This forum is never going to work if people only post feature requests.

[Lafra]

Similar to BG or FFXIAH, I feel ppl should use this forum more constructively, instead of every other new post being about how we should listen to average joe's idea for a new feature request or game adjustment.

I would like to see more information about the game, testings on weapons, atmas, gear, NM strategies, low man strategies for existing content, etc.

It's painful to keep an RSS feed and every day see 10 new posts about how some guy wants an update to make chocobo racing better, updates to leveling low levels, transportation methods, or assault updates.

"THIS JUST IN" or "NEW FINDINGS" type posts would draw more users to the forum and just be a better read for everyone. Think about it.

[azjazo]

CHOCOBO RACING IS SERIOUS BUSINESS! (not sarcastic, love chocobo racing but server merges made it more dificult to win races as there are a lot of gold diggers with multiple birds racing to get you out of the first 3 places, good for competition but bad for your chocobuck balance)

That said, well, the requests filling general discussion is because theres no suggestions section like in other forums.

[Unaisis]

SE might want to know the average joes thoughts tho~ O.o;;;

[kaht]

You realize the forum is 2 days old now, right? Everyone is logging in to let their voice be heard. Give it some time and things will settle down.

[Lafra]

Should make a thread for Feature Requests, I'll do that now.

[Randwolf]

Should make a thread for Feature Requests, I'll do that now.
And it was locked.

I've worked at 2 schools that created their walking paths in 2 different ways. The first laid out beautiful paths that were symmetrical and fit the designer's plan. The second laid out very few paths and watched where the students walked. After the students had created dirt paths, the school installed walkways where those dirt paths were. The first school soon had dirt paths in addition to the ones they laid down.

In my opinion, it's better to watch where people want to walk and then lay the groundwork to make those paths more user friendly than it is to try and create the paths and end up with unused paths interspersed with the paths that the people created themselves.

[Greatguardian]

Except we're not talking about a path to get from point A to point B. We're talking about game design developments and their implementation. Students may all make a dirt path because it's the fastest way to get from one class to another. FFXI Players do not all want the same thing.

Many players do not care if Paladin is left in 2008. Many players do not feel the need to have underwater locales for battles. Many players are fine with Abyssea's level 30 entry requirement, RDM only getting Cure IV, FFXI having 10 year old graphics, and a slew of other things.

The development team taking suggestions from this forum seriously and implementing them does nothing but worry me. Why? Because, as some of the more radical posters have already noted, the loudest people will always win out. It doesn't matter if they have a solid complaint or not as long as they make 5 parallel threads on the same issue and <sarcasm> CAPS LOCK BOLD EVERYTHING </sarcasm> they feel they will bully the Devs into doing what they want.

While the FFXI Development Team and Community Teams have been working incredibly hard over the past year to increase the amount of communication they have with their player base, I do not feel this entitles us, the players, to dictate to them what they should do with their game. We are in no position to tell them what "The right thing to do" is, how to enforce their own Terms of Service, or what direction the game "Has to take or else it will die".

These forums are meant to, as I understand it, provide feedback on existing game content and explicitly announced planned content. They are not here for the Community Team to sift through 5,000 threads on why we need a Jump button. It's these guys' job to read our feedback, at least give them something meaningful and interesting to read. It's honestly appalling that we've had so many threads about "New Features" and "NERF THINGS I DON'T LIKE", but not a single one about the 5 simultaneous Trials of the Magian restriction. Priorities much?

[Sama]

Can't you low-man everything in aby?

[Greatguardian]

Can't you low-man everything in aby?

Yes? I have an Empyrean Weapon and full sets of +2 AF3, but that doesn't mean that being unable to work on multiple Weather Staves at the same time doesn't bug the daylights out of me.

[Aliekber]

It's honestly appalling that we've had so many threads about "New Features" and "NERF THINGS I DON'T LIKE", but not a single one about the 5 simultaneous Trials of the Magian restriction. Priorities much?

They've already said (I believe it was on the Twitter feed) that they don't like the 5 Trials restriction and are working to solve it, but I get what you're saying. I just wouldn't worry about that issue in particular.

[Greatguardian]

They've already said (I believe it was on the Twitter feed) that they don't like the 5 Trials restriction and are working to solve it, but I get what you're saying. I just wouldn't worry about that issue in particular.

Aha, very cool. I had not noticed. It was mainly the first example that popped into my head, but that's good to know.

[Randwolf]

The paths were cut by multiple people using them. Not just a few. The paths weren't put in where everyone trod. The reason you start with few paths is to see where the majority of people walked. The designers have to determine after the paths were made which ones best fit with the overall plans of the school environment and were also user friendly.

And, when you first undertake something like this, you do have to sift through tons of threads. The boards have been up two days. What we have is mass community 'vomit' at this time. The dev's can gauge from this chaos how to refine the site. As well as the fact that there will be some shifting to an order which the community puts on the site. But, it isn't going to happen in 2 days.

And, if 5,000 people want a jump button and they are the most vocal, blame the silent 10,000 that don't want it if we get a jump button. So, either get the 10,000 people to speak up about your issue or settle with the Jump button.

Finally, if S/E felt the need to impose an order this soon, then they would do it. The fact is that the thread which was started to impose an order in the forum was locked.

[Greatguardian]

Obviously it's the fault of the people who have a modicum of respect for the Community Team that loud, obnoxious minorities comprise the majority of the feedback. Being louder, making more threads, and extolling how "legit" of a player one is does not make them any more right or any more important than those of us with more moderate stances.

If nothing else, the fact that the large majority of coherent, thought out responses to some of these threads have been completely ignored by anyone who disagrees makes moderate posters not want to bother arguing with people. I might sit down, write a comprehensive response to an issue and explain my point of view, only to be responded to with "Well you're just a leech, go leech more, leecher. I have my opinion, and I'll keep posting it 5 times a page till the game changes." Why would anyone continue a discourse like that? It's not dialogue, it's monologues being thrown together.

In the end that leaves us with only the most stubborn, obnoxious, unwilling to listen posters making complaints and "suggestions". That's not the kind of environment I want influencing FFXI, and I highly doubt it's the kind the Community Teams will want to even bring to the Development Team. If you want to make an actual impact on the game, be polite, respectful, listen to other people even when they disagree with you (and keep your mind open to the possibility that someone else' idea may work better), and present legitimate feedback on announced and existing features.

[Delsus]

the general discussion forum is for discussion, there is a feedback forum for people who want to give feedback, shame no matter what forums you post in people seem to never notice a feedback forum and think everything needs to be crammed in the general discussion.

I have honestly seen this on every forum I have an account on like alla, ffxiah ffxivpro and ffxiv.zam + more

[Dubberrucky]

Actually check out the Dyna update forum it has been productive in letting SE know our concerns about that particular piece of the upcoming update and responding back to us about our concerns = productive