FFXIV Needs Player Polls

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Originally Posted by Kinkoz

So what makes you think the word of a very vocal minority is representative of the general population, then?

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Where did I write that?

But at the very least, they would give some players the opportunity to give direct feedback. Also, this "very vocal minority" thing really doesn't have anything to do with the matter at hand as long as they let anyone provide feedback via polls.

The polls would only work from SE side via in-game upon login in a survey style-format.

Doing forum polls on the OF and reddit would give an inaccurate reading since not everyone visits those locations daily. I know I sure don't and often miss out a lot especially on Reddit. It also wouldn't work since there're often loud minority groups that do visit those places regularly acting like they're the voice and opinion that represents most of us when they actually don't.

If they did a poll, in-game survey upon login would provide the most accurate results and the comfort of security so insecure players wouldn't feel terrified to voice their opinion without the anxieties of other players giving them death stares for not agreeing with a popular fad or opinion trend. Which if SE did that, they most certainly wouldn't leak the results of said poll publicly either.

When it comes to large content updates Eureka their ability to react to feedback is limited. I'd wager that before Anemos was even released, work on Pagos was already well underway. Their schedule is pretty strict, and to suddenly pump the brakes on content they've had planned for months so they could respond to feedback, would likely delay the content for months if not end up preventing it's release entirely. I suspect that it's a case of already being in too deep to back out, it was either finish Eureka as planned, or nothing. I won't defend Eureka because it sucks but I don't think it's realistic to expect them to just pull the plug on it.

While I don't necessarily see the harm in holding polls, ultimately I don't think they'd really offer what people want from them. For starters there's every chance that the feedback would simply be ignored. The devs already have all the feedback they could ever want right on the forums, they just need a mind to look. The fact that they don't or at least appear not to, suggests their decision making is largely based on other metrics that are unknown to us. After all unlike the players they're the ones who actually have the data and can see what exactly people are doing and when and where they decide to stop playing. Even if they did polls, there's probably not much they could offer that would both have a significant impact on the direction of the game while also being something where they could always implement the results of the poll. Even if everyone says "better housing", it's still not going to happen if the budget/tech isn't there, just as an example. If the polls were simply about trivial things then they'd be considered pointless. If they were about important things but often ignored then they'd be a source of resentment.

Secondly, the desire to "shake things up" comes from boredom, but boredom can mislead you into thinking that any change is good. That is definitely not the case. The chance that the game would go from "boring" to "unplayably awful" is not small. WoW is going through this right now. The line between "keeping things fresh" and "don't fix what ain't broke" is remarkably thin and differs from person to person. It's true that keeping things the same is "playing it safe", but playing it safe is not necessarily bad. Even if you're bored now, something must have drawn you to get invested in the game to begin with. There's always the option to take a break and do other things and let XIV stay the way it is then come back to it later with renewed energy.

Lest you think I'm just a total apologist I don't think the game is perfect, I don't think the devs make all the right decisions, I don't think there's no opportunity for improvement or changes or fresh new stuff. I'm just trying to offer some perspective. It's too easy to conflate "I want" with "we all want", and too easy to let frustration lead you to want things it turns out you don't actually want. A poll would theoretically be harmless I just can't see it solving any real problems.

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Originally Posted by alimdia

like some changes to tomestones to make gearing alts easier rather than getting rid of tomestones.

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For a game that let's you play all jobs on one character,they sure do limit the gearing you can do.
I saw a suggestion a while back that said they could give a tome cap to every job instead of one shared cap. I wouldn't mind that honestly.

I wouldn't be against a poll. but it would have to be somewhere where everyone can see it and use it. So the forums are a no go. It needs to be in game in your face. and it needs to be serious and up to date with issues that are new and recent. No things about 2.0 here. And most inportantly it needs to be READ. That's the only way I see a poll working.

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Originally Posted by Fooldar

The people in forums consist of a very small minority of the playerbase. Should such a minority dictate the course of the game's development to the large majority? I say no.

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Yeah It's true that the forum users do make up a very small minority of the playerbase, but that doesn't mean there issues and concerns are not shared by the larger majority of players. just because most players don'tuse the forums doesn't mean they don't share the seem feelings or trends in opinions as those that do. this has been proven countless times in recent years andcompanies spend literall billions researchin this stuff.

look at 1.0 very small number of players used the forums.. even brushed off by many as the vocal minority (a term which is no longer used these days because it has been proven to be wrong) but hey look what happened. everyone felt the same way as those few and the game tanked.. hence the total remake

another example would be ubisoft with the division.. a very small percentage of players used the forums andcomplained about issues and problems in the game. they went largely ignored and the game tanked so hard and so fast the developers issueda massive apology (no pun as game was developed by massive) started doingweekly broadcasts on the state of the game to prove they were listening to players and even paid for a load ofgamers to fly to sweden be put up in a hotel and have face to face discussions with the devs about the game.... all of which proves that small percentage of players represented pretty much the whole community..

or EA. people complaining about various issues in various games and various things and EA be like no worries it's cool the majority of gamers loves our stuff. what happened there? BAM worst company is america...

it only takes a few to represent the many....

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Originally Posted by OurMom

I agree, they really need to do in game surveys, Korean developers do it even though they rarely listen and they also offer some kind of little item when you complete them.

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Originally Posted by ko_

I wouldn't be against a poll. but it would have to be somewhere where everyone can see it and use it. So the forums are a no go. It needs to be in game in your face. and it needs to be serious and up to date with issues that are new and recent. No things about 2.0 here. And most inportantly it needs to be READ. That's the only way I see a poll working.

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In game surveys won't really help much. one of SE's biggest problems with this game is keep in players interested and retaining subs. If it has any interest in addressing that then what it needs to do is understand why players get bored and leave in such huge numbers and what it can do to improve retention. and as such an in game poll of any kind isn't going to answer those questions.

The best way they could poll people would be email all registered accounts active or not and invite players to participate in one big poll. if they asked players to login to there se account to participate (regardless of sub status) they could then tailor each persons poll based on there activities within the game. if said SE account hadn't activateds tormblood for example then that person simply wouldnt be asked many questions regarding that expansion. except maybe the generic do you plan to purchase at a later date and why/why not? the rest of there questions might be tailored around ARR/HW and general gameplay elements such as the combat system if they had no healers leveled they might not be asked many questions pertaining to healer gameplay elements other than a generic do you intend to level a healer why/why not?

encourage participation by having prizes. like complete this survey for a chance to win $500 of amazon vouchers or something.. offering free game time would do much if players arent happy with the game. but something like amazon vouchers might work very well. especially if they magically posted the survey today. chance to win the vouchers in time for christmas...

from a business perspective the feedback of players who left is more vlauable than those still playing. if you want to imporve yourgame and keep players happier and subbed for longer you needto understand why they leave and act on it.

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Originally Posted by Fooldar

The people in forums consist of a very small minority of the playerbase. Should such a minority dictate the course of the game's development to the large majority? I say no.

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What we'll have would be the tyranny of the minority, where a very small minority put their self-interests ahead of the vast majority. I wish I can say I trust people on the Internet to have a broad outlook on the situation and propose changes to the benefit of the entire playerbase. However, what is far more likely is the minority imposing their selfish desires over the rest.

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So what, the forum posters are fundamentally completely different and somehow have conflicting interests to the regular non-forum FFXIV players? I highly doubt that. The forum is a microcosm of the playerbase as a whole, and they could always physically manifest the polling place into the game.
What would be the next complaint? That voters are a small minority that put their self-interests ahead of the non-voting majority?

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Originally Posted by WhyAmIHere

People don't know what they want, just what they dont.

A person might know exactly what they want, but as a group? Nah.

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And a vote is a great way of the player base getting to avoid what they don't want. For instance, this Halloween events lame offering could have been avoided had the Players been able to vote on what the event was going to be about. But this would only work if SE is actively engaged with the community. But I honestly can't see a downside if they were engaged with the FFXIV community.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-26uK-huRCQ...eenshot_24.png

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Originally Posted by Dzian

In game surveys won't really help much. one of SE's biggest problems with this game is keep in players interested and retaining subs. If it has any interest in addressing that then what it needs to do is understand why players get bored and leave in such huge numbers and what it can do to improve retention. and as such an in game poll of any kind isn't going to answer those questions.

The best way they could poll people would be email all registered accounts active or not and invite players to participate in one big poll. if they asked players to login to there se account to participate (regardless of sub status) they could then tailor each persons poll based on there activities within the game. if said SE account hadn't activateds tormblood for example then that person simply wouldnt be asked many questions regarding that expansion. except maybe the generic do you plan to purchase at a later date and why/why not? the rest of there questions might be tailored around ARR/HW and general gameplay elements such as the combat system if they had no healers leveled they might not be asked many questions pertaining to healer gameplay elements other than a generic do you intend to level a healer why/why not?

encourage participation by having prizes. like complete this survey for a chance to win $500 of amazon vouchers or something.. offering free game time would do much if players arent happy with the game. but something like amazon vouchers might work very well. especially if they magically posted the survey today. chance to win the vouchers in time for christmas...

from a business perspective the feedback of players who left is more vlauable than those still playing. if you want to imporve yourgame and keep players happier and subbed for longer you needto understand why they leave and act on it.

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Don't knock out ingame polls... I think they do the most effect. Have it in the players face and right on login AND have it once they log in. MNake it so you can't miss it and you're goign to get results. I don't think sending emails to people who left would do anything as they are gone, and no longer putting any money into the game. Focus on the playerbase STILL giving you the money, not on people who left. Asking people who left might give you some results but they left. There's not even a chance they would give you the time of day as they and more importantly their cash is GONE. Fix your foundation FIRST before you go out and try to recuit lost causes.

I don't think the team for FFXIV even works that way. The best way to explain is I feel SE makes content and decisions and it's up to us to enjoy it. If we don't enjoy it, we are not "doing it correctly" or we "can play other games". I don't feel like digging out sources but both of these statements have been made by SE when confronted with negative feedback.

A poll would only be useful for a team that is relying on player feedback to make decisions. I imagine FFXIV has to be worse off as a game for SE to even consider that sort of thing. They are doing fine just releasing whatever they want to see in the game. We're all still here paying while we complain.