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

[Kosmos992k]

I'd give SE and Yoshi-P good marks for listening, they have repeatedly demonstrated that they do listen, despite the impatience of people raging that they do not responed immediately.

Coincidentally, today I ran across an interview with Yoshida-san where he talks very specifically about player feedback. The interview was published by PC PowerPlay on July 20, 2016. So it is right on the mark and as up to date as we can get.

Here's the link;
Interview: Final Fantasy XIV's Naoki Yoshida

And here are a few quotes to chew on;

PCPP: How much does player feedback help to shape the updated content for the game?

This is a difficult question to answer as the amount of feedback we incorporate into the game is in no way fixed. However, one particular thing is how we are constantly striving to make the user interface more comfortable and intuitive, so this is one area where feedback is very highly valued and quite a considerable amount of feedback is addressed in each new patch. When we make new content we always make sure to study all the previous feedback we have on things like player responses to the reward balancing on previous content or any proposals for tweaking that players think needs doing, even if the new content in question is completely different to past areas. However, whether individual feedback points are addressed and implemented or not is something we consider very carefully. This is because of the slightly different perspective that the development team has. We tend to be quite strict about what systems go in, as we have to maintain the world of Eorzea going into the future, while many players feedback tends to only consider what would be good in the short term.

and...

PCPP: What’s the process for picking which player feedback items are prioritised over others?

We don’t just look at the feedback we get on the forums but have a dedicated FFXIV community team who also check message boards like Reddit etc. and collate together the voice of the players, then analyse what they are saying and pass on a report to the development team and myself. This team has dedicated regional staff in many locations such as Japan, North America, the U.K, and we also collect feedback from South Korea and China via our operating partner companies in there.

All the feedback is listed up every day and urgent issues will be looked at by the development team when they get together the next morning for their regular meeting. Outside of that framework we also hold a separate discussion based around player feedback every Thursday when the development leads get together for the operations meeting. This is when each individual section makes the decisions as to how the feedback will be addressed and the priorities for what gets seen to first will be set down by myself.

There is more in the interview, so take a look. One thing is clear to me though, all the assumptions that people make about community managers and feedback, or not listening to one community or another are thoroughly de-bunked.

[KokonoeAiyoko]

There is more in the interview, so take a look. One thing is clear to me though, all the assumptions that people make about community managers and feedback, or not listening to one community or another are thoroughly de-bunked.

From reading that it seems as if they look at player feedback as an afterthought. They seem to listen, but this shows more of their "playing it safe" implementation, so if they do end up "listening", the communities desires aren't resonating with them. There is also is no real telling how well our community leaders really do here because you can see very well from the history of these forums that the community leaders kinda cherry pick comments or unimportant things that most people are not concerned with.

I'd say this doesn't really debunk anyone's concerns.

[Kosmos992k]

From reading that it seems as if they look at player feedback as an afterthought. They seem to listen, but this shows more of their "playing it safe" implementation, so if they do end up "listening", the communities desires aren't resonating with them. There is also is no real telling how well our community leaders really do here because you can see very well from the history of these forums that the community leaders kinda cherry pick comments or unimportant things that most people are not concerned with.

I'd say this doesn't really debunk anyone's concerns.

I think that depends on how significant you feel that fan feedback should be.Theinterview outlines that they already have a gameplan for the rest of 3.x and the expansion, those things won't change on the basis of the short term concerns that are predominant in player feedback. However, it's plainly obvious that they see player and fan feedback and communication as a priority. The very fact that they have weekly meetings and staff who actively gather player feedback shows that not only are they listening but they are seeking out the feedback beyond their own foruums. What more do you want? Sometimes when you ask the supreme being for something, the answer is 'No'. But that doesn't mean your request went unheard or had no impact, it may be that the change cannot be made short term, but in some future patch the suggestion/requestmade has an impact on some new feature or content.

Honestly, people need to understand that the develoeprs cannot put up neon signs saying "This change was the result of post #348876 made by 'Hugh Jengine' of the Groundswell server". Nor can the devs work in changes in exactly the way requested or the time frame an individual desires. that doesn't mean the feedback is not heard.

[Windi]

From reading that it seems as if they look at player feedback as an afterthought. They seem to listen, but this shows more of their "playing it safe" implementation, so if they do end up "listening", the communities desires aren't resonating with them. There is also is no real telling how well our community leaders really do here because you can see very well from the history of these forums that the community leaders kinda cherry pick comments or unimportant things that most people are not concerned with.

I'd say this doesn't really debunk anyone's concerns.

Doesn't sound different from any other company. Keep in mind what these guys tell the community is basically what their NDA's allow, and since they're trying to keep a professional image, on top of going through MOUNDS of feedback per day, they're bound to come across as detached to an extent.