In a perfect world, we would all have every single Sims 2 expansion pack installed with a shitload of CC to give the game that extra "oomph" while maintaining lightning fast loading times. But if you had to choose (for whatever reason), what EPs could you live without?

Personally, I could probably do without the University EP if it weren't for the musical instruments and pool table. And maybe some of the clothes (e.g. letterman jackets, SSU sleepwear). I think it's still possible to have a well-rounded simming experience without University.

If push comes to shove, I can always fake colleges by having adults move into a "university" sub-hood filled with skill objects, dorms and frat houses.

Toss-up between Bon Voyage and Pets for me... I so rarely have Sims either adopt pets or go on vacations that I feel like I don't get much use out of the "main features" of either of those EPs. I'm still very happy having them, but honestly I think I get more use out of a few of my SPs than I do from either of these expansions, especially when you consider that in a lot of ways, I just treat those two EPs as stuff packs anyways.

Pets and Apartment Life. Since I've already had to sort through the games I could live without, these are them.

I can live without Pets because, although having dogs and cats is great, there's not enough content to justify the lag that game creates for me. I'm not overly attached to the premade families that come with the game, and the "sciency" items seem out of place. In place of Pets I have Seasons, because I genuinely can't stand TS2 without Seasons.

I can live without Apartment Life because I rarely played apartments to begin with. There's not all that much that comes with Apartment Life that justifies the lag for me, aside from maybe the Murphy bed and multiple residences on one lot. In place of Apartment Life I have Free Time; having hobbies makes my sims seem more wholesome to me.

If I had to reduce my EP count even more, I could live without... Night Life. Although a fun expansion pack, my sims don't usually get to have a night life. At present the best it's good for is the cars, and my BACC hasn't remotely unlocked such amenities yet. If I were to cull further, Open for Business would go as well. Though I'd be saddened to have to let it go.

Additionally, I only play with one stuff pack despite owning several (I think I'm missing one stuff pack from owning the entire game series.) I have H&M stuff installed for the clothing.

I would hate to lose any. I have all EP's all Sp's and a ton load of cc as well. I don't however have lightening fast loading times unless anyone considers an hour fast lol. Actually my other renamed sims 2 folder which is just for my medieval hood with about 7gigs does load lightening fast-for me. About 5 minutes.
Each EP brings small things that are easy to overlook until you take it away. While I might not send my sims on holiday (what American's call 'vacation') very often, I use the dig for treasure, walk to lot and tent very often. Maybe Uni, but I use the cook top a lot as I use it for soup kitchens and cafeterias other places with the simlogical patch, so I don't know. None.

That's true. Bon Voyage has things like the massage table, swimming in the ocean, sunbathing, planned honeymoons---all of which add a lot to everyday gameplay. I believe it's also the first EP to introduce jewelry.

I would say University. I can't live without my fluffy kitties.

Uni - Adds the Resurrect-O-Nomitron ->Indispensable.
Nightlife - Adds Dates -> Indispensable.
Open for Business - Adds Subhoods -> Indispensable.
Pets - Adds Pets (with breeding) -> Indispensable.
Seasons - Adds grown food -> Indispensable.
Bon Voyage - While I do enjoy some of the features, I really only bought it to have the complete set.
Freetime - Adds Secondary Aspirations -> Indispensable.
Apartment Life - With this pack I think it's the sheer bang for your buck that makes it indispensable--the new lifestate is the most detailed; there are five well-developed style groups in Build and Buy; not only are there apartments, but there are many to choose from when making your own town; even the interactions between sims are enough to make AL worth it.

So I guess I'd have to say I'd ditch Bon Voyage. I really didn't like either Bon Voyage or Free Time, and I got them used because they sort of threw themselves in my face one day. Free Time has proven its worth to me, sort of. Bon Voyage I still kind of don't get. It seems like such an obscure feature of a sim's life to base an EP around.

Definitely worth noting as well for me that Free Time and Bon Voyage were the only EPs to come without a true new lifestate. I thought Bigfoot was a piece of crap because you can't marry him, so you can imagine how upset I was with a genie you can't even control.

I was going to say Pets, but then I looked to see what buy mode objects came with it and reconsidered. That stuff is pretty useful to me. I'm afraid I squander a few of my EPs, using them as glorified SPs. I've modded out hobby enthusiasm so it doesn't take over my Sim's wants panels, and have yet to send my Sims on vacation or have them open a business. I just kind of like knowing the options are there if they ever take my fancy and also not worrying as much about mod or object compatibility.

I actually do without Pets. Pets drive me nuts and I had to uninstall the EP to stop pet wants from taking over the Sims want panels. I use OFB more for the clothes than for the main features.

All the Pets hate. I couldn't do without my furry friends, either in sims or in RL. Everything would just seem wrong.

Maybe we need a "What I love about Pet's" thread... Anyway I love pets. I frequently adopt in strays or have a bird,lizard or other cc critter for my sims homes. I'm an animal lover so I can't imagine my sims not having pets. I was very disappointed when they did not add pet shows from Pet Stories and cats could not sit on laps.

All the Pets talk, I just have to laugh that the avatars for the last three posters are all cats! I almost hate to ruin it with my supervillain sigil!

LOL. The cat in my avatar is my real life cat, and I absolutely couldn't do without her. I love cats in real life, I just don't like how they are programmed in Sims 2.

Perhaps Bon Voyage, although I like a lot of the furniture, and the beach function. Not that I use it much, but it's nice to have if I do need it. The vacation function is kinda borked, so I hardly ever use it.

I could probably manage without Pets, since I hardly ever make pets, but when I on occasion put a pet in a family, it can be quite fun.

I like aspects from all the EPs. If I don't like some of the new functions, I like the clothes, or the furniture, or the new building tools, or whatever else they have to offer.

I don't think I'd like to be without any of them.

Beaches were almost the indispensable from Bon Voyage for me, but I kinda feel like the way they did them just disappointed me. For one thing, you can't fish in them. There also are no tides, no small boats, no volleyball, no picnics, no burying people, no sea life (having a porpoise swim by your sims occasionally would have been awesome--and a great memory for the memory collection). I live in Florida, so maybe I'm just a beach snob. In addition, I don't like the way the vacation memories fill in with things they've done on their home lot, like sunbathed. And if they should happen to find a bowl of glass or a cool shell, they think it's worth an amazing story when it was probably just lying out there and the dog almost peed on it.

I'm being a bit overly cynical, but I think I feel the same about most of the features of Bon Voyage. The vacation experience they give you is very cut and dried, and for me it doesn't really mimic real life as well as the rest of the game. What about road trips? What about Vegas? What about cruises? Europe? Amusement parks? Safaris? Farms?

How can you have a mountain vacation where you can't go skiing?

I have all the eps & sps, don't think I'd be very happyif i had to choose which to remove. The only thing i might remove if i had to would be the Happy Holidays. I don't think it adds much to the game play.

Jo: I recently updated my driver, went from 90 minute load time to 20.

Ooh... hard decision. I play all EPs and SPs.... I mean, if I could get a million items of CC whilst simultaneously having snappy load and save times, I'd do it. But to give up something? Now that's a bit difficult for someone who just wants everything.

I mean, I've removed a large chunk of CC from my game already, just to improve game loading and saving times (and to give this old computer a break). But anyways... here are the EPs that I could've lived without if only.... those things that I just... MUST... HAVE!!!

University: Oh, I could do without University. If it weren't for the fact that there were pool tables and musical instruments and... CELL PHONES!!! I usually use the FFS Lot Debugger to get Sims that never set foot in college their college degrees. A cheaty way to get what you want, perhaps?
Nightlife: Can't live without this EP. Nope, no way.
Open for Business: I have a few businesses open, so obviously I can't give this up. Besides, it introduced the Servo lifestage, and I find Servo an excellent add-on to my neighborhood. Sink broke? Computer broke? Shower broke? TV BROKE??? Screw the repairman, just use a teleporter and teleport the Servo over, make him/her selectable, and turn him into the ultimate maid/gardener/repairman/chef/butler/screw-all-those-service-NPCs Sim, all rolled into one! That house will be so clean you could eat off the floor. That sad little garden will be thriving again, thanks to Servo! And when you're lonely, a Servo will be right there to listen to your troubles! I have SimWardrobe's Checkbook as well, so to reward the Servo for his/her services, my Sims send them a few hundred Simoleons, and that's how my Servo makes a living! Man, why can't we have these lovely robots in real life? But then again, we still don't have hoverboards :/
Pets: Nope. I just need that dog or cat to give my Sims some company. They can be pretty damn adorable at times too.... and IRL, my neighbor has a dog. Seriously, how could I not go without this EP?
Seasons: I can actually kind of go without this EP if it didn't make my game more realistic. It's not all sunshine and rainbows IRL, and it certainly isn't in SimUniverse. It works for movie-making and story-telling. A rainy day sets the mood for the Pleasant family. I have Sims employed in the careers that came with Seasons, so... yeah.
Bon Voyage: I do like the idea of sending my Sims on vacation - in fact, as of this writing I have two families on vacation. The Sims 1: Vacation was one of my favorite expansion packs, so Bon Voyage satisfied this! I like having my Sims learn new gestures and dances too, even if they get kinda annoying when they do it over and over again. But I really love how, after just one family goes on vacation, learn the hang loose and hula dance, and come home, soon the entire neighborhood knows it! It spreads like wildfire... and corruption! Oh dear... why did I mention that?
FreeTime: Some people hate the hobby system. I personally like it! When I play my little tinkering family that make and sell Servos for a living, I can actually call them tinkerers. Same with athletes, jocks, bookworms, and the music-lover. Many of the objects that came with FreeTime, I just can't live without. That apartment just isn't complete with a basketball court. Speaking of apartments...
Apartment Life: I play apartments quite a bit, to satisfy my hatred of suburbia. Apartments are good for the real world, guys! They don't use up as much space and resources as houses do, they offer more security, more neighbor-to-neighbor interaction, and for well-built ones, you have shops at the foot of the building, meaning if you ever forgot the milk and cheese, there's no need to go halfway across town to get them! I do have the Apartment and Shopping on the same lot mod, and I just love how a romantic date is just downstairs - literally! Go ahead and drink like a sponge at that bar, you don't need to drive or take the bus or hitchhike to get home!

You know what I can get rid of? The bugs and glitches and corruption issues in this game. I think that holds same for every player.

I don't have Apartment Life, so I do live without that one.

Honestly, I rarely ever go downtown, really run a business, or have pets, but I do like the other gameplay changes those packs brought.

The only one I can do without is Apartment Life. I know because I lost my copy a while ago and haven't really felt compelled to buy it back.

I could say Bon Voyage as well I don't really like holidays but I'm sure it gives stuff that I like.

I couldn't be without pets because I like to have my own but I could do without the strays digging up dirt.

Nightlife for me. It brought a new subhood to add (OfB does, too), Dates (make the game too easy, I´d be better off without them), cars (rarely use them) and restaurants (OfB can cover this and besides I rearely use these, too). However, I´m uncertain about the inventory. Did it come with nightlife and if yes, exclusively? If so, I´d rather keep Nightlife and cut Pets instead.
University is a so-so, though I could live without the actual gameplay, it has some objects I´d miss.
Bon Voyage I actually like, same for Apartment Life.
Absolutely crucial are OfB, Freetime and Seasons for all the self-sufficient living options they bring.

Bon Voyage.
When I was younger I stupidly sold it to my friend for £20 because I "didn't think I'd ever need to install it again". I kinda miss it because obviously I haven't been able to send my sims on vacation since reinstalling my games, but really when I did have it - I rarely sent my sims on vacation anyway but I did use the beach lots a lot. I'm tempted to rebuy it again just for the beach lots.

I guess, in a world without mods to null features I find annoying, I would say Freetime. I actually love all the activities it introduced, and the secondary aspirations are invaluable. But the LTA permaplat and hobby obsession--er, enthusiasm--drove me crazy. I hate permaplat, because it makes my Sims obscenely happy, even when their lives are falling apart, and removes the immersion, for me. So if I didn't have mods, I would choose Freetime.

With mods, I would continue to hoard them all. I have no regrets having purchased all EPs and almost all SPs...which is saying something, because I started as a Sims 3 player and eventually "quit" because it had sucked up so much money and time in exchange for so many problems.

If I am forced (gun to my head only) - I will get rid of PETS first and AL second. Pets, because I don't play with them (but I do like that Roseland guy quite a lot ) - AL because I am just not into playing apartments at all, altough I've stuffed some less likable Sims in a few apartments on a far away island.

Meh, if I can't have it all, I wouldn't play. Seriously, that's what it comes down to for me, now. Because I'm spoiled. Perhaps if I hadn't had them all (and for a long time, I played without AL or BV), I wouldn't know what I'd be missing, but now that I've played with all of them for a while, there's just no going back. Personally, I'd chuck CC aside from mods (which generally are teeny-tiny files) and default skintones and eyes (because the Maxis eyes are, IMO, extremely creepy) looooooooong before I'd chuck an EP. I did exactly that when I played on a netbook, in fact. I had all EPs, most SPs, and minimal CC on a teeny, extremely light, and extremely underpowered netbook purchased for the express purpose of being able to play the game on the road. Still ran OK. Long load times, sure, but that doesn't really bother me because I do other stuff while my game loads. Like, you know, washing the dishes. Or taking the dogs for a walk. Or cooking dinner. Or showering. Whatever needs to be done.

And yeah, all the Pets hate. Personally, I can take or leave the actual pets, but I must have the EP for 1) The individual roof slope "cheat," because with that I can have 36.743952321-degree roof slopes when I need them and 2) The controlpets cheat because with that turned on, you can control apartment roommates and non-household-member guests brought on vacation. I'm not sure if the roof cheat, which I use pretty much on every lot I build, was included with later EPs or not, but I'm fairly sure the pet-controlling one wasn't, so...yeah. You'll have to rip Pets (and all the other EPs) out of my cold, dead hands. For me, non-mod CC goes first, then SPs other than M&G and IKEA. If that were to fail, then I upgrade or replace the machine I play on. Simple as that. All the EPs, M&G, and the IKEA stuff pack are, for me, non-negotiable.

Really wouldn't want to have to choose, because I love having everything installed (including all SP's).

But if I must, for the sake of answering the question, I'd have to choose Pets. Though I love having animals, it wouldn't ruin game play for me if they weren't an option. Neither, would not having the build and buy items that came with it.