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Pets issues on the Mac: my conversation with EA

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  • shaulablackshaulablack Posts: 18 New Member
    edited January 2012
    I have a new mac with Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and Radeon 6750, and my game still crashes, so I don't think that's the problem.
    But I don't know if my problem is the same as yours, since I was able to play at first, just a problem with not being able to edit pets (they became deformed), but t worked perfectly. It started crashing after I patched to 1.29, but not exactly after, 2 weeks laters. It now crashes after one minute play. And I'm sorry, EA, but our macs do fulfill the game requirements!

    I'm very displeased that the problem comes from before the patch and even after its release, it persists.
  • BalooeyesBalooeyes Posts: 4
    edited January 2012
    I'm glad your game works now but no one should have to buy a new Mac or update to Snow Leopard if theirs works perfectly okay and everything else runs fine on it (I know you had to buy a new one because of an. Especially since a new Mac would be more than $1000 alone AND the cost of the game would be added on top of that.


    Oh, no, not saying they should. I just wanted to post specs in hope that it might provide some input. I was pretty ticked off before that my old mac (perfectly fine according to the Pets EP box) froze every time my sim even saw or thought about horses let alone when I wanted to adopt one. I had to reboot the entire system. It didnt even work on my PC, which also met the requirements. the pets were all deformed on that.
    I went and bought it for the XBOX, finally giving up on horses. I actually like the XBOX version a lot. You can actually play it more, the computer versions I get too rushed almost trying to make sure my sim can eat and sleep enough she diesnt melt down let alone actually do anything in the game.

    It doesnt excuse EA's lack of help to resolve (or even generally acknowledge) the issue at all and I really hope that they actually are working on fixing it. I'm one of those "suzie simmers" that doesnt game but saw that there was the sims pets so I bought it because I like horse games and saw there were horses, so I dont know much about the company and how they usually are, but from what I've read in trying to solve the issue from when I had my old mac, I'm very disappointed in them.
  • VikkiPinkVikkiPink Posts: 16
    edited January 2012
    Said I'd post a reply when I upgraded to Snow Leopard.

    I did it.. updated my system. And now I am please to say that it does NO LONGER freeze my sims and apparently in my case, has been a great success. I don't/haven't played with horses yet simply dogs and cats so from then on out I will see how it goes but I've been playing for periods of an hour at a time between homework and so far so good, as opposed to the first few times I tried playing it working slowly for only 5 min intervals.

    Good luck to you all.
  • arithmancerarithmancer Posts: 11
    edited January 2012
    I have also been having the horse issue, and had also been getting the runaround from technical support. (It really ****** me off that they tell you to delete all your saved files in order to do a fix that they have to know is bogus. Like seriously guys? Totally unacceptable.) I have a 2008 MacBook Pro, running 10.5.8, with a NIVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics card. The base game and all other expansions had run just fine on my computer (with some initial bugs in a few cases, but nothing out of control, and it was always patched).

    I will not be playing the Sims 3 (or any other Sim franchise game) again until they patch the horse issue for Mac users. That means I will not be spending any more money on expansion packs, or on buying extras from the store. I'm done. Period. Yes, I love the game. I would happily be playing it in my (limited) free time, if it were functional. But I'm not going to deal with a game that doesn't work, or a company that doesn't care. I have other games to play, and books to read. My relaxation ought to be relaxing.

    I'm glad to know that this isn't just my issue. Kind of furious with the company (would it really be that hard for them to have replied to me that this is a known issue and that they're working on it, instead of telling me to delete several years worth of saved games? I mean, I backed them up before installing Pets, but it's the principle of the thing.) The email I sent to tech support is below. (I intend on forwarding it elsewhere in future.)
    Having looked online, I have discovered that I am far from the only Mac user experiencing this particular difficulty. My game freezes whenever it does anything that involves horses. This makes it completely unplayable. Apparently many, many, many Mac users have had this exact difficulty when running Pets. This leads me to believe that there is nothing wrong with my computer or the way I have the game set up. After all, I have had the game (and several other expansion packs) running very well on my computer since the Sims 3 was first released. It has never, ever crashed like this before. And my computer meets or exceeds all of the specs listed on the box--I always check them very carefully before attempting to install anything.

    I'm annoyed that you gave me a lot of runaround non-answers about uninstalling and reinstalling the game, etc. I would be even more annoyed if I hadn't backed up my files (three YEARS worth of play files) before installing Pets, but thankfully I do have those saved. You have given me three sets of technical answers, none of which address the actual issue in any way, shape, or form. None of the responses even acknowledged the expansion pack involved, much less the specific triggers of the freezes.

    I'm extremely angry and disappointed with EA on two levels. First is the bug, obviously. I want my game to be playable, and it isn't. The Pets expansion was a present, and the gift-giver is as disappointed as I am that the gift has turned out to be unusable. The second issue is the way that EA's technical support has responded. I'm aware that the person reading this message is probably NOT the person who decided that this response was appropriate (though please forward this message to the person or persons who did make that decision).

    Once I decided to look online, it didn't take me long to discover that I am far from alone in having this particular issue. In fact, it's pretty much the first thing that comes up in the Mac discussion section. In addition, I was pretty specific about the issues that I have been experiencing in my previous messages to technical support. It would be very difficult for the technical support staff NOT to be aware that this is a widespread problem at this point, especially given that I acquired the Pets expansion pack two months after it was released. (Which I did specifically so that EA would be able to iron out the first round of bugs before I tried it.)

    I understand the complexity of coding. I know that bugs not only can happen, but will happen, in anything the size of an expansion pack. I also understand that fixing these things can take time. However, I would be far, far happier with EA right now if technical support had acknowledged that this is a known problem (and assured me that you are working on a solution, as I dearly hope that you are). Even if you were unable to give me a timeframe, it would have been far more helpful if the response from technical support had been along the lines of "This is a known issue for Mac-users and we are working on a solution. In the meantime, you can try these generic technical solutions, or you can uninstall the Pets expansion pack and play without it while you wait for a fix." Yeah, it's pretty cringe-inducing, and it might make the marketing division cry, but at least it's honest--honest enough to save me and others a lot of time and frustration.

    I sincerely hope that EA is working on a patch that will fully address this issue. Until such a patch is released, however, I'm done. Zip. I am not going to waste more time with generic, inapplicable solutions. I am not going to play the game with the Pets expansion uninstalled, either. Nor will I be buying additional expansion packs, or spending money in the Sims store. In fact, I will also abstain from playing the Sims Medieval, which of course still runs perfectly, or from acquiring the expansion pack for that--which I had previously been contemplating. Not because they don't work, but out of principle. I have other games that were not developed by EA. Not to mention books, etc. My free time is too valuable to waste on products that are released long before they are ready or on companies that don't treat me with honesty and respect.

    It pains me to write this. I have been buying Sims products for many years, and enjoyed them very much. I have spent more money on those products than I care to contemplate. The Sims 3 is in many ways a wonderful game, though it has always annoyed me that the expansions have always been so buggy as to require immediate patches. But honestly, I don't feel like you have left me with any other choice.

    P.S. If I thought that EA was a reasonable company with reasonable customer service, I would expect that when the programming issue was finally resolved and a patch was released, I would be credited with Sim Points to make up for my lost time and the insurmountable flaws in the initial product, in the way that Apple has credited me with extra account time (unasked for) as an apology for disruption in my email services, or the way that airlines have given me credits when my flights have been delayed or cancelled. Unfortunately, I don't think highly enough of EA's customer service to expect it, though I do think that it would be an appropriate way to recompense your Mac-using customers for the extreme inconvenience they have encountered, both with the game and the misleading technical support.

    Thank you.
    Post edited by Unknown User on
  • LukeSumnaLukeSumna Posts: 26
    edited January 2012
    Has anyone had any progress on these problems at all because it sounds like we're stuck, and its seriously getting ridiculous now! I do not know how the problems fixed with snow leopard because my mac came with snow leopard and im getting no where. Im actually fed up of this whole issue now, there's not even a point in playing the sims anymore because as soon as I begin to play I get exception raised, sims 3 stopped responding and god knows what else! Like you Peacenik I have been a fan of the sims ever since the original series and I have bought every sims game since and over the last year have spent a good three hundred pound in the sims 3 store and EA just turns a blind eye to this problem, they sure know how to treat customers don't they. Im just thinking about giving up on the sims completely now, and it's a shame because I have really enjoyed the sims over the years and have grown up with it. I've pre-ordered the master suite stuff, but I doubt it will make any change.
    arithmancer I think your message just sums up this entire situation and how us mac users feel about it, and I think your so right about the game being released long before its ready, EA seems to have just thrown the sims 3 together and released it prematurely all in the interest of prophet, when the updates were released I remember reading through a few and the amount of 'fixes' on each patch was incredible, they shouldnt be releasing games which need fixes and I understand that there are a lot of elements that go in to the game, but seriously, this should be sorted before their customers have to face these problems and wait for patches to fix them.
    It would be great to hear how EA respond to you arithmancer, hopefully they'll do something this time instead of spilling out the same dribble they have over the last few months.
  • edenbeauty1edenbeauty1 Posts: 11
    edited January 2012
    Hello EA? :mrgreen:
  • brhude9brhude9 Posts: 3
    edited January 2012
    Absolutely excellent e-mail. I too have been experiencing absolutely cripiling problems with the sims 3 pets on my mac. more recently, i can't play for more than thirty seconds. it just doesn't work. I've talked to more than 12 representatives for hours and hours with no progress made. in fact, a couple of them are downright rude. my guess, is they're sick of hearing from mac users, but that's not our fault. During the three hours i spent trouble shooting today, i talked to six different representatives. One of whom never even answered one of my questions, eventually stopped typing all together, until ten minutes later i was transfered to another rep, who also did nothing to help.

    the useless suggestions i recieved went like this"

    Shobit rep #1) encouraged me to post something in the forums to get the attention of the developers (this i see now, is useless, and i will most likely send an email as well)

    rep #2) reinstall the game (i had an "unknown error" which took 7 times to fix (and three more representatives)

    Bhart rep #3) he said hi, i told him about the freezing issue, in detail, and politely, he doesn't answer. ten minutes later i get transfered to..

    Kakul rep #4) i sat for five minutes without a response so i closed out of the chat and opened a new window

    back to Bharat #5) i once again explained my problem (i'd been pasting the same thing to each one actually) about how i was asked to reinstall the game, but i couldn't due to the error. and he actually responded "please uninstall and reinstall it" DID YOU NOT READ MY MESSAGE AT ALL? i said back, "i have done that four times without sucuess." time passes, with again, no response from Bharat, and then i see "your chat session has ended"

    for some reason i tried again

    rep #6) he was actually helpful, and unlike the others, read over my past conversations. He suggested I do a system check (and if necessary repair) and he gave me a discount code for 15% off an EA product (which i will NOT be using.. still was nice though) System check said my computer was fine so i tried to reinstall the game, with again, no luck

    Satender rep #7) This rep seemed the most competent, in that he was unable to fix my loading issue. although i was nervous when he wanted to take control of my desktop, which didn't seem necessary, and in the end probably wasn't. But he still fixed that issue, after, i might add, suggesting some really really stupid things.

    So although my game reinstalled, the freezing issue which rep #2 assured me would be fixed by doing so,

    So although my initial issue of freezing was not fixed, the issue rep #2 brought upon me with his reassurance that reinstalling would fix, i'm stuck back at square one, and wasted hours trying to fix a problem, i wouldn't have had to begin with if the reps properly knew how to fix these problems, or perhaps suggest a solution. After all the wasted time, when i got back onto chat to reassess my freezing issue, i realized that all the reps had left the office, and i'm stuck, once again.

    I am beyond disappointed with the quality in which this game was released. In all the time i have owned this game, i haven't even cared to create an account on this, as i'm a college student, i have a job, and i just didn't see it as necessary. Until i realized how truly screwed up this game was. I too have spent hundreds of dollars on these games. having played them since sims 1 when i was in middle school. Unless some patch or explanation is released, and SOON, i might add, i will never spend another dollar. And you can bet that i will demand and do whatever it takes to ensure that i get the $50.00 i spent on this game BACK, as i work hard for my money, and have much more useful things to spend my money on, than a buggy game, that should never have been put on shelves ANYWHERE.

  • myookatmyookat Posts: 1
    edited May 2012
    You have brilliantly expressed the thoughts of many! I hope someone takes notice.
    I wish I had read this post BEFORE I bought the game.
    Since I have installed the Pets expansion pack I have not been able to open the game at all.
    It is absolutely criminal that EA can sell this product for Mac when it JUST DOESN'T WORK.
    Like many of you, I have been a sims fan since the beginning.
    I used to think buying any Sims game was sure to provide me with hours of fun for a reasonable price.
    Sure, I've done my fair share of patching, re-installing, updating and troubleshooting, but in the end it was always worth the trouble!
    I feel so ripped off right now - like I have just thrown my money into the wind.
    My faith in the franchise has been destroyed - if EA don't fix this I doubt I will ever buy another Sims game. Sad. :(
  • TikiKiki21TikiKiki21 Posts: 1
    edited May 2012
    My issue isn't exactly like yours, but it sure did help. My Sims kept freezing every few seconds, freezing my game for about one minute every time. Like yours my game has become completely unplayable. I have been a loyal customer since the day Sims 1 came out, and I am disappointed immensely by EA. I sent an email, and all they did was send me back a random email not addressing my problem. After calling EA more than 20 times, I finally got a nice guy, who helped me with my problem, even though the problem continued after two days of game play. I don't know what this issue is, but if we keep reminding EA of it, eventually they are figure out they are loosing loyal customers.
    -TikiKiki21
  • HappyTarsierHappyTarsier Posts: 9 New Member
    edited May 2012
    So I'm assuming due to the dates of the last few posts it still hasn't been fixed? What the heck! D:
  • KarmaKarma Posts: 837 Member
    edited August 2012
    QUESTION:

    Have any of you simmers who posted a message in this thread, had the horse issue fixed?


    I bought pets last week....almost a year after and I'm experiencing the horse issue. This needs to be bumped!
    WsYdHZD.jpg



  • SimsFan619SimsFan619 Posts: 1,320
    edited August 2012
    I bought Pets when it first came out and I have never been able to play in Appaloosa Plains because of the horse issue causing the game to crash whenever I have tried playing in that town. I play in Bridgeport, but I feel like I haven't really enjoyed Pets because my sims have only been able to interact with cats and dogs, but never with any other animals like the raccoons, deer, unicorns, etc.

    Another thing that I would like to add is that I think that a lot of the problems that are occurring with Macs and Pets have to do with Cider because whenever I check my Console, there are plenty of error messages related to Cider. :?
  • DEWBEAR007DEWBEAR007 Posts: 8
    edited August 2012
    It say on the Mac forum section to our "beloved" Mac folk. We are obliviously not as beloved as we thought. You think EA would put their best efforts into fixing this problem since Mac is becoming one of the biggest computer empires out there and a lot of people out there do have macs. They are losing tons of support and buyers by doing this.
  • KarmaKarma Posts: 837 Member
    edited August 2012
    SimsFan619: I agree....you don't really get to enjoy pets to the maximum. That is what we spent our money on btw...a game we can't even play.


    DEWBEAR007: Hahaha...I was thinking the same. How beloved are we exactly? Beleoved enough to take our money, but not beloved enough to give us a playable game. We should send in more complaints to apple as a rep said that they would reconsider working with EA if they were given more complaints.

    I'm still wondering why it hasn't been fixed and if people in this thread have given up completely.

    We need to bump this girls and get the message out there. People seem to ignore us mac users because they don't have any problems, but we need to fight until justice is sereved. So with that...


    I'm going to bump this again!
    WsYdHZD.jpg



  • DEWBEAR007DEWBEAR007 Posts: 8
    edited August 2012
    I agree with you cottonwexler! Action should be taken!
  • ASimctrotterASimctrotter Posts: 4 New Member
    edited August 2012
    I'd like to add my name to the list of customers who are upset about this. I haven't been able to play my game in months due to this issue and it seems like nothing as been done. I don't know if i'll even bother to buy the new expansions packs. I cant express how frustrating it is to have so much time, money and loyalty invested in a company that doesn't bother to fix their own mistakes.
  • PlyrOwnerPlyrOwner Posts: 200 Member
    edited August 2012
    it annoys me that if i play with any animal(dog cat or a bigger animal like a horse or a foal), i can spend sometime playing but then it comes up with a box saying do u wish to debug? i think i had snow leopard installed before i installed some of the expansion packs but i cant remember but i have snow leopard. version 6.8 and all the eps besides ambitions.
  • thesimsfoevathesimsfoeva Posts: 1 New Member
    edited September 2012
    This issue that EA is having with Pets should have been fixed a long time ago. I have been a Sims player since the first one came out and have invested in almost all of their expansions and now that Pets comes out, it doesn't work for Mac users? This is ridiculous. I feel like an idiot for buying it the day it came out and still not being able to play it normally. The thing that really angers me is that they keep releasing one expansion after the other but still have not fixed this problem. Its almost been a year since it came out and NOTHING has changed. I never plan on buying any Sims games ever again, you've lost a loyal customer EA.
  • peacenikchick13peacenikchick13 Posts: 26 New Member
    edited September 2012
    QUESTION:

    Have any of you simmers who posted a message in this thread, had the horse issue fixed?


    I bought pets last week....almost a year after and I'm experiencing the horse issue. This needs to be bumped!

    Hey guys, I'm actually the person who started this thread way back when.

    So here's how my story ends, at least: I ended up caving in, saving some money and buying Snow Leopard. Apparently, the issue is primarily with OS X 10.5.7--although technically it meets the specifications, in reality there is some conflict between the programming code used to create the horses in the game and the software in 10.5.7. When I upgraded to Snow Leopard, I was able to play the game without the freezing/crashing problem.

    This is obviously infuriating since, as I have pointed out a few times in this thread, according to what is on the box, the game absolutely should have worked with the system I was running. Yup, EA put out a game that didn't work on a Mac platform being run by a huge piece of the Mac population, and then claimed that it would work with that platform, and then its only advice to users was to upgrade their system. They're the worst. Honestly. I have less than zero respect for this company.

    Kenny Benedict at EA did offer me a full refund on my game, but I wanted to actually play it if I could, so I opted out of that. And now I can play my game. I just had to spend the extra money and get Snow Leopard. (I've heard that there are some issues with Mountain Lion as well, so I didn't upgrade that far.)

    But here is my advice to all of you: KEEP WRITING. KEEP CALLING. KEEP EMAILING. That letter that I posted on my original post? Copy it down and send it to as many people as possible. Or write your own. Either way, make sure you point out that it's been a friggin' year since the game came out, and the company has done nothing to ensure that its customers can actually play it.

    BluebellFlora made a great post with contact info for a lot of EA people: http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/457402.page

    CONTACT EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM.

    Go on the EA website, find the generic tech support contact info, and send it to them as well. Do the same with the Sims 3 website. When you get a dumb form response back from some clueless low-level rep who's copying and pasting directly from his script, ask to escalate your case to someone better. Keep escalating. EA may or may not read these forums--they certainly don't bother to respond, given the extremely minimal level of "Guru" support we receive here. So complaining on these forums, while absolutely completely justified, is not going to get anything done. We need to let EA know that we are dissatisfied and that they are losing customers.

    Someone else mentioned contacting Apple and letting them know what's going on--great idea! The Apple contract is an important one, given that Apple is basically taking over the world. If they let EA know that they're unhappy with how their customers are being treated, EA might actually listen.

    I'm sorry that everyone is still having these issues. If you want to play your game, simply upgrading to Snow Leopard might be an option. (Although I should point out that there isn't any guaranteed 100% successful solution here.) But if you want EA to be held accountable, then let them know, directly, how you're feeling about this mess. It is completely inexcusable that, a year after the game has put out, the crippling problems with it has not been fixed. But then I don't need to tell you guys that.

    Can't wait for Sims 3 Seasons!! :roll:
  • AudreyCollinsAudreyCollins Posts: 2
    edited March 2013
    Hi -- I'm sorry to bump such an old thread but I only recently downloaded Pets. The error I keep getting is "Sims 3 is not saved to your hard-drive" ...? Thus preventing me from adding Pets. Has anyone else experienced this? What am I doing wrong?
  • aaailhataaailhat Posts: 2
    edited March 2014
    Help! i just bought the sims 3 pets (disk) ive tried installing it over and over and nothing shows up. no little glowing icon on my sims launcher to say its on my computer, even when i play my game theres nothing to do with the pets in there, im on an imac.
    everytime i try to reinstall it says the sims 3 pets is already installed, wso why the hell wont it show up in the launcher or in the game, i only have the base game and sims supernatural installed, i uninstalled all mods etc as well. i tried to install older patches but they didnt work, nothing.. :cry:

    i know this is an old thread but hopefully someone will answer my cries, ive been really looking forward to playing this and waited months till i could spend the money on it.
  • Tremayne4260Tremayne4260 Posts: 3,126 Member
    edited March 2014
    What other EP's and SP's do you own? If you own like say Showtime or Supernatural, the icon is always going to show up for the game that released last (not the order that you installed them). Look at the Launcher and it will show you the release order.

    In order to check if you have Pets installed at all, go to your Applications and find the Sims 3 folder there. Open it up and it will show you shortcuts to each of the EP's and SP's you have installed.

    If it does not show up at all, I recommend a clean install and install the games in RELEASE order so that the game can build on itself.

    Read through this thread. You will find many good tips and tricks for help.

    http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/658546.page
    Second Star to the Right and Straight on 'til Morning.
  • Carmin_1956Carmin_1956 Posts: 12 New Member
    edited June 2014
    This is incredible. I have a HP ProBook (not going into details about the specs because I am in a hurry) and everything runs fast like hell. I played my game before I installed pets, with mods and CC and everything ran fast and smooth. I bought Pets and installed it, every time my Sim passed not even near a horse, the game froze, like you can hear the background and move the cursor but the sim was frozen and everything leading me to force close and lose all my game. EA, THE PROBLEM IS THE EXPANSION NOT THE COMPUTER OF YOUR BUYERS. Let me clarify that yes, I have the "magical fix everything about this horrible expansion" patch that they released to "fix it" and I've tried deleting my CC, my mods, the caches and nothing. I don't want to uninstall it couse' I actually have no problems with the dogs & cats but I think the main attraction was the horses? and for what, they don't even work.

    I am extremely mad right now and I am seriously thinking on not buying anything related to The Sims if EA continues making them. Not even thinking about getting The Sims 4 at all.
  • Tremayne4260Tremayne4260 Posts: 3,126 Member
    edited June 2014
    Well, I have a few tips that will make this Expansion run on any computer. First of all, do not allow the game to connect to the Store, send notifications via the Internet, or enable wild horse to just run around. I have all of those turned off and my game runs much faster than it used to.

    I know you're running on the Windows OS, but if you read the Mac User's Best Friend thread, you can find some tips and tricks that are universal to the Sims 3 in general that helps the game run much more smoothly.
    Second Star to the Right and Straight on 'til Morning.
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