Where are the storylines, plots, scandals & drama?

The only thing I would be at all ok with is teen pregnancy or surrogacy, because that would be a choice I could make in the game to experience and it wouldn't be forced on me or others who don't want to experience it. As for the others? No. This is a game about escapism. It's to have fun, and maybe leave real life behind for a little bit. There's enough murder, violence, trauma, and illness in the real world right now. It's fine if you want those things, but use the mods available. There are players who actually know people who were murdered, or had fatal illnesses, or who suffers from trauma. To them that would not be an exciting new feature, it would be a depressing reminder.

"Krueger;c-17625481" wrote:
The only thing I would be at all ok with is teen pregnancy or surrogacy, because that would be a choice I could make in the game to experience and it wouldn't be forced on me or others who don't want to experience it. As for the others? No. This is a game about escapism. It's to have fun, and maybe leave real life behind for a little bit. There's enough murder, violence, trauma, and illness in the real world right now. It's fine if you want those things, but use the mods available. There are players who actually know people who were murdered, or had fatal illnesses, or who suffers from trauma. To them that would not be an exciting new feature, it would be a depressing reminder.

I never find this a compelling argument. There are also people whose pets died or who were orphaned and those events are possible in the game. Do we need to leave everything out because someone might take offense? I don't think so. I think things should be turned around. If you don't want something, someone should be able to mod it out. Either that or toggles to turn options on and off.

I think all of this would be great, my only concern would be that I like to make up my own stories + playing on free will, and would *hate* it if the game overrun my own stories. Like I never used TS3 story progression, because I preferred to control my story lines.

I'd rather like to see better variety when it comes to behavior - such cas not all sims doing the exact same action when so and so. An example is how *all* my grown up sims now will do several identical idles when I enter a house (Eco added this I think), not only the same idle, but they do it at exact the same time - it just looks dumb. I heard they are meant to worry a bit about the green environment, but the problem is that they all do this, even if they couldn't care less about environment per traits. I want all idle actions to come in 5-6 versions, each only performed if so and so and so trait/skills are present. In addition it would be nice if sims with good manners could sit in a more "high society way", a bit more like posing. Sims screaming for food could do it a little more discrete if with good manners and at a certain skill level, while sims with good cooking skills would probably not scream at all, but just go straight to the fridge to help themselves.

The game should be packed with minor unique quick actions that would only be performed by a limited number of sims, making us see the sims more differently, as their personality and skills (which represents interests) would shine through more. Right now it feels kinda flat because the game gets too general, and we need to pretend those details.

PS: I agree that drama can mostly only be done if rigged. I make videos on soap format/with no UI and no talking, only sims talking in Simlish with English subtitles, and even when I know what I want them to do, it is a hassle beyond words to make them do or behave or react in any specific way at all. Check out my As Sims Go By video series on Youtube - it takes me more than 30 RL days to produce just one episode lasting about 15 minutes. I don't want that stress moved into my general gameplay, LOL.

"Duvelina;c-17625511" wrote:

"Krueger;c-17625481" wrote:
The only thing I would be at all ok with is teen pregnancy or surrogacy, because that would be a choice I could make in the game to experience and it wouldn't be forced on me or others who don't want to experience it. As for the others? No. This is a game about escapism. It's to have fun, and maybe leave real life behind for a little bit. There's enough murder, violence, trauma, and illness in the real world right now. It's fine if you want those things, but use the mods available. There are players who actually know people who were murdered, or had fatal illnesses, or who suffers from trauma. To them that would not be an exciting new feature, it would be a depressing reminder.

I never find this a compelling argument. There are also people whose pets died or who were orphaned and those events are possible in the game. Do we need to leave everything out because someone might take offense? I don't think so. I think things should be turned around. If you don't want something, someone should be able to mod it out. Either that or toggles to turn options on and off.

I never said everything sad has to be taken out. But I do think adding things like murder and trauma in the game for the sake of having drama is a step too far, for me.

The Sims series is one of the few games that let me create a story instead of only participating in one. Call me selfish, but I wouldn't want that taken away from me for the sake of appealing to a wider audience.

As for drama and agnst, that is where you find it. Just yesterday two of my students got turned away at the free uni buffet because of kitchen closing. In most other games that would be a signal that I failed at time management - had my sims arrived at the spot five minutes earlier, everyone would have gotten fed. Now the two that didn't make it had to go find a food cart and invest money and energy as "punishment" for my "bad play".

For a storytelling player the scene is full of opportunities. It takes how long top shove a sandwich across a counter? Twenty seconds? Peggy and Damian were the last two students in the queue, so sealistically he buffet attendant could have servedthem without losing out on his break. But she is an android and he is black, so go figure... Bamm, minor villain in the uni staff established.

My students will now find ways to pay the guy back in subtle ways. One of them already pranked the buffet, something that would never have occured to me if not for the "no serve" incident. So it's a back and forth between us and the game, different from both writing a story and playing an ordinary computer rpg.

"Krueger;c-17625588" wrote:

"Duvelina;c-17625511" wrote:

"Krueger;c-17625481" wrote:
The only thing I would be at all ok with is teen pregnancy or surrogacy, because that would be a choice I could make in the game to experience and it wouldn't be forced on me or others who don't want to experience it. As for the others? No. This is a game about escapism. It's to have fun, and maybe leave real life behind for a little bit. There's enough murder, violence, trauma, and illness in the real world right now. It's fine if you want those things, but use the mods available. There are players who actually know people who were murdered, or had fatal illnesses, or who suffers from trauma. To them that would not be an exciting new feature, it would be a depressing reminder.

I never find this a compelling argument. There are also people whose pets died or who were orphaned and those events are possible in the game. Do we need to leave everything out because someone might take offense? I don't think so. I think things should be turned around. If you don't want something, someone should be able to mod it out. Either that or toggles to turn options on and off.

I never said everything sad has to be taken out. But I do think adding things like murder and trauma in the game for the sake of having drama is a step too far, for me.

It wouldn't be for the sake of having 'drama'. This is a life simulator. You're supposed to be able to tell stories about life with it. All of the above are part of life.

If the game had murder, etc., I would honestly stop playing.

These two threads are where people mostly post about their stories in General Discussion. There is also a forum for stories and legacies:

Stories and Legacies

What happened in your game today?

What happened in your game today? The non-serial story version