On a scale of 1 to 5-- Do you feel SE listens to their western players? State why.

[panderin]

I think they're listening to feedback, but the NA audience isn't exactly making it easy for them with their multiple topics, click bait titles and "THIS NEEDS IMMEDIATE DEV ATTENTION" histrionics. Also, there are quite a lot of criticisms and suggestions that go contrary to core design concepts and systems in this game, yet people seem to think that if they just shout loudly enough about it the game will go through a massive overhaul.

Yes see you stated it much more articulately than I did. I appreciate it.

[Iromi]

Oh Lord, I am an American and I see what happens on these forums all day everyday and guess what I see a LOT of exactly what I described. Quit acting like it doesn't exist. I am still wanting to get back to the topic at hand. You try to do the same.

We will when you stop acting like it doesn't exist on the JP culture as well. I actually have gone there, interacted with them, did tons of student exchange programs with a very kind Japanese family. Needless to say it still exists PLENTY over there. Goes both ways. -_- Your OP on the first page comes off as if they have no flaws, and Americans are just plain selfish and not nice. I have met plenty of JP and Americans who are super kind and also who are on the opposite spectrum...it exists everywhere...

[PandAlt]

We will when you stop acting like it doesn't exist on the JP culture as well. I actually have gone there, interacted with them, did tons of student exchange programs with a very kind Japanese family. Needless to say it still exists PLENTY over there. Goes both ways. -_- Your OP on the first page comes off as if they have no flaws, and Americans are just plain selfish and not nice. I have met plenty of JP and Americans who are super kind and also who are on the opposite spectrum...it exists everywhere...

You win, I was banned, the post was removed. Looks like we can move on now
I am going with a 2 because it seems like they listen to NA on things that might not be as relevant to the entire community as far as game scope but that is just one opinion.

I hope that is sufficient.

[NovaLevossida]

The rating will stay at 1 so long as the non-Feast PvP queues are as long as they are simply because they want to keep grand company restrictions. It's completely unacceptable to have wait times of ~30 minutes on the lower end to questioning if it will pop before you go to bed.

I will also say that the development cycle is stale, but they've yet to do much to address that criticism. They made a very poor attempt with Diadem. Palace of the Dead isn't nearly as bad, but it is still very boring. Both events could have used objectives to focus players' attention in them. And they're still afraid to make systems such as these two sit alongside the "real" progression system. It's no surprise that these events are in the "catch-up" patches. They're really afraid of making relevant horizontal progression systems that can sit alongside the tome / raid dynamic. A fully fleshed out Palace of the Dead with some real difficulty could have been that. But they chose to just make it a boring affair of killing low-challenge mobs with no other objective to get a weapon in a catch-up patch.

[Xlantaa]

I will say 4. Not 5, because there are things that are really needed like the Coldown reset on wipe for high level raids or fix the inventory issue.

But, despite people think about western feedback not reading it, I must say that we deserve it for not being more organized. We cannot open 5000 threads about 1 single thing, calling them everything for ot doing what we want and for being so arrogant than we think we can do better job. So, that's our entire fault.

Also, I must be glad the they didn't hear such things like "don't allow newies to join PF" or the lock button for bonus on Duty finder, or even put a DPS metter and rakiung system to categorized players. I really glad they didn't hear that.

[Fevelle]

A 5 if we're talking savage raiders: I think they listen a lot to the crème de la crop type players, even though they're absolute minority of the players, especially when it comes to gear progression (and I think this will cause issues to the game when it hits 4 or 5 years old).

I'd say a 3 to the rest of the NA playerbase.

[Mugiawara]

Once politics and nationalities start coming into play this thread went off the deep end.

That's probably why people think they don't listen. Every time we all try to talk like a human someone, somewhere has to act up.
Happens all the time. Not only that people always gotta make 4 million threads about the same thing in different wording then a fight breaks out.
Take a look at JP forums, alot of posts in a SINGLE topic, not millions.
Even ones with legit serious feedback, people can't seem to talk civilly and start Keyboard Warrioing so the thread derails and loses all meaning.

You wanna be heard? Then stop acting out all the time.

[Kaurie]

I am assuming 1 = not at all and 5 = very well?

It's tough to really say, I feel that Square listens to the Western pbase as well as minimally necessary to remain competitive. However, it feels to be more of a mask or a facade, in that they will have live letters where they address questions - but then ignore hot topics and focus on the 'easy questions'. Whenever a question is asked that differs from their already set point of view / direction of the game, they give 1-off answers that disregard it completely. I've also seen them give more detailed answers that don't really answer what was asked, but what they wanted to be asked.

So, superficially, I'd give them a 4. However, my real opinion is closer to a 2.

[FunkyBunch]

I think the question is flawed. At least a little bit.
They definitely give more feedback to the Japanese community. Partially because it's easier to communicate in your native language.
Secondly, the Western audience is a lot less coherent than the Japanese community.

I routinely read the Japanese forums (I don't post there because my writing is terrible but that's another topic). And there isn't the "Disappointment this" or "atrocity such and such" or "I'm leaving because" threads taking up half of the forums. How can you expect them to sift through all the garbage on our forums and respond? Or even listen?
Further the Japanese players are not near as toxic, they don't stubbornly refuse to play better, and they come up with good ideas and discuss them instead of arguing about what "affliction" SE decided to burden us with on the latest patch.

What do you expect when you have a third of the healer forum getting angry at the fact they have DPS skills? Or that every in-game event is a justifiable game-leaving event?
I wouldn't know how to respond either.

[Kaurie]

I think the question is flawed. At least a little bit.
They definitely give more feedback to the Japanese community. Partially because it's easier to communicate in your native language.
Secondly, the Western audience is a lot less coherent than the Japanese community.

I routinely read the Japanese forums (I don't post there because my writing is terrible but that's another topic). And there isn't the "Disappointment this" or "atrocity such and such" or "I'm leaving because" threads taking up half of the forums. How can you expect them to sift through all the garbage on our forums and respond? Or even listen?.

Why do you think that a thread specifying that someone is disappointed in something is garbage?

Further, why do you think a thread that details the reason for lost business is garbage?

Both of these are incredibly useful information for the developers. To ignore them would be a mistake.