I'm not associated with EA, so this is just my opinion. I think they are well aware of what players want to see in the game and I think they will eventually give it to us. They aren't just game creators, they are also businesspeople. If they put everything we want into the base game, they would have played all their cards up front. I'm sure they are thinking down the line and how to keep sales moving. They gave us the much desired electric guitar in the High End Loft stuff pack. And the vibrating bed. But seriously, don't expect them to give you everything in one pack. They will dole it out a little at a time over the next few years so you can gradually build your game up to be so much more than what it started with. The old saying, "always leave them wanting more" applies here. It's a viable business tactic for them.
I agree with Pam, it's their tactic, they want people to buy stuff packs like HEL just to be able to use electric guitar, or have a proper fish-tank (really like that one!) etc.
Otherwise I just think it takes a lot of programming to incorporate a new object in Sims 3, especially ones like the Hot-Tub/Piano - there's lots of career and social options to consider. I miss them too, but the longer we wait the better the objects will get.
I'd like to have a tiny concert hall at my place! Maybe even a gothic one in the basement. Since you can have a stage (will people hear the music? it's on different floors in a way), I want my rich Sims to be able to throw a chamber concert, maybe even sell tickets if she or he is especially accomplished as a performer. The guests would sit on chairs, have fun, and maybe I could invite them to a banquet afterwards (not everyone!).
Maybe a new location in Town? A public concert hall, that you could rent? You could go through door only with the ticket in your inventory.
Also, The Gallery! Why not make Sims have their own art exhibitions, and invite people? It's easy, a banquet table, etc. There's a lot of space in there, it's a way to use it.
*Lots* of new instruments! Cellos, violin, saxophone, harp, keyboard, drum-sets, trumpet - making a musician who can embrace 3 instruments would be harder, and you could choose what kind of musicians you want them to become. And it would be great to use the chairs for learning at home for this. Maybe some duet/quartet options? Quartet/Band concerts? Some swing/jazz/classical music wouldn't kill anybody, right?
What about
singing? Why not make it a skill too? If there was a piano you could hire someone to teach singing/have a parent who has the skill spend some time on it with her teen pop-star wannabe.
Karaoke would be nice practice. I'd love to see my Sim with a guitar singing for tips. And different songs for tips-earning too!
I feel that the option of having parties in town is to be explored.
The easel should definitely be inventory-friendly. Then maybe we wouldn't cage our self-employed Sim-painters at home, but make them go to different locations around town.
I'm waiting for the sculptor in "Ambitions"
Great, they have thought about it.
I *desperately* long for
a gardener. I know that it would be difficult, but if you could somehow control him, like with what he will fertilize the plants (maybe a question "I have tended the garden, would you like me to fertilize? and yes/fertilize with best fertilizers, yes/fertilizer...), and whatever produce he'd get he could put in the fridge or sim's inventory. I don't mind planting new plants, it just takes so much time to tend your garden. The Master Farmer challenge would sill be there, cause the fruit he picks wouldn't count for other sim's quota. He could be paid per hour - if you've got a huge orchard, it's only fair that he gets fair wages.
What about
catering? I think that at some parties it would be great to have guests automatically sit down at the table at a set hour and have two waitresses serve from banquet tables, and then everyone would eat at the same time. That way you could invite more people
. Maybe there could be a different sort of banquet table for drinks, where you could serve your own nectar?
The Holiday expansion pack, one mentioned previously, would also be nice. A couple of new locations, just for fun, where you could forget about work and WooHoo in peace, different hotels to lodge in, clubs with music-themes, open bars, beaches where you could tan, build sand castles, swim in the sea, snorkel, scuba-dive? I've never played seasons, but it could nicely coincide with holiday seasons. Maybe a hot summer romance with a local for an ambitious workaholic to sugar-coat her lack of personal life?
How about book authors holding autograph sessions when they're accomplished? They could convince other Sims to read their books and become famous.