How do you deal with local news in your game?

I like the idea of writing books based on local news. NS via the mail box could be good inspiration for lots of gameplay, as could fame/preference changes and advice given to kids/teens via PH advice prompts or career day attendees.

If a well know sim dies then an author could write a biography, a journalist could take a photo of the urn/tombstone/write an article, musicians might name a song after them or an artist might paint a portrait from a photo to be displayed at their funeral/grave/family home.

Sims becoming famous might commission head shot/fashion photo shoots or album/book covers from painters/digital artists etc. Sims might order saucy/single/family/home photographs or painted artwork for loved ones and family.

Sims being born/growing up might call for baby photoshoots/portraits, entertainers for baby showers/kids parties/sweet 16s etc

Sims dying might prompt a funeral event, a sudden change of family fortunes (both good and bad) or a fight over inheritance causing a family rift etc.

Sims adopting pets could result in friends deciding they want a pet too, or maybe getting a puppy/kitten from that household if any are born.

Sims gaining (or losing) a hobby through gameplay preference prompts could cause changes in Clubs/Club memberships as sims join to indulge a new hobby or leave for greener pastures.

I use the PH advice prompts and discipline styles to flesh out the type of parent my sims are. Some are more strict and care about raising Responsible adults, where as others might have different priorities such as raising an Empathetic child.

Sims moving house, changing jobs, changing hobbies, growing up, building families also provides new business for Interior Decorators, Stylists and Nail Technicians.

In a rotational game, there is a lot you can use these prompts for.

"Kathykins;c-18227939" wrote:
I feel like the only simmer who didn't care about the old newspaper. In 1+2 it went straight to the bin, or collected in the attic until the boy/girl couldn't deliver anymore. In 3, canceling the paper was one of the first thing I did when playing a new household.

The Sims 3 approach would really be the best of both worlds. I desperately want the newspaper back, but can understand why other people might not, so having it with the ability to cancel should be a reasonable compromise to meet everyone's needs.

For me, though, there are so many benefits to real newspapers:

(1) If you want a messy sim, they are a cheap and easy way to trash up the house. Love that free clutter! (In the truest sense of the word.)

(2) Now that we have recycling, they would be a great renewable source of material to recycle.

(3) As someone who loves crosswords puzzles IRL, I always loved to have my sims use the newspaper to build fun and/or logic skill (especially if they were broke/early in the game).

(4) I don't think we've ever actually seen this in past games, as far as I remember, but it would be cute to add an ability for the kids to make paper boats out of them, or for artistic sims to use them for origami/papier mache/etc. Maybe if we ever get a crafts/hobby pack, that would be an opportunity to bring back the papers and add this ability.

(5) I love @Simmerville's idea to have the paper incorporate actual news from the neighborhood. Didn't the original SimCity, way back in the day, have a feature where periodically an image of a newspaper front page would pop up with a few readable blurbs relevant to the changes you had made to the city? If EA could do that more than twenty years ago, surely it would be technically feasible to incorporate something like when you pick up a newspaper in your TS4 front yard.

I love how creative you all are and the way you keep notes to use as stories. I wish I was creative! I do miss the newspaper though and catching up on all the neighbourhood gossip. I think in maybe TS1 you used to be able to make the newspaper into a paperhat but I could be wrong. It was a long time ago!

In TS2 you could make a paper plane from the newspaper and then play with the plane. I think it came with Freetime, built Art & Craft Enthusiasm and was Fun to play with.

The crossword also built Games Enthusiasm, iirc.

You could also compost the paper in the compost bin from Seasons.

"Kathykins;c-18227939" wrote:
I feel like the only simmer who didn't care about the old newspaper. In 1+2 it went straight to the bin, or collected in the attic until the boy/girl couldn't deliver anymore. In 3, canceling the paper was one of the first thing I did when playing a new household.

In 4, I don't feel like anything remotely interesting happens with unplayed households anyway. And to tell the truth, my sims are pretty boring as well. No drama

I mean true the newspaper usually went to bin for me too but I think the issue was more that it was there everyday on your sims yard

I figure it would be fun if it came less often like once a week or something rather than every sim day

and sim would put it in the dang mailbox what with these americans throwing their papers on ground

"Simmingal;c-18227987" wrote:


and sim would put it in the dang mailbox what with these americans throwing their papers on ground

In the U.S., it is a violation of federal law to put anything in a mailbox other than United States Postal Service mail. So a private newspaper company putting their newspapers into the mailbox would not be permitted.

In theory, newspapers are placed neatly on the porch, but given that they used to be delivered by children or teenagers, and more commonly now, by poorly paid adult contractor employees, it's not surprising that they end up hurled all over the place.

So that is what's with the papers on the ground.