Re: Neighborhood Stories: Excessive deaths

It's been 3 weeks since I last posted and still no real response. EA doesn't allow us to ontact them for help, relying instead on the kindness of strangers who don't work for EA. Obviously, speaking to people who aren't EA employees doesn't help when there's a real issue so I have no idea what to do. I now absolutely hate the game.

Again, this is something that is a big enough issue that there are plenty of requests for help when you Google it. There is literally a gaming website that provides a cheat code to toggle death off and on, but you have to enter it each time to play, which is in no way a solution. The bulk of these complaints actually DID occur after Growing Together came out so perhaps some folks who don't want to or can't address the issue shouldn't focus so much on trying to tell me Growing Together has nothing to do with it.

Since reporting the problem 3 weeks ago, I've been trying to find information on how to deal with this and there literally is nothing on it coming from EA, which makes the whole thing of EA forcing these forums as a sole means of support even more frustrating. It is obviously a problem that needs to be addressed but there is no way to request help directly from them.

I finally tried another save of mine the last couple of days to see if I was still experiencing this issue. Keep in mind that I have disabled Neighborhood Stories, which I shouldn't have to do. After a few Sims days, I noticed my wife/mother Sim was sad and yes, sure enough, a good friend had died. I have no idea from what but it truly irritates me that I have no control over a gameplay that ruins the game, and certainly seems a disturbing aspect introduced into a game that kids will play, too, as well as people who might be triggered by this. And all without a way to simply turn it off or modify it. So what do I do? How do I let EA know that this is detrimental to their game? That it is insensitive and could create issues for people? How do I get EA to fix this? Because I've yet to see anything other than the toggle to make it stop.

How to turn off Neighborhood Stories 

1. Open the game. 

2. Load a save. 

3. Press the ESC key on your keyboard. 

4. Click on the button labeled Game Options. 

5. Click on the button labeled Gameplay.

6. Scroll to the bottom of the panel.

7. Click the checkbox labeled Enable Neighborhood Stories to remove the checkmark. The box should now be blank. 

8. Click the button labeled Apply Changes. 

9 Press ESC twice to close the Menu and return to the game.

(You can skip the next section if you've turned off Neighborhood Stories.)

How to turn off Accidental Deaths in Neighborhood Stories 

1. Open the game. 

2. Load a save. 

3. Press the ESC key on your keyboard. 

4. Click on the button labeled Game Options. 

5. Click on the button labeled Gameplay.

6. Scroll to the bottom of the panel.

7. Click the checkbox labeled Enable Neighborhood Stories to activate the checkmark. The box should be green with a white checkmark in it.

8. Press ESC once to return to the Menu.

9. Click the button labeled Manage Worlds. 

10. Click the button labeled Just Go to Manage Worlds. (You just loaded the save, so there's no need to save again.)

11. Click the button at the top right with the tooltip Manage Households. 

12. Click the button on the top right that has two arrows. The tooltip should read Configure Neighborhood Stories for all Households in "My Households". 

13. Make the settings that you want for the households that you play actively. I usually just leave it disabled.

14. Click the checkmark at the bottom of the panel to confirm your settings and return to the Manage Households panel.

15. Click the Other Households tab.

16. Click the button on the top right with two arrows. The tooltip should read Configure Neighborhood Stories for all Households in "Other Households". 

17. Make the settings you want. A green background means it's okay for those things to happen. A white background means you don't want those things to happen. 

18. Click the checkmark at the bottom of the panel to Confirm your settings and return to the Manage Households panel. 

19. Press ESC to return to the Manage Worlds panel. 

20. Select the world and the lot of the household you want to play and load that household. 

21. SAVE YOUR GAME, so your settings will get saved and you won't have to do all this again for this save.

NOTE: The Neighborhood Stories settings only apply to the save they are made in. You will need to repeat this if you decide to play in another save.