice for those who are into that? And then take a year to work on each EP, make sure it's full and bug-free and you know... show some respect to the franchise.

Sorry, long post.

EA will produce as many EPs as they can and sell them to us for as much money as they can. Combining them probably isn't going to happen. Personally, I prefer to pay $40 an ep every 6 months than $80 once a year. I can then skip an EP if I want or can wait to buy it until I can justify spending the money. By combining, I am forced to buy something I don't want for a few features I want.

For example, I was disappointed with pets in both Sims 2 and Sims 3, but I do want Seasons. I think I would buy Seasons without question but I will no longer purchase Pets immediately. I might buy it later, but certainly not at release. By combining, if I want Seasons, I am forced to also buy Pets.

Hmm... I see your point. Maybe they could feature more options though, like they started doing by the end of Sims 3 - like, the made it possible to opt out of the celebrity system, they made it possible to select what kind of supernatural beings you wanted and pets...

Like a more customizable neighborhood? I don't have one certain way I want to play the game, but like to try out different stuff. In one neighborhood I might want pets, but in the others, I might wanna skip them.

I felt that when Pets came out, I missed cows, chickens and other farm animals because the EP had that theme but decided to only have horses. I don't mean we need all these animals in CAS but rather have cows and chickens from which you can get milk and eggs from... They don't need to be 'intelligent' like the other pets. Since I wasn't interested in Pets but interested in farming, I really missed that aspect of the game. By making the EP's larger, maybe someone can always find something they like with an EP?

I don't usually buy all EP/SP's that come with each iteration. I didn't get Uni and Pets for Sims 2. Pets because I felt I had enough on my hands controlling and looking after my sims, I didn't need to throw pets in the mix. Uni just cause I never got around to buying it. I didn't buy a lot of SP's either.

For Sims 3, I didn't get Pets because they didn't offer farm animals which I want very much. I wanted to be able to have farmer sims not just "gardener" sims that I pretended were farmers. I would like EA to make it possible to have farmers in TS4. I also didn't get SuperNatural because I object to supernatural beings in my game. In both TS2 and TS3, I easily ignored them but if I would have gotten SuperNatural, there would be no way I could and I didn't want to sign up for that. Of course I missed out on the rocking chair, the bees, the new harvestables and recipes which I really wanted but not enough to justify having supernaturals in my game running amok. I hope in TS4, they do the same thing - make a separate EP for supernaturals so I can skip it all over again

So, in the end, do I want fewer EP's or more... just depends on how they roll them out, what's in them, will it make sense for my game style... lots to think about. I don't think there's a right or wrong answer for this one.

I don't want fewer EP's *childlike pouty face* I'm too impatient for a long gap inbetween, but I would be happy to see the back of stuff packs. I purchased one stuff pack for Sims 3, and about half of them for Sims 2. Those are items that could easily be added to the expansions.

I do feel disappointed in part with Sims 3 EP's. When World Adventures came out I felt cheated that I couldn't take my sims on a proper vacation. So Island Paradise eventually came (I purchased it yesterday) and it feels......unsatisfying somehow, and it feels like those two EP's could easily have been merged into one.

I just want the EP's to make more sense, and really enhance the game.

I think if they're going to make more expansion packs, I think they should actually be worth while, and things we've never had before.

There should be LOADS more objects and interactions.

All we're getting is rehashed shit over and over again.

Rehashed shit that's not even done with any real effort. I wonder if we'll see the same for Sims 4.

I don't mind rehash, but each time they bring out the same theme it should be bigger and better than the last time they did it.

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Three bags full.

Well, maybe not three, but I do like the idea of having fewer expansion packs instead of 11 where at least four could have been fit neatly into two EPs (e.g. Late Night/Showtime, Seasons/Island Paradise). I also dislike having to wait years just to get content that I was able to enjoy in a previous incarnation of the game. How many times do we have to wait years for pets? How many times do we have to wait for rain? How many times do we have to wait for musical instruments?

When discussing the price of the game, someone brought up that it was important to consider the hours of play. It made me think about how (if I buy the base game on the day of release) I may end up waiting quite some time before getting to play with pets and weather. If EA is going to justify the price of the base game based on the hours of play, the solution isn't to bang out EP after EP after EP every three months and charge over half of the base game's price.

Expansion packs (and stuff packs) should not be used as an excuse by EA to release the base game in installments. The base game has to feel complete. It shouldn't make players ask themselves, "When will the first EP come out?"

I do not want to pay $80 for a doubled up EP if I have to opt out of everything. Better just to keep them separate. I bought SN and I opt out of all the supernaturals because I wanted a few things in the pack. That really bugs me.

I think the point was to double the content, not the price.

Haha what Original Sim said...

I have no intention of buying any Sim game what so ever fir 80$.

Ahhh!! You are a dreamer! EA would NEVER double the content and not the price.

Would be nice but there is no incentive at all for them to do this. If they did, then I would not care unless doubling the content gave me a bunch of stuff I didn't need and that stuff would impact the performance. I have a pretty good computer but I know there are some people who buy only three EPs because otherwise their computer can't handle it all. For those folks, more small packs would be better than fewer large packs.

More and way better than that crap they sell us now.