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Why the Sims 2 story album is amazing (plus descriptions!) and why you should want it back

StrawberryYogurtStrawberryYogurt Posts: 2,799 Member
The Story Album collected any shots you took during gameplay and saved them into each family's album book.

The preset neighborhoods, Pleasantview, Veronaville, and Strangetown also had their own neighborhood story book that told you more about the town and its residents. This was especially fun when you can make your own custom neighborhood and enter your own stories.
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In each premade family, they had photos already inside that gave context about the familys' past. The one below a simmer added a caption.

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You can edit the caption in any photo, and rearrange the photos. It's almost like reading a graphic novel.
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Simmers used to go to Sims2.com and upload their stories all the time. There was a way to link it in-game and upload your stories in-game. Below is pictured with a downloadable sim. But you could also upload your own stories here. I used to spend hours reading Sims 2 stories by Simmers!20040731-exchange.jpg
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Each family and community lot also left a space to write a description. Sims 2 was great for telling stories.
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Your sim also had a bio you could type read later. Some people like Grim, has some really funny bios.
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I went from The Sims 2 to Sims 4 then finally Sims 3. When I played Sims 4 I was so confused at first. Where is the story album? In fact, it was the reason why I joined the forum to ask about it back in 2015:

https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/856270/bored-with-the-sims-4-why-is-there-no-create-a-story-write-a-story-option#latest

The sims 3 & 4 memories are a joke. Sims 2 puts them to shame in that aspect! ofc, I advocate for other systems i feel like are missing - chemistry,personality, etc.


Can you imagine TS4 with something like this? Or perhaps the next game?

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If you played with the Sims 2 story album or any descriptions, are there any features you think should be added?

For me I'd say:
    1. An in game editor. A way to bold or italic is what I mean. I also believe there was a character limit. No limits please!
    2. Better tools for rearranging photos. I think it could be optimized with another look. For example, you can not click and drag a photo into order. You must place it and then click before,before,before etc until you get it in the spot you want.
    3. I think Sim bios should be able to be viewed by anyone. In TS2, for example, I cannot read Grim's bio unless he is the active player. I'd like to be able to read any Sim's bio in the relationship tab./list]
The Sims has currently lost its identity. Bring it back for TS5

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Personality,depth,humor,consequences,lore,customization.

Comments

  • DuvelinaDuvelina Posts: 2,619 Member
    I never used that feature, but I loved writing my own story and reading others on the community website. I miss it. Can't believe all those stories are gone.
  • texxx78texxx78 Posts: 5,657 Member
    edited August 2020
    This is one of the things i have been asking for. I'ld love to have this feature. I feel it's so needed for storytellers. It seems that the gurus acknowledge the game as good for storytelling so they really should add this.

    Unfortunatelly i started a thread some time ago asking players about this feature and the answers were mostly that there was no need for it as there are a lot of possibilities to do it outside of the game.

    I was disapointed with this answers as i think that this should be a feature of a game that 'sees' and latelly markets itself as a tool for storytelling.
  • StrawberryYogurtStrawberryYogurt Posts: 2,799 Member
    Duvelina wrote: »
    I never used that feature, but I loved writing my own story and reading others on the community website. I miss it. Can't believe all those stories are gone.

    I never felt like my stories were good enough to upload XD but I had hours of stories written in my game. It was like stepping into another world lol;;

    I used to even read Sims 1 stories waaay back in the day.

    get-cool-stuff.jpg
    The Sims has currently lost its identity. Bring it back for TS5

    FixedCoarseFawn-max-1mb.gif

    Personality,depth,humor,consequences,lore,customization.
  • StrawberryYogurtStrawberryYogurt Posts: 2,799 Member
    telmarina wrote: »
    Unfortunatelly i started a thread some time ago asking players about this feature and the answers were mostly that there was no need for it as there are a lot of possibilities to do it outside of the game.

    I was disapointed with this answers as i think that this should be a feature of a game that 'sees' and latelly markets itself as a tool for storytelling.

    Yeah, just because its possible to do some things outside of the games I don't think it should be omitted! Its a fantastic feature and I'm sad it hasn't been a reoccurring feature. It's so useful and makes your game so much more personal.
    The Sims has currently lost its identity. Bring it back for TS5

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    Personality,depth,humor,consequences,lore,customization.
  • NyxValkoinenNyxValkoinen Posts: 15 Member
    I definitely believe this should exist in Sims 5. However, there definitely would need to be an in game photo editor, at least for a Neighborhood Story album. For the Family albums, you really only needed general photos of the families, but to make cool looking Neighborhood ones (similar to the EA made ones) you had to use out of game programs, which I feel was a bit annoying. A cheap editor with a few filter stylings would be pretty amazing today. I mean, think of it this way. We already have filters in the Sims 4 for photos, the least we could get is a filter system for a storyboard in Sims 5, right?
  • StrawberryYogurtStrawberryYogurt Posts: 2,799 Member
    I definitely believe this should exist in Sims 5. However, there definitely would need to be an in game photo editor, at least for a Neighborhood Story album. For the Family albums, you really only needed general photos of the families, but to make cool looking Neighborhood ones (similar to the EA made ones) you had to use out of game programs, which I feel was a bit annoying. A cheap editor with a few filter stylings would be pretty amazing today. I mean, think of it this way. We already have filters in the Sims 4 for photos, the least we could get is a filter system for a storyboard in Sims 5, right?

    Yes a few editors would be cool. Maybe like some preset poses for photos too that can help "stage" a scene.
    The Sims has currently lost its identity. Bring it back for TS5

    FixedCoarseFawn-max-1mb.gif

    Personality,depth,humor,consequences,lore,customization.
  • CynnaCynna Posts: 2,369 Member
    TS4 originally had something even better. The developers removed it.
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  • MareahMareah Posts: 792 Member
    Cynna wrote: »
    TS4 originally had something even better. The developers removed it.

    What was it? if you mean the memories then they still exist.
  • CynnaCynna Posts: 2,369 Member
    edited August 2020
    Mareah wrote: »
    Cynna wrote: »
    TS4 originally had something even better. The developers removed it.

    What was it? if you mean the memories then they still exist.

    It's a lot. If you don't mind a long post, I'll tell you:

    Although the memories used to work better than they do now, it wasn't just about the memories.

    Individual households all had their own albums. Now (unless something has changed since I used the in-game screenshot manager), the screenshots from every household are all mixed together into one huge, unwieldy mess.

    The original manager always kept photos in strict chronological order. At some point, the chronology got bungled and I don't know that EA has ever fixed the issue.

    With the original manager, Sims from separate households all got tagged for the picture. For example, the Sims in my signature pic are made up of four individual households. If I had taken that pic with the old screen manager, every individual Sim would have shared the same pic in their album, not just the Sim that was under player control at the time. If the player didn't want other Sims to share the memory, it could be deleted from their albums.

    The best part was that memories were much more in-depth. Currently, the game chooses the memory associated with a screenshot based on the emotion of the selected Sim. Unfortunately, that means that most memories will be happy ones. Happy emotions from things such as full needs, a good meal, or a well-decorated room can all run roughshod over any other emotions. The old screenshot manager got around that issue by allowing the player to decide what emotion was assigned to a screenshot. Better still, each Sim that was present could remember the event in a different way.

    For example, the little boy in my pic would remember the moment as a happy event. His parents on either side of him would remember it as an uncomfortable situation. The woman in the yellow dress would remember being furious. The two Sims on the far left would remember being bored about taking a stupid family portrait in the first place.

    All in all, the system was incredibly detailed, powerful, and satisfying. It allowed for greater depth in storytelling by providing shared memories and, at the same time, allowing Sims to experience moments as individuals with their own interior monologues. A player could become lost in the minutiae of managing the screenshots. Or, they could ignore the system altogether.

    Unfortunately, the original system got chucked and was replaced by what we have now -- basically a large collection of unassociated pictures that don't follow a linear timeline. I suspect that the developers removed it in order to save on disc space and memory. Still, I don't see the benefit of removing an organized system and replacing it with the jumbled mess that we still have today.


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  • CamkatCamkat Posts: 2,329 Member
    I miss that story editor. I used it often. I'd love something like that back! It was useful too when you hadn't played a certain save game for awhile and you needed to look back.
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  • SimmerGeorgeSimmerGeorge Posts: 2,724 Member
    Yes agree, we need that back. Not just as a screenshot manager but as a full mode like in the Sims 2.
    Where's my Sims 5 squad at?
  • MareahMareah Posts: 792 Member
    @Cynna Thanks for the info! That old system sounds so good! I made a thread a while ago praising this ability to create emotion based memories from screen shots and someone commented that it used to be even better. I had some issues with the current system like what you said about it having only one emotion assigned to a memory that includes more than one sim. Now i see that it indeed worked better before. I wonder why they changed it and how many others feel they want the old one back. In the thread i made asking how many people used it some said they did but stopped and some said they did not, and some people even thought it no longer existed. That makes me think it might never get more attention from devs since even players understandably abandoned it after its last update.
  • CynnaCynna Posts: 2,369 Member
    Mareah wrote: »
    @Cynna Thanks for the info! That old system sounds so good! I made a thread a while ago praising this ability to create emotion based memories from screen shots and someone commented that it used to be even better. I had some issues with the current system like what you said about it having only one emotion assigned to a memory that includes more than one sim. Now i see that it indeed worked better before. I wonder why they changed it and how many others feel they want the old one back. In the thread i made asking how many people used it some said they did but stopped and some said they did not, and some people even thought it no longer existed. That makes me think it might never get more attention from devs since even players understandably abandoned it after its last update.

    You're welcome. :)

    I have no idea why the devs got rid of it. All I have is speculation and that is part of the problem with TS4 from the start. They make very odd decisions with no explanation that I know of. They simply do it. This has been the most closed-off version of the game that I can recall. Sure, Guru's socialize on Twitter, drop hints, and post pictures. Nevertheless, I feel that solid information is lacking. Except for the recent push for inclusion within the game, I have absolutely no insight as to their trains of thought and the rationale for anything that they do. At least, none that make sense. (It's too hard, it's too expensive) They had a very useful tool that was complete and already in the game. One day, a patch just took it away. That was it.

    I can only speculate that the feature was too successful. A lot of people may have been using it and the devs were afraid of bloat. Maybe it was easier to simply get rid of the feature rather than to deal with it when the issues came home to roost. They won't have to worry so much about screenshot bloat now. As you said, some people don't even know that the screenshot manager still exists. In a way, it no longer does.
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  • SimmingalSimmingal Posts: 8,888 Member
    yesss we really need the systems from ts2 i loved how there was always stuff going on and they would remember everything and have different opinions on things like maybe sim A is overjoyed to be married but sim B is like sos need therapist this is horrible

    ts4 its just dull like my husband just died but im just gonna do push ups on their grave

    which in itself isnt bad mood either but sometimes you just want them to be bit more dramatic u kno
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  • king_of_simcity7king_of_simcity7 Posts: 25,102 Member
    I used to love the story album :smile:
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  • OldeseadoggeOldeseadogge Posts: 4,973 Member
    Being a writer am an incurable story maker. The TS2 system - brought over from TS 1 & improved - was ideal for that. It was indeed like making and reading a graphic novel. Each household had it's own and you could customize it to your heart's content. For reasons unknown it was taken away in TS3, one of my major gripes with that version, though it is superior in many ways to 4. The common pot of 4 is an utter fiasco in many ways. The first thing that hits is all shots go into a common pot. If you try to make sub-folders in an attempt to follow the TS2 pattern you are defeated by how the shots are arranged - the method by which computers list numbers. That means a shot taken in January 2020 will show up in your album before one taken in December 1019. In 2 there is ample room for caption writing, in 4 one and about a third lines. TS2 captions stay unless you change/remove them. In 4 the last caption entered will disappear unless there is a blank shot right after it. Am afraid that unless there is a major change in dev team or design philosophy what we would get in 5 will be even worse.
  • sketchessketches Posts: 274 Member
    I used to use the story editor all the time in The Sims 2, and couldn't we rate stories? I usually just made satire and comedies. I also made music videos with Windows Movie Maker. Like these and these (those ones aren't mine). There were a lot of funny machinima series.

    I don't even remember if those Sims 2 vids were all on YouTube, or if The Sims 2 had a platform for videos, or what... my memory fails me there... Haha.
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  • KaronKaron Posts: 2,332 Member
    I lvoed this and its necessary for lore/developing the characters. I'm just sad to know that we'll never have the power like lilsimsie or plumbella or englishsimmer to have the gurus add this to the game. Story album, personal description, proper memory system... I love premades and this would only make them better to me.
    It was also super useful for rotational playing, as sometimes i could forget what I was planning in a family, but I could check what i wrote last time I played them. Its tiresome to open a notepad or write it down on paper.
  • OldeseadoggeOldeseadogge Posts: 4,973 Member
    sketches wrote: »
    I used to use the story editor all the time in The Sims 2, and couldn't we rate stories? I usually just made satire and comedies. I also made music videos with Windows Movie Maker. Like these and these (those ones aren't mine). There were a lot of funny machinima series.

    I don't even remember if those Sims 2 vids were all on YouTube, or if The Sims 2 had a platform for videos, or what... my memory fails me there... Haha.

    There may have been other places to watch the videos, but the TS2 website itself had the capability in the video section. Click on the one(s) you wanted to watch and you were off and running. Same goes for the album type stories.
  • sulsulkichiwakusulsulkichiwaku Posts: 2 New Member
    TS4 Screenshot Manager is a mess. Why can't they follow at least a chronological order? I already reported it to EA as a glitch because. it makes no sense.
  • Nine_like_the_NumberNine_like_the_Number Posts: 1 New Member
    OMG this is exactly what I was saying!

    It bugs the hell outta me that the Sims 3 has a "memories" scrapbook of all the terribly framed screenshots it took at the random moments the game deems worthy of sticking into the scrapbook but it doesn't allow you to add your own photos/screenshots and captions like the sims 2 did.

    I always loved the Story function in the sims 2 both as a movie making thing and for it's (presumably) intended purpose of chronicling a sim's life like a real scrap book.

    It'd be amazing if someone could make a mod to allow you to add your own screenshots to the sims 3 scrapbook (seeing as you can edit the title and description of those automatically added so the only thing that'd need programming would be the ability to take and add your own screenshots to it.)
  • johnny33johnny33 Posts: 91 Member
    I never used the feature when I played Sims 2 because I didn't know exactly what it was. But I've started messing with it lately and it's really fun! Might start a whole new neighborhood to storytell with :)
  • Sunflowergal227Sunflowergal227 Posts: 305 Member
    i miss the sims 2 website! i used to read stories there all the time too! i don't know why it was taken away in TS3, and in TS4. Their whole memories system is kinda stupid i feel. at least in TS2, you can make a screenshot and chronicle their memories from there.
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