Hey everyone,
I have been having the pixellated and ugly-looking sims problem many of you have described. In a bit of a rage I posted on the Norwegian The Sims 3 facebook page, got a response, however it was a pretty crappy one. After reminding them of this and asking for a proper answer, I got a message in my inbox from a lady who is the Nordic Community Executive for The Sims 3, asking me to email her on her EA email.
I did, and the following is the email I sent to her. I realise that the graphic glitch itself was resolved for most of us with the patch right before Christmas, but the way they handled the customer support for us Mac-users is not good enough.
Here is my email (sorry, it got lengthy...)
Hello, I was asked to email you regarding my trouble with The Sims 3.
I do not mean to be rude, however most of the EA reps that I have been in contact with (Customer Service) have been more or less unknowing with regards to how a Mac works, and that is actually the key point here. My issues are based in how Mac-users are being accommodated with support and help. In other words, if you don't have any knowledge of how the game works on a Mac or how the Mac works, someone else should be in contact with me. You are developing these games for the Mac as well as Windows so you should know how to give support to Mac-users, despite them being a smaller part of your customer base.
I'm not sure how well versed you are in the Nordic languages but if you understand Norwegian, my initial post was here:
https://www.facebook.com/TheSimsNO/posts/263631070363048
A quick recap:
After patching the game in mid-October (the pre-Pets patch), and also updating my Mac OSX to Lion 10.7.2, my sims became garbled. Images: http://uploadpie.com/MiSFV and http://uploadpie.com/ArmLW
It was most likely a driver update in the Lion update that caused it, it has been explained to me (by non-EA-reps, simply helpful fellow players) that the meshing that came with Pets made them look the way they do in the images I've provided.
As stated in the facebook thread, with the patch that came right before Christmas, my issues in the game itself have been resolved. My sims look fine, and I play the game fine again. I still do have some issues regarding how the Customer Service works however, especially concerning how Mac-users are accommodated with support.
As an example, the bug I reported (that seemed to only affect Mac-users who had updated to Lion 10.7.2) was only resolved over two months after EA reps stated that a patch would be available in 'a couple of weeks'. There are extensive threads on the TheSims3.com community forums, both in Norwegian and English, (http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/413974.page) that detail the same issues I have been having, and transcripts of their communication with EA reps.
Mac-users have also been instructed to open Activity Monitor on their Macs and stop processes running there that are essential for Mac OSX to run, and that could permanently damage a Mac. In other words, these instructions are dangerous and should not be given out by any company wishing to be seen as seriously concerned with their Mac-users.
Another blatant issue is how the removal of the EA Download Manager and introduction of Origin solely for Windows, effectively removes the possibility for all Mac-users to retrieve their games if the disks are broken or lost, despite the game being registered on TheSims3.com. This means that my copy of Outdoor Living Stuff is lost for all eternity, the disk is broken after a friend's dog got a hold of it and as a student, buying the stuff pack again will mean saving up money for a while so I can afford it.
As a side note, the last post in the Facebook thread that I linked to is this: A day or two after I began the thread, I received an email to this address that I am using now, that my copy of Pets has been registered. I have never bought a copy of Pets, so I am curious if that is an attempt to apologise. I appreciate this effort and it absolutely does help - like I said, I am a student and finances are tight - however, without Origin, how am I supposed to download it?
In the interest of letting everyone know that our issues are finally being taken seriously, I will post a copy of this email to the thread on TheSims3.com forum that I linked to further up.
Thank you so much for your time!
Regards,
name removed
Okay. I will post her reply as soon as it arrives.
