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What's with this VIP Feedback?!

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  • ChazzzyChazzzy Posts: 7,166 Member
    edited September 2020
    Under normal circumstances, you either had to live near one of the “Labs”, which in the US is Orlando, Redwood, Seattle, and maybe one other place OR you had to provide your own transportation to get there. They were not flying anyone out or refunding tickets/hotels. They have some Labs in other countries like Canada and Sweden I remember.

    Since we’re dealing with COVID, it seems as though the Labs are now all remote. Does this mean that anyone within that country can now do them regardless of which state you’re in? Idk. Maybe someone can actually apply and let us know what’s up.
  • tmcevoy1121tmcevoy1121 Posts: 304 Member
    Have you ever done a Beta test? It is a small group and they are also not allowed to talk about what they did or saw. I was chosen for a Beta group when SWTOR was in testing.
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  • GoldmoldarGoldmoldar Posts: 11,966 Member
    Maybe they picked simmers who actually play the game regularly. I believe they can tell on Origin how often and how much people actually play.

    @simgirl1010 @Hermitgirl I love that you always try to see the positive in everything but we are talking about 15-20 people who are from the playtesters program and are restricted to US and Canada. That is by no means representative...

    I think smaller groups would be more productive and hopefully they'll have more sessions.

    Also, easier to control unless it was an stress type thing.
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  • SimmerGeorgeSimmerGeorge Posts: 2,724 Member
    Have you ever done a Beta test? It is a small group and they are also not allowed to talk about what they did or saw. I was chosen for a Beta group when SWTOR was in testing.

    @tmcevoy1121 Yeah but I don't think this is a testing process. They want to hear feedback on how to make the game better which I understand as ideas the make it better not just bug reports.
    I just think 15-20 people are not enough to represent even a part of us and since they get to talk, they get to voice the things they want. This section usually isn't used by Gurus to interact with Simmers, it just seems to be here.
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  • SimmerGeorgeSimmerGeorge Posts: 2,724 Member
    Maybe they picked simmers who actually play the game regularly. I believe they can tell on Origin how often and how much people actually play.

    @simgirl1010 @Hermitgirl I love that you always try to see the positive in everything but we are talking about 15-20 people who are from the playtesters program and are restricted to US and Canada. That is by no means representative...

    I think smaller groups would be more productive and hopefully they'll have more sessions.

    @simgirl1010 Yes but this is still not a representative way to gather feedback to me sorry.
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  • ScobreScobre Posts: 20,665 Member
    @Scobre If they picked you to give live feedback then I'm relieved since I agree with you most of the time.
    It would be boring if we agreed all the time. What I like about the Sims community is having different preferences. I work 7:30 to 4:00 right now for a temp 40 hour+ job, so I doubt I will be picked lately. But it is nice to have something to do until my temp hours reset each year. I was unemployed for 8 months when I signed up so still a newbie. It is nice it is a voluntary thing to do with free time. Who knows with the fires if it will hit my work or not. Still nice to view bugs here to report especially if some aren't feeling well that day to report too. Just shocked there is a program that lets you complain about bugs.
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  • simgirl1010simgirl1010 Posts: 35,701 Member
    Maybe they picked simmers who actually play the game regularly. I believe they can tell on Origin how often and how much people actually play.

    @simgirl1010 @Hermitgirl I love that you always try to see the positive in everything but we are talking about 15-20 people who are from the playtesters program and are restricted to US and Canada. That is by no means representative...

    I think smaller groups would be more productive and hopefully they'll have more sessions.

    @simgirl1010 Yes but this is still not a representative way to gather feedback to me sorry.

    What would you suggest for better representation?
  • ScobreScobre Posts: 20,665 Member
    edited September 2020
    15-20 people isn't much of a survey. Too small of a group. Glad to read that they look here, first. Or that was said to smooth our ruffled feathers. I'm just so very weary of things politic right now. Sadly, I wouldn't be surprised if those picked for this play-testing are more like-minded to the ones asking for opinions.

    It's what? about the same number of players as the game changers, isn't it?
    Yeah I think it a similar amount that get to play packs early too for the Game Changers program. Like DrGluon didn't get to play the Star Wars pack earlier than a sample group. No idea how they pick people. I know more than just the Sims games are used for both programs. SimVIP would know more about how the influencer/game Changer program works since they we're apart of it but I am sure it has changed since then too. Seems like it has grown since they were in it. Felt like they only had the same five people go to events back then.
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  • JACKIEJOYJACKIEJOY Posts: 802 Member
    I am just floored that they actually are back to playtesting and are letting known critics into the group.
  • RavenSpitRavenSpit Posts: 1,387 Member
    Did y'all know EA is selecting specific players to give feedback for the game? And it's supposed to be 15-20 players from the playtester program if I understand this correctly?
    Isn't our feedback in the forums good enough? Aren't we providing them with enough positive and negative critique for the game? Do our opinions even matter at this point or are they going to just handpick a small group of people to give feedback?
    I don't get it. This is too VIP plum for me. I don't know why they necessarily need to do this when they have so many of us in the feedback section writing threads for years now.

    A good thing about smaller groups is you get to hear everybody and not just the loudest people shouting....also this is in addition to and not instead of the forum, twitter, whathaveyou.

    and the forum...well...yes, there are many good ideas and constructive critique but also alot of BS especially the so often used "We/Us" terms (i.e. "We want this/We didn't ask for this") when in reality one person is speaking for themself but making it sound like they are every simmer out there...that happens alot on this forum, so if you are upset about people acting like they represent the whole playerbase why not start there?



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  • BluebellFloraBluebellFlora Posts: 7,110 Member
    RavenSpit wrote: »
    A good thing about smaller groups is you get to hear everybody and not just the loudest people shouting....also this is in addition to and not instead of the forum, twitter, whathaveyou.

    and the forum...well...yes, there are many good ideas and constructive critique but also alot of BS especially the so often used "We/Us" terms (i.e. "We want this/We didn't ask for this") when in reality one person is speaking for themself but making it sound like they are every simmer out there...that happens alot on this forum, so if you are upset about people acting like they represent the whole playerbase why not start there?

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  • stilljustme2stilljustme2 Posts: 25,082 Member
    Companies get feedback in many different ways. Some will have "focus groups" where they get small groups of people to talk about their reactions to a product. Others will use pollsters, monitor social media, etc.

    EA in general and the Sims team in particular do read these forums, read Twitter and Facebook, and now have these small group sessions. It's all about getting a variety of insight from different parts of the community. There are probably thousands of players who've never posted on the "official" forums, and their opinion matters just as much as the rest of us.
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  • Calico45Calico45 Posts: 2,038 Member
    The number is what is weird to me. Personally, I'd think 15-20 people is way too small of a number to be a accurate sample size for an audience of the Sims 4.

    Organizing forum stuff would be difficult, but an official survey should not be that big of a deal. However, this speaks to perhaps getting an inaccurate view of the audience due to too few participants.
  • BeardedgeekBeardedgeek Posts: 5,520 Member
    Calico45 wrote: »
    The number is what is weird to me. Personally, I'd think 15-20 people is way too small of a number to be a accurate sample size for an audience of the Sims 4.

    Organizing forum stuff would be difficult, but an official survey should not be that big of a deal. However, this speaks to perhaps getting an inaccurate view of the audience due to too few participants.

    It seems to me that to get 20 people who actually gives a fair view of things there have to be some VERY heavy selection going on with interviews, polls... Basically just grabbing 20 volunteers is a mistake if they intend for an ongoing focus group thing.

    The alternative is to rotate 20 players between each pack they are developing of course. Like "We need 20 focused family style players in different countries that can give us feedback on pack X"). That would work, obviously. But not the other way around: "Randomly pick 20 people to give some kind of focus on WHAT to make in the next pack".
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  • LoveMcQueen5683LoveMcQueen5683 Posts: 3,689 Member
    But who are they choosing and what are they asking? If they pick the wrong people who just say they love the game the way it is, nothing is going to improve.
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  • drake_mccartydrake_mccarty Posts: 6,114 Member
    But who are they choosing and what are they asking? If they pick the wrong people who just say they love the game the way it is, nothing is going to improve.

    Seems like that‘s the point. It’s always been the point.
  • HarukotyanHarukotyan Posts: 513 Member
    SimGuruMrE wrote: »
    We lurk, we look at feedback and discussions, we try to acquire feedback from various places including these forums, we cant always talk about what we are working on but we always start by searching the forums, sometimes though written communication can not be as good as a direct dialog in person or in this case in virtual person.

    @SimGuruMrE Are you familiar with WOW forums and their Blue Posts? To me this is a really good and honest way of communication. We are in feedback section of the forum. But all this feedback is one way. To the point you have actually assure that gurus are "lurking". At least monthly follow up would be very appreciated. Otherwise the point of feedback is somewhat lost I guess. Unless - and that's how I see it - silence is a fully intended marketing approach to build Hype. It looks like the main way of promoting Sims content these days. Yet at this point it should be obvious that due to how psychology of expectations and magical thinking phenomenon work it mostly leads to disappointment and outrages like the recent one. So probably written communication is still better than silence?
  • SimGuruMrESimGuruMrE Posts: 35 SimGuru
    Harukotyan wrote: »
    SimGuruMrE wrote: »
    We lurk, we look at feedback and discussions, we try to acquire feedback from various places including these forums, we cant always talk about what we are working on but we always start by searching the forums, sometimes though written communication can not be as good as a direct dialog in person or in this case in virtual person.

    @SimGuruMrE Are you familiar with WOW forums and their Blue Posts? To me this is a really good and honest way of communication. We are in feedback section of the forum. But all this feedback is one way. To the point you have actually assure that gurus are "lurking". At least monthly follow up would be very appreciated. Otherwise the point of feedback is somewhat lost I guess. Unless - and that's how I see it - silence is a fully intended marketing approach to build Hype. It looks like the main way of promoting Sims content these days. Yet at this point it should be obvious that due to how psychology of expectations and magical thinking phenomenon work it mostly leads to disappointment and outrages like the recent one. So probably written communication is still better than silence?

    We tend to interact on twitter and social media channels, but I've said it in another post on the forums but I think it applies here so I am going to copy and paste the response here...

    "I know The SimGurus and quite a few members of the development team read through these forums, though I know we dont post often.

    I dont want to speak for other Gurus but I have seen a few calls for more interactions and discussions from Gurus on the official forums through out reddit and our forum, so in a effort to address this and have more transparency I will try to comment, answer questions, and post here more."
  • IceyJIceyJ Posts: 4,641 Member
    edited September 2020
    Hermitgirl wrote: »
    Why can't there be multiple ways to receive and process feedback for the game? Why is it bad to talk to simmers one on one also? They have access to the forums already, how do you know they aren't utilizing this info? I've seen many twitter posts from gurus that indicate yes we are very aware of things and I take that at face value personally. Being aware and being able to actually work with suggestions that may never be possible or might not be possible in this game for a long time are very different things. They can use these ideas if they want but the forums are kind of hard to wade through and I don't feel are as representative as people like to think they are.
    I know I'd be happy to get that email personally as a simmer.
    Either way I'm sure their play testing applications will soar due to this.

    @Hermitgirl I'm not saying it's bad. I'm just saying they are obviously not reading, applying or even responding to the feedback we give them over here. I have not seen a Guru come to this forum in years and answer a question or say something. They seem to be ignoring everything we say but now suddenly 15 random people get to livestream with EA? This is VIP privilage.
    You know what is less representative than the forums? Choosing just 15 people. When you have 30 million people who have downloaded this game yet ask 15 people for feedback I think there's a problem.
    We ask for more transparency yet we get a livestream where only 15 people can say their opinions and we aren't even allowed to know what they said. How could anyone think this is helpful. Please explain?

    They absolutely read the feedback forum. That's what it's for, and they drop into other categories every now and then. Who cares how many people they chose? Let them do their jobs instead of worrying about a few simmers.
  • SimmingalSimmingal Posts: 8,885 Member
    edited September 2020
    I feel like small group is better than big one

    because my thinking is in big groups there is so much different ideas that the ideas get lost unheard scattered and people go back into echoing same sentences

    which is why making grand survey isn't always the most productive way to go about it

    but I also think the problem comes in
    "are these players all same group do they all just want the same thing and are they good people to ask about this specific thing?"

    like would i ask lilsimsie about dragons? nah. i dont think that be very useful

    would i ask gordy about dragons? absolutely.

    and I also think its rather odd to only ask american/ canadian people when they do it online and location really should not matter but idk maybe there is some reason

    all in all they really should just read forums for 5 min and they would already know what we want

    like it isn't mystery there isn't xfile here
    asking won't get you abducted
    (i think)

    just shoot people with random questions outta nowhere and you'll have the truth

    also i think this is probably either about update they have been working on or new ep testing and theyve been doing it for other packs and updates too so i wouldn't hope they suddenly go like "we heard all your complaints and fixed everything"
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  • ClarionOfJoyClarionOfJoy Posts: 1,945 Member
    SimGuruMrE wrote: »
    Harukotyan wrote: »
    SimGuruMrE wrote: »
    We lurk, we look at feedback and discussions, we try to acquire feedback from various places including these forums, we cant always talk about what we are working on but we always start by searching the forums, sometimes though written communication can not be as good as a direct dialog in person or in this case in virtual person.

    @SimGuruMrE Are you familiar with WOW forums and their Blue Posts? To me this is a really good and honest way of communication. We are in feedback section of the forum. But all this feedback is one way. To the point you have actually assure that gurus are "lurking". At least monthly follow up would be very appreciated. Otherwise the point of feedback is somewhat lost I guess. Unless - and that's how I see it - silence is a fully intended marketing approach to build Hype. It looks like the main way of promoting Sims content these days. Yet at this point it should be obvious that due to how psychology of expectations and magical thinking phenomenon work it mostly leads to disappointment and outrages like the recent one. So probably written communication is still better than silence?

    We tend to interact on twitter and social media channels, but I've said it in another post on the forums but I think it applies here so I am going to copy and paste the response here...

    "I know The SimGurus and quite a few members of the development team read through these forums, though I know we dont post often.

    I dont want to speak for other Gurus but I have seen a few calls for more interactions and discussions from Gurus on the official forums through out reddit and our forum, so in a effort to address this and have more transparency I will try to comment, answer questions, and post here more."


    SimGurus should post Dev Diaries like a lot of game studios do.


  • SimGuruMrESimGuruMrE Posts: 35 SimGuru
    SimGuruMrE wrote: »
    Harukotyan wrote: »
    SimGuruMrE wrote: »
    We lurk, we look at feedback and discussions, we try to acquire feedback from various places including these forums, we cant always talk about what we are working on but we always start by searching the forums, sometimes though written communication can not be as good as a direct dialog in person or in this case in virtual person.

    @SimGuruMrE Are you familiar with WOW forums and their Blue Posts? To me this is a really good and honest way of communication. We are in feedback section of the forum. But all this feedback is one way. To the point you have actually assure that gurus are "lurking". At least monthly follow up would be very appreciated. Otherwise the point of feedback is somewhat lost I guess. Unless - and that's how I see it - silence is a fully intended marketing approach to build Hype. It looks like the main way of promoting Sims content these days. Yet at this point it should be obvious that due to how psychology of expectations and magical thinking phenomenon work it mostly leads to disappointment and outrages like the recent one. So probably written communication is still better than silence?

    We tend to interact on twitter and social media channels, but I've said it in another post on the forums but I think it applies here so I am going to copy and paste the response here...

    "I know The SimGurus and quite a few members of the development team read through these forums, though I know we dont post often.

    I dont want to speak for other Gurus but I have seen a few calls for more interactions and discussions from Gurus on the official forums through out reddit and our forum, so in a effort to address this and have more transparency I will try to comment, answer questions, and post here more."


    SimGurus should post Dev Diaries like a lot of game studios do.


    I would love to write some dev diaries, I might be able to get @SimGuruConor to join me, I will look into this
  • bookish_sammybookish_sammy Posts: 223 Member
    @SimGuruMrE that would be awesome. I know a lot of us would love more insight into what's going on behind the scenes. We understand that you guys are busy, but it's nice to feel included. I've been with this franchise since 2000, and I really miss the forum interactions with Gurus and the more frequent updates from the dev team.
  • BrittanyChick22BrittanyChick22 Posts: 2,130 Member
    I agree, they have a entire forum to collect feedback from. Just seems random, I feel like this has something to do with the recent blasklash over starwars.
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  • Chicklet453681Chicklet453681 Posts: 2,431 Member
    Let me quote what EA_LeeLoo stated when I asked if she actually sent feedback from the "Feedback" section to the team:
    @Chicklet453681 Yes, I do pass on feedback.
    I understand that it might not always feel like it but I'd like to assure you and remind you that just because someone from the forum team hasn't replied to a thread/post it doesn't automatically mean it wasn't read. :relaxed:
    With all the great discussions here on the forum, I obviously can't relay everything but I'm trying my best. However, I would also like to mention that not all things shared here can be implemented into the game or acted on right away - but again, that doesn't mean that the community isn't heard

    So someone on the forum is definitely sending some of our feedback back the Gurus and Dev Team.
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