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How satisfied are you with AHQ?

Since the outsourcing of the bugs and gameplay issues forum section to the AHQ website the complains about user unfriendly design comes up regularily. Whats your experience with AHQ so far?

How satisfied are you with AHQ? 33 votes

Whats AHQ?
21%
Lukebarracuda1574SarahTheRedFroiljupkmnMiguelDiogodigitaltrashcan 7 votes
Cant be bothered with it.
9%
drake_mccartySavvySimmieRubyDoo 3 votes
Its a nightmare to navigate.
39%
nickibitswardGoldmoldarTiarellafruitsbasket101catitude5shnailehLuvMySimzpinneduphairPlainevilNorthDakotaGamerbirdonawiresmurfy77citysimmer 13 votes
Lets have a talk about how to improve the nightmare.
15%
CynnaTremayne4260Cupidthatsnotswegparadiseplanet 5 votes
Its ok.
15%
PlayerSinger2010Francl27Noree_Doreepuderosasimsmysterionz 5 votes
The gurus are reading AHQ?
0%

Comments

  • catitude5catitude5 Posts: 2,537 Member
    Its a nightmare to navigate.
    I wanted to post about the make out animation not working. I couldn't get it in, and it asked questions I couldn't answer. What a horrible mess it is.
  • TiarellaTiarella Posts: 661 Member
    Its a nightmare to navigate.
    We hates it, my precious; we hates it, we does! :grimace:

    I hardly ever bother with it.

    Went yesterday to add a 'me, too' to someone's bug report & took the service questionnaire afterwards. Really stupid questionnaire, because the multiple choice answers did not fit my situation, and they didn't have 'none of the above' or 'other' as a choice. I have no idea who that questionnaire was aimed at, but it sure wasn't us simmers going to AHQ to report bugs.
  • pinneduphairpinneduphair Posts: 918 Member
    Its a nightmare to navigate.
    I have used it in the past to report bugs, but it is a pain to navigate. Which often deters me from reporting them, unless it's something especially irritating. And the separation between the official forums and, really, any communication with Maxis/the SimGurus is odd to me. They already mainly speak to the community through twitter, and now we aren't even allowed to post about bugs here. Makes this site feel more like a Sims chat forum than an official forum for the game.
  • TiarellaTiarella Posts: 661 Member
    edited December 2018
    Its a nightmare to navigate.
    Agreed-- it's a very effective way to reduce the number of bug reports: discourage all but the most determined simmers from reporting.

    Of course, their explanations make sense, which makes it perfect--for them. They need the info they ask about our computers/packs/etc., and having all the reports provide the same info in the same format on the same website simplifies their job. But the layout is horrible (why use only the center of the page? Makes it hard to see the whole report at once, & that's assuming you were able to find the relevant report). On the TS4 bug report board itself, where the reports are listed, you can only see a few topics at a time. And somehow, the whole thing makes me feel claustrophobic. Not joking; I feel an instinctual repulsion ('run away, run away!'). Taken altogether, the cynical side of me believes it's all intended.

    edited for clarity
  • CupidCupid Posts: 3,623 Member
    Lets have a talk about how to improve the nightmare.
    I like the AHQ. I haven't had any problem using it myself. That said, if the average person doesn't find it user-friendly then that's problematic.
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  • Seera1024Seera1024 Posts: 3,629 Member
    This poll would have been better if it had all options in it. Including the ones for loving it.

    If the goal of this thread was to get EA to do something about what you feel are cons of AHQ, including options to show EA what proportion actually hate it vs actually love it would have been a lot better than the options given here.

    Better options given the question would have been:

    Very satisfied, Satisfied, Neutral/Never used it, Not satisfied, Very not satisfied. With prompts for everyone to post why they voted the way they did.

    Your poll only covers the neutral to very not satisfied. Doesn't cover the good options. And even if it was limited to the negative options to give EA a means to improve the options you have aren't very useful. Which puts too much bias/useless data into the poll results for EA to get any meaningful data on it.
  • ReksohReksoh Posts: 303 Member
    Seera1024 wrote: »
    This poll would have been better if it had all options in it. Including the ones for loving it.

    If the goal of this thread was to get EA to do something about what you feel are cons of AHQ, including options to show EA what proportion actually hate it vs actually love it would have been a lot better than the options given here.

    Better options given the question would have been:

    Very satisfied, Satisfied, Neutral/Never used it, Not satisfied, Very not satisfied. With prompts for everyone to post why they voted the way they did.

    Your poll only covers the neutral to very not satisfied. Doesn't cover the good options. And even if it was limited to the negative options to give EA a means to improve the options you have aren't very useful. Which puts too much bias/useless data into the poll results for EA to get any meaningful data on it.

    Yep. Exactly. Not seeing why 4 options practically saying the same thing were necessary along with one neutral response and zero positive ones.
  • BluebellFloraBluebellFlora Posts: 7,110 Member
    If you want feedback to be taken seriously it helps to be constructive in your criticism. Thankfully most of the responses on this thread have done that but a skewed poll to encourage a negative response defeats the whole point of it.

    AHQ is very different to this forum and serves a completely different purpose. Yes, you will need to take a few minutes to learn how to navigate it but it really is pretty obvious given the forum titles.

    If a user can't be bothered to post a bug or contribute to a thread requesting more information on a bug, how do you expect bugs to be brought to the devs attention? It's a jolly good thing that the majority of the community don't have the same mentality otherwise nothing would ever get fixed.
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  • BluebellFloraBluebellFlora Posts: 7,110 Member
    catitude5 wrote: »
    I wanted to post about the make out animation not working. I couldn't get it in, and it asked questions I couldn't answer. What a horrible mess it is.
    You 'couldn't get it in'? What do you mean by this, get in where? 'it asked questions I couldn't answer' are you referring to the bug report template? What specifically couldn't you answer? It helps to provide more information as the template provides the info needed to aid the helpers and CMs work out if your issue is actually a bug, or as a result of 3rd party content.
    Tiarella wrote: »
    Went yesterday to add a 'me, too' to someone's bug report & took the service questionnaire afterwards. Really stupid questionnaire, because the multiple choice answers did not fit my situation, and they didn't have 'none of the above' or 'other' as a choice. I have no idea who that questionnaire was aimed at, but it sure wasn't us simmers going to AHQ to report bugs.
    So pretty much the same as the poll in this thread?
    hyrulerose wrote: »
    I have used it in the past to report bugs, but it is a pain to navigate. Which often deters me from reporting them, unless it's something especially irritating. And the separation between the official forums and, really, any communication with Maxis/the SimGurus is odd to me. They already mainly speak to the community through twitter, and now we aren't even allowed to post about bugs here. Makes this site feel more like a Sims chat forum than an official forum for the game.
    The Gurus who are active on Twitter and these forums typically do not post at AHQ. Why can't you post a bug at AHQ? Crin has written an excellent guide here on how to navigate the forums.

    Tiarella wrote: »
    Agreed-- it's a very effective way to reduce the number of bug reports: discourage all but the most determined simmers from reporting.
    Actually, we encourage bug reports there. Bugs can't be looked into and hopefully fixed unless users leave feedback.
    Tiarella wrote: »
    Of course, their explanations make sense, which makes it perfect--for them. They need the info they ask about our computers/packs/etc., and having all the reports provide the same info in the same format on the same website simplifies their job. But the layout is horrible (why use only the center of the page? Makes it hard to see the whole report at once, & that's assuming you were able to find the relevant report). On the TS4 bug report board itself, where the reports are listed, you can only see a few topics at a time. And somehow, the whole thing makes me feel claustrophobic. Not joking; I feel an instinctual repulsion ('run away, run away!'). Taken altogether, the cynical side of me believes it's all intended.
    Yep I agree, I also don't like the layout. The links on the right side bar make the forum pages too narrow and less easy to view. Perhaps you could post your feedback at AHQ to add another voice? :)
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  • JoAnne65JoAnne65 Posts: 22,959 Member
    edited December 2018
    The options are:
    • Whats AHQ?
    • Cant be bothered with it.
    • Its a nightmare to navigate.
    • Lets have a talk about how to improve the nightmare.
    • Its ok.
    • The gurus are reading AHQ?

    So:
    • Neutral
    • Not using it
    • Negative
    • (an invitation to be) Constructive (in the comments section below)
    • Positive
    • Snarky? Or genuinely wondering?

    Anyway, nothing wrong with this poll, there’s an option for everyone and you can elaborate in the comments. Framing someone who is discouraged to post bugs for their own reasons as having ‘an attitude’ is getting personal and not very constructive (it’s not like people don’t want to report, they clearly do). If this poll gets a majority who says the site is ok, there is a minority that apparently doesn’t get how it works. If a majority states it’s a nightmare, they at least could look into that. Arguments why it’s a nightmare should be provided then of course. Maybe players weren’t aware Crinrict wrote that tutorial for instance? One could wonder if a site that needs a tutorial to see how it works is very functional by the way, a good website speaks for itself.

    I regret by the way people can”t discuss bugs over here. I could imagine the AHQ being strictly to report and this plce for people to discuss (temporary) solutions or tips. For me this site was my number 1 place to turn to when I had bugs or issues in the past (Sims 3), as well as Crinrict’s site. Don’t really understand why it couldn’t be a side by side thing. Crinrict’s site was very focused and to the point, this place is/was rather discussing things on a player’s level.
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  • Fonxi121994Fonxi121994 Posts: 457 Member
    AHQ is pretty good, but this poll is of course a bit biased...
    The changes came slowly at first. Most didn't realize, or didn't care, and accepted them. They chose a comfortable life.
  • CupidCupid Posts: 3,623 Member
    edited December 2018
    Lets have a talk about how to improve the nightmare.
    JoAnne65 wrote: »
    Anyway, nothing wrong with this poll,

    If the purpose of the poll was to ascertain any kind of useful information then no, there's a lot wrong with it. But I sort of overlooked that seeing as how I doubt whoever this feedback is directed to is going to be reading it since the AHQ is a platform that extends beyond the community for this game. But even if they would see this, I think the discussion would be a million times more valuable than the poll would.
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  • JoAnne65JoAnne65 Posts: 22,959 Member
    edited December 2018
    Cupid wrote: »
    JoAnne65 wrote: »
    Anyway, nothing wrong with this poll,

    If the purpose of the poll was to ascertain any kind of useful information then no, there's a lot wrong with it. But I sort of overlooked that seeing as how I doubt whoever this feedback is directed to is going to be reading it since the AHQ is a platform that extends beyond the community for this game. But even if they would see this, I think the discussion would be a million times more valuable than the poll would.
    A poll is meant to visualize opinions in one glimpse. If I'd be the webmaster of a website (I am as it happens) I'd look at that first because it will give a useful, general outcome. Thén scroll to the explanations for constructive tips or tops (what should stay, what could be improved). Somehow I think people are overlooking here that the people who started questioning this, resulting in this poll, want that site to be useful. They want those bugs out of their game. Everyone wants the same thing, 'bias' is not relevant here.

    Whether or not the right people will actually see this poll is not up to the person who started it. That's up to the people who run and support that site. Do they care. I hope they do.

    Maybe it's more constructive to start talking about that site (what do you consider clear, what do you consider not clear; maybe people can give each other tips even (like guiding to that tutorial)?) than about this poll (meta-discussion). Like I said, it represents all possible opinions.
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  • pinneduphairpinneduphair Posts: 918 Member
    Its a nightmare to navigate.
    hyrulerose wrote: »
    I have used it in the past to report bugs, but it is a pain to navigate. Which often deters me from reporting them, unless it's something especially irritating. And the separation between the official forums and, really, any communication with Maxis/the SimGurus is odd to me. They already mainly speak to the community through twitter, and now we aren't even allowed to post about bugs here. Makes this site feel more like a Sims chat forum than an official forum for the game.
    The Gurus who are active on Twitter and these forums typically do not post at AHQ. Why can't you post a bug at AHQ? Crin has written an excellent guide here on how to navigate the forums.

    No offense, but I think you completely misread what I said. I never stated that the gurus post on AHQ, but that communication with the dev team (not necessarily back and forth communication, but I would hope that they are reading the bug reports) is now mostly limited to Twitter and AHQ. Also never said that I can't post a bug on AHQ, but that we aren't allowed to post bugs "here," as in, on this forum.
  • Tremayne4260Tremayne4260 Posts: 3,126 Member
    Lets have a talk about how to improve the nightmare.
    The Sims Series isn't the only game EA has published over the past few years. ALL of the other games EA supports (FIFA, Battlefield, Dragon Age to name a few) post their bugs/glitches at AHQ. The Sims was probably one of the few communities still posting bug reports on their Official Forums. EA made the decision (like it or not) to consolidate ALL bug reports in one place.

    While Mods are great and all, about 90% of the problems with Sims 4 are caused by outdated Mods. Now, this doesn't mean don't use Mods, but when you see an announcement here that a new patch is available one of the first things you should do is to check the sites where you got your favorite mods from and make sure that they will still work with the latest patch or wait until those sites announce the latest update. I never patched my Sims 3 until I read that Twillian had update the mods to work with the latest patch.

    I know people are frustrated with certain bugs not being fixed, but finding the cause of those bugs isn't always an easy fix. Everyone has different graphics cards and processors and add ons, etc. Certain combinations could be the cause of the issue (as an example), but until people continue to provide information, these issues won't be fixed.

    If you think the Sims forums at AHQ need to be given different headings or organized differently, please provide examples. The Community Managers (CMs) are willing to listen.

    @crinrict and @BluebellFlora can only do so much to help you. While I know the Official forums are comfortable and you knew where to get your information, AHQ seems scary and unorganized at first. But once you know where to go, it's no different than here. You subscribe to the threads you want to keep track of and you will receive an email whenever someone new posts in it. If it seems like it's been a long time since there was any movement in a particular thread, it's ok to ask additional questions to move it back near the top again.
    Second Star to the Right and Straight on 'til Morning.
  • puderosasimspuderosasims Posts: 522 Member
    Its ok.
    Honestly, the only nightmare is this poll. Personally, I like AHQ a lot. I know a lot of people don't, obviously including you, and that's something which needs to be addressed and, of course, improved. But these passive aggressive options won't help the process, since they're heavily biased and not constructive at all.
    Origin ID: puderosasims | Simblr
    English isn't my first language, so please excuse any mistakes.
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  • PlayerSinger2010PlayerSinger2010 Posts: 3,267 Member
    Its ok.
    I like AHQ but there was no other positive option other than "ok." It's not very helpful when there isn't a more positive choice for people who genuinely do like it.
  • TiarellaTiarella Posts: 661 Member
    Its a nightmare to navigate.
    Perhaps those of you who dislike the options for this poll might like to make a similar poll with the options you'd prefer to see? :smile:

    Valid criticisms have been made, but many are mixed with what amount to personal attacks, and that's not ideal.
  • Sigzy05Sigzy05 Posts: 19,406 Member
    edited December 2018
    I never had a problem with it honestly. It's a different system from these forums so that's why I think people get a bit lost but if you pay attention and read the guide about posting bugs it's easier to comprehend.

    Also, it's a better system than these forums when it comes to organising and prioritising bugs imo. I just think these forums should have a direct link to the AHQ though, pinned in the first post of TS4's General Section, or maybe it's already there and I don't know.
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  • catitude5catitude5 Posts: 2,537 Member
    Its a nightmare to navigate.
    Cupid wrote: »
    I like the AHQ. I haven't had any problem using it myself. That said, if the average person doesn't find it user-friendly then that's problematic.

    I don't want to improve the nightmare. I want the nightmare GONE.
  • CupidCupid Posts: 3,623 Member
    edited December 2018
    Lets have a talk about how to improve the nightmare.
    JoAnne65 wrote: »
    A poll is meant to visualize opinions in one glimpse.
    Yeah but most polls offer more than one and a half opinions to choose from
    JoAnne65 wrote: »
    If I'd be the webmaster of a website (I am as it happens) I'd look at that first because it will give a useful, general outcome.
    Yes, if it were better written it would be useful. This one isn't telling anyone anything though, besides that the person who created and most of the people who voted on it don't like the AHQ. There are zero options for anyone that does like the AHQ ("it's ok" is not positive, it's neutral.) It's basically asking "Do you think the AHQ is flat-out garbage, or do you just think it's okay?" Nothing above or below or inbetween.
    JoAnne65 wrote: »
    Maybe it's more constructive to start talking about that site (what do you consider clear, what do you consider not clear; maybe people can give each other tips even (like guiding to that tutorial)?) than about this poll (meta-discussion). Like I said, it represents all possible opinions.
    It would be, but plenty of the people who don't like it haven't been very constructive thus far as to why:
    catitude5 wrote: »
    I don't want to improve the nightmare. I want the nightmare GONE.

    I mean, and this person was asked exactly what they find nightmarish about it and this is what they chose to reply instead ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
    Things like "it's a pain to navigate" or "I can't 'get in'" or "it asks me too many questions" don't really explain to someone who doesn't have those issues why they're a problem. People have to go into more detail.
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  • TiarellaTiarella Posts: 661 Member
    Its a nightmare to navigate.
    This isn't going to change, but I dislike having to go anywhere other than the official TS4 forum to report a problem. When playing other games, I haven't had to go to a website that includes multiple other games; I go to that game's forum, go to the section dedicated to reporting bugs, and report it there.

    Yup, this way is convenient for EA. It's not convenient for me. Therefore I don't bother reporting bugs, most of the time. I don't consider it my job; it's EA's job to do bug-testing. They've successfully outsourced that, for free, to their paying customers. That's how it is, and that stinks.
  • ReksohReksoh Posts: 303 Member
    edited December 2018
    Tiarella wrote: »
    This isn't going to change, but I dislike having to go anywhere other than the official TS4 forum to report a problem. When playing other games, I haven't had to go to a website that includes multiple other games; I go to that game's forum, go to the section dedicated to reporting bugs, and report it there.

    Yup, this way is convenient for EA. It's not convenient for me. Therefore I don't bother reporting bugs, most of the time. I don't consider it my job; it's EA's job to do bug-testing. They've successfully outsourced that, for free, to their paying customers. That's how it is, and that stinks.

    When people post bug reports on this forum they dont give any information. 90% of the time the bug is caused by someone using mods who thinks "this cant POSSIBLY be due to any of the mods I'm using!" and posts anyway. It's also much harder to search for existing "bug reports" on these forums and as a result people make multiple topics over the same bugs. The forum does not facilitate the process at all. It just allows people to make lazy bug reports as opposed to the AHQ which requires more information to be given.

    You don't need to think of reporting bugs as your job but at the same time they don't have to fix the bugs. We already know with the past three sims games that they have no problem moving onto the next version while the previous version still has a massive list of bugs. So the mentality that its not your "job" to report bugs is such a bad one to have if you want anything to be fixed.
  • TiarellaTiarella Posts: 661 Member
    Its a nightmare to navigate.
    This is their forum; they could make the section for bug reports require the same info as over in AHQ. They'd rather not; it's not as convenient for them.

    As for the other--I don't like corporations conditioning me for their financial advantage. They've successfully conditioned their customers to accept buggy games, do bug-testing, etc. Many of you are willing to do the latter. I cope with the former, and I'll on occasion do the latter if it's not too inconvenient. They make it unnecessarily inconvenient. Eh.
  • EA_LannaEA_Lanna Posts: 3,867 EA Community Manager
    edited December 2018
    Hey folks,

    I know AHQ is a big change from this forum and we're happy for you to let us know what you like and don't like about the space.

    Saying that, the forum rules will always apply here. This wasn't conducted in an constructive manner and there were posts that weren't ok. I've closed this thread as a result. I might sound a bit like a broken record at this point but I'd say it again, please be polite and kind with one another. You can disagree on things but there are many ways of having a discussion without attacking each other for these opinions. Let's keep things friendly.
    • New Simmers, take a moment to read through this thread.
    • The Help Center is hosted on Answers HQ. Check out EA_Mage's thread on why.
    • Please post all Sims 4 Bug Reports, Technical and Gameplay issues in the AHQ Sims 4 Section.
    • Here is a quick link to The Sims forum rules
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