Who's getting the x-mas pack?

[MutantBunny]

"......It makes me think "Will the next booster pack suck as much as this one? Or will Maxis really listen to the fans and give them more meaningful things?"

Has Maxis proven that what they put out will NOT suck yet?? Haven't they had ample time/chances? Let's see-- Sims2, Uni, NL, the Patch, arg, and now the Pack...all sucky. IMO, the Pack is worst because price v. content is such a ridiculous greedy rip.

The Sims 1 team, Will and the original Maxiods, so I hear went with Will Wright when he left  (he et. al. are making Spore right now, under EA but not as Maxis.)  So we have team 2, second line Maxiods lol. hm...

[eaglezero]

Now, I have to admit that I have, on occasion, paid for custom content. However, I've used very strict criteria for deciding whether or not it was worth it to pay, such as "Can I, for around $5, get almost or over a hundred quality items that I will frequently use?" and "Am I at least reasonably sure that this money is solely going to pay site bandwidth?" If the answer to both is "yes," it's probably worth it. If the answer to either is "no," then, no, sorry, but I'll just take the free items. Okay, so, I've only actually paid for custom content one time, but I thought it was worth it for the sheer number of quality items I was able to get.

I do object, though, to this wild profiteering by EA. Because I'm a nerd, I have a formula to help determine what I'm willing to pay for various things (The base "currency" of this formula is the price of a paperback book [my entertainment medium of choice], which gives approximately four hours of reading entertainment time, plus average re-reading entertainment time of two hours per year, plus shopping time of one hour, plus thinking time of two hours, for a total of nine hours of entertainment for about $7. Anything else I buy for entertainment purposes must be at least this efficient.). The Holiday Party Pack failed this test miserably. I was quickly able to determine that it's not an efficient provider of fun and therefore not worthy of my money (it would be far more cost-effective to spend that money on books, or iTunes, or even paysites if I wanted Sims content). I may buy future party packs if they pass the test, but to do that they'd have to have killer new hair meshes, good clothing (that doesn't look stupid, like most Maxis clothes), and lots of nice (and expensive) furniture for my fortune sims, at the very least.

And to all those who say they don't use Maxis objects, wtf!? I generally think Maxis objects are pretty decent. Sure, I use mostly recolors, but I wouldn't have a problem furnishing a house with Maxis-only objects. Just don't ask me to use their walls or floors.

[radiophonic]

Well, I did enough of the "Wait and see how many bugs there are in it by watching the forums." and the conclusion is: no, I will not purchase that silly little package.

Besides, Christmas-smishtmas...BAH HUMBUG!

[MutantBunny]

After my SC2 debacle with the HatedMaxiod, then having inoccent posts in another thread pulled by Lyriclee for no explainable reason other than she didn't like my signature (so pull the signature, not my posts) then getting '4 warning points' ,oooo, from delphy for using, in the War Zone, the word idot to describe no one in particular (the thread is still there -- go read it: Surviving the War Zone). I had just about had it completely with the Sims, EA, Maxis etc. for good. There's no way in the world I'd ever purchase the Pack. But reading this stuff from all of you has put the fun back into playing the game for me. Thank you.

As for more packs and more EPs: I've been thinking that if we'd quit buying the EPs, then Miche et al would have  areal chance at breaking into the animations, other modders would have a real chance to make more elaborate hacks etc etc you get my drift. But if we keep buying the EPs and the Packs (items only, won't change the core--what a crock) then Maxis has the chance to keep the modders 'down' (the modders have to spend all their time redoing hacks!)  Me: I would rather have the modders stuff anyway. Maxis has some stupid twisted ideas (a teddy baer for a gift and only a teddy bear--what cheap lazy shit is that?? and then glitchy on top of it!) anyway. I'd much rather have the phone not ring constantly, teen and casual sex, Liz Loves bed, Crammyboy's penis, Danny's girls, winkeeprs and 2jeffs cow wall trophy, oh the list is endless.

Wow--look at all those words. I've got verbal diarrehea..Sorry...

[Motoki]

They've basically turned from a tell it like it is no holds barred site to a bunch of TSR-like ass kissers who censor anything and everything they don't deem acceptable in a goody goody care bear white washed way. Don't bother posting anything there unless it's totally flattering to the creators, moderators, admins and Maxis. That is, if you actually want you post to stay up for more than 5 minutes.

[Bangelnuts]

I rarely ever post MTS2 asI dislike censorship and its impossible to give EA a pat on the back for being greedy.I've been a member of MTS2 since March  and still a test subject since I post there so little.Id rather post here and run the through the lip ripping LOL

[Andygal]

I used to post there, but I haven't posted there in months.

It used to be a good site. Then Pescado left and it went down the tubes.

[Ancient Sim]

OK, I give up.  How does this work?  I can't find the cookies anywhere, where are they?  I tried using cookies from the fridge, but it appears you have to bake them.  Do you bake the snack cookies that come in the bag?  And how do you serve the "feast"?  I haven't seen an option to do that.  All I've managed to do so far is put a tree up that caught fire in the middle of the night because I forgot to get anyone to switch it off.  Is it necessary to put all the decorations up before the cookies appear because I don't want all that hassle (what's the point of putting all that lot up and then having to take it all down again?!).  I admit that I am totally and utterly mystified by how this works, so any help would be much appreciated!

[Baa]

OK, I give up.  How does this work?  I can't find the cookies anywhere, where are they?  I tried using cookies from the fridge, but it appears you have to bake them.  Do you bake the snack cookies that come in the bag?  And how do you serve the "feast"?  I haven't seen an option to do that.  All I've managed to do so far is put a tree up that caught fire in the middle of the night because I forgot to get anyone to switch it off.  Is it necessary to put all the decorations up before the cookies appear because I don't want all that hassle (what's the point of putting all that lot up and then having to take it all down again?!).  I admit that I am totally and utterly mystified by how this works, so any help would be much appreciated!

Click on the stove/fridge and click Serve Desert > Santa Cookies.

Don't eat 'em, or clean them up. Leave them out. At 10PM Santa comes! I don't think you need the tree, but it's a tradition. (I think the cookies act like a teleporter? Or maybe the tree does?)

[Ancient Sim]

Click on the stove/fridge and click Serve Desert > Santa Cookies.

Unfortunately, I don't have that option.  All I get when I click on "Serve Dessert" is gelatin.  Maybe it's because I have custom foods, I'll try taking them out.  If that is the case, I won't be using the Xmas pack because I'm not doing without my custom foods on a permanent basis.  What exactly triggers Santa to come?  I don't want trees and stuff out for days on end if it's purely random. 

[LFox]

I won't be downloading this pack mostly because i don't even need it and paying for it?  FORGET IT.  I'm with Motoki the sims community is a bunch of money grabbers.  I've found dozens of sites that offer NICE downloads but you have to pay for them.  I'm not paying for stuff for a game i already payed for your supposed to make content for a game as a hobby not for income.  Seriously if i knew hacking i'd hack their paysites download everything and bundle it up as a free for all download, it's supposedly even written in the EULA that you can't charge for content you make so i wouldn't even be doing a crime, maybe i'd even be doing a favor.  Truth be told I've found a couple skins that even I could make because their a 2 minute job in photoshop maybe even less and yet the creator thinks they can charge people a dollar or more for this horribly crappy item.

My main reason to buy sims expansions is mostly due to mods and its only the mods really that J.M. Pescado himself makes.  I only really use game play hacks made by him as well as a few other modders, the critical fixes and a small selection of decent custom clothing.  I am seriously appauled by the lack of fixes on Maxis's part and its worse that they blame the bugs on the users when modders can clearly fix them.  Companies like Blizzard may seem heartless at times but their better than Maxis because they care ALOT more they even went through the trouble of redoing the entire skill system for diablo 2 in a patch when they didn't even have to.

When i found morrowind i was literally shocked that there wasn't a single paysite on the far horizon and to tell you the truth i was glad.  I'm just hoping the new game TES Oblivion will have the same no pay for mods thing otherwise its gameplay is going to be slashed by a couple thousand hours.

Anyway sorry for ranting but it seems the place to do it.

[TreyNutz]

Click on the stove/fridge and click Serve Desert > Santa Cookies.

Unfortunately, I don't have that option.  All I get when I click on "Serve Dessert" is gelatin.  Maybe it's because I have custom foods, I'll try taking them out.  If that is the case, I won't be using the Xmas pack because I'm not doing without my custom foods on a permanent basis.  What exactly triggers Santa to come?  I don't want trees and stuff out for days on end if it's purely random. 

You need 1 cooking point.  And an oven, of course.  Several people on the BBS forgot they had the Uni Stove top which doesn't have an oven.  I don't know if the toaster oven works.

For the Holiday Roast, you need 7 cooking points, and the Cornucopia on the lot.  And an oven too.

The santa clothing and beards, and skin for the Santa-NPC appear to only be installed into the account you are currently in when you intall the Party Pack.  On my other 2 accounts, when Santa shows up he has a grey suit and no face.  A bald scalp, but otherwise his head is invisible.  My sim couldn't change appearance to the Santa hat or beard either.  I haven't checked CAS to see if the Old Father Time outfit for elders or the Santa suit is there, but I don't expect it too.  It looks like my Legacy families will be having a Very Odd Christmas since they are not on my main account.  You cannot reinstall the Party Pack in each account.  I'm a little disappointed and have no idea how to fix this.  I'll try to put a pic:



You need the tree for Santa to come.  So far he's come the first night on the lots I've tried it.  But after that it appears to be random.  On one lot I saved with Cassandra about to bake the cookies (she and Don were my test subjects).  In 20 reloads, Santa came 4 times.  That was after he'd already come 2 or 3 times.  If you bake the cookies before 10pm, he shows up at 10pm.  If you bake them after 10pm, he shows up when they come out of the oven.

[ilikefishfood]

I'm just pissed cuz in some countries (like where I live) you can't even get the wretched thing!  You can only download it in the US and a handful of other countries.  And the only place that sells the add-on pack (as opposed to the holiday edition) wouldn't ship outside the US.  If people really do start making content based on the pack, and they start putting new features/interactions in these add-ons they're gonna screw a lotttttta their international consumers. 

I don't actually want the pack per se, I'm just ticked that I couldn't get it if I wanted to........and really pissed if Motoki's prophecies about the future mess, really come to pass *mutter*.  After all the trouble I've had with nlNL since the patch, and now this, I'm ready to toss in the towel.  I can't believe I wasted the last few years of my life giving Maxis my money!

[Ancient Sim]

OK, I think I get it now.  The lot I tried it on is in my new neighbourhood and the Sim has no cooking points as I recall.  I will try it on a lot with someone who has slightly more and see what transpires.  Not sure why I'm bothering really, because I know it's going to be yet another anti-climax.  Maybe I should try it in Pleasantview and perhaps lose a few unwanted characters in an unfortunate tree fire ...

[eaglezero]

I won't be downloading this pack mostly because i don't even need it and paying for it?  FORGET IT.  I'm with Motoki the sims community is a bunch of money grabbers.  I've found dozens of sites that offer NICE downloads but you have to pay for them.  I'm not paying for stuff for a game i already payed for your supposed to make content for a game as a hobby not for income.  Seriously if i knew hacking i'd hack their paysites download everything and bundle it up as a free for all download, it's supposedly even written in the EULA that you can't charge for content you make so i wouldn't even be doing a crime, maybe i'd even be doing a favor.  Truth be told I've found a couple skins that even I could make because their a 2 minute job in photoshop maybe even less and yet the creator thinks they can charge people a dollar or more for this horribly crappy item.

Theoretically pay sites only have you pay so that they can cover bandwidth costs. At least, that's why sites originally went to paying status, like WDS and SimFreaks back in the day (Does simfreak2 even ever get updated? I looked at it the other day but there weren't any dates on the update page so I couldn't tell.). There are some sites, however, that seem to me not to be good enough to have the high traffic that would cause excessive bandwidth costs and still have big pay sections and small free sections. There are other sites though, like Lyran's, that offer excellent stuff and don't even have as much as a donation button! Personally, as far as donation sites go, I think ATS2 has the best model, where you get small exclusive items and can download the whole set/recolors in one big file, rather than having to download a dozen different things. So, basically, as long as they're using the money just to cover the site expenses, and not as their own personal income, I think it's cool (and, to your EULA argument, they're not technically charging for custom content, they're charging for bandwidth use). Unfortunately, there's really no way to make sure that the sites are doing what they're supposed to be doing with their money, so, you know.

I think a lot of the sites that were around when things first started converting to donation/pay have got it figured out and would be decent places to donate to, but I think a lot of the newer ones don't get the point of the donations and paying for content and think it's there to make money for themselves, or something. Personally, if I had a sims site, I'd be really ashamed to ask for money, but then, if my web costs were beginning to exceed $500 a year or so, I would have to.

[Motoki]

For the Holiday Roast, you need 7 cooking points, and the Cornucopia on the lot.  And an oven too.
...
You need the tree for Santa to come.

How were we supposed to figure all this out? Osmosis?

I kind of figured the cookie part out since that's what triggered him inTS1, and I guess I can see the tree, but what does the cornucopia have to do with anything? It's purely decorative and the sim's never touch it, they certain don't eat out of it, so why it is needed to be placed on the lot before they can make a holiday feast and how we were supposed to know this?

[Motoki]

Theoretically pay sites only have you pay so that they can cover bandwidth costs.

Yes and if you believe that, I've got a nice bridge to sell you.

I'm so sick of that bullshit, why don't they just call a spade a spade and admit they are in it for profit instead of the god damned sob story about bandwidth. And if bandwidth really is a problem for some, then they are unwilling or too god damned stupid and/or lazy to find alternatives.

I know this is going to piss some people off, but I think the real problem here is that the user base in this community tends to be a lot less tech savvy and a lot more gullible. They have no clue what bandwidth or polygons etc are. If you tell them that you have to charge for bandwidth, they believe it. Tell them you have to pay for good custom content, they believe it. Those pay sites have done a good number brainwashing the community and otherwise pulling the wool over people's eyes. Some of the larger ones also crank out the PR machine full time. I had Steve at TSR actually go to Delphy and make a deal with him to remove several of my posts on MTS2 that were unflattering about their site. And everytime I hear him and Thomas talk, I swear those two really need to get into politics. Then again, TSR probably pays better.

They and other pay sites have also somehow seemed to make a large segment of the community into rabid attack dogs they jump on anyone who would dare suggest there is anything at all wrong with pay sites. It simply is not an acceptable opinion to have pretty much anywhere but here in the TS2 community. Even here I'm waiting for the attack dogs to come as I speak. This whole site was set up as an extreme exaggeration and mockery of the paysites and even then some people apparently seemed to take it quite seriously and were ready to dole out $40 while others think it was a nice sentiment and see nothing wrong with that. IMO that shows how warped we've all become.

If the bandwith thing or the needing to pay for good custom content thing were a universal truth, then every site for every game would be charging, but they all don't. There's some very popular sites with some very nice content for both TS2 and other games that don't charge and they get by somehow.

There's also alternatives to hosting your own files. Not all of them are perfect, but they are out there if you take the time to look. There's MTS2, there's the Exchange for some files, there's file planet, the's rapishare.de, etc etc. If you're files aren't too large there are various free forums you could use too and you can always make a forum or webpage on a free site and then link to your files on those places.

Honestly in my time modding for Morrowind, I never had a problem finding somewhere to host my files, neither did anyone else usually and some of those mods were larger in size than the holiday pack and had lots of downloads.

You're all free to believe what you want, do what you want etc. But I still say that the whole paysite thing, which has taken off in this community like no other I know of, is what is fueling EA's corporate greed and getting them to want to get in on a piece of the action with their own 'donation packs'. As long as people pay for them, both EA and 3rd party, they'll keep doing it. And if that's okay with you (in the collective non-specific sense) then I guess it's not a problem. *shrug*

[LFox]

There is absolutely no need to host a paysite.  I've hosted my own FREE website that has 10+ gig of downloadable content for about a year now.  I use a free server called hostultra due to its free nature it has "some" popups but with the xp sp 2 popup blocker i don't even see them.  As for the content itself i use servers such as 35mb.com and rapidshare.de which are good for the kind of stuff i host.

The only real reason to pay for hosting is not looking around proper for free hosting or wanting to seem professional.  That does suck about the EULA i guess that means they technically can charge just by saying its going to support the website fees.  Oh and i just loathe those sites that are free but you gotta donate a certain amount so you can download anything off em.  Hahah that brings a whole new meaning to pay sites.

[TreyNutz]

For the Holiday Roast, you need 7 cooking points, and the Cornucopia on the lot.  And an oven too.
...
You need the tree for Santa to come.

How were we supposed to figure all this out? Osmosis?

I kind of figured the cookie part out since that's what triggered him inTS1, and I guess I can see the tree, but what does the cornucopia have to do with anything? It's purely decorative and the sim's never touch it, they certain don't eat out of it, so why it is needed to be placed on the lot before they can make a holiday feast and how we were supposed to know this?

I have no idea, lol. I couldn't find any holiday meal at first, then saw some one mention a Holiday Roast on the BBS.  After some trial and error, I figured out that you needed the Cornucopia to get the option for the roast.  Luckily my sim had 10 cooking points.  Boolprop made it easy to discover how many points were needed. 

[Bangelnuts]

For the Holiday Roast, you need 7 cooking points, and the Cornucopia on the lot.  And an oven too.
...
You need the tree for Santa to come.

How were we supposed to figure all this out? Osmosis?

I kind of figured the cookie part out since that's what triggered him inTS1, and I guess I can see the tree, but what does the cornucopia have to do with anything? It's purely decorative and the sim's never touch it, they certain don't eat out of it, so why it is needed to be placed on the lot before they can make a holiday feast and how we were supposed to know this?

I have no idea, lol. I couldn't find any holiday meal at first, then saw some one mention a Holiday Roast on the BBS.  After some trial and error, I figured out that you needed the Cornucopia to get the option for the roast.  Luckily my sim had 10 cooking points.  Boolprop made it easy to discover how many points were needed. 

I would have been cooking turkey forever without your post

[Brynne]

I'm so sick of that bullshit, why don't they just call a spade a spade and admit they are in it for profit instead of the god damned sob story about bandwidth. And if bandwidth really is a problem for some, then they are unwilling or too god damned stupid and/or lazy to find alternatives.

I'm with you there. Every time I see the word "donation" on those sites I get a flaming thought bubble over my head. These so-called donation sites have their marketing gimmicks too. They lure you in with an awesome looking "free" set of furniture, then you find that the best pieces are donation items. So you can have your chairs, but the table you'll have to pay for. The other thing that irks me is when you download a free set, then find that the meshes are not included and are donation-only. Thanks for letting me know after the fact...

I keep my packaged sims in a yahoo briefcase, of all places. I paid for it myself, a whopping $4.95 a  month, I think. But at least it allows me to keep my files private, and I can't imagine charging people for them. I make people jump through hoops to get them, of course; they have to join my forum in order to request them (my rule, lol. I could send them out to non-members, but I won't anymore. Protecting my ass, mainly, although I've done a pretty good job hunting down and crediting any custom content I used in their creation, if I do say so myself..), and then I will email them a link to the downloads. But they are, and always will be, free.

[Motoki]

I hate the use of the word "donation" it's such a ridiculous euphamism. It's not like we're giving money to help starving orphans. 

[Brynne]

Yeah, it is a bit dramatic...

[LFox]

I hate the use of the word "donation" it's such a ridiculous euphamism. It's not like we're giving money to help starving orphans. 

Donation is a evil word its another way of saying pay us money.  I don't give to charities but i have my own reasons for that.  One thing that bothers me about those starvation charities is they always show kids, why are they having 3+ kids if they can't even feed themselves?

[Sagana]

I agree

And also about the sims2 community in general being less "tech literate" (so to speak). It's also hard to make sure the info gets to the people who need it - there have been some good sites that went down due to bandwidth issues (there was one in particular who went over to TSR and I was sorry about, but I can't remember who it was now). One of the things Delphy's been good about is picking up some of those..