An article I think many of you should read

[Shizue]

I agree that devs should not anticipate content/patches that aren't 100% sure to go live in not too long time.
But I don't agree on the starting point: Paying customers DO deserve an answer on critical stuff (ie. the lag bug that's ignored by devs right now. They haven't even said that they're looking into it), even if they're "terrible people". Learn to cope with it, community relationships are part of your job, on a MMO game.
This is another reason why WoW has so much success: The devs listen and answer on the forums and know how to deal with the fanbase.
That part of the article just looks like a whine.

In truth, it's NOT a developer's job to interact directly with their customers on a regular basis. That's what Support and Community Managers/Project Managers/Product Managers/etc. are for. I agree that more communication on critical issues would be great but it should not necessarily come from the development team directly. Support is the front line when it comes to product issues and a customer on an individual basis via an incident or "ticket". From what I've read the major issues here are poor individual customer interaction experiences with Support, lack of responsive Support and lack of communication from SE in general via the Community Managers. Another part of it is that a large number of folks posting on the forums want instant results/responses.

A lot of Developers are brilliant people when it comes to development but are socially inept and are often introverts. Directly interacting isn't necessarily taboo or a bad idea, it's just not something all developers are very good at. Especially given how many posts on forums come from complete animals hiding behind a digital persona knowing that they will never see any repercussions for their actions. Developers often look at the product they are developing as their "baby" and get attached to it. It's not easy to take non-constructive, harsh and downright insulting "feedback" when you're emotionally attached to the target of said "feedback" and don't have the emotional or social tools to cope. I'd wager most people in general would lose their sh#t if they were subjected to all of the negativity on a daily basis.

It's unfortunately a complex issue with no simple solution. Doesn't mean there is no solution, but it ain't easy finding the right balance. I can understand the perspective in the article posted in the OP.

[Fuz]

In truth, it's NOT a developer's job to interact directly with their customers on a regular basis. That's what Support and Community Managers/Project Managers/Product Managers/etc. are for. I agree that more communication on critical issues would be great but it should not necessarily come from the development team directly. Support is the front line when it comes to product issues and a customer on an individual basis via an incident or "ticket". From what I've read the major issues here are poor individual customer interaction experiences with Support, lack of responsive Support and lack of communication from SE in general via the Community Managers. Another part of it is that a large number of folks posting on the forums want instant results/responses.

A lot of Developers are brilliant people when it comes to development but are socially inept and are often introverts. Directly interacting isn't necessarily taboo or a bad idea, it's just not something all developers are very good at. Especially given how many posts on forums come from complete animals hiding behind a digital persona knowing that they will never see any repercussions for their actions. Developers often look at the product they are developing as their "baby" and get attached to it. It's not easy to take non-constructive, harsh and downright insulting "feedback" when you're emotionally attached to the target of said "feedback" and don't have the emotional or social tools to cope. I'd wager most people in general would lose their sh#t if they were subjected to all of the negativity on a daily basis.
It's unfortunately a complex issue with no simple solution. Doesn't mean there is no solution, but it ain't easy finding the right balance. I can understand the perspective in the article posted in the OP.

I didn't mean that it should come from the dev team. Although it would be nice if they stopped by every now and then, it's not their job. But they HAVE TO have people tending and managing the community and giving answers to issues.

[Shizue]

I didn't mean that it should come from the dev team. Although it would be nice if they stopped by every now and then, it's not their job. But they HAVE TO have people tending and managing the community and giving answers to issues.

This, I agree with you 100% on. The lack of communication to the FFXIV community is disheartening at best. I for one believe that it would be in SE's best interests to step up their game in this respect.

[EmiliM]

Reading this article should be made part of the terms of agreement for using the forum or something.

I didn't mean that it should come from the dev team. Although it would be nice if they stopped by every now and then, it's not their job. But they HAVE TO have people tending and managing the community and giving answers to issues.

We must be living in a parallel world where I'm seeing devs post on the forums on a daily basis and for whatever reason you don't. Seriously, 99% of the whine posts and threads on this forum are about something that have already been raised before and already acknowledged by the devs. Just because they can't be bothered to reiterate their response to every single person who don't know how to use the dev tracker or search function and decide to post a whole new thread about something as if it's never been talked about before doesn't mean somehow the devs stopped caring.