What do you use to tell stories for your Sims?

Dang it, I was about to include Some of the Above and None of the Above and Other... options.

*sigh*

I tell my stories in my head. I've tried to take photos for a proper story, but I find myself getting tense and impatient when I "miss" an expression or action. It's too distracting, and I takes away from my fun.

As a writer, I find the TS2 albums indispensable for story telling. It transforms routine simming into what amounts to a graphic novel, something that can be explored, developed, and gone back to. Back in the days of the TS2 website those stories - text and pictures - could be shared with the greater simmer community. That part of the site amounted to an online writer's group where we shared and commented on one another's' work, possible because we had a concrete means of doing so. It turns a game into an art form.

I tell my stories in my head. After years of journaling, and documenting, and taking photos and sharing on various fan sites with TS, TS2, and TS3 I was ready to just play when TS4 came along.

I always love to photograph and write my stories, I have a lot of fun with them. I make image sequences in powerpoint, and write a lot on it too, that way I find it easy to organize stories, descriptions, showcases, game moments. I also make word documents to write down future ideas to make :)

I use a blog to tell my Sims' stories. The only exception is that most of one of my 'legacy' playthroughs is just a folder of screenshots on my USB, since I ran out of plot ideas : P

Most of the 'stories' are in my head. But I started doing machinima way back in TS1. I fine tuned that in TS2. I still use MS' Movie Maker (original) to put together the pictures and videos. I have tried many other type video editors but I found that is the best one as 'free' software to use. I actually like editing videos and pictures to make up a story more than actually telling what happened in the game. I enjoy the editing most of all.

@Cinebar Are your videos published anywhere on the web?

As for movie-making software, I also like Windows Movie Maker. It's simple to use, intuitive, ton of features, and best of all, FREE. However, Windows Movie Maker is an outdated piece of software, and my current computer doesn't come with it. So, I have learned to use the next best thing on the market: VideoPad Video Editor. The FREE version does wonders for me already, and it is possible to upgrade it to the full paid version.

Example: https://youtu.be/AS915imcm9A

I say this, but obviously the game mechanics help. Some level of autonomy and UI help define the characters, and if I want to get picky there are no characters without CAS or setting without BB or plot without live mode so the whole game itself is a tool.

Beyond that... Back in the day I messed with Sims 2 photo albums. It wasn't super serious (I tried to recreate Meerkat Manor with Sims, because that was a child's thought process) and nothing I would be willing to show then, much less now. In 3 I wanted to set up a world down to the tiniest details with CAW so I actually took the time to write it all out in a text document, kind of like I would a story, with everything down to the resident families.

I was a lot more into grander pretenses when I was younger, but if I was truly inspired I would do similar with writing things down now. The only problem is that I am not so inspired with 4 as a tool. If I have some sort of grand fantasy I would rather write it instead of forcing it into the Sims, so I need to have some inspiration from the game itself. While I do have enough to play, it isn't enough to do things in addition.

I have a notebook where I hand write my stories out after each gameplay session, just so I can keep track of what each family was doing (I have a dozen households I rotate through). There’s also space in there for writing out stories ideas for where I want to take my sims. I take lots of screenshots of my gameplay, and I’ve used pose player a few times to set up a few shots. I keep meaning to make a tumblr or something to share my stories, but setting it up will be a nuisance.