Actually, Inge's ticket maker, unless it has changed, only works if you are playing the owner of the lot. Once you switch families, it doesn't work anymore, or at least it does not give money to the owner of the lot. Maybe she can change that though or someone can use this one as a basis for a new one.

Now I am laughing, why are toddlers listed as sims able to use the ticket barrier? I want to see that.

...And now I'm having ideas.

Exclude everyone but toddlers from a community lot with it.

And thus create a building known as Baby Billy's Baby Art Gallery for Babies AND NOBODY ELSE.

Of course the bar is just a base game recolor that broadcasts entirely too much fun so that sims will drink themselves to death. An actual NPC-run concession stand, that would make the whole thing worthwhile, would be far and away too much to expect from EA.

The building itself isn't even Art deco. It doesn't look like someone spent TOO much time on it. Could be better.

I think the venue doesn't have an aesthetic that makes it look right, and not random, in many towns.

That reminds me how we got popcorn in UL but it came with no popcorn bag and sims eat it with a spoon. I know times are hard, but TS3 team really cuts it close with animations.

They could have had Sims eat it by hand. Like a big glob of popcorn. Better than a spoon.

Hell, they could have just made corn.

Looking at the User Guide section of the ticket machine.... isn't this just an expanded version of what we could sort of do with the bouncer ropes from LN? Not that making a Supernatural Only venue really works, what with the random selection of sims that show up to any given lot at any given time. The different categories for exclusion/inclusion are interesting, at least. Cat only room? But how do you get the cat to buy a ticket? Or show up at all, lol. XD

All this will do is keep a bunch of sims milling around the entrance unable to get in, while inside is dead from lack of customers. Eh, the idea is interesting but kind of conflicts with how the game handles lot visitors, so I just don't see it working well. Apart from the base, 'include everyone' ticket sales.

Maybe I can make the art museum charge to get in now. XD

That concession stand... ugh. They could so easily have cloned the barista bar, change up the menu a little bit, but no. We have to get the same old useless drinks bar from the base game. Sigh.

I don't think you need a ticket to enter the barrier; I think it's main purpose is to give the lot owner money. Going through the barrier may be free of charge without a ticket, so pets can go through it if it's set like that. The tickets essentially mean that only certain Sims who purchase certain colored tickets can get into the barrier assigned to that ticket color, and again, only for bringing in revenue for the business owner.

This makes the item worth it although wish I didn't have to buy the venue with the ticket/barrier machine. I imagine it will be available soon alone.

Some of us love OFB enough that even though they are selling it to us bit by bit, it is better than nothing. I think that OFB was too difficult for many players, too much like a mini strategy game and that is why they won't give us a full OFB pack. Remember when Sims 3 came out and they promised we wouldn't have to 'think to much'? I don't think they said it exactly that way, but it was basically the idea.

Playing without Twallan's mods, I am seeing just how easy the game is, especially Uni. My sim goofed off, partied every night, dated several girls, was sick half the time (no flu shots in Uni), yet still pulled of an A for that term. Plus he leveled out street artist skill..and basically did that all in a one night! I can't wait until Twallan updates so I can make those skills a little harder. I do like the Social Groups and I find them a bit challenging but school is easy. Everyone will come out with A's.

I played two brothers, one a nerd and the other a rebel/jock. The nerd stayed home, studied all the time, pined for a girlfriend back home, while the other brother partied. Both had the same grades. Maybe I should try 3 sims next time. Arvid's girlfriend could go to college with him.

I totally agree here. In TS2 we had the snack bag where Sims would stuff their faces, muching down on cookies or chips. Why couldn't they rip that animation and pair it with popcorn? And have different sizes of popcorn too? Small to medium bags, and large to monstrous tub sizes... Stupid EA; won't think outside the box, even if their lives depended on it...

And to agree with Dorsal Axe too - why the same old juice bar that Sims have to use themselves? Nearly every venue/community lot that EA creates have these stupid bars in them. I have to go around my neighbourhood and change them all. More Professional bars would be nice (I think we only have two); a completely new concession stand would have been better. Sell candy, hotdogs, soft drinks, POPCORN, burgers etc... but nope. That's too many man-hours, apparently...

At least we have mods we can use to do things ourselves; point is, if you're demanding money for a PREMIUM item then we shouldn't have to turn to mods to get things done. It should already be in there, ready and raring to go. Shoddy stuff, EA - get a grip, or people are gonna bail....

I don't see why they don't make certain things base game items, like a food register. I mean, it's not like the wall speakers from the Late Night made the game less valuable. Throw in a food register or have the lot spawns a proprietor who works the bar so we don't have to keep going in and editing them.

Like, really who built this game like this? Save the juicy stuff for the EPs and save stuff that can used to improve towns (not for players, but also themselves) for the patch. Similar to how they handle build tool that we get in patches.

Nope, sorry, not me. I love OFB enough that content like this just makes me even sadder there really is no running one's own business in Sims 3. Passively getting income from a lot is not the same thing. And that's what's going to happen with the ticket machine; there's no "running" the business involved, other than clicking to set up the machine stuff.

I find it hilarious that this set allows players to now do something that we've been able to do, courtesy of our fabulous modding community, since Sims 2 (e.g. Visitor Controller, Pescado's customer selector, etc.). Gosh, I wonder where they got the idea? (Of course, it doesn't appear that they've added options for things like married or single, gender preference, etc. So it's less useful than what the modding community has been doing since years and years ago.)

It makes me sad too. The game is not complete without OFB.

I disagree about being able to do this with mods. As I stated above, to use Inge's mod, you must be playing the business owner, not another family. That does not mean we won't be able to do it with mods in the future, but not at the moment.

I was specifically talking about the ability to select who is a valid visitor for a lot, not the business-running stuff. And what I meant was that the community already did this years ago in Sims 2, and now EA "introduces" the feature--and wants us to pay for it?

I don't think anything approaching the features of OFB will ever be available in Sims 3, not from EA nor from the modding community. OFB wasn't perfect, and it needed a lot of modding itself for some aspects to work well, but it was extremely feature-rich. This kind of thing from the store feels like giving us the veneer of a business without the real business. Just like NPC sims will wander around the neighborhood and pretend they are busy, but they aren't wandering based on anything real; or the attraction system pretends to be based on real chemistry, but it's not. It's like the whole game is staged, not just the promotional materials.

Did you get the cinema, if so, how is ownership handled during family switching? I read through copeland's blog post and that 15 page "what's coming to the sims 3 store" post on the EA forum, and I don't see clear evidence that the barrier will be useful for non-active families, or that switching families will be any easier with this item than with mods.

It seems like there are usually player reviews of store content within a few hours, but maybe everyone is tapped out from buying UNI and SimCity on Tuesday.

I do have it but have not had time to play with it yet. I probably won't until later.

I am pretty sure this is going to work like the Investment/Ownership system in Sims 3. Currently, the owner of the lot gets money from the lot. My guess is the ticket machine will just add the money from the machine to whoever owns the lot's weekly return. I would be very surprised...although maybe I shouldn't be...if they require the lot owner to be on the lot since that has never been a factor yet.

Actually re-reading your comments above, I think we are talking about two different things. Inge's mod only works if you are playing the owner of the lot. Once you switch to a different family, the machine doesn't work. I have used it and know this. I could not switch to another family and visit the lot using the ticket machine. You are saying that inactives might not use the barrier/ticket machine...I don't know about that. I am saying that if you switch to a different active family, one which does not contain the business owner, you will still be able to use the barrier/ticket machine, while in Inge's you cannot...at least when I played with it.

Thanks Rian. I look forward to any experiences you're able to share.
I generally have a terrible time resisting store premium content, but $17 is still too much for me to jump in uninformed.

According to a few reports I've heard there is no popcorn, and the non-active sims get tickets auto-magically on the community lots. They don't even buy the tickets from the ticket machine. They may browse from time to time, but they don't buy. They just come and go through the ticket gates at will. The active sim has to purchase a ticket, however, if there is a barrier that requires it. (A player can change the settings by clicking on the barrier. Using the settings, it is possible to set up a barrier for exclusive access just for the player sim.)

What I don't know is if these items function differently on a residential lot or not.

Also, I've read on the main forums that the movies themselves are the same as the TV, but they are very very short and hard to get sims to sit through them.

Edit: Someone said that on their residential lot, they put a keg behind a barrier, added a ticket machine, and they got paid by the party guests when they went to get drinks from the keg. So I guess, if a person wanted to, they could do that with their sim's bedroom. It would probably need a mod to up the price a bit. (The current price is $10 per ticket.)

With their bedroom? What kind of business are we running here?

Oh, did I say that out loud? Sorry, I forgot that I am still in pimp-mode. I hurt my back yesterday, and I've been using my pimp cane ever since.

The business of love.

1700 simpoints just for a building, a ticket machine and a big screen? What have they smoked at the store?