If I don't care about nightlife, should I bother buying Late Night?

[Noodles]

I've spent couple of hours reading the discussions on this board (including whole 60 pages of Vampires-thread... work hours well spent - whoops), but I still can't decide if I should get Late Night or not! I'm aware of the features it has, but still... I thought about pros and cons, maybe you people who have been playing LN and know how it actually is to play could take a guess if I would like it based on these, maybe there's something in it I don't know about yet.

+ Instruments. I'd really love to have the piano etc.!
+ Vampires.
+ New items / hair / clothes.
(+ Butlers.)

- I don't really care about the nightlife/clubbing -theme... Actually I couldn't care less if my sims are able to woohoo in a hot tub or not, or make friends with someone famous, etc.
- Celebrities. Same as above... (I don't even give my sims the Charisma skill unless they need it for a career, because I don't like them making good friends with anyone they've only said "sul sul" to once or less.  )
- Full town of vampires/celebrities. I read these spread like a disease, and I would love to have vampires, but certainly not a town where everyone is one. Is there any way to control it? Like taking control over townie households and making them consume Vampirism-Bgone if nothing else helps...? Does everyone turn into Celebrity eventually, or is there a way not to start that "skill"? It would be so silly if every random townie were celebrities!

Moderators, if you think there's no reason to post a new topic like this, please go ahead and delete this. Thank you. 

[RunAmokSims]

One of my favorite parts of an EP are the "things" and clothes that come with it. I use the elevators and subways a lot when I am building my towns. Bridgeport is a very nice town but I don't play it a lot because I found that's it's just to "busy" for me.  I tend to build simple houses that are easy to keep track of what my Sims are doing and I didn't really like the high rises. They were fun to play for a while but I went back to my simple houses. You can always relocate a high rise or two into another town if you feel like that too. I've found that I take quite a few of the Bridgeport lots and relocate them in towns I'm playing.

I do like the vampires a lot. They're fun and I never noticed that they spread like wildfire in my games. I would say that, unless I was trying to make a lot of vamps, my Sim might have a few dozen relationships maybe 5 or 6 of them were vamps.

I find the celebrities annoying but I just ignore them. I thought the mixology skill was fun. There are parts of all SPs that I like and don't like. Overall (with the exception of the outdoor stuff SP)  I'm glad I bought them.

[VampirePlasma]

LN is my favorite EP. If I was asked to choose between all of the EPs I would choose LN (&Pets but those aren't out yet.) I do not think Vampires  spread like wildfire. I used a cheat to get me to know everyone in Bridgeport and there are only 8 (Already in game) vampires out of the whole town. One thing that does spread is he celebs. Somehow, Summer (teen.) has 4 stars. I don't know how that happened.
You do get a piano! and drums, bass, and the guitar. I agree, I love all the things that come with it. I love vamps most of all! I mean, look at my name. I have 23 families and 20 contain at least 5 vamps. We hunt in groups. 
Just like RunAmokSims I am glad I bought them all, except for Outdoors Stuff. That's just ugh.

[Naga]

In my opinion, the most annoying things from LN are the celebrities. You have to impress people, and even if it's just a 1-star (like, know 8 people and you get 1-star, or just befriend a celeb sim), the sim already snobs it up. And don't even get me started on the papparazzi!

Do not worry about vampires. You said you don't take your sims out much, so they shouldn't be a problem. Want a hint, though? Avoid Bridgeport. It's too time-taking and uncomfortable to play in it.

[Pam]

The celebrity thing can get annoying, but it's got great perks, too.  You get some great free gifts just for being a celebrity, which you can either use or sell. 

Sometimes it seems that vampires are taking over, but they eventually cap.  Story progression brings in new families and the balance maintains itself.

Bridgeport isn't my favorite town to play, but it's nice for something different.  I don't play families in Bridgeport, though, because of the issues of elevators in apartments.  It's extremely difficult to raise a toddler in a high-rise.  There are houses outside of town, though. 

I didn't think I would care about the nightclubs, either, but I found that it's actually quite fun.  There are a lot of new interactions and things to do. 

It would be hard for me to pick a favorite expansion pack, but I definitely don't regret buying Late Night.

[Corgi Cat]

For me the good outweighs the bad so I'm glad I got it.

I like being able to have hot tubs. Mixology is fun, I like it better than Nectar Making. Like Pam I ended up enjoying night clubs more than I thought I would. I always enjoy getting more clothes and hairstyles.

However I do not like Bridgeport, takes too long to get places and I don't like high rises. Hopefully the elevator bug has been fixed. I can't stand vampires and celebrities. I wouldn't mind if I could control whether or not they spread. I wouldn't mind if there were a few celebs in my town, but when everyone they talk to more than a little also becomes one it ruins it, for me at least. Too many celebs and too easy to become one. As for vampires, I know many seem to like them so I don't mind them being an option, but I'm tired of the whole undead thing that seems to be everywhere now, so I wish there was an on/off switch for them as well.

I don't have a favorite EP, they all have stuff I like and stuff I could do without. And that's fine, I don't expect a company to release a game or expansion that only has stuff I like. LN adds to the Sims experience and I think it's worth it.

[MoMoll]

I love the EP and Bridgeport. Guess it's because I'm a party animal and love the big cities. Small towns are boring because there's no Night Life. Don't live in a high rise with kids, but if you don"t want too many kids the high rise is neat (good views for photos). Unril generations I always made my sim a Vamp so she would live longer. Now she just makes herself a "Young Again" drink (that way she can still play guitar in the park.
I love the band option (always wanted to be in a band) and the celeb thing isn't too bad. I love watching the townies drool over my 5 star celeb. Since she's so popular (over 100 friends) the paparazzi don't bug her. My sim has messed up the bars, because the mixologist and bouncers always want to dance with her. Too bad for the thirsty patrons.

[Noodles]

Thanks to everyone for your opinions! You've been helpful.

I can't stand vampires and celebrities. I wouldn't mind if I could control whether or not they spread. I wouldn't mind if there were a few celebs in my town, but when everyone they talk to more than a little also becomes one it ruins it, for me at least. Too many celebs and too easy to become one. As for vampires, I know many seem to like them so I don't mind them being an option, but I'm tired of the whole undead thing that seems to be everywhere now, so I wish there was an on/off switch for them as well.

I guess this celeb thing is the major turn-off in my case; celebrities (and in my opinion, vampires too) should be something rare. I guess I'm afraid they would ruin my game experience...
But I have a feeling I'm going to give up and buy the EP sooner or later, I've started to like the idea of vampires... Thanks again for the tips!

[RunAmokSims]

Some others have reminded me that I do like the night clubs. They are a great place for your single Sim to meet people. Or even a married one who likes to flirt. There's a big BUT though. I like to build my own clubs and a max of one or two per town. That way I can make sure there is always going to be a crowd there. Sometimes in Bridgeport your Sim can walk into a club and hear nothing but crickets. I'm currently rebuilding a town in SV. I put in a little beach looking dive bar and it's always occupied.

[malteser60]

Personally I love the NL EP, but yes there are a few bugs. I really enjoy playing Bridgeport, but the time it takes a sim to go from A to B can be ridiculous at times. I very rarely use the cheats, no particular reason, I just really enjoy playing out all aspects of the game. However I have resorted to the teleport cheat quite a bit in Bridgeport if I need my sim to be somewhere in an hour.

Also the celebrities. In my games, irregardless of the town, I haven't noticed a huge amount of celebrities, as Pam says they do cap off, same as vampires. It's more my sims gaining celebrity status when I don't want them to be celebs. It's just too easy to gain at least one star of celebrity just by talking to one of the celebs. Then you will get the never ending opportunities of 'go dance here for four hours to gain more celeb points' and such like. Yes, you can turn off opportunities but then that turns off all the other ones. Also you can decline the celeb opportunities but sometimes it seems like my sims phone is forever ringing with these opportunities, can become annoying.

However, overall, I think you will gain and benefit a lot from Night Life. Even the bars are lots of fun. You don't necessarily have to be into the clubing scene to enjoy that aspect of the game. The dive bars are a great way of meeting new people without having that 'club' vibe to it. Plus if you enjoy the instruments aspect of the game and form a band then you will definitely want to try playing in the bars and clubs.

Hope this helped.

[MoMoll]

I've found that the other towns (besides Bridgeport) are boring. I put in dance clubs, but the locals only stand around and talk to each other. In bridgeport, they ask each other to dance and PARTY!
As for celeb status, well how many people try to please their boss to get ahead, the idea is NOT just becoming a celeb, it's becoming popular. Once you have reached the popular point, you WILL end up becoming friends with celebs. I find it interesting, like my own life.

[Seabody]

Late Night is friend-based, sure. But there are upsides:
-Previous Bugs have been fixed (I believe)
-The Vampire Infestation isn't actually an infestation. One of my Random Wishmasters Sims regularly meets new people. Only 1 of his contacts is a vampire.
-Celebrities are generally only 1-star in towns other that Bridgeport
-The Stride of Pride, while annoying, is also amusing to watch.

There are other upsides, but we can't make the decision for you - if we could do that, I would had a friend give me Generations a while back. Take a look at what we've said, go and look at The Sims Wiki, and just think - "Does this seem like something I'd like?"

[Jaeger]

Do you want to build duplexes and apartments? You can do that with NL. And I'm not talking about NL skyscraper shells but using the public space balls and hidden area balls in buildings you make. These also keeps the game from hijacking normal townies away from their jobs to man WAs cash registers. Because the cash register will now use npcs who lives in your apartments.

Edit: I deleted the mod comment to fix vampires/Celebes from spawning.

Elevators are neat especially with basements.

[MarianT]

I just got Late Night -- and like you, I thought I never would because I wasn't interested in the party scene. But I added a bar to the town where I have a story going, and it's nice to have a place to send my single Sims other than the park or the library (and there was never anyone at the art gallery). Having to impress the celebs adds a new challenge, but they're still easier to deal with than the ones in Sims 1 were.

[MoMoll]

I don't care if vampires spawn. With Generations "young again" potion, you can live as long as a vampire and not fry in the sun. Played with vampires before, and it's great how the kids can max their skills; but, mommy wants to go for a stroll with junior and can't if she'll melt in the sun.