Online Comics

I had ment to include a discussion about the online comics phenomenon (scroll down to 'storytelling' within link) that emerged in Sims 1 as a possibility for turning Sims into a content platform for writing, not just reading. Unfortunately I got really off-track trying to finish up UCLA/apply for grad schools and it never quite made it in. As it turns out, in Sims 2 they totally enhanced the album creation tools, greatly enhancing the possible ways a teacher could connect Sims2 with the class. So, basically ...

In Sims 1 the developers provided a tool where players could take screenshots of their families/houses and put them on the web to show others about the progress of their game. Rather than just putting the pictures and some simple title "This is my family at the swiming pool", people started dreaming up highly ellaborate narratives and publishing full length comics based on their screenshots from the Sims 1.

I guess the developers noticed this, because in Sims 2 they added tons of documentation/annotation/publication features. Here are screenshots of a couple of the features -- see sims2.com for more: