Re: Issues playing AARP Games

nctarheel · ‎10-22-2021

@AARPLynne wrote:

Do you prefer to play on mobile, desktop or tablet?

The best way to play AARP'S inferior game suite with its overzealous, aggressive, pop-up advertisements is to play on an Apple desktop due to its speed, using Firefox as a browser(since Safari and AARP's game platform haven't been compatible for years), and using AdBlock Plus to prevent those ridiculous ads.

I don't understand why such a boring question as this is being posed.

It has no purpose because AARP has done nothing to improve the games experience in the past.

They have known about the incompatibility of Safari and the games platform for over 10 years and, of course, have become a conduit for annoying advertising with greater and greater frequency each and every year(my Adblock Plus is blocking 19 ads as I write this comment).

AARPLynne · ‎11-09-2021

Hello, @nctarheel , thanks for taking the time to write. I’d like to help address some of the issues you’ve raised and learn more about your experience to help you enjoy AARP Games better.

First, you mention that you are having an issue with Safari. Can you be more specific about what type of issues you’re having using it? Currently, the minimum system requirement for Mac is macOS High Sierra (v 10.13) operating system and Safari 13 browser. What are you using for your operating system? It sounds Firefox is working best for you.

If you have been accessing AARP Games through our mobile app, AARP NOW, the iOS bug that cut off the lower part of the game play area has been fixed on our staging platform and is set to be available through iStore by early December. Outside of that, there are no reported technical issues regarding Safari that have been reported. So, again, if you can outline your experience, we would appreciate it and will try to help resolve.

Regarding ads, the number of ad units on desktop (2 visible in game play, one lower on right rail when you scroll down) has not changed since May 2019 when we launched the new, upgraded platform. This update included a larger cadence for pre-roll video ads, i.e. the cadence was increased to 15 minutes so that you’re served only one pre-roll video ad once every 15 minutes per session. Many other game sites show an ad/video pre-roll before every game play and some in-between game rounds, so our ad experience is lighter than comparable sites and mobile apps.

The AARP Games team is dedicated to delivering a great casual games experience, one with many edutainment and special opportunities for our Members and AARP Rewards participants. We love what we do! Between May 2019 and now, we’ve expanded our inventory from 54 to 86 games. We’ve more than quadrupled our Members-Only games and features from 4 to 19, hosted our Jeopardy! for AARP tournament, added two multiplayer games (Let’s Crossword and Let’s Block Champ), and integrated AARP Rewards badging to Games. In September we introduced AARP’s Right Again! Trivia, a daily trivia game with questions curated for the 50+. And we added new Retro Games genre including 5 classic Atari games and 90’s mobile phone favorite Snake, which have been fan favorites. What are your favorites? Are there games you like to play elsewhere that you wish you could play on AARP Games?

From a features standpoint, we launched Games Tips in the Online Community where users can either leave a tip for fellow players or ask for a tip to help boost gameplay. We added leaderboard filtering to block excessive scores from being posted in response to input from users such as yourself. Thank you!

Of course, this only is a representative sampling of enhancements and offerings. Please be on the lookout for some exciting new games before year-end with more to come next year!

Thanks for being an AARP Games player and I hope we can continue to improve your experience with our games.

AARPLynne

AARP Online Community Team

nctarheel · ‎11-10-2021

Thanks for your response, years later..... but I will stay with Firefox, thank you.

As far as addressing issues with Safari, I spent days and days talking to your tech team several years ago to no avail. I also talked to Apple's support. Apple's opinion, at the time, was that your web site was the issue.

I switched to Firefox's browser at that time and have had no issues.

As far as ads, RIGHT NOW, my ad blocker says it is blocking 17 ads on your web site as I write this post.

For a period, several years ago, your GAMES platform was hacked. The reason I say this is that I got ads, ONLY AT YOUR GAMES PLATFORM, that I am sure were not approved by AARP. Foreign ads from India for Tata Motors, an ad about animal cruelty hosted by Paul Mccartney that showed disgusting abuses of animals, and other weird independent ads. I sent multiple correspondences at the time, again to no avail. At some point, I guess someone discovered the issue because those type of ads ceased.

As far as equipment, I have Big Sur, version 11.6(the latest), and Safari, version 15.0(the latest).

Over time, things like IMPOSSIBLE SCORES for the game of 5ROLL plagued your system.

I haven't played Backgammon because the scoring on your games platform does not reflect the way scores are accrued in the playing of actual backgammon.

Again, I appreciate the response but, again, the response is years late.

AARPLynne · ‎11-10-2021

@nctarheel, our game utilizes the most common understanding of Backgammon play and scoring, although the doubling cube feature is something we don't currently support. Is there a specific item you’d like suggest for future Backgammon updates?

nctarheel · ‎11-10-2021

@AARPLynne,

Again, I appreciate the sudden interest in your games platform, but discussions were held on Backgammon's scoring on your platform years ago with no action ever taken by your game's vendor.

I don't remember the issues and frankly, after these so many years, don't care anymore.

As to Impossible Scores on 5ROLL, it was finally fixed after multiple complaints from multiple users over multiple years.

I did not appreciate that I received threats from AARP's staff if I continued to complain about the issue. My research and emails I received from Arkadium staff showed that your vendor was "off shore", I think they were in Russia or Ukraine.

Anyway, those impossible scores don't appear any more but shouldn't have taken several years to address.

Again, as with Backgammon, I don't care anymore.

AARPLynne · ‎11-11-2021

Thank you for your response back, @nctarheel. Should an issue arise outside of what has already been brought up, please let us know and we will do our best to resolve.