wut EPs are teh bestest?

[Grugly]

Figures. You train the pets to piss in a box, and you train the Sims to piss in a toilet... the pets remember, the Sims forget. I guess it's kind of telling that Sims display the exact same urinary behaviour whether or not they get the 'training.'
Then again, since you don't control the animals, it's not so irritating that they rush off to the box without your input... if the Sims exhibited similar behaviour I'm not sure I'd be impressed. They're obsessed with their pee enough as it is.
Their AI really is atrocious though... without Awesomeware, they can get caught in energy/hunger failure loops where they slam their faces into their dinner over and over until they die of a brain hemorrhage. The hidden ninth motive is the strongest of all - the need to complain endlessly in order to waste time that could be better spent correcting the problem.

[edited to remove myself from the recursive "which is funny" loop]

[J. M. Pescado]

Then again, since you don't control the animals, it's not so irritating that they rush off to the box without your input... if the Sims exhibited similar behaviour I'm not sure I'd be impressed. They're obsessed with their pee enough as it is.

Maybe YOU don't. It's not as if EAxis didn't provide us with the opportunity to do so, and most of us do. The thing is, I don't HAVE to control the animals. If I don't spend every moment of my time directing the cats to do something, they don't self-destruct or do stupid shit. Sims, however, will quickly find something obnoxious, purposeless, and disruptive to be doing. Pets can be trained not to do those things. Sims can't, they never learn. The pets are smarter than the sims are.

[Grugly]

Maybe YOU don't. It's not as if EAxis didn't provide us with the opportunity to do so, and most of us do.

Yeah, I figured you'd bring that up. The insanity of toddlers and pets is probably the only dark spot I've left in my game after all the cheats and FFS hacks. Screaming babies and pets eating couches serve to remind me of how lucky I am to not have Sims obsessing over turning off their loved ones' computers, bawling about route failures, getting creepy phone calls when they watch television or serve dinner, and waking up at two in the morning to stare out the window at the rain. A little chaos I can live with, but only when it's chaos the idiots who programmed the game intended; the chaos resulting from their ineptitude, the chaos of a game that isn't working correctly, that's not something I'm okay with. Thankfully you've fixed pretty much every dealbreaking example of that already.
It certainly is bizarre that the pets have their shit together when the Sims do not. Like you said, you can train the pets not to do their disruptive behaviours, but the disruptive behaviour of Sims is probably an unintentional side-effect of lousy/lazy programmers. When pets scratch the couch, it's because they haven't been trained not to; when Sims turn on the television in someone's bedroom while they're sleeping or scream at you when they can't autonomously cook a single plate of food because you've directed someone to cook for the entire family, it's because they have no spatial awareness and their code doesn't allow for any sort of self-sufficient undisruptive SENTIENT existence.

[Inge]

What happened to the grammar police?  It should be "betterer" not "bestest"

[jolrei]

What happened to the grammar police?  It should be "betterer" not "bestest"

No, it should not.  "Betterer" suggests a kompartiv, as in betterer in komparsun to wut.  "Bestest" implies which EPs are the stand alone faivrits measured by kwalitti and overall enjoi mint.

[Grugly]

No, it should not.  "Betterer" suggests a kompartiv, as in betterer in komparsun to wut.  "Bestest" implies which EPs are the stand alone faivrits measured by kwalitti and overall enjoi mint.

-bursts into tears-

[Inge]

But there can only be one "best".  The OP is asking for plural matches to be returned.

[jolrei]

But there can only be one "best".  The OP is asking for plural matches to be returned.

Bloody hell, Inge!  It is entirely possible to have a group of things that is the best group, as in "which EPs (as a group) are the best?"  This is perfectly good English.  You can also say, "which EPs are better" but then you have to at least imply "better than WHAT?"  I would say that they are all better than, say, the Base Game, since they all add something of interest to someone, but it's a pretty dull and hopeless thing to say, isn't it?

The OP wanted to know which EPs (out of the list) we thought were the absolute cream (curdled perhaps) of the crop - the best ones.

Please, let it go.

There, I feel better now.

[Kala]

     OFB is a glorified stuff pack to me.  I love the Body shop items and the build/buy mode items, but I stopped dealing with the business aspects of the pack after a month.  I have an anti stuff pack stance, but after looking at what I just said about OFB, I may get a stuff pack one day.  What is the penultimate stuff pack?

[Kyna]

     OFB is a glorified stuff pack to me.  I love the Body shop items and the build/buy mode items, but I stopped dealing with the business aspects of the pack after a month.  I have an anti stuff pack stance, but after looking at what I just said about OFB, I may get a stuff pack one day.  What is the penultimate stuff pack?

The second to last (i.e. penultimate) stuff pack was IKEA.

[rufio]

The Law track is from Seasons.

[J. M. Pescado]

OFB is a glorified stuff pack to me.  I love the Body shop items and the build/buy mode items, but I stopped dealing with the business aspects of the pack after a month.

OFB is easily the single most radical expansion pack out there. While out of the box, it seems like a fairly useless addon that adds similarly useless features, and indeed, without mods, the entire business thing WOULD be utterly useless, the potential for moddings it unlocked was huge, and the ownable lot feature combines with SHINY STUFF to add a level of control you simply cannot achieve without it.

[Inge]

Jolrei I don't care what the original poster wanted.  This matter reaches far beyond EPs and Original Posters.  It's a matter of what am I paying the Grammar Police for?  I expect them to be watching for this sort of issue on my behalf.

[Zazazu]

Inge, I find your punctuation amusing in context.

[Inge]

My punctuation is appropriate, as always.

[birene]

I will just repost what I answered to an lj-friend's inquiry about Sims 2 and its EPs ...

A short assessment of the EPs as far as game-play goes:

University: So boring it hurts.
Nightlife: One of the best add-ons I would call it essential.
Open for Business: Thought I would hate it. It's one of my favorites now.
Pets: In one word: Unnecessary.
Seasons: Not of much use either, but you get an annoying penguine to chat with your snowmen.
Bon Voyage: Much like University a game of it's own. Very hard to implement in normal game play.
Free Time: Almost forgot about it. Has some interesting new game features but nothing world-shattering.
Apartment Life: The bugginess it kills us.

So IMO the OP already has the bestest EPs installed (also the crappiest with University). As for the more recent EPs, I would go with Seasons and Free Time before Apartment Life (better/alternatively Mansions & Garden) and Pets, nevermind Bon Voyage. But like others already said this is all really, really subjective.

[Inge]

Seasons and Open For Business enriched my game more than the others (note: not "most").   Between them they opened up infinite options for the Sims' lifestyles.  You can even make holiday homes if you have OFB, and the right hacks so they can stay on their community business lot as long as you want them to.   Seasons of course enabled them to grow their own food and watching the weather IMHO does provide visual interest.

[J. M. Pescado]

Free Time: Almost forgot about it. Has some interesting new game features but nothing world-shattering.

What do you mean, NOTHING WORLD SHATTERING? Free Time was the FIRST and ONLY expansion pack to actually give us LESS PEE. Every other expansion pack has INCREASED the amount of peeing in the game!

[jolrei]

Seasons and Open For Business enriched my game more than the others (note: not "most").

Fine.  Have it your way.   

Free Time: Almost forgot about it. Has some interesting new game features but nothing world-shattering.

What do you mean, NOTHING WORLD SHATTERING? Free Time was the FIRST and ONLY expansion pack to actually give us LESS PEE. Every other expansion pack has INCREASED the amount of peeing in the game!

O frabjous day!

Apartment Life: The bugginess it kills us.

If you're crazed enough to try to play it unmodded.  Why would you do this, though?  All you'd end up with is sims peeing in borked apartment lots.  AL added some nice build features, and the new clothing options do not totally suck.

[birene]

What do you mean, NOTHING WORLD SHATTERING? Free Time was the FIRST and ONLY expansion pack to actually give us LESS PEE. Every other expansion pack has INCREASED the amount of peeing in the game!

Oh right, the copious amounts of pee. I'm mostly just in plain denial about that. Free Time or not. Therefore this failed to shatter my world, I guess.

If you're crazed enough to try to play it unmodded.  Why would you do this, though?  All you'd end up with is sims peeing in borked apartment lots.  AL added some nice build features, and the new clothing options do not totally suck.

AL is still too buggy for my taste, even in modded form (i.e. too much work to make it work). Plus I couldn't care less for the magic stuff. I'll give you the built features and clothing options, though.

[dragoness]

A short assessment of the EPs as far as game-play goes:

University: So boring it hurts.
Nightlife: One of the best add-ons I would call it essential.
Open for Business: Thought I would hate it. It's one of my favorites now.
Pets: In one word: Unnecessary.
Seasons: Not of much use either, but you get an annoying penguine to chat with your snowmen.
Bon Voyage: Much like University a game of it's own. Very hard to implement in normal game play.
Free Time: Almost forgot about it. Has some interesting new game features but nothing world-shattering.
Apartment Life: The bugginess it kills us.

So IMO the OP already has the bestest EPs installed (also the crappiest with University). As for the more recent EPs, I would go with Seasons and Free Time before Apartment Life (better/alternatively Mansions & Garden) and Pets, nevermind Bon Voyage. But like others already said this is all really, really subjective.

See, imo this is precisely why these threads are pointless.

For me, I suppose I could get rid of Bon Voyage, and Nightlife sucks except for the dating. However, I could not play without Uni, OFB, Seasons, FT and AL. Except for OFB, our lists are almost opposite.

Why must these threads come up all the time, and why must they be discussed to death? The idea of a "best" expansion is so utterly subjective that it infuriates me when people ask. Why not ask us what your favorite food is, too? Just do your own damn research, figure out what content each one adds to the game and decide for yourself which EPs you'd like best.

[Marhis]

Why must these threads come up all the time, and why must they be discussed to death? The idea of a "best" expansion is so utterly subjective that it infuriates me when people ask.

It's because a lot of people like to be told what to do, and are unable to make up their mind on their own. Don't worry, though: if called out they would be offended and will emphasize they are not 12, how do we dare to insult them, we're mean and rude, and every single member will leave this forum forever on their behalf.
It infuriates me as well; embittered Marhis is embittered.

[jolrei]

Why must these threads come up all the time, and why must they be discussed to death? The idea of a "best" expansion is so utterly subjective that it infuriates me when people ask.

...It infuriates me as well; embittered Marhis is embittered.

This was my point at the beginning of the thread, and is, I believe, the reason why Bastdawn stickied this thread - hopefully any "discussion" of this sort can be relegated to one thread, rather than cluttering up the boards 2-3 times a year.

I always think that a post like Zazazu's, which provides a list of features of each EP, and possibly some other helpful information (like the NL engine is sort of buggy, but the OFB and FT engines are more robust, etc.) would be a better guide to those trying to make an informed decision about which EP to load next.  However, a thread like this is somewhat useless to those of us who have most or all EPs.  If you're going to load all of them anyway, why worry about which one is the best (or 'better', if you insist).

[J. M. Pescado]

Why is it even really an exclusive decision, anyway? Pirate Cat doesn't pay for his downloads.

[Cyberdodo]

An ancient proverb -
"The Sheep seeks a simple answer, to be told what to do. The Cyberdodo seeks many answers, to find useful information within and to compare answers, to make an informed decision.  The Cyberdodo also points and laughs at those who are so self-important they must reach for tar and feathers whenever a question is asked."
- The Cyberdodo

it infuriates me when people ask. Just do your own damn research, figure out what content each one adds to the game and decide for yourself which EPs you'd like best.

That has been my intent all along - research. If you feel the need to be infuriated because I've done what you say I should do, well then go ahead and be infuriated to your heart's content.

So far, the responses have been an interesting mix. Some responses have been informative and helpful (Thanks!). Some responses have offered subjective opinions only (taken under advisement). Some responses have bickered over grammar I'm not resposible for. And some responses have been pointed and laughed at.


One request for clarification, though. So far I think only AmberDiceless has answered my sub-question about bugginess. Does that mean everyone is in agreement that Pescado and others have managed to tame even the worst code EAxis has to offer?