HD Table Game / "Find a Friend" Feedback [ Edited ]

[zpatsfan1265]

This is regarding the new iteration of Jungle Gin HD. I do appreciate that Pogo did establish the chat feature on the side of the screen. The HD game graphics also look great, so kudo's to you in that respect. 

After posting to several different mediums on Pogo, I was directed to address my concern to the Answers HQ. I tried the Pogo Forum, Pogo Blog and EA help. The Pogo Forum directed me to you. I am but one voice, but I believe i speak for many who are disappointed with the "Find a Friend" feature.  

I have tried Jungle Gin HD, and understand the instructions. It seems that the programming of the "Find a Friend" feature was not well thought out, as it's almost impossible to find a friend. The issue is that in order to "Find a Friend", you have to wait in an inactive room, and NOT play with the bots for a friend to locate you. I even tried to password a private room, to no avail. This is not feasible. Most of us on Pogo do not have "personal" contact information on our friends. Does EA believe that we will wait in an inactive room for an inordinate amount of time while waiting to play with friends?  If Spades goes the way of Jungle Gin HD, would that mean that I'd be waiting for several hours, in an inactive state for my friends to find me? We play quite frequently, and we don't all sign into Pogo at the same time. The way Jungle Gin HD and I'm sure other HD games is set up now, it's impossible to play with friends. 

I alsoI contacted EA help this morning to see if the programming can be changed so a member can play with Bots until a friend joins you. EA help also told me that the Forum is the proper place to address these issues, but would also elevate it on their end. I am addressing this major issue here which could mean the downfall of Pogo. 

Thank you very much for listening and your attention to this matter. I have been playing Pogo since 2001 and hate to think that the very purpose of Pogo may have been forgotten. Play, Chat and Make Friends. 

[EA_Arrenai · Accepted solution]

Hey there, @zpatsfan1265.

As your feedback wasn't specifically about the game retirements, I moved it off into its own thread in the New Pogo Experience forum to help with tracking. Those who agree can also now do a "Me Too" on the feedback.

Thanks so much for your feedback. I'll be sure to pass it along to the Pogo team.

Arrenai 

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[cafedelon]

@c100080, Your comment hit the target on the bulls eye.

It would take a programming update to add the feature for being able to invite a friend to the game. The term "Find a friend" used in the Jungle Gin HD game allows one look at the available tables to join your friend OR to create a table so your friend can join you. There is currently no feature in the game to invite one of your friends to join your table.

This "Find a friend" feature is the same as is used in the Scrabble HTML5 game, and most likely it will be standard feature in the upcoming multiplayer HTML5 games such as Spades, Canasta, etc. 

It would be nice to have a feature to invite a friend who is online, but that adds complexity to the games at a time when EA is trying to add as many games as they can to fill the void created by retiring all the Flash and Java games. 

[zpatsfan1265]

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. 

[TallRedTree]

@zpatsfan1265 I agree with you 100%. The new talk is a dam joke. It needs to be kept as it was. I do not know why EA or programmers are not. They are too busy making games for kids to play like Crazy Cakes 2 and Snowbird Solitaire. Kids do not play on POGO. Adults do. At this rate, EA and POGO can go to hell.

[cafedelon]

@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.

[zpatsfan1265]

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. 

[DPQ3212]

@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.

[cafedelon]

@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.

[zpatsfan1265]

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. 

[zpatsfan1265]

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.