We need better comunication with the Community team

As an individual: you are right we barely make a dent in their bottom line and it would indeed be deluded to expect them to listen to our concerns.
As the community in general: we ARE their income. There would be no FF-XIV w/o us and they would be out of a job.

So it is prudent for any game developer to keep an ear to the community and realize when there is some kind of consensus on issues.
One example would be the culling of objects that does not follow a strict priority like MOBS = PARTY MEMBERS = TARGET = FOCUS TARGET [these are always visible] >>>> random players of other groups (can be culled to improve performance) and instead makes the dude you just targeted or the boss disappear in front of you.

SE'd do well to heed our "feedback" in that regard.

The way I know SE though, instead of fixing lazy coding, they'll probably try to think of a way how to make fate trains not happen in EUREKAs next zone. >.<

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Originally Posted by Vhailor

And I very rarely see those types of posts run into problems. There's a massive tonal difference between 'personally, I like Eureka well enough, but I agree that X, Y, and Z are problems and really should have been fixed' and 'I think Eureka is great, if you don't like it don't play it.'

The latter is almost guaranteed to generate anger and irritation.

As an aside: why on earth would I have taken offense? Nothing in my post remotely indicated that I denied this. I actually took pains to identify the difference between saying one likes content while acknowledging its faults, and just saying the content's fine.

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Well, I didn't want to sound disrespectful
Also my apologies since I see we are on the same page

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Originally Posted by KisaiTenshi

Square-Enix never listens to player feedback, even during beta tests, otherwise they would have not released V1.0 at all. While they do seem to listen to PR embarrassments, eventually, just go look at anything else they release for the PC. Buggy, ugly, and broken, and not even a "Sorry we will do better and fix it." Even the Mac Version of FFXIV, completely fumbled.

Either Square-Enix employs no beta testers, or their beta testers are afraid of actually reporting anything that might be seen as "this is a bad design", and can only report things like localization errors (which is in fact how most english-language versions of Japanese and Korean games are during beta tests.)




This is a kind of millennial type of "I'm a snowflake, I'm important, I'm entitled to be heard" type of opinion that many people think their opinion matters to a large company. Reality check, unless you are helping their bottom line (eg MrHappy, MTQcapture on youtube) you will never have the ear of the developer.

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I don't think us "special snowflakes" really believe that SE cares about our individual opinions. No large origination does unless you're a high net-worth/seriously influential customer. The point is though, when your customers don't feel like you care about them, they get dissatisfied and upset. Unhappy customers spread negative PR, stop using your services, and will not recommend you to their associations. That's bad for business.

All kinds of companies across diverse industries are interacting with customers on a more personal level than ever due to social media- it's in their best interests to keep up a rapport and accept customer feedback in all kinds of ways. The company I work for scans social media posts made to them every day to look into problems customers encounter. Not all of them can be solved and some take longer than customers like to be fixed. In the end, though, it builds good-will and gives customers a place to feel like they'll be heard. Since game companies live and die based on the user experience, it's probably in SE's best interest to at least let us know they're listening. Having a formalized feedback process like Vhailor suggested is a great way for customers to provide input without requiring SE to read each and every report; you can scan for key words and phrases based on categories customers select to get a sense of where you can improve things. And customers have a way to directly interact with the company, even though they won't get individualized attention.

Talking with senior management and developers is also good. The UI developer's post on technical limitations was fantastic! Even though I don't like what they did to the expanded inventory view, now at least I understand why they did it and have some sympathy. They don't want to be constrained like that, but they did the best with what they had. Controversial changes large and small need to be addressed. A lot of people on the forums have expressed concern about what Eureka means for the future of the game. A few (yours truly included) have expressed worry that the game will not try to break out of the ARR formula going into 5.0. Our concerns could be allayed a bit if we felt like our opinions were being heard and considered.

A related example I have is from Riot, the company behind League of Legends. I haven't played the game in years since I burned myself out. But I have a ton of goodwill for the company and pass on the positive experience when I can because of their level of customer interaction. Pendragon (one of the very senior people at the company) directly asked me for my input on their new (now current) forum design and colour scheme because I had championed for a dark theme due to medical reasons. I critiqued, they listened. They rebuilt their new forums from the ground up based on what the community wanted to see too. In general they respond to player concerns and explain rationale for changes in a way that I deeply appreciate. They don't balance based on collective player feedback, but they account for the user experience at all levels and the game is that much better for it. SE can take a page from their book when it comes to interacting with us - they don't have to bend over to every demand or directly thank every player for submitting feedback. But having a two-way conversation instead of leaving players to rant and rave on various discussion platforms does a lot for customer good-will that can't be accounted for in the game itself.

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Originally Posted by Kohdo

^^^^ This so much. I wasn't keen on Eureka at first, and voiced some criticisms here, but I'm loving it now. A select handful of people bitching about it in the forums isn't going to do anything. If you don't like it, offer constructive suggestions on how to improve it, or go away. These forums are 99% complaining anyway, we really don't need more pointless negativity.

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Completely disagree with you regarding eureka. However.........lmfao is that a reference to louder with crowder xD? hes hilarious. His change my mind videos are the best and i loved his prank calls to target hahaha.

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Originally Posted by KisaiTenshi

This is a kind of millennial type of "I'm a snowflake, I'm important, I'm entitled to be heard" type of opinion that many people think their opinion matters to a large company. Reality check, unless you are helping their bottom line (eg MrHappy, MTQcapture on youtube) you will never have the ear of the developer.

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Bullshit, and I resent being implicitly labeled as a 'special snowflake' in a derogatory manner. This isn't a millennial thing, it's not a special snowflake thing, it's not an entitlement thing - it's an awareness of basic psychology, a core part of being an astute developer. Companies fifty years ago would have killed for the type of feedback potential that SE has at their fingertips, and yet the dev team isn't even trying.

Hestzhyen summarized this as well as I could, so I won't bother reiterating. I will say though, that the days are numbered for companies that don't bother with substantial customer feedback. It's easier than ever to get, it's more important than ever to have, and SE has arguably regressed from the days of FFXI. It's not a good look.

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Originally Posted by Vhailor

SE has arguably regressed from the days of FFXI. It's not a good look.

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T h a t ! .

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Originally Posted by KisaiTenshi

This is a kind of millennial type of "I'm a snowflake, I'm important, I'm entitled to be heard" type of opinion that many people think their opinion matters to a large company. Reality check, unless you are helping their bottom line (eg MrHappy, MTQcapture on youtube) you will never have the ear of the developer.

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Funny, it's my dad who is most likely to complain to a company if they don't deliver a satisfactory experience. He's most definitely not a milennial. And you know what? He gets results.

The idea that it's a new thing that people expect companies to care what their customers think is the most comical milenial hatred BS I've ever seen. Companies like to make money, and unhappy customers aren't good for the bottom line. The only time it's not true is with monopolies.

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Originally Posted by Mizunoko

Completely disagree with you regarding eureka. However.........lmfao is that a reference to louder with crowder xD? hes hilarious. His change my mind videos are the best and i loved his prank calls to target hahaha.

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Don't take it at 100% face value. It makes you think sure and I do like some of his analysis but there is some stuff there is a clear bias.. (I wont spell it out load because I do not need the political debate here) My point is just be careful and don't take it 100% face value. (This is coming from someone that does agree with him some of the time) I don't see the link though other then suggesting to give pure constructive debate and not dribble.

For all the replies to KisaiTenshi, +1 all of you, I disliked that "snowflake" thing too

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Originally Posted by Vhailor

I resent being implicitly labeled as a 'special snowflake' in a derogatory manner. This isn't a millennial thing, it's not a special snowflake thing, it's not an entitlement thing - it's an awareness of basic psychology, a core part of being an astute developer. Companies fifty years ago would have killed for the type of feedback potential that SE has at their fingertips, and yet the dev team isn't even trying.

Hestzhyen summarized this as well as I could, so I won't bother reiterating. I will say though, that the days are numbered for companies that don't bother with substantial customer feedback. It's easier than ever to get, it's more important than ever to have, and SE has arguably regressed from the days of FFXI. It's not a good look.

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Hmmmm I smell irony..
https://i.imgur.com/VtCUHXa.png

+
I want to know how much of the playerbase is actually unhappy with Euerka. We all know the forums and whatnot are a tiny part of the playerbase at large. Could it be that the percent is too small for them to look into any of the it's complaints? I'm not basing I'm just wondering. They DO need to be more involved with all their bases I won't disagree to that. I just wonder what's stopping them, The only thing I know is alot of japanese companies kindof do the same thing. Sega, CAPCOM, etc. But in their cases it depends on the bases that they are aiming towards who they take the most feedback from. Either way SE needs to get more people in their ranks to collect all the feedback so we can get better content in general as I may like what we have I do want things to always get better.

I still think that the problem is the need of a better community management on non jpn territory tbh.
Considering what's going on in their side, they do have a better communication than us, which should be equalized imho