I certainly can't answer for everyone but my dislike of this SP is coming from a different place and I'm sure there are at least a few players who agree.
For a while now I have just been so disappointed in the content that has been released. [...]
So to me this SP is just more stuff that is frivolous and boring. It only adds content for some players when I feel like EA should be doing a little something for everyone.
I can totally agree with you on this subject. They used to design EP/SP that added stuff for everyone. Now it's like everything is focused on one little segment of the market at a time. And I'm not even sure it's a very successful approach, business speaking.
The content of this SP would be better suited for the online store in my opinion. There are a few items in this pack that I'm interested in: the evening/red carpet gown, the playground stuff with gingerbread men... Those are stuff I could see myself buying if it was in the store. But putting it in a disk-based release means it's an all or nothing situation. And I'm not sure that many players will be interested enough to buy everything, especially since it's more expensive than usual.
Then, with a 4-5 years frame of development for the game, they have only a limited number of EP/SP to cover everything they want to do with the game. Or better, everything we players - read clients - want to see. And 3 years after the initial release, the game is still lacking many key elements to let us experience a vibrant, rich, deep meaningful virtual world for our Sims. I could understand and "forgive" this the first year - project management, budgets, dead lines being what they are nowadays - but not anymore today. And I don't even speak about the instability and bug feast of the current state. So, this SP sounds rather like another missed opportunity to enlarge the experience. Instead, it's the easy road of targeting a micro "niche" market.
The worst is that I've always liked my Sims to be a bit fantasy and kitsch. A funky candy theme could have interested me if it had been this: candy/kid/fantasy and not only Katy Perry creative universe. This was not even preventing them from teaming up with her to advertise the SP. But it would have broadened the audience. They could have included new recipes, a candy store or even just a candy truck (like the ice cream one). I know it's just a SP and that they usually don't include functionalities in those. But this is a choice, not a technical limit. If they can release Premium Items on the store, they can certainly include some in SP too.
So, I'm very happy to see that at least some of you are happy with this SP and expecting it. I watch your joy and excitement with a pinch of envy, because it's a freshness I've lost a while ago. (And thank you for reading this wall of text, this should be my one rant post of the thread
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