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

[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.