Sims Businesses and Hobbies Expansion Pack Negative thread.

I've preordered almost every expansion pack since High School Years. (except For Rent) This might be the first time in a while that I'm passing on the preordering. I'm completely unimpressed by the overall 'business and hobby' of this pack. But then again, the gameplay trailer hasn't come out yet so we don't know what all is included in this. From the looks of it, this could have just passed as a game pack. Very underwhelming. 

I preordered Life and Death right after the reveal trailer, didn't even wait until the gameplay trailer. I was impressed by what I had seen in the reveal trailer. This pack, not so much. 

Wish we could have multiple community lots on one lot.

Yeah, seeing the motherlode teaser with all the Simlish, I quickly determined that the hopes for sewing, clothing design, and/or mechanics game play pretty much flew out the window when I saw the kits' titles.  Along with the fears of the meshing a home and business being like For Rent's apartment system, I wonder about the older packs that allow you to run businesses. Will Restaurants and Vet Clinics be affected? Will the system from this pack allow Simmers to make those into family and/or home businesses? 🤔

As soon as I saw the name of this pack announced as "small businesses and hobbies" I went "uh oh".  And sure enough as I feared the "hobbies" got a very short shrift.  Sims 2 Freetime came with TEN new hobbies.  We're getting ... pottery?  Which is cool, I'm into that, but seriously that's all because tattooing is not in my opinion nor should it be a hobby.  I would not get a tattoo from a hobbyist,  I'm sorry.  I'm disappointed there is no mention of sewing, I've been wanting that back since the Sims 3 debuted.   I also fear the new system to have live in businesses, using as it does pretty much the exact same mechanic as For Rent, is going to be just as buggy as For Rent.  I'm waiting to see more, but I don't think I'll be getting this pack anytime soon.  Maybe on sale, if they fix the inevitable bugs.  I'm more interested in this point at what's coming with the "Golden Years" kit.  Maybe it'll be our first kit with gameplay since Bust the Dust and we'll get sewing then.  I can hope.

I hope it works with For Rent and we can have several apartments with several businesses downstairs. it would be lovely. 😀

Does Maxis still refuse to give us an empty display case ?

Disappointed we have another European world. Maybe one day the Sims team will branch out and give us an African or Caribbean world. Especially for BHM.

I have both positive and negative thoughts, but here's what I'm not liking so far:

1. Nordhaven - Yet another small world, with only two neighbourhoods that are caked in set dressing to make it all look pretty. I'm so over it. Are we ever going to get larger worlds again? Are we still insisting that this game should be able to run on a potato? I'm starting to feel like these worlds are just becoming a hindrance to the overall enjoyment of my gameplay experience. It's just so restricting for me, and I've well and truly had enough of it.
2. Where are the leisure hobbies? - I don't consider tattooing a hobby, but more of a profession. So, the new hobby is pottery. Is that all? What about the hobbies that don't involve making money?
3. Pottery - Beyond the decorative and profitability factors, how else is the pottery useable? I saw one measly rose in a gigantic vase, can we add more flowers? Is it compatible with flower arranging? I've also seen a teapot, so can those be used too? Can we light the candles in the lantern, holder or oil burner? I'm also disappointed that it appears to be one particular style of pottery. It leans more mid-century modern and Scandinavian, which I don't mind but what if I want something more basic? I hope there are a few more styles.
4. Mixed Lots - I have concerns about this system, and how well it will function. For Rent leaves little to be desired in that regard, and it took them months to fix the associated bugs that many players encountered. I like the idea of mixed lots, but I have a feeling it will be executed poorly, ship with bugs that make it borderline unplayable, and have little to no quality control.
5. Cross Pack Compatibility - I wish they would share the complete list of cross pack gameplay, not just give a few examples and tell us there's more. Something tells me they'll miss things out, when they really should cover all their bases with a pack like this.

 I'll buy it next year, on sale. Maybe, or maybe not ! 

Godspeed

I was really excited about this pack since it said hobbies but boy is that name a stretch. In terms of a small business pack sure it seems great. People have been asking for hobbies and this just isn’t it. So now we won’t be getting an actual hobbies pack? I also do have some concerns how they’re going to function when you just visit the business. It feels like they wanted to redo get to work which is fine it’s an 10 year old pack. It seems like they needed a way to separate get to work from this pack so they threw in hobbies, so “it’s different”.  Ironically, one of the faults with get to work is how broad the pack is and now hobbies is suffering the same fate as the business aspect did in get to work. Unless there’s some actual hobby system this is a buy on sale pack.