New survey on official website ref. "Shopping pack"

[MissDoh]

I just filled it up so it is not too late to do it too if you did not already.

Just wanted people to know in case you did not notice it on the official site, the link was there yesterday night but it did not work at that time.

[Zandi]

Yep I got to it today.
Since I can not download packs because you are required to have a major credit card even if you pay with a debit card that part of it truly ticked me off.

The magic number of objects was 75 for me this time.
But I think they randomise the numbr in all the serveys.

[Ancient Sim]

This seems to have filled-up very quickly.  I mentioned it on the Xmas-pack thread and it had already reached its quota almost before the ink dried.  This one does sound better value for money insofar as I like the sound of the new hairstyles, outfits and careers and also the new facial modifications sound interesting.

[KellyQ]

Yes, it does sound like a better idea then the Holiday Pack but when it asked if I would be willing to spend $19.99 on it, I said NO. I think that's still a ridiculous price unless it really offers something I can't get off of the kazillion other exchange sites out there. Money grubbing bastards.

[Myrddin]

I agree; I would like to see the themed shopping packs released.  I would not however pay $20 for them!

The idea is fantastic, something the community has been asking for, but the price is outrageous.  Especially for 60 items (which was the number that was in my survey).  I would pay around $10 for 75 or more items but not much more at all.  And I'm saying that as someone who would love to have more furniture, landscaping, clothing, architectural elements etc. included in the game (I like to upload lots without custom content in them).

[MissDoh]

I also found this one way more interesting with than the Holiday pack, it was kind of hard choosing which were my best 3 choices.

I chose genetics
Career
and hairstyle

But if I could I would have also added furniture, walls and floors and another one I don't remember lol.

20$ is way too much for this though I also said I would not pay that much for a pack.  10$ or 15$ sounds more like it.

[KellyQ]

Thinking about it some more, I think $20 for a "flavor pack" or whatever you want to call it, is outrageous. I only paid $23 for NL at Walmart, that's only $3 more for an entire expansion pack then what they are suggesting for 60 new clothes/hair/objects. Why do I feel angry in advance? It's starting to be a knee-jerk reaction to EA games.

[J. M. Pescado]

I'm sure most of it will inconvniently find its way onto the exchange anyway. Damn thing is like a vacuum cleaner.

[MissDoh]

I just read a post about this today on the official Site, here is the link:  http://bbs.thesims2.ea.com/community/bbs/messages.php?threadID=44a0e6bf952376304f7d8467fd796e81&directoryID=2. 
That person is claiming that unless you have the holiday pack install, downloaded lots from the exchange that contains items from the holiday pack won't show in the game.  If you do have it install they will magically appear on the lot you downloaded.  Exception are for the free downloads they are giving away.

Maybe someone in here that do have that holiday pack can tell us if this is true or not...

[Liss]

I kind of got the impression from that survey that they wanted opinions on maxis stuff vs. custom stuff from the community.  I put that community created stuff was superior to maxis stuff lol

[skandelouslala]

Yeah besides the regular questions of "what ideas do you like so we won't put them in" *heh* I was kind of surprised by the interest they took in downloading custom content habits.

I hate to break it to them...but I prefer using my custom content any day. In fact so few of my houses actually have original maxis content except basic things like toilets, showers, stoves, fridges..and oh yes...ceiling lamps...b/c there seems to be a shortage of good lighting out there for downloads.

Anyways...I hope they realize that we can pay $15 for a handful of their content..or even if we do actually subscribe to a pay site...you can still get way more quality stuff...and possibly hundreds of downloads depending on how addicted you are for like $5 a month, give or take a few dollars.

Gee..which would I rather do...pay for the stuff I want?  Or pay for stuff that will sit there and never get used?

[eaglezero]

You know, every time they've had one of these surveys, it's only been open for a VERY SHORT period of time. I think they've usually even occurred at odd hours. This doesn't strike me as a good way to get a representative sample of their customers, because it preselects for people who visit the EA Sims 2 site (which could mean the survey is biased in a pro-Maxis way) and are up at odd hours (which could mean the survey is biased against younger players who are generally only online after school). So, basically, I don't think they are in any way getting accurate statistics from their surveys. I would hope that they know this, and are just using them to generate some pre-release shopping pack buzz, rather than using them to make marketing decisions.

A better way of them doing this would be to send an email with a survey link (to one that DOESN'T fill up) out to everyone (or a random sampling of the people) who registered the game (I think you include an email address with that). Sure, it would be biased toward proactive people, but that's not bad, as those are also the people most likely (theoretically) to actually buy their expansions and so forth. I don't know, I just think that if they were looking at the survey results for some sort of direction then they should actually use a way that would get them accurate statistics.