Re: HD Table Game / "Find a Friend" Feedback

Thank you for your response, Cafedelon,

However, the classic Pogo allows you to join a friend now, even when they are playing with robots. This feature needs to be kept, and I noticed the same issue as you state with scrabble. This is not something to be taken lightly. It seriously effects a members ability to join a friends game at any time. In order for this to work, you'd have to have every friends telephone number to call them, and tell them to join you in a room. 

The Find a Friend feature does not work. My point is that you can't create a table or play at a table while waiting for a friend to join, you would have to just sit there, since the Bots do not make you visible. 

I'm not sure if I'm making myself clear. It's not that i want to "invite" a friend. I want to be able to, say play a game at 8:00PM for example, with Bots as in Classic Pogo, and my friend can join me at his/her leisure, say at 8:15PM or 8:30PM. That is not possible with the "Find a Friend" feature because I wouldn't be visible to my friend while waiting and playing with Bots.  I'm trying to show you my logic. 

I'm sure the programmers can keep the program the same as it is now. Thank you for your support and listening. 

@zpatsfan1265, I understand now more clearly what you are saying about not being visible to your friends while playing a robot and waiting for friends to join you at Jungle Gin HD.

Also, there are more games than just Jungle Gin and Scrabble that work like this using the Find a Friend screen. There are other HD games I've seen that have this same screen, and there will be more on the way.  The Answers HQ complaint dept is gonna be busy in the future.  That's for sure.

Thank you for understanding. Can you elevate this issue, since it seems most of the people on this forum do not like the "Find a Friend" feature. It should be called "I Can't Find My Friend" feature.... Just injecting a little harmless humor in the face of adversity. 

Is there a separate spot for submitting complaints, or will these posts be read by someone who can make a change? 

I don't know what the programmers were thinking when they changed how you join your friends on Pogo. There will be no new friends made, and old friends lost. 

Thank you all again for your patience with all of us. It's just that we're frustrated at the lack of thought in configuring the friends features. 

@zpatsfan1265 The "I can't find a friend feature" sounds like a close relative of the "Customer no-service" feature which is (pretty much) what we've been experiencing for the past couple of months with (to date) 96 EA Forum pages and 942 posts.

EA/Pogo has been making unilateral decisions (as opposed to decisions based on user input) concerning which games they can most easily "invent” in order to repopulate a site decimated by “the game massacre of 2020”.

Evidently, re-skinned single player games are more easily converted than are true multiplayer games like Pogo Bowl and features (like Find-a-Friend) are easier to eliminate than to properly address.

It's always been my view that if a deadline cannot be met it isn't because the target date is too soon. It is because doing whatever it takes to complete work within that time frame didn't start early enough. I'm looking at you EA/Pogo.

With the game retirement deadline already announced, it is now too late for EA/Pogo to complete what they should have started long ago.They COULD, however, extend the March 10th “extinction date” to more closely coincide with the published (at least by Chrome) "after DECEMBER 20, 2020"  browsers' end of access to flash content date. That would give them almost 10 extra months to “catch up” and the players and extra 10 months to acclimate to new permutations of favorite games.

@zpatsfan1265, I'm just a Club Pogo member who helps out at the Answers HQ forum. An EA community manager will read your comments. Your concern might be elevated up to the EA Pogo team. I am not sure that the game will be revised in the near future, because EA's focus seems to be adding more new HTML5 games to make up for all the Flash and Java games being removed.

Cafedelon, I do realize that you are just helping out. Maybe I'd like to do that myself, if Pogo survives. 😉 

My concern is with all HD games which do not allow you to join a friend at any time. 

To respond to your post, I want to be very clear that I'm not just concerned for Jungle Gin HD, but for every game that will be developed when you are NOT able to find your friends, unless they freeze themselves in place for hours and don't play with Bots.  I play Spades for about an hour, almost every night with friends I have had for 10 years or more. I'm concerned for all the games with this Find a Friend format. 

I totally understand that Pogo must go HD, due to the phase out of Flash. They can make all the games HD, I don't care about that. I've been on Pogo since 2001 and have long standing friendships.  

If you're listening EA, make all the changes you want, but you must keep the classic Pogo way in which you can join your friends, while they are playing with Bots, if they are in a full Spades room, and you want to "sit on their lap", so to speak.  Also, EA, the new games look great. They are not conductive to finding friendships. 

The importance here is that the programming must be changed in the new games so you can join your friend, whatever time you want like it's done now.  I know that it's possible, I took programming in college. 

Exactly my thoughts, DPQ3212. The single player games are easier to convert, and the group games were not well thought out. 

I also appreciate your piggybacking on my comments, and your well thought out,  intelligent reply. 

Hopefully, EA will see our posts and realize that there are real concerns. EA still has time to redeem themselves, although they won't be ready by their arbitrary March 10th deadline. We both know that it's possible for EA to extend their deadline to coincide with the real timeframe in late 2020 for the extinction of Flash and still comply like every other business. 

Do it one at a time EA and do it correctly. 

pogo needs to get there act together.  this is what they did and its a big mess.  they should of gave all of us players the same

chat rooms where we could find our friends.  i tried to find a friend in Gin and it didn't work.

this is totally awful.  

Just terrible pogo is

Just throwing this in here randomly as I can't find anything about how the hell to play with my friends on the least intuitive interface I've ever encountered. Your programmers and UI people are the worst. 

Hey there, @PatrickKingNYC.

Which game, or games, are you having trouble connecting with friends on? I'll be happy to walk you through it.

Arrenai 🐱

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I agree entirely.  I have tried several times to meet a friend in Jungle Gin.  When I log into Jungle Gin, it shows one friend playing, but there is not a hot link to click and join them in the room.  If I go into the rooms and look, the friend never shows up there.   The entire update of the site has been a disappointment, and it looks like POGO is turning a blind eye to the paying customers who want to play here.  The old catch line, "The best place to meet new friends", seems to be in error at this point.   You can meet new friends, but finding them is haphazard the way the programmers have changed things.   

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@zpatsfan1265 wrote:

Cafedelon, I do realize that you are just helping out. Maybe I'd like to do that myself, if Pogo survives. 😉 

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I think Pogo is gonna survive.

Hey there, @playervpksh1gc.

Was your friend in the middle of a game? If so, the table they're at won't show, but if they are waiting for opponents to join and are not playing other players or robots, then you'll find that friend in the Friends' Tables section of the table select screen.

Arrenai 🐱

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The problem with that is, if I sit there not playing, your game times out and kicks me out.   I tried that and was kicked out each time, had to go back in and host another room.

There must be a better way, for instance, if I'm playing against robots, my friend should see me and have the opportunity to enter the game to play with me.

Hey there, @playervpksh1gc.

If you're waiting for others to join your table, it is possible to extend the timer where you're waiting on people. This shouldn't affect the inactivity timer because renewing the timer should count as activity.

If you are getting kicked out for inactivity while the waiting timer is active, can you let me know which game? I'd love to take a look.

Arrenai 🐱

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We were trying to play Jungle Gin.   

Hey there, @playervpksh1gc. 

Just to confirm, approximately when in the countdown timer did the game disconnect you for inactivity? How many times had you refreshed the timer before the inactivity hit?

Arrenai 🐱

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You are so right. It is frustrating to not be able to find your friends to play. Who wants to sit around just looking at a screen, in case your friend comes on so they can find you? We sign in to play for fun and relaxation.

i can not find my friend to get in and play with her i like the old pogo better  mary dolske

well  i think  you  are  going  to lose a lot  of  members ,if they  cannot  teem  up  and play  a game of gin  etc ,pogo  was  to make  friends  ,yes  we  ,,but  cannt  play  jin  etc