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EA, Communication Really Is The Key...
judithmgalloway
Posts: 104 Member
(WARNING: May Be Long And Boring)
Well, here we are, over a month after the release of Ambitions, and as a regular visitor to this forum, I think I'd be right in saying that there definitely are some problems with the expansion and its associated patch (for those without the expansion itself). Doubtless some of the problems people are having are to do with custom content, computers that aren't really able to handle the game and/or unsupported hardware - I fully realise this, and I don't expect EA to provide solutions for such things. Fair enough.
I also realise that there are some people who are having no issues at all - but there are several problems that are showing up here time and time again. These are the same problems being reported by people with different systems, different levels of computer knowledge and experience etc. Let's use the "running glitch" as an example - where Sims suddenly start to run everywhere (one suggestion is this is caused by playing tag, but AFAIK this hasn't been confirmed by EA); there is a work around for this (remove the offending Sims from the household in Edit Town and then put them back), and no, not everyone has experienced it, but the point I'm driving at is that the number of different people with different set-ups reporting it indicates it may very well be an EA glitch that occurs when factors X, Y and Z are combined.
There are people here who won't have a word said against EA and blame every reported glitch on the end-user(s) reporting them, and there are people here who apparently view EA as some kind of evil empire which only exists to bring misery to gamers. Common sense says neither of these views are actually very realistic (though the people holding them are perfectly entitled to their own opinions).
What I'm not understanding, a month after release, is the complete and utter silence from EA. Doesn't anyone in the company understand the concept of customer relations? Of communicating with the people buying their products? Don't they understand about good PR? How hard would it be to issue a statement that said "Well, we've been looking into these issues and we can't replicate them..." or "We think we know what's causing X problem, so bear with us while we find a solution..." or even "We're hoping to have a patch for you in X days/weeks"...?
I just want to know what they think might be causing some of the regularly reported issues and whether or not they think they can offer a fix - surely that's not too much to ask as a paying customer?
Personally, after much fiddling, reinstalling and computer voodoo, all I'm suffering from is the lack of CAW, the running glitch, the occasional "bed ceases to be accessible", and a few other minor bits and pieces. Annoyances rather than game-breakers. But it's disheartening to show up here every day just to listen to the deafening official silence on whether or not there are identifiable, reproduceable bugs and if there are, whether or not EA thinks there is something they may be able to do to fix them.
C'mon, EA, I don't expect miracles - just keep us in the loop, hm? Please?
(Inevitably, someone's going to strongly disagree with what I've said, and that's fine - I'm only stating my opinion, I'm not speaking for anyone else. Have your say, by all means - but don't flame me, OK? I have too much painful stuff going on IRL to be made miserable over my personal thoughts on a game.)
:-)
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Comments
What they don't real9ize is that they are losing customers because of their awful customer service and glitch-ridden products, which kills their profits in the long run. But no one at EA seems capable of making the connection.
guru's...if you read this, i'd think you'd come up with your own thread or sticky commenting back with info you won't tell us, and for unknown reasons you don't respond.
the majority of sims players computers can handle this game. it's not our problem.
if the guru's and testers at ea were tech savvy, they would have known what programs are out there for computer users, and which are the most popular and they would test for problems interfering from those...ya know, cuz super tech savvy people are up to date on that sort of stuff...are the testers and guru's keeping up on technology?
most companies have a phone number to call and get tech support...but not ea....and thats cuz they have more complaints and problems to deal with than most....
if none of those are reasons for whats going on ea....then set me straight.
no, not a simmer or someone on the forum, cuz you probably don't know anything anyways....i'd rather see an ea worker or a guru set me straight.
You know this site in general is poorly run. Its breaks often, the nerd page runs riot....or the java script comes up leading you to constanly refresh.
I some times think back to the TS2 forums, although old, there was atleast some sort of maxiod/mod present, if a thread go out of hand a maxiod would step in and warn peeps to stop, and lead to a ban if it continued. This was usually enough to stop it in its tracks. Here nothing happens...those threads run riot, if its deleted, the person just makes another one....and the wkends are the worst!
Lol... enough about my hate peeves with this site and back to the topic
EA in general, like some simmers said above, EA are known for bad customer service, unfortunaly this seems never set to change.
Also they will never openly admit to problems or bad patches as this could open an ugly can of worms....I mean lawsuits for damages to peoples pc's for releasing a buggy game, (remember the securom fiasco near the end of the TS2 series) or refunds for people wishing to return a a game that is unplayable on there systems. So they choose to stay mute....that way they dont implicate themselves with anything.
Sad aint it
I was playing Dragon Age yesterday (another EA title). I've never had a problem with it. Maybe I'm lucky, but it's never glitched, it's never crashed - it just works. Compare that to wrestling with Sims 3... nightmare.
I'm just so utterly fed up with the complete silence from EA - as I know a lot of people are. I simply don't understand why they think silence is less damaging than keeping people up to speed. It amazes me. And not in a good way. *sigh*
:-)
Yeah, you would think a company as big as EA would have a customer relations team specifically for their sims division. They have said over and over, through the years, that The Sims players are the most passionate games in the world. I think relying on their out sourced company to deal with us is a big mistake, but hey! what do I know? I'm just some dork at the other end of the computer who owns her own business and has never had a major problem with a client. But that probably doesn't count. :roll:
Some kind of announcement would be nice, but really, the bottom line is that we will see it, when we see it, and not before. Telling us it's coming will only inspire some EA haters to post more than they are doing now. Of course, they are going to post no matter what. If they see a new color on the web site, they'll screem about the choice of ...blue instead of red. :roll:
Anyway, it sure will be nice when we get that patch, unless of course the patch needs to be patched. I have lost one of my long time sims who had earned over a million simoleans. He went to china and became invisible. I tried to reset him and I went back and the UI became invisible too. Now I probably will never get him back.
cyn
However, I have been playing more recently (hooray for summer hols) and little bugs have started to annoy me.
My Sim runs everywhere for no reason and I had the 'excited towns-people cheering at the town hall' issue.
I think gaming is fun and there are more serious things in life to get actually upset about. However, EA have a stinking attitude. The gurus appear to know little about the actual game and act more like play-scheme leaders trying to distract us from issues by playing games or pointing at new and shiny things.
Anyway, I might go and play now. It's sort of fun watching my sim rampage around everywhere.
Px
I've said things along the same lines frequently over the past few weeks (after I got the game to play at all after the latest patch). I know some Simmers want to know when the patch will be ready, but I care a lot less about when than I do what.
I know I think better of people who are open and honest than with those who are not. Same goes for businesses. I'm not sure I entirely buy the legal liability argument, but I'd love to know why EA is staying so silent about these issues. From what I remember, they were a lot more forthcoming with Dragon Age, another EA product.
Anyway, I know I'd feel much better about the glitches I'm having if there was some official acknowledgment that they were being looked at. I don't need to know when it will be solved, just that it's a known issue and is being worked on. Ideally, a sticky would eliminate some of the many duplicate posts as well as letting me know help is on the way.
I'm with all of you -- very disappointed in the lack of quality customer service and too-infrequent communication around here. I understand that there are certain SimGurus for certain tasks around here, but we're barely getting ANY word. Surely they don't expect us all to fix EVERY game issue amongst ourselves with barely any Official help. Third party modders have come to the rescue time and time and time again, and some people's games would be nearly unplayable without those mods.
I've always wondered how they could possibly view this as good business practice, particularly with how strained the economy is and with how much EA has suffered in losses. It's possible that EA has made several cuts in their Sims division, but it shouldn't come at the expense of customer service. So many people have made an exodus from this Forum and just try to deal with their game glitch issues in other forums and even in chatboxes. And there's only so much we all can do without Official help, especially with some of the more major problems (non CC and computer spec-related).
It's frustrating and disappointing, and I don't have much confidence that many of the Powers-That-Be TRULY, CLEARLY understand this or, to be honest, really even give a fudge. The view is completely different down here from the perspective of the players/customers (i.e., the people helping to keep those EA paychecks nice and fat).
"If you don't talk to your cat about catnip... who will?"
"Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes.
That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes."
Actually some players have resolved more problems as of late than EA has in quite a while. So don't knock a million simmers who you know nothing about because your angry.
I wondered about that. However, I wonder if it is meant to be more about the issue of fixes and patches. People are quick around here to jump on rumours so it is hard to know what is going on.
But you're right about the modding comunity. At least we can always count on them.
I don't think I'm wrong in saying that under the current management, there is a sort of contempt for those of us who are "casual" players, rather than hard-core "let's focus on leveling-up/winning the game" players. Let's face it, we Simmers are nothing more than a cash cow for EA. The problem with EA is that they falsely assume that the majority of us are teens (we're not), and that we'll buy anything as long as it has the Sims 3 label on it...(we won't)...and sooner or later, even the most loyal fans get fed up with being treated like second class citizens.
"We Don't Care If You LIKE The Game, Just As Long As You BUY The Game!"
I Disapprove (Naturally)
I Took The Pledge!
http://aboutus.ea.com/executive-sectionofficers.action
...but funnily enough there is no way for us lesser mortals to contact them to ask if they are aware of the rising levels of discontent amongst their customers. Then again, perhaps it's EA's investors who should be prodding people with sharp sticks to force open a line of communication. Anyone know how to buy EA stock?! :?
http://investors.ea.com/
🐸🐸🐸🐸 >.< Sooo LoLLieS!! >.<
And Pescado. 8)