Forum Discussion

schurch2050's avatar
schurch2050
New Traveler
5 years ago
Solved

Cannot bundle last three released games

It seems EA has really messed up with the bugs this time. When the latest expansion Snowy Escape released I tried to bundle it, Journey to Batuu (game pack) and Nifty Knitting (stuff pack) but it wil...
gameplay issue
  • EA_Lanna's avatar
    EA_Lanna
    5 years ago

    Hi @schurch2050, @ukbuildfreak and @SimInfinity,

    A quick heads up, I've merged posts on the same topic in together here. You may notice your post has moved as a result. 

    Snowy Escape won't be available as part of Build Your Bundle until December 1, 2020 at 10am pst. Origin shares this information on the Build Your Bundle page under the pack tiles that load:

    When you go to select Journey to Batuu and Nifty Knitting with a different expansion pack, what happens? Could you include a screenshot please as a visual? I've tried to reproduce an issue with those titles and, Origin lets me add both Journey to Batuu and Nifty Knitting to my Bundle. I'll share my results too: 

    For more in general about Build your Bundle, check out this EA Help article: Build and buy a bundle for The Sims 4 using Origin

    - EA_Lanna

EA_Lanna's avatar
EA_Lanna
Icon for Community Manager rankCommunity Manager
5 years ago

Hi @SimInfinity, 

Thank you for getting back and including that information. Can I double check with you if you are on Pc or Mac and if you are using the Origin Client or the Origin website to Build Your Bundle when you get that pop-up? 

When testing on both the client and website, the text with this information displayed straight away without any pop-up needed. That it hasn't for you would suggest it's a technical issue which would benefit from some troubleshooting. 

 

- EA_Lanna 

SimInfinity's avatar
SimInfinity
5 years ago

@EA_Lanna 

As my previous post indicated, I've used both the Origin client and a Chrome browser and they behave exactly the same (Origin client uses an embedded browser after all, probably even Chromium based). It should not matter in this case, but it is on PC. I would test it on a Mac, but I don't have a working one handy. I fully expect identical results.

Also important is that the reason we are getting the popup and you are not is because you have eligible Expansion Packs besides Snowy. To test this, you would have to use an account that has/owns all Expansion Packs except Snowy.

I can only deduce that the popup is the result of a validation check that is performed upon loading the page, checking if the user actually has 1 eligible pack of each type (Stuff, Game & Expansion) available in order to assemble a bundle before displaying the page. Since I own every pack except Snowy and Snowy is ineligible, I fail the validation check and the popup shows.

You have already indicated in a previous post you were able to select a different Expansion pack for your test (your example shows City Living selected), so that means the account you use for testing has eligible packs. As such, it passes validation and the page is displayed. I don't pass, so for me the page is not displayed, only the popup.

This makes it a design flaw, not so much a bug. Somebody wanted to make it more intuitive and ended up doing the opposite. Probably a classic case of communication failure between departments, I've seen it happen (and fixed it) often enough at work.

I know this is a bit technical, but I'm sure your web-developers should know what I mean. Or any IT guy with scripting/programming experience. We love our validation checks.

So, does all my investigative work make me eligible for a free Snowy game key yet? 😉

  • EA_Lanna's avatar
    EA_Lanna
    Icon for Community Manager rankCommunity Manager
    5 years ago

    Hi @SimInfinity,

    I understand now, thanks once more for your thorough response. Apologies, I didn't seem to register the fact that you already owned all the expansion packs. 

    This doesn't seem like a design flaw.

    The Build Your Bundle allows Simmers to create a bundle that's a combination of one of each Pack type; an Expansion pack with a Game pack and a Stuff Pack. If you have all the expansions packs already purchased, there's not going to be an expansion pack available to enter into the Expansion pack slot in the Build Your Bundle page to complete the criteria needed to build your own bundle. It means you won't meet the criteria to build your own bundle and is why you would encounter that pop-up message. This is working as intended. 

    I know this isn't what you were hoping for however. I'll pass on feedback around this. 

    - EA_Lanna

    • SimInfinity's avatar
      SimInfinity
      5 years ago

      @EA_Lanna 

      Nope, I was hoping for that free game key so I could take my Sims to Japan in November. 🙂

      The design flaw is in one party creating a popup that prevents the bundle-page from displaying, while another party places a notification on said invisible web page stating that Snowy isn't eligible until December 1st, thus preventing the user from ever seeing that very important notification.

      As a result, the user doesn't know why the page won't show since they are blissfully unaware that Snowy is ineligible and thus fully convinced they have 1 EP (Snowy), 1 GP & 1 SP available for purchase.

      Enter confusion followed by support requests. Which I feel safe to assume is not the intended outcome for EA.

      The December 1st notification is blocked by the popup, but is necessary to understand why the popup shows in the first place. Chicken, meet egg.

      To make the users with popups aware of the December 1st requirement would require either making the date visible on the popup, or removing the popup so the bundle page showing the date can load properly. Hence, design choices.

      See what I mean?

      • EA_Lanna's avatar
        EA_Lanna
        Icon for Community Manager rankCommunity Manager
        5 years ago
        Hi @SimInfinity,

        I believe so but for the sake of being 100%; your posting not because you weren't sure why you were encountering the pop-up, or where to find the information on the pack release but rather to share feedback that the pop-up for users who own all past expansion packs, blocks out the information that would let them know the newest expansion pack won't be available in Build Your Bundle until December 1st?

        - EA_Lanna

Recent Discussions