So...Spontaneity...

[Duelle]

isn't that what the test server is for though? to test out things like this before they become official?

The real question is: where can we put this feedback to ensure it is seen and at the very least considered by the developers?

We have our Temper threads here, the temper feedback in the test server forum got buried already. Don't know what else we can do other than post some more.

To recap, Spontaneity/Quick Magic recast should be taken down 5 or 3 minutes. Worst case scenario, delete something from category 1 or 2 merits and replace it with the option to merit Spontaneity/Quick Magic from 5 minutes down to 3 minutes.

10 minute cooldown is too much for an ability that seems to be something to be used whenever possible and is not an endurance/survival tool like Convert.

[SpankWustler]

A ten minute recast? That doesn't sound very......spontaneous.

[Zatias]

Disgusting.

[saevel]

The real question is: where can we put this feedback to ensure it is seen and at the very least considered by the developers?

We have our Temper threads here, the temper feedback in the test server forum got buried already. Don't know what else we can do other than post some more.

To recap, Spontaneity/Quick Magic recast should be taken down 5 or 3 minutes. Worst case scenario, delete something from category 1 or 2 merits and replace it with the option to merit Spontaneity/Quick Magic from 5 minutes down to 3 minutes.

10 minute cooldown is too much for an ability that seems to be something to be used whenever possible and is not an endurance/survival tool like Convert.

You respond by thinking like a developer / community manager not a player.

The developers do not play this game, at night they go home and relax with their family's. They also don't speak English as a first language, and most likely don't speak English at all. When you combine these two things you realize that the only way to get anything to a dev is through their PR team, in this case the community managers / organizers. Now CM/CO's aren't players either, their forum moderators who's assigned job is to be a go-between for the FFXI development team and the player base.

What you have to do is make a clean post explaining the situation and asking them to look into it. Don't use gamer jargon or slang, don't flame, yell, sigh, or use emoticons. Just be clean and polite. They'll notice, their paid to read the forums (but not every post of a 30+ page thread) and if there is enough positive feedback behind something they'll take the idea / concern to the developers. The devs will go over it during their daily / weekly meetings (or whatever schedule their PM has them on) and that will be that. Just look at the DRK forum, the idea's were so off base and the reaction so loud that the CM's brought it to the dev's who agreed to rethink some of their planned DRK update. Also Dev's don't have much time, their extremely busy, so keep things short and don't ask for complicated implementations.

[Tashan]

You respond by thinking like a developer / community manager not a player.

The developers do not play this game, at night they go home and relax with their family's. They also don't speak English as a first language, and most likely don't speak English at all. When you combine these two things you realize that the only way to get anything to a dev is through their PR team, in this case the community managers / organizers. Now CM/CO's aren't players either, their forum moderators who's assigned job is to be a go-between for the FFXI development team and the player base.

What you have to do is make a clean post explaining the situation and asking them to look into it. Don't use gamer jargon or slang, don't flame, yell, sigh, or use emoticons. Just be clean and polite. They'll notice, their paid to read the forums (but not every post of a 30+ page thread) and if there is enough positive feedback behind something they'll take the idea / concern to the developers. The devs will go over it during their daily / weekly meetings (or whatever schedule their PM has them on) and that will be that. Just look at the DRK forum, the idea's were so off base and the reaction so loud that the CM's brought it to the dev's who agreed to rethink some of their planned DRK update. Also Dev's don't have much time, their extremely busy, so keep things short and don't ask for complicated implementations.

The job of the Forum Community Manager's is to address this, not the players. They do and have played this game, which is why they've been chosen to fill this role.

It is our job to think like players, not like developers.

[saevel]

It is our job to think like players, not like developers.

And that is how you get exactly nothing done and why FFXI dev's were out of touch with the players.

And no CM's may have once been players, not their just reading forums and running back and forth between SE and the players. Or haven't you noticed one CM posting dozens of messages across just about all the job forums. That much traffic means they won't be reading 30+ page threads trying to decipher what a flaming / screaming / emoing fan base wants done.

Want to get a message to the dev's, make it was easy for the messenger as possible, else they'll just throw your request into file 13.

[Tashan]

It is not our responsibility to get anything done. We are the consumers, the customers, the audience.

Should you choose to present feedback the best way you can present it to the institute of interest is to be as honest as you possibly can, in whatever form you wish to.

Trying to understand the development team is perfectly fine, but never put yourself in someone else's shoes as you skew feedback towards being unrepresentable.

Help the developers by being a honest player, not a mini-mod.

Case in Point - Payment adjustments.

[SpankWustler]

It is not our responsibility to get anything done. We are the consumers, the customers, the audience.

Should you choose to present feedback the best way you can present it to the institute of interest is to be as honest as you possibly can, in whatever form you wish to.

I'm going with this. Camate has even posted things in topics related to Thief that imply he relates the tone along with the message, so if players really hate something than that will presumably be conveyed.

[Seriha]

As long as we're paying to play, it is our responsibility to tell them what we want. Some might subscribe to the theory that if you don't like something, you can just quit, but I see such behavior as forfeiting your right to criticism as pulling your sub is basically an admission of lacking faith in the development process. Seems SE feels similar to some degree since you can't post here without an active sub. One person here and there, otherwise, won't change anything. There needs to be organization, or collective whining as some may liken to the melee movement. And while we don't know the precise dev process, attempting to think like one can help weed out the unreasonable ideas while referencing other existing features to either incorporate or adapt to an idea.

Far as Spont goes, though, 10m is inexcusable. Bluntly, I've felt a lot of the game's JAs have had too restrictive timers, thus choking off job diversity, but that's another argument.

[saevel]

It is not our responsibility to get anything done. We are the consumers, the customers, the audience.

Should you choose to present feedback the best way you can present it to the institute of interest is to be as honest as you possibly can, in whatever form you wish to.

Trying to understand the development team is perfectly fine, but never put yourself in someone else's shoes as you skew feedback towards being unrepresentable.

Help the developers by being a honest player, not a mini-mod.

Case in Point - Payment adjustments.

And in a perfect world each of us would have our own personal developer to cater to our very own wish's. Complete with rainbow unicorn sprinkles.

Now back to reality where people have lives and are working constantly under demanding timelines. Demanding stuff while stamping your feet and saying your a "consumer" will just have the cook add their "secret ingredients" to your order. CM / Dev's are not robots to cater to your ever whim, their people with family's and lives. Refusing to adjust your thinking to better communicate your desires just goes to show a selfish attitude. That gets absolutely nothing accomplished, and while you may feel a sense of smugness for getting nothing done, but doing it your way, to the eyes of dev's and admins you just look like a fool.

And btw this is coming from someone who's run an MMO before.

Protip, don't assume dev's know what player created acronyms mean, especially when they don't speak your language. Take "Programmed Random OcCurrence" for example (PROC), we use it all the time to describe when something random happens in the game, but to most developers the term "PROC" is meaningless unless they've been involved in the english speaking MMO community. Thus when explaining something having to do with proc's you instead use the term activation rate. It translates easier and will make your message clearer.

Effective Communication 101, when communicating a message always take your audience (the receiver of the message) into account. Phrase and parse the message in a way that the audience has the best time understanding and relating to. Otherwise you sound like the teacher on Charlie Brown.