Forum Announcement, Click Here to Read More From EA_Cade.
Do you use the Sims for story-telling?
FKM100
Posts: 886 Member
Something I have noticed lately is that, in almost every official Sims 4 announcement, Grant Rodiek equates playing the Sims with story-telling, or refers to story-telling in one way or another. This alarms me a bit, because, as a long-time simmer, I have never been in the least bit interested in telling stories, or in sharing what my sims get up to, or in anything other than what is rather disparagingly called 'sandbox' play (I prefer to think of it as virtual dollhouses).
I am well aware that there is indeed a sizable and highly visible story-telling community (visible, because the whole point of story-telling is to publish your stories). I have nothing against players who choose to play this way (why should I?), or in the fact that Maxis recognises them, caters for them and encourages them, but I personally do not want to play this way. Ever. So, when I hear these announcements, I am a little concerned that I am being pushed in a direction that does not appeal to me (IMHO, one piece of evidence that this is already happening is the storybook art style of the Sims 4, which I am quite sure was done mainly to appeal to the story-telling community. It certainly does not appeal much to me, since I like to have everything as realistic as possible).
So I have been wondering just how representative the story-telling community is of simmers generally. I would be very interested to know exactly what proportion of simmers do in fact use the Sims mainly for story-telling. Is it the majority of players? A small but significant minority? And what about the rest of us? How many different ways are there of playing?
So here is the question - tell us what motivates you to play the Sims and how you like to play.
I am well aware that there is indeed a sizable and highly visible story-telling community (visible, because the whole point of story-telling is to publish your stories). I have nothing against players who choose to play this way (why should I?), or in the fact that Maxis recognises them, caters for them and encourages them, but I personally do not want to play this way. Ever. So, when I hear these announcements, I am a little concerned that I am being pushed in a direction that does not appeal to me (IMHO, one piece of evidence that this is already happening is the storybook art style of the Sims 4, which I am quite sure was done mainly to appeal to the story-telling community. It certainly does not appeal much to me, since I like to have everything as realistic as possible).
So I have been wondering just how representative the story-telling community is of simmers generally. I would be very interested to know exactly what proportion of simmers do in fact use the Sims mainly for story-telling. Is it the majority of players? A small but significant minority? And what about the rest of us? How many different ways are there of playing?
So here is the question - tell us what motivates you to play the Sims and how you like to play.
1
Comments
But I do sort of give my sims a background and in a way I guess I narrate it in my head as its happening.
Rather I let the game tell the story to me. This is a repeat of a post I put in another thread that also answers your question as to one of the ways I play the game as related to my notion of a story:
I don't try and mould the play beyond a few certain decisions and then I let the game mechanics build the story for me. I love this type of emergent gameplay/story. The pleasure I get from a story is from not knowing what is going to happen and this game is rammed with stuff with like that.
If I wanted my story and only my story with absolute control, then I would write a book, movie, game, whatever. I could use an animation package and then I could get everything exactly as I want in my story production from precision posing to perfect lighting and mix in my own soundtrack. Lots of free software out there that will let you do this. But it seems to me that this game provides a framework that lets your story build as you play. It seems to me the game has been designed with this intent, which is great for folk like me that love this kind of stuff.
The way I manipulate whatever story I may end up with is to do with the starting properties of the Sims I create and helping them along the best way I can to keep them happy in this apparent utopia that is really is nothing more than a daily grind. As the player I am the benevolent or malevolent god in their universe dependant on my whim. My teens only do homework twice a week. Adults blow off their career and paint in the park instead. Some I think deserve to grind on in their narrow world view of eat, sleep, work - rinse and repeat.
They used to call this genre of game a God Game, though I haven't seen that term used in a long while. The player is God and watches the stories of the players creation unfold with as much or as little intervention as me as the Player God decides.
I think the system of whims in the game results in some awesome emergent stories. Follow the whims and some truly unexpected stuff happens. I fire off a screenshots occasionally as I like the notion of memories.
I simply do not expect a controlled story from a game of this type. The story arc can be as long or as short as I want for a playthrough. I have several saves with very different starting conditions.
Each story has its own arc, side plots, etc that is unique and can never be repeated. No watching repeats in a game like this!
Of course, all this boils down to the preference of play style and what floats your boat.
One night I setup a household of four and hit play just to see what would happen without an intervention from me, except hitting the C button occasionally. The results were fascinating.
I have set this game to be my desktop wallpaper on occasion. I setup a household and lot, set the game to borderless window and get on with my day. Beats the Big Brother TV series hands down.
Shake dreams from your hair
My pretty child, my sweet one.
Choose the day and choose the sign of your day
The day's divinity....
The Ghost Song - Jim Morrison
I'm a storyteller in Sims 3, which doesn't mean writing those story's down is essential. The first three quarters of a year I played The Sims the story's were just in my head. Only when I signed in on a forum and found out people were doing that, writing things down and posting pictures, I started doing that myself. I posted pictures i had and wrote a little story around it, following my gameplay and wordless imagination of what I played so far.
Since then storywriting became more and more important and sometimes influences gameplay, but playing and enjoying the game still is a huge priority. I never understood the fun of making up a story in advance and force your sims into behaviour - using pose player even - to support that story. For me Sims is two games really: playing it and taking pictures, and after that I collect the pictures and write the story.
What I mean is: maybe they are referring to players like me. People who play the game but can't help having story's pop up in their minds - which doesn't happen to me in 4 by the way but that's another story - and following that. But like I said, that kind of storymaking doesn't depend on writing it down and sharing it. It became an important and delightful enrichment of my Sims game, but not a necessary one. I don't know which group of storywriters the simguru was referring to, but I think it might very well be storytellers like me: just following the game and making a story out of it. In which case you're fine.
I have now two of those stories (my own, nothing related with anything, happening in my own worlds made with this wonderfull tool TS3 CAW is) in TS3 with saves that are more than one year old and implicates some 12 or 14 households each one out of worlds full of sims and life (about 300 living in town simsin each world) wonderfully managed by SP, I have one in TS2, kind of continuation of Pride & Prejudice that I recreate in a neighbourhood of my own in the way TS2 allows us to do, playing its 12 households in a rotational way to keep time syncronized and one in TS4 "Return to Casablanca" settled in Oasis Spring, it is on an starting point so far but I am carrying it on rather well.
I have not found issues to use the new game to tell the story, there are so much features missing that I am somehow restricted, but that is also related with the fact of being a base game, even if it would have been as much dressed as its predecessors, it would not have been the same as using full games as TS2 and TS3 are by now as I own almost the full collection of both games.
I can play at last TS2 TS3 and TS4 So great that toddlers are here!!!
Simmin' since 2000
Like I said, the first 9 months I played the game (3) I never had a desire to record what I saw. But looking back I was telling story's. In my head. Like you are maybe when you play that grungy post-apocalyptic world. Storytelling isn't necessarily about writing the story's down and share them, that's what I meant.
I remember a simmer who made all kinds of beautiful screens of sims. That was the way she liked to play the game. Create amazing sims and put them into position to make screens that were little story's in itself. She could get rather irritated when we misinterpreted one of her sims, because she had all those storylines about them (and their characters) in her mind and couldn't stand it if we didn't understand. She never wrote anything down though, so how were we to know really lol. I did kind of understand her though.
I dig deep into my own thoughts and feelings to understand what motivates my sims. I play "What if?" and, from time to time, nudge my sims in a direction that I feel has dramatic potential. For example, I have an adult female sim who recently lost her husband. She lives with her 10-year-old son. Her life was getting a bit boring, so I decided to throw a young adult art student into the mix. (Her husband was a famous artist.) So she's now taken a "starving artist" into her home, and this storyline could go in different ways. I'm already sensing that her son isn't too happy with the situation (hmmm...maybe he's resentful that mom is replacing dad so quickly), or maybe her loneliness will drive her into the arms of this much younger man... or...well, there are lots of possibilities. Maybe the neighbors will gossip about her, maybe she'll be shunned, maybe she'll encourage this shy young artist and see him reach the pinnacle of success. This is the sort of "story-telling" I do. It's an open-ended story idea. I have no idea where it will go, but as my sims go about their lives, I'll tag along, nudging and suggesting where necessary, assigning motives and doing my part to make sense of what is, actually, nothing more than pixels on a screen.
Unfortunately, a lot of EA's scripted gameplay gets in the way of my fun. I do my best.
This a great example of emergent story telling that can only really be provided by a game and not, as a rule, in another medium. Nice post
Shake dreams from your hair
My pretty child, my sweet one.
Choose the day and choose the sign of your day
The day's divinity....
The Ghost Song - Jim Morrison
I like to play with generations, I am doing an A-Z generation, I like playing that way. Each generation has its own little story. Do I set the story, no, as each generation is different and tells a different story, Something may happen in the game that sends it to a different story, some may have children, some may adopt, each has his own traits that lead to a different story.
So I guess Sims does have a story. I hear people all the time, although they do not write it as a story, they tell it as they let us know what their sims are doing, romance, comedy, action, it is all there. Your sims brings it out everyday.
I don't think so. The graphics are the way they are to perform well on budget computers or laptops, as EA claims, or are an unfortunate legacy of trying to be an online multi-player social game that was changed at the last moment to be a single player game.
I prefer more realism too. A cartoon style just takes me out of the game.
I create stories, but my stories come from what happens as I play the game. I am a player who likes to make stories up as I go along, or start out a with a scenario and see how it plays out.
I need Magic, Seasons, Pets, mostly. my sims need a basement, one family needs it for a party I want him to host, and another family has a weapons vault in their basement, oh and another person has a 50 shades of Grey type basement but i'll figure that out...
I have a vivid imagination so when i'm looking at the sims before me, It get's blacked out and overshadowed by imagination.
I start with the Simlish language... and mute it.
Autonomy - medium or buy Sims,
Then I have iTunes ready in the back, (I don't really film it so much so I care not for copyrights) I have a playlist of background music, scores from other games, songs I liked from TV shows and movies, and new hits by my favorite artists.
when I tell a story I first define it, I just don't jump into it.
basically all my stories revolve around magic, I love fantasy.
I'd also need a DJ booth my teens go clubbing in one of my stories too.
My Mood:
Not in the sense of storytelling, creating a blog, and sharing it. I'll call that "story-blogging" for now.
TS4 is my first time creating a story-blog; however, I have always told stories with me Sims during gameplay, in earlier versions. Just never articulated them, took pictures, and followed them like I do with the storytelling blog.
I spend most of my time in the storytelling community on the forums and I would say that it is not big at all.
They just hosted an official poll to vote on a Story of the Month, and it didn't even break 100 votes.
To my knowledge, this may be the actual first time a story-blogger will be featured through all of the versions of The Sims.
And in my opinion, a lot of the gameplay features, camera controls, and lack of certain cheats do not serve story-blogging at all.
I disagree. I think the art style of TS4 was not made to look realistic, because realism, if not done right is aesthetically unattractive.
Sometimes it's better to go with a simpler, cleaner, stylized look, than to go all out realism and never quite make it.
I personally find a lot of the realistic cc unattractive. And the TS3 Sims are horribly ugly, to me.
But things like aesthetics and style are fluid and personal.
I wrote stories first in Sims 3 and would continue making them in that game. I couldn't think of making them in other Sims games. I just can't. Open World feature is so important for my storytelling.
Two of my stories are found in my signature. I have two more that I'm planning to write soon