Forum Announcement, Click Here to Read More From EA_Cade.
So is mobile now the priority in sims development overall?
Triplis
Posts: 3,048 Member
Because that's what the forum structure implies, to me. Sims 4 and 3 shoved into the same small space like they're part of the past.
Mobile gets its own large section. One could argue that because Mobile is at the bottom, that's intended to show that it's not taking over priority.
But then, what's going to happen if you find that Mobile needs more forum categories? Is it going to get even more forum real estate?
I can see these forums are a nightmare to organize, but that doesn't stop me from finding this design off-putting. Due to the timing of adding/highlighting Mobile, it doesn't look to me like an actual effort to make the organization better. Just an effort to ensure that Mobile will be seen. Doesn't sit well with me.
I don't feel welcome in this forum format right now. I feel like I want to leave.
Maybe it'll sound stupid, but I'm usually one of those march of progress people and this is one situation where I think I missed the memo. It just seems like this devalues TS4 to help highlight Sims Mobile. And TS4, I emphasize, is still being developed for? I dun get it.
I wish I could at least understand the decision-making process at work here.
Mobile gets its own large section. One could argue that because Mobile is at the bottom, that's intended to show that it's not taking over priority.
But then, what's going to happen if you find that Mobile needs more forum categories? Is it going to get even more forum real estate?
I can see these forums are a nightmare to organize, but that doesn't stop me from finding this design off-putting. Due to the timing of adding/highlighting Mobile, it doesn't look to me like an actual effort to make the organization better. Just an effort to ensure that Mobile will be seen. Doesn't sit well with me.
I don't feel welcome in this forum format right now. I feel like I want to leave.
Maybe it'll sound stupid, but I'm usually one of those march of progress people and this is one situation where I think I missed the memo. It just seems like this devalues TS4 to help highlight Sims Mobile. And TS4, I emphasize, is still being developed for? I dun get it.
I wish I could at least understand the decision-making process at work here.
Mods moved from MTS, now hosted at: https://triplis.github.io
12
Comments
The forums as they were previously laid out was not user friendly and was overwhelming for new users to figure out. None of the PC sections have been replaced they have simply been condensed into their own areas with the top level sections being visible to click on.
You will see that TS4 is still an important section as it sits above TS3 and older content within the main game area.
This has been my intention for a while to reorganize this space in the current state you see, our mobile announcement just set the perfect time to do so.
I think it's awesome that the devs kept their promise to the original early buyers and delivered on toddlers, but after the toddlers came out and the supernatural GP for supernatural players, it kinda seems that there isn't much going on for this game this year in regards to marketing. I reckon there will be continued development to ensure that all the old game basics will be restored in EPs and GPs, but it doesn't look like anything novel which sets the PC game apart is going to be in this iteration. Just really good looking sims...
I think we have pets coming out for the EP, no? So if you like the game as is, I'm pretty sure there will be sufficient development. I'm personally looking forward to Pets if that is the next EP.
If you're still waiting for the game to impress... I wouldn't hold my breath. I'm not anticipating any game changers
It is also quite ridiculous that 4+ games are getting the same amount of space on the forums as 2 mobile games. To me that's not proportional representation.
And I say "4 + games" because it seems like everyone has forgotten that other spin offs outside The Sims Medieval exist. So no matter where I would post topics about them, I would be fairly off topic.
The last complaint is that by losing a shared creative courner we're losing much of community unity. @mastressalita was running a shared story index since 2005 and destroying any shared community space you're destroying any chance for anything like that existing. Meaning you're purposefully alienating and driving out a big part of the community.
@SimGuruDrake
These changes are very anti user-friendly to the mainstream, more popular PC players. You know, the ones that use this site more than any Sims spinoff game. Sections that were easily accessible from the main page are no longer accessed without extra clicks. On mobile, I have to click THREE times to get to a sub-category I used to be able to click ONCE to. I believe I saw a tweet from SimGuruGraham who mentioned that adding extra steps in a UI is a sign of error/failure, or something to that degree. That's quite relevant.
Furthermore, I don't know why General Discussion would be renamed to "Social Corner." Seemed like someone just had the craving to change names around for no purpose whatsoever other than confusion, which you stated you were going for the opposite effect.
Then, I look at The Sims mobile, and they have their sub-categories all nicely laid out on the main forum page with latest threads even highlighted on the right side -- something now omitted for us PC players.
This just seems like it is being made easier for the (not even existant) The Sims Mobile fan base to access their respective forum, while we, the PC fan base, have to struggle. If it is to be called fair, I think their category should be "cleaned up" into multiple sections that they have to click twice or three times to access their game's forum sub-categories.
I see no reason why headings cannot break up the categories on one page with different forum categories all listed there. What you consider user friendly and organized, I find to be entirely disfunctional and messy compared to how it was setup in the past. New users shouldn't have to wade through 2-3 pages before finding a subcategory they should all be listed in one place as they previously were.
Equal? Really? So... why no child boards for Sims Mobile, hmm...? Can't be that it's because it's not a PC game, since Sims Freeplay has child boards.
This smacks of Orwell:
"All boards are equal, but some boards are more equal than others"
I think you're great, but I don't believe this.
The Sims Mobile literally has full priority on the forums. It has Direct Access from the main page
Insta: https://instagram.com/jkarajs?igshid=oef2ymrand3g
When I came here today after having been blocked from the boards for a full 24 hours (you couldn't just have an announcement stating that the boards were down for maintenance and to just try again later? You had to make everyone think they'd been banned by saying they were blocked and didn't have permission to see the boards!? Really?), I was really frustrated to have to hunt and peck to try and find the Sims 2 boards and to see that we've now been shoved to the back even further than we were before. If Sims 3 and 4 can have their very own sections, why can't the TS2 boards?
I completely agree with @nanashi-sims: Animal Farm totally!
Please stop making us feel like we're throwaways, @SimGuruDrake.
1. This is a EA / Maxis owned forum space. How we reorganize the forums is up to us.
2. The Sims Mobile section has a total of 6 sections, including The Sims Freeplay section which includes a news and discussion area.
3. The Sims PC section has a total of 47 sections across TS4, TS3, TS2, TS, and Medieval.
4. The "childs" category is simply the name this forum system uses to recognize "sub forums" it is not a slight to anyone.
While you may not personally agree to this change and while it may not be easy for you I am not going to adjust the forum back to its previous layout. We made the choice to have a top level focus for the PC products where players can choose which area they go into and can go into the more details sections once they click through.
The PC product sits ABOVE the Mobile product to not make you feel as if the Mobile product took precedent. If we had kept the old layout then you would be more upset that both mobile products would be sitting above TS3 and the older PC products (because they absolutely would be above them.)
Also yes, I did put up an announcement message on the forums stating they would be going down at 1PM PT on Monday and I tweeted about it twice from my SimGuru account.
I frequent several forums that are organized that way. It has nothing to do with the ages of forum participants.
Yep, and this attitude/response pretty much sums up the way you feel about us...
If I didn't love and appreciate you all I wouldn't have added the TS2 space in the first place when NanashiSims requested it. But the reality is that TS2 is a title we no longer support with development or updates nor is it available to purchase on Origin.
Nobody's disagreeing with you there, @SimGuruDrake. We're disagreeing with your initial post stating that forums are being presented equally. Clearly priority is being given to Sims Mobile when it comes to the real estate--so your initial statement seems more like an alternative fact.
* Latest posts do not show for PC games, so it's not like community activity is being highlighted, and mobile is the only game-related forum section that has individual boards instead of being grouped into child boards, meaning that all of the latest posts and activities are highlighted for this game alone. This is a conscious design decision, no? Sims Mobile new, no?
* Squishing all the PC boards together ABOVE the Mobile forum section does not change the overall design. The header with the Home icon sits at the very top of the page, but does that make anyone think that it's more important than the forums themselves? I reckon it doesn't.
At the end of the day, it is EA's decision... we get it. But this a feedback forum, so this is FEEDBACK. Some of us don't like the new design, but to be fair, some players who post here frequently like it a lot. You're not going to make everyone happy, so it is what it is.
I love that you got rid of "Memory Lane" and made the TS2 forum into a proper forum.
I don't like that new focus is mobile because I have the same worry that Triplis has. I mean, I like TS4, but I'm not too into it and would be crushed if this is the last PC game of the Sims. I'm not going to kid, I hope that section doesn't become active, but if it does oh well.
Frankly, I prefer when you keep it real.
The size of forum sections between the PC product and the mobile product are a huge difference, which I outlined above. If you want to see only The Sims 4 categories you can go into that section. If you only want to see The Sims 3 categories you can go into that section. Both of those areas have a huge amount of categories and now sit under a hub for "The Sims" rather than just individual sections you have to scroll down the site to reach. Yes, I understand The Sims Mobile section has visible categories but it has four and will only have four where as the TS4 section alone as a total of 6 plus multiple sub categories underneath totaling it out to 26.
Additionally, the way this forum service works because we now have a "The Sims" main category the other sections underneath are considered sub categories and the categories listed underneath them are considered sub-categories which is why they are listed in the format that they are.
But let's try not to tell others how they feel.
Edit: Instead, let's try to keep it focused on how we feel and what our feedback is. For example, I have a need for safety and stability, and this forum was one of many pieces in my life that I subconsciously considered as a place of stability. With the layout having changed in a way that is significant to me, I'm having to re-adjust my treatment of it as a place of stability. If you would like to communicate or better understand your needs and are struggling with finding the words, this may help: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_human_needs
Many of us are not raised in a way that gives us a very effective needs vocabulary.
And nothing is being created for TS3 anymore either, is it? Yet it still has its own section and isn't being lumped in with other games and treated like the black sheep of the family, pushed out of the way as though we're completely unwanted even though again, we're still a thriving community with new people arriving all the time who want to talk about the TS2 game and still play the game... You say you care about us, but your actions by the way the boards are now set up just don't match, and it's upsetting some of us.
so essentially the answer can be summed up as "we don't care about customer satisfaction, nor ease of use!".
Nice. Why do we even have this feedback section at all then? Clearly customers are simply not a priority to EA and clearly nobody cares what we have to say.
it has nothing to do with psychological needs or attachment. We came here to give functional feedback on the fact that the forums are much harder to navigate now (I can not imagine being a new user and needing to go into every child board in order to learn what sub-sections are inside it) and that we lost some "all sims" threads that now have no space here and aren't welcome here (together with some very important storytelling simmers).
We were told that this is EA's forum and that EA can run it however they see fit and our feedback will not change anything. Further communication is obviously moot because our feedback is not appreciated, nor valued. So essentially this whole section can be deleted now.
What are you referring to exactly? No sections have been deleted --some may have been merged or split (the TS3 UK section was merged with the general TS3 section as it was inactive and the "Creative Corner" was split back to being in the proper game areas.)
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/861629/the-stories-and-legacies-index-submit-your-stories/p68
I can also copy paste some of the posts:
essentially a shared space of some sort in between games is badly needed. Kind of interesting how we're all lumped into one forum, yet segregated into our own little courners. Without said space, there's now an audience that feels directly alienated (that includes our librarian in question, that feels like despite working for 12 years she is not an appreciated nor valued customer).
In the same line of thought - if I was to explore The Sims Life Stories, The Sims Busting Out, The Sims on consoles and the likes, I would have nowhere to discuss these games. I suppose if there was just all sims general, I would go there. Currently I would go to "The Sims" general, however it's meant to be dedicated to The Sims 1, so I would still feel slightly off topic.
Nah, there is a difference between receiving feedback and making decisions based on it. EA should have a forum which enables forum users to voice their opinion about the game and likewise there should be a forum which enables forum users to voice their opinions about the forum itself. But they don't need to make any changes based on the feedback.
That said, the only way to as users to get the forum re-prioritised is for the Sims Mobile forum to become a dead forum. If the majority of forum users are pro-PC Sims, then let's see how it plays out... and even then there is no guarantee that there will be changes.
Apparently, forum users were requesting this update and they are really excited about it. I agree with your ease of use comments and was annoyed with how arbitrary the update seemed, but I saw other posters were thanking the forum front-end devs for this update. So EA was listening... just not to us since we weren't complaining
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/profile/king_of_simcity7
he said he actively sought help from support even and he did not get a single answer.
I am actively working on figuring out what is going on with his account. It's definitely an oddity and hasn't occurred for anyone else to my knowledge.