Polls for future game changes

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Originally Posted by Fabbro

Exactly fair because of that, people that play for a longer time deserve more weight, and are probably a minority, so they need some extra voting weight to balance out against people whom will probably only ever play the game for a few months ~ one year and give it up. People whom already play the game for a longer time since launch are probably the same ones that are going to keep the game alive in the long term, so it makes sense to me.

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length of play time getting more votes is not actually fair.
Fair voting involves everyones vote having the same weight.
Your idea is like someone who has been around for 10 electoral votes having a weight of 10 votes vs the person voting for the first time having 1

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Originally Posted by Fabbro

Would be nice if every MMO had this, also, make players voto count more according to how old their subscrition in the game is, so for say, every ~6months of subscription time, your voto counts as one vote extra,

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This sounds like a great way to get the game to stagnate.
This would also mean that the majority become the game designers, and the devs lose agency over their vision.
I'm not a fan of this idea.

No thanks. I don't like everything they've done with the game, and I anticipate I won't like everything they will do in the future, but it's still their game to make. They have access to far more information both about player activity and about what is actually possible in the game code than I do, and they have to create a product that works for as many people as possible.

In the end, though, I do have a vote. We all do. If the game isn't what you want it to be, and you don't feel the developers respect your wishes and/or tastes then just stop playing the game. Stop paying them. There's your vote.

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Originally Posted by Fabbro

Exactly fair because of that, people that play for a longer time deserve more weight, and are probably a minority, so they need some extra voting weight to balance out against people whom will probably only ever play the game for a few months ~ one year and give it up. People whom already play the game for a longer time since launch are probably the same ones that are going to keep the game alive in the long term, so it makes sense to me.

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And what about players with multiple accounts? Many have had them for years. They're not a majority but if an issue is almost 50/50 then they could tip it in their favour with their extra accounts.

Also I am not fond of the idea of seniority perks in games. Just because you have been playing for a long time doesn't mean you're super knowledgeable about the game. A new player who has raided for just one tier has more raid knowledge than a veteran casual player who never raided. I know people who played since ARR and know nothing about crafting. Do you want them to have a strong vote on crafting issues? Do you want someone who has never played a healer to have a strong vote in healer issues?

The system we have is fine. We provide feedback and SE reacts accordingly. They're actually really good at listening to feedback, a stark contrast to the devs of the other big mmo on the market.

The problem with Runescape's ingame polls is that 95% of the time, the playerbase always voted "yes" just off of that, without going to the forums and reading the threads discussing the implications of X. They just see a tagline "do you want X in your game?" and just vote yes. So ingame polls were to the detriment of Runescape, and lo and behold, the bad things that people in the discussion threads feared came about, but they couldn't do anything about it because they were an informed minority while the majority of people who voted didn't know what they were voting for.

Players are notoriously bad at judging what changes will actually do to the game.

Longer subscription does not equal more important (and I'm saying this as someone who was in the beta and has subscribed ever since).

I don't trust data from a poll that most people will simply click out of or pick an option to get rid of to base gamechanging decisions on.

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Originally Posted by MoofiaBossVal

The problem with Runescape's ingame polls is that 95% of the time, the playerbase always voted "yes" just off of that, without going to the forums and reading the threads discussing the implications of X. They just see a tagline "do you want X in your game?" and just vote yes. So ingame polls were to the detriment of Runescape, and lo and behold, the bad things that people in the discussion threads feared came about, but they couldn't do anything about it because they were an informed minority while the majority of people who voted didn't know what they were voting for.

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Doesn't that sound suspiciously like real life elections?

No.

No, no.

Nonononononno

I think it would be an excellent idea. MMO's, by their very nature, are designed to appeal to a broad audience. By polling more players, we'd see less focus on niche pursuits and the development team might come to learn that social media mobs are, in fact, a minority. A very vocal one, but a minority nonetheless.

Getting feedback directly from players would also eliminate the gatekeeping that comes from many vocal individuals within the community.

Agreed - just need to ensure the questions are structured appropriately and costs/foregone alternatives are clearly outlined.