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How do you deal with local news in your game?
Simmerville
Posts: 11,669 Member
I was finally making my own online newspaper with stuff from my game incl. family notes!
Then I started wondering how others deal with news in their own game?
We no longer have the in-game newspaper that we had before (ts3?). Sims do gossip a bit, and I think there are also reference to a few scandals (internet profiles and actors?), but they are more like popups than a news service. And we have the popups congratulating our sim with the weirdest stuff - aunt living across the globe might call you to say how cool it is that you met xxx, although nobody saw you and xxx when it all took place 1 hr ago, so news ought to travel faast...
When creating my own newspaper, with some stuff from my already maintained scripts for my sims' profile pages, mixed with some headlines from my blog and ads for my many in-game business, it struck me that the game could actually have done something smilar. The game knows who married, was born or died. It even knows if a famous actress performed poorly in studio, or if some famous guy losrt or gained a fame star. It knows who won the latest Accolades.
I really miss the old newspapers. Found a cc for the newspaper object (did not get the chance to test it yet), but it will probably be without the actual news.
Do your sims spread news in any clever way? Do you keep any notes? Are your Journalists on the ball?;)
Here's my new newspaper, the Mazaloom Times.
Then I started wondering how others deal with news in their own game?
We no longer have the in-game newspaper that we had before (ts3?). Sims do gossip a bit, and I think there are also reference to a few scandals (internet profiles and actors?), but they are more like popups than a news service. And we have the popups congratulating our sim with the weirdest stuff - aunt living across the globe might call you to say how cool it is that you met xxx, although nobody saw you and xxx when it all took place 1 hr ago, so news ought to travel faast...
When creating my own newspaper, with some stuff from my already maintained scripts for my sims' profile pages, mixed with some headlines from my blog and ads for my many in-game business, it struck me that the game could actually have done something smilar. The game knows who married, was born or died. It even knows if a famous actress performed poorly in studio, or if some famous guy losrt or gained a fame star. It knows who won the latest Accolades.
I really miss the old newspapers. Found a cc for the newspaper object (did not get the chance to test it yet), but it will probably be without the actual news.
Do your sims spread news in any clever way? Do you keep any notes? Are your Journalists on the ball?;)
Here's my new newspaper, the Mazaloom Times.
6
Comments
Now the calendar in The Sims 4 has 28 days each season and sim years tend to go by very quickly now. I remember in the sims 3 we could choose what season to play in instead of each season rolling around like it does in the Sims 4.
I think it would be awesome if "Gossip" could randomly spit out a nugget or two of such info. Or checking social media timeline. Or watching whatever relevant TV channel.
sometimes they just find the information in their heads which is kind of spooky indeed 😌
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That sounds pretty awesome! I tried some selling/paying stuff myself, and agreee it gets too tedious. Today I keep a spreadsheet with every household's cash balance so it gets quicker to move money (updating with game as needed), but it still would be easier in-game. Perhaps you could sell those books on sales table, but then you would get random customers.
In my Sims 4 saves “the news” is background noise if anything. My sims would watch the news channel or more often, listen to talk radio to keep up with the latest announcements. Talk radio and the strangerville listening device (also news!😈) play an important part in my apocalypse saves.
If the newspaper made its return I’d most definitely use it. Then again, I would take any traditional communication device over those annoying cell phones, at least for most of my saves.
The gossip interaction, as @mightysprite suggests, would be a great way to spread the news in historical saves.
While I’m here I might as well share with you my communication device wishlist:
http://www.getfreeebooks.com/star-trek-original-series-fan-fiction-trilogy/
In 4, I don't feel like anything remotely interesting happens with unplayed households anyway. And to tell the truth, my sims are pretty boring as well. No drama
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If a well know sim dies then an author could write a biography, a journalist could take a photo of the urn/tombstone/write an article, musicians might name a song after them or an artist might paint a portrait from a photo to be displayed at their funeral/grave/family home.
Sims becoming famous might commission head shot/fashion photo shoots or album/book covers from painters/digital artists etc. Sims might order saucy/single/family/home photographs or painted artwork for loved ones and family.
Sims being born/growing up might call for baby photoshoots/portraits, entertainers for baby showers/kids parties/sweet 16s etc
Sims dying might prompt a funeral event, a sudden change of family fortunes (both good and bad) or a fight over inheritance causing a family rift etc.
Sims adopting pets could result in friends deciding they want a pet too, or maybe getting a puppy/kitten from that household if any are born.
Sims gaining (or losing) a hobby through gameplay preference prompts could cause changes in Clubs/Club memberships as sims join to indulge a new hobby or leave for greener pastures.
I use the PH advice prompts and discipline styles to flesh out the type of parent my sims are. Some are more strict and care about raising Responsible adults, where as others might have different priorities such as raising an Empathetic child.
Sims moving house, changing jobs, changing hobbies, growing up, building families also provides new business for Interior Decorators, Stylists and Nail Technicians.
In a rotational game, there is a lot you can use these prompts for.
The Sims 3 approach would really be the best of both worlds. I desperately want the newspaper back, but can understand why other people might not, so having it with the ability to cancel should be a reasonable compromise to meet everyone's needs.
For me, though, there are so many benefits to real newspapers:
(1) If you want a messy sim, they are a cheap and easy way to trash up the house. Love that free clutter! (In the truest sense of the word.)
(2) Now that we have recycling, they would be a great renewable source of material to recycle.
(3) As someone who loves crosswords puzzles IRL, I always loved to have my sims use the newspaper to build fun and/or logic skill (especially if they were broke/early in the game).
(4) I don't think we've ever actually seen this in past games, as far as I remember, but it would be cute to add an ability for the kids to make paper boats out of them, or for artistic sims to use them for origami/papier mache/etc. Maybe if we ever get a crafts/hobby pack, that would be an opportunity to bring back the papers and add this ability.
(5) I love @Simmerville's idea to have the paper incorporate actual news from the neighborhood. Didn't the original SimCity, way back in the day, have a feature where periodically an image of a newspaper front page would pop up with a few readable blurbs relevant to the changes you had made to the city? If EA could do that more than twenty years ago, surely it would be technically feasible to incorporate something like when you pick up a newspaper in your TS4 front yard.
The crossword also built Games Enthusiasm, iirc.
You could also compost the paper in the compost bin from Seasons.
I mean true the newspaper usually went to bin for me too but I think the issue was more that it was there everyday on your sims yard
I figure it would be fun if it came less often like once a week or something rather than every sim day
and sim would put it in the dang mailbox what with these americans throwing their papers on ground
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In the U.S., it is a violation of federal law to put anything in a mailbox other than United States Postal Service mail. So a private newspaper company putting their newspapers into the mailbox would not be permitted.
In theory, newspapers are placed neatly on the porch, but given that they used to be delivered by children or teenagers, and more commonly now, by poorly paid adult contractor employees, it's not surprising that they end up hurled all over the place.
So that is what's with the papers on the ground.