Now that I've updated my game, my opinions on this feature may actually be relevant. I don't mind phone calls in general because I often get a lot of emergent gameplay from them, which can sometimes translate into interesting story elements. But I didn't want Neighborhood Stories in my game at all because its core concept simply does not work well within my own creative process. Thankfully Bienchen made a mod that allows me to turn it off in its entirety, so I finally updated the game. That's just how much I do not want this feature in my game.
That said, I still think the mistake wasn't the concept itself but was releasing the feature before it felt finished. It's hard to tell if their promised future ways of giving players more control will be complete enough for everyone, and I can't help wondering if they also made a mistake in assuming that people would be ok with that.
