Sims 4 Official Forum? Or no?

@SimGuruGrant @SimGuruNick @SimGuruKate @SimGuruGeorge @ANYSImGuru! I'm not about to chase you down across the internet when I attend the official sims 4 forums.

Can we DO something about ending this fiasco once and for all?

I've always seen it as that EA/Maxis have switched their focus on marketing to social media like Twitter, because it's where their target audience would most likely be found, the Teens. Since most users here aren't that keen on going to social media to follow suit, the forum is more left in the dust as a more "archaic" means of online communication, and is now mainly meant for posts that go beyond Twitter character limits.

Forums may have still been the best form for communicating at least 5 years ago, but with the constant push for social media these days and EA/Maxis only thinking in the best interests of company marketing, social media is where they go to now for mostly everything. Sure, they may say they're checking the forums, but it's most likely that they'd check over it once a week, at best and check social media daily, even hourly.

Unfortunate. It's like participatory trophy stuff. Only good feedback allowed....on twitter, FB, and the like. And they respond to that. problems pointed out are not fun. So ignore.

Not everyone even bothers with social media. I don't. If they were truly interested in a full survey of the entire market they would be here with some frequency. But, if the franchise is on death row, just leave the forums up so we can vent until the day of plug pulling arrives. Meanwhile they continue with their pre-planned routine.

Actually it’s the official Sims forum. Not just the sims 4.

This was discussed a few weeks/months ago. I agree I wish the devs would come here more often. But I do understand that twitter and social media is where the target audience is. If all the Simmers I know, I’m the only one to use this forum. The rest use twitter and or Facebook. They purposefully do not come here.

I’m sure one of the devs popped up in the last thread about this (was it Graham? May be wrong, don’t quote me) and said that they checked the forums but something like twitter is easier and quicker. (Paraphrasing, will have to find that quote)

Certainly twitter is the best way to get a devs attention. I myself tag Sim Guru Nick when I have bugs. I would not report it here as there isn’t any point. I agree I wish they would be more active here. If you don’t have social media for example you miss a lot of things.

Edit- apologies it was Sim Guru Steve not Graham who responded.

https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/16820647#Comment_16820647

Whether or not the devs check in here, it is still a lively place where Simmers share and debate which is pretty valuable, if you ask me. I think that also was a part of the idea of an official forum.

Lastly, I don't think we really know how much the devs do check in and read. They may be doing it a lot more than either of us realize.

The Sims Series isn't the only game EA has published over the past few years. ALL of the other games EA supports (FIFA, Battlefield, Dragon Age to name a few) post their bugs/glitches at AHQ. The Sims was probably one of the few communities still posting bug reports on their Official Forums. EA made the decision (like it or not) to consolidate ALL bug reports in one place. This does not include Social Media as EA mainly uses it for publicity of new content for games or for new games in general. And while Developers may answer you back, their main job is to code the game, not play on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. Yes, the Developers do look at these forums, but it is not to see Bug Reports. It is to see what the community is talking about in terms of content or ideas for content. Twitter limits how many characters you can post, while the forums allow you to write whole papers on any given subject. I personally do not use Twitter as I have seen several members here state that they do not, but again Twitter is NOT the place to post your bug reports.

And yes, this forum was created and is maintained by the EA staff. These forums were created way back when forums were called BBS boards and have been around since Sims 2 was launched. When Sims 3 came out, the BBS boards were moved over here. At that time, it did make sense to have people post problems on the forums since there was no Facebook, Twitter, etc to compete and many of us players helped each other out to find the simple quick solutions to problems. Now with too many sites to interact with, EA made the decision to consolidate their Help Sections into one place so that they can see the issues, research their causes and keep track of what is still an outstanding issue that needs to be fixed. While you may not see immediate results, EA is actually working to fix these bugs.

One more thing about Social Media, if you keep tagging all the developers on Twitter, they will never get the chance to actually fix your problems as they'll be too busy answering you to tell you they are aware of the problem. Think about that for a moment. One person gets hundreds of Tweets, they have to stop their work, read each Tweet and then respond. The Devs aren't paid Social Media consultants, they are paid to create and fix the game. And to my knowledge, EA has not outsourced the bug fixes to another company.

While Mods are great and all, about 90% of the problems with Sims 4 are caused by outdated Mods. Now, this doesn't mean don't use Mods, but when you see an announcement here that a new patch is available one of the first things you should do is to check the sites where you got your favorite mods from and make sure that they will still work with the latest patch or wait until those sites announce the latest update. I never patched my Sims 3 until I read that Twillian had update the mods to work with the latest patch. My advice is if Mods mean so much to you, turn off Automatic Updates in your Origin preferences and wait to update the game once your favorite mods are updated.

I know people are frustrated with certain bugs not being fixed, but finding the cause of those bugs isn't always an easy fix. Everyone has different graphics cards and processors and add ons, etc. Certain combinations could be the cause of the issue (as an example), but until people continue to provide information, these issues won't be fixed.

If you think the Sims forums at AHQ need to be given different headings or organized differently, please provide examples. The Community Managers (CMs) are willing to listen.

@crinrict and @BluebellFlora can only do so much to help you. While I know the Official forums are comfortable and you knew where to get your information, AHQ seems scary and unorganized at first. But once you know where to go, it's no different than here. You subscribe to the threads you want to keep track of and you will receive an email whenever someone new posts in it. If it seems like it's been a long time since there was any movement in a particular thread, it's ok to ask additional questions to move it back near the top again.

"Tremayne4260;c-16871966" wrote:
The Sims Series isn't the only game EA has published over the past few years. ALL of the other games EA supports (FIFA, Battlefield, Dragon Age to name a few) post their bugs/glitches at AHQ. The Sims was probably one of the few communities still posting bug reports on their Official Forums. EA made the decision (like it or not) to consolidate ALL bug reports in one place. This does not include Social Media as EA mainly uses it for publicity of new content for games or for new games in general. And while Developers may answer you back, their main job is to code the game, not play on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. Yes, the Developers do look at these forums, but it is not to see Bug Reports. It is to see what the community is talking about in terms of content or ideas for content. Twitter limits how many characters you can post, while the forums allow you to write whole papers on any given subject. I personally do not use Twitter as I have seen several members here state that they do not, but again Twitter is NOT the place to post your bug reports.

And yes, this forum was created and is maintained by the EA staff. These forums were created way back when forums were called BBS boards and have been around since Sims 2 was launched. When Sims 3 came out, the BBS boards were moved over here. At that time, it did make sense to have people post problems on the forums since there was no Facebook, Twitter, etc to compete and many of us players helped each other out to find the simple quick solutions to problems. Now with too many sites to interact with, EA made the decision to consolidate their Help Sections into one place so that they can see the issues, research their causes and keep track of what is still an outstanding issue that needs to be fixed. While you may not see immediate results, EA is actually working to fix these bugs.

One more thing about Social Media, if you keep tagging all the developers on Twitter, they will never get the chance to actually fix your problems as they'll be too busy answering you to tell you they are aware of the problem. Think about that for a moment. One person gets hundreds of Tweets, they have to stop their work, read each Tweet and then respond. The Devs aren't paid Social Media consultants, they are paid to create and fix the game. And to my knowledge, EA has not outsourced the bug fixes to another company.

While Mods are great and all, about 90% of the problems with Sims 4 are caused by outdated Mods. Now, this doesn't mean don't use Mods, but when you see an announcement here that a new patch is available one of the first things you should do is to check the sites where you got your favorite mods from and make sure that they will still work with the latest patch or wait until those sites announce the latest update. I never patched my Sims 3 until I read that Twillian had update the mods to work with the latest patch. My advice is if Mods mean so much to you, turn off Automatic Updates in your Origin preferences and wait to update the game once your favorite mods are updated.

I know people are frustrated with certain bugs not being fixed, but finding the cause of those bugs isn't always an easy fix. Everyone has different graphics cards and processors and add ons, etc. Certain combinations could be the cause of the issue (as an example), but until people continue to provide information, these issues won't be fixed.

If you think the Sims forums at AHQ need to be given different headings or organized differently, please provide examples. The Community Managers (CMs) are willing to listen.

@crinrict and @BluebellFlora can only do so much to help you. While I know the Official forums are comfortable and you knew where to get your information, AHQ seems scary and unorganized at first. But once you know where to go, it's no different than here. You subscribe to the threads you want to keep track of and you will receive an email whenever someone new posts in it. If it seems like it's been a long time since there was any movement in a particular thread, it's ok to ask additional questions to move it back near the top again.

The devs that make the game may work with the Devs on the tech team but the Sims 4 has it's own tech team devs that do bug fixes now. If you tell the game making devs issues they turn it over to the actual Tech dev Guru's anyway - but you do hold the ones that work on the games time away from working on the game by sending them messages instead of alert Sims Guru Nick and his team of techs directly at HQ. Or even on twitter or even here - I have seen them respond but they still tell you to report it at the proper place on HQ. For one the twitter has limited characters - for another you cannot answer the sometimes needed questions on twitter or here about your equipment before you list your problem - so only on HQ can they properly access the situation completely now. As silly as some feel some of the questions are - like info on your system or if you use CC, mods etc, or even what language your game is in - it matter in some situations. Also Twitter and all the other listings are also now OFFICIAL as this forum is and on the Sims 4 OFFICIAL Twitter I know for a fact you must be an official member of the Sims - so you do have the game and not justanybody. I do not know for a fact if that is true on all the social media but it is true on The one listed as the Official Sims 4 Twitter.

"Tremayne4260;c-16871966" wrote:
The Sims Series isn't the only game EA has published over the past few years. ALL of the other games EA supports (FIFA, Battlefield, Dragon Age to name a few) post their bugs/glitches at AHQ. The Sims was probably one of the few communities still posting bug reports on their Official Forums. EA made the decision (like it or not) to consolidate ALL bug reports in one place. This does not include Social Media as EA mainly uses it for publicity of new content for games or for new games in general. And while Developers may answer you back, their main job is to code the game, not play on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. Yes, the Developers do look at these forums, but it is not to see Bug Reports. It is to see what the community is talking about in terms of content or ideas for content. Twitter limits how many characters you can post, while the forums allow you to write whole papers on any given subject. I personally do not use Twitter as I have seen several members here state that they do not, but again Twitter is NOT the place to post your bug reports.

And yes, this forum was created and is maintained by the EA staff. These forums were created way back when forums were called BBS boards and have been around since Sims 2 was launched. When Sims 3 came out, the BBS boards were moved over here. At that time, it did make sense to have people post problems on the forums since there was no Facebook, Twitter, etc to compete and many of us players helped each other out to find the simple quick solutions to problems. Now with too many sites to interact with, EA made the decision to consolidate their Help Sections into one place so that they can see the issues, research their causes and keep track of what is still an outstanding issue that needs to be fixed. While you may not see immediate results, EA is actually working to fix these bugs.

One more thing about Social Media, if you keep tagging all the developers on Twitter, they will never get the chance to actually fix your problems as they'll be too busy answering you to tell you they are aware of the problem. Think about that for a moment. One person gets hundreds of Tweets, they have to stop their work, read each Tweet and then respond. The Devs aren't paid Social Media consultants, they are paid to create and fix the game. And to my knowledge, EA has not outsourced the bug fixes to another company.

While Mods are great and all, about 90% of the problems with Sims 4 are caused by outdated Mods. Now, this doesn't mean don't use Mods, but when you see an announcement here that a new patch is available one of the first things you should do is to check the sites where you got your favorite mods from and make sure that they will still work with the latest patch or wait until those sites announce the latest update. I never patched my Sims 3 until I read that Twillian had update the mods to work with the latest patch. My advice is if Mods mean so much to you, turn off Automatic Updates in your Origin preferences and wait to update the game once your favorite mods are updated.

I know people are frustrated with certain bugs not being fixed, but finding the cause of those bugs isn't always an easy fix. Everyone has different graphics cards and processors and add ons, etc. Certain combinations could be the cause of the issue (as an example), but until people continue to provide information, these issues won't be fixed.

If you think the Sims forums at AHQ need to be given different headings or organized differently, please provide examples. The Community Managers (CMs) are willing to listen.

@crinrict and @BluebellFlora can only do so much to help you. While I know the Official forums are comfortable and you knew where to get your information, AHQ seems scary and unorganized at first. But once you know where to go, it's no different than here. You subscribe to the threads you want to keep track of and you will receive an email whenever someone new posts in it. If it seems like it's been a long time since there was any movement in a particular thread, it's ok to ask additional questions to move it back near the top again.

and there's are several people who play WITHOUT mods and they STILL have bugs which have nothing to do with mods. I just saw the other day a bug that was supposedly fixed with one patch (leaves pile not disappearing) was back with either the Get Famous patch or the speedy one afterwards and Seasons was released back in June

Closing this as this isn't really the correct place for this thread and to confirm yes, this is the official forum. The team engages with people across a lot of different channels including the forums. SimGurus do show up on the forums and engage with Simmers. I'd also ask people to be super mindful when tagging staff as well. :smile: