Maxis OFB shill on Amazon

[Gus Smedstad]

I'm kind of bored, but I was underwhelmed by Nightlife, and I'm finding it hard getting back into the game.  Oddly, I find skimming MATY more entertaining than playing the game right now.  Though having 2 toddlers and an infant in the house with a house rule of "can't select toddlers or give them commands" was entertaining for a while...

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone had posted any reviews on Amazon, and the only review was a glaringly obvious shill.  The darned review includes bullet points and closes with the line "Highly recommended to all! Remember, you must have The Sims 2 before getting this expansion pack."

No actual player would be retarded enough to say something like that.  Not even one of the BBS regulars.  Only a marketing weasel writes like that.

EDIT: Looking at it again, I see that the "review" actually repeats much of the standard marketing text word-for-word.

 - Gus

[Motoki]

That review was there before it came out too. :p

I'll probably write one, but I just haven't had enough time with it yet to reall comment on it to any significant degree.

Also keep in mind those of us who ordered from Amazon probably don't have it yet. :p

I'm not supposed to get mine until Friday and I got priority shipping too, so I had to resort to other means. :p I suppose those that chose overnight shipping would just be getting it today.

[ZiggyDoodle]

Also keep in mind those of us who ordered from Amazon probably don't have it yet. :p

Yup - that's why I went over to Wal-Mart on my lunch hour today and picked up OFB for $29.87.  And nearly freaked out in the checkout line because I glanced back and saw a guy in line who is a ringer for my Mica Powers Sim - right down to the glasses.  Couldn't help staring at him (surreptitiously, of course).

I did order the OBF Prima Guide from Amazon - maybe it will come next week.

BTW, good to see you back, Motoki.

[KellyQ]

That review was there before it came out too. :p

I'll probably write one, but I just haven't had enough time with it yet to reall comment on it to any significant degree.

Also keep in mind those of us who ordered from Amazon probably don't have it yet. :p

Mine just shipped from Amazon last night, buggers. I don't think I'll pre-order from them again. I could have easily hopped on over to Walmart and picked up a copy today. Still no word on when the Prima guide is going to ship.

[Verona]

I broke down and ordered the guide, and Amazon says it will ship March 10th. That would basically give me OFB and the guide on the same day.

I will very likely still order expansions from Amazon.  I generally save my awards certificates for games. Makes it a real bargain, even if I have to wait a few extra days. So far, I've been busy these last few days reading posts on OFB. Learned a good bit already.

[Motoki]

Well I never get these certificates people are talking about, however I did get a $15 off code from the EA store AFTER I already made the pre-order with Amazon. 

I have Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion on pre-order from Amazon also right now, but I'm seriously thinking of cancelling it and ordering it elsewhere. I wonder if there's another online store that ships faster or if it's just generally better to buy something in the store.

As for the guide, if I wanted to order it now and they told me it won't ship until the 10th I'd tell them to stuff it! The e version is online now for download on Prima's site and is cheaper too.

[Assmitten]

$13 for the digital file! Thanks, Motoki! Ima go for it.

[Verona]

I read a post on another forum about the online version.  Someone said they have gotten each guide that way, but this OFB guide is terrible. Said they have changed the format completely.

If I don't get OFB until March 10, then there's no real hurry on getting the guide. Amazon has that guide for $13.99 as I recall.

You get the awards certificates by using your Amazon credit card for all shopping. Works great for me. I think it's something like for every $2500.00 you spend, you get $25.00 certificate. Could be slightly off on that figure.

Motoki:  Sounds like you just need to shop more often with an Amazon card.

[Wolfee]

Also keep in mind those of us who ordered from Amazon probably don't have it yet. :p

.

That's why I'll never preorder from Amazon again. I didn't get NL until 2 weeks after everyone else did.  I ordered it more then 3 weeks prior to it's release. Apparently Amazon is still using the Pony Express to deliver their packages 

[RainbowTigress]

You get the awards certificates by using your Amazon credit card for all shopping. Works great for me. I think it's something like for every $2500.00 you spend, you get $25.00 certificate. Could be slightly off on that figure.

That's the card I have, and that's exactly how it works..  You get one point for every dollar you spend and 3 points for every dollar you spend at Amazon.com (not including their partner stores).  I use my card for everything, so it doesn't take long for it to rack up.  It takes longer now that my mom is on Medicare and doesn't have her insurance reimburse her for her medicines.  When she was paying out of pocket and having to get reimbursed by BCBS, I was getting them every couple of months.  It takes a little longer now.  I don't have any right now, though, so I'll have to wait a bit before I get another one.  I think I might use it to order the Prima Guide because they are a lot cheaper at Amazon than Wal-mart.

I usually get free shipping, which is supposed to take longer, but I've always gotten my books and stuff earlier than they said I would.  Maybe it's because it's a new product and it's in high demand so it's taking them a bit longer to ship.  If you got the free shipping, though, that might be why it's taking longer.

[KellyQ]

Yep, I use my Amazon Visa for just that reason, the $25 gift certificates, hehe. I received one after Christmas and I received a $5 gift certificate for ordering magazines from Amazon, so the cost to me for OFB was only $4.99. That is truely the only reason I pre-ordered the game from them, otherwise I would have just went to Walmart. I don't think I will do it again, unless of course, I have gift certificates. Prima Guide that I ordered isn't even being processed for shipping yet, I don't understand that. Game should be here tomorrow according to UPS's website.

[Motoki]

Oh the credit card? I have one already but I never use it since I tend to use my airline miles cards instead. I know Amazon used to regularly give coupon codes out but people would spread them across the net and post them on boards like fatwallet various other 'hot deals' forum so they stopped doing it. A shame really. :p

Regarding the comments about the guide format this time being not as good, were they refering to the way the pdf was set up for the electronic version or just the guide itself in general?

[Verona]

From what I could gather, it was the format itself not the guide. The lady first suggested people get the guide online....then she did it...then she hurried back to the forum to tell people how bad the electronics were.

It's in the TSR OFB forum. They have a thread going about the guide.

[J. M. Pescado]

Rule of thumb: All positive reviews are propaganda. The only good news is bad news.

[RainbowTigress]

Hehe, my brother-in-law told me to concentrate on reading the negative reviews when researching a product, not the good ones.

[Regina]

That's really weird that people are having so many problems with Amazon.  I didn't go ahead and pre-order because I can't play it yet anyway, but in the past I've ordered plenty of stuff with 2-day delivery and had it on my doorstep day of release.  I wonder what their problem is.

I have an Amazon credit card, myself, and after racking up a certain amount of points I get a nice little $25 gift certificate.  It makes it kind of handy when they pay you like that for using the card. LOL

[Sleepycat]

I got two emails last night from amazon, my order has finally shipped 

The reason I got 2 emails is because they decided to send the guide out instead of making me wait till OFB was ready to ship too, a couple hours later I got the email saying OFB shipped

I normally don't have any trouble with amazon, I think they just got swamped and maybe they didn't get their OFB shipments on time, or maybe there wasn't enough in the first shipment to cover all the orders. *shrugs*


Anyway, my game should be here tomorrow (Saturday) or Monday *crosses fingers*

[Katze]

I preordered mine from the EA store and got it yesterday and thats with  free shipping to Canada.

[Tgdrysix]

I suck out last nite to go run pick up some TP and I don't know how it just fell into my basket ....anyway I got it from Target for $29.99 with a $5.00 gift card ( which of course you couldn't use for that purchase....but hey 5 bucks is 5 bucks)....haven't installed yet still checking out what everyone who does have it is reporting.....tgdrysix

[Motoki]

I suck out last nite to go run pick up some TP

And remember, in Soviet Russia TP uses YOU!

[Gus Smedstad]

Rule of thumb: All positive reviews are propaganda. The only good news is bad news.

I've written positive reviews, and meant it.  Not often, though.

Hehe, my brother-in-law told me to concentrate on reading the negative reviews when researching a product, not the good ones.

It's a good approach.  If the only people who can find something bad about a product are obvious morons who can't read instructions, or who had their product destroyed by a meteor, it's probably pretty good.

It doesn't always work with games, particularly board games.  I've read reviews on Funagain which were written by people who played badly and got smacked around by other players, and then blamed the game.

 - Gus

[Motoki]

I don't mind positive reviews if they take time to point out at least a few small cons, nothing is 100% perfect. I think if something has several hundred reviews and most are positive it's a good sign so quantity means something too. On the other hand, 1 or 2 positive reviews means very little. Could be a drooling fanboy/girl. And ANY review posted before something is released is BS. Amazon should turn off writing reviews until they start shipping an item IMO.

As for the electronic guide, hmm the preview pages on sims2.com looked fine, but I haven't seen the whole thing yet. I have been contemplating getting it though because unlike the last 2 expansions there really are a lot of new mechanics and things to learn in this one. Maybe I'll just buy the good old paper version or just *shudder* scour the BBS for information (or misinformation as the case may be).

[KellyQ]

I agree that Amazon should turn off the review writing if the product hasn't actually been released yet, that's just silliness. You usually end up reading reviews like, "I can't wait to get this!" or something along those lines.
I have to admit when I'm trying to make up my mind about something, the negative reviews carry a lot of weight with me unless it's obvious the person writing it is an idiot or cranky-ass that would find something negative about anything. I also agree that nothing is 100% perfect and the reviews that are just gushing about a product, make me suspicious about who wrote it.
I never write reviews although I really should with as much shopping as I do on Amazon. Too lazy, I guess.

[angelyne]

Rule of thumb: All positive reviews are propaganda. The only good news is bad news.

There is something to that.  I often read reviews of a book after I've read it.  I just finished a book yesterday (hey got to do something since I can't play TS2), and the book was a stinker.  I checked out the reviews and most of them had given 4 or 5 stars, and were sounding like fanboys.  It was really all meaningless drivel.  It looked like the kind of book reports 6th graders hand in their teacher.  The only review that seemed to be spot on was the one negative one.

And that's something that I have noticed over and over. 

It's always best to read negative reviews and then decide for yourself if the negative points bother you.