We need better comunication with the Community team

[Vhailor]

I have to ask: What anger and frustration? Apart from a few loud mouths here on the forums I am not seeing much anger or frustration.
I suppose I could be missing all of it, but from what I can see the majority of players are more or less happy with the current state of the game, and not angry at all.

If you'd bothered to read the post I was responding to, my "anger and frustration" statement was precisely in reference to the "few loud mouths here on the forums", as you so insultingly phrased it.

That said, there's a difference between not being angry, and being more or less happy with the state of FFXIV. The bland and predictable update cycles will generate anger in a certain subset of players - those of us who are very emotionally invested in FFXIV. For far more people, it will generate apathy. So, go through your Friend List. See anyone who hasn't logged on for months? That's someone who quite possibly are picking up on the same problems as forum loud-mouths like me - they're just choosing to unsubscribe and play something else, as opposed to providing feedback and attempting to fix the problem.

For me personally, that's most of my FC, most of my Linkshells, and most of my Friend List. There was a renaissance around the time Stormblood released (as always), and then a return to apathy for most of them. Eureka, incidentally, did not draw anyone back. And I know of at least four close friends who left permanently because they were bored with SE's content cycles, and two others who frequently take long breaks.

To draw this back on-topic, this is a good example of why SE needs to solicit more feedback. Those of us who get angry, we make ourselves visible. Those who are head over heels for the game, tend to make it clear via purchases (Mogstation, multiple accounts, alts we actively play, etc.). There's very little concrete information about those who just stop playing, though - not even so much as a survey sent to someone's email account once a subscription expires. So neither SE, nor the community, knows whether these players left because of solvable problems, or because of external reasons. This game's player base is like an iceberg; only a small portion of players is visible at any one time. SE should be making far more efforts to reach those who naturally remain quiet.

Do we need better communication with them, or do they need to reach out more, to us?
Community Managers should do THREE things:

1) Should be able to figure out a way to collate as much feedback information as possible whilst filtering noise.

2) Forwarding that information regularly to the Developers.

3) Engaging with the community, constantly, and giving them a reason to contribute back.

Wholeheartedly agree.

I've said it so many times on different threads; being noisy doesn't make you right.

There is no 'right' or 'wrong' when speaking of feedback, which is the purpose of this thread. On occasion there are objectively clever ideas or objectively poor implementations of game systems, but by and large, whether someone enjoys a piece of content is very subjective.

Nevertheless, it's very much in SE's interest to listen to its players. If those players are noisy, great - engage with them. If those players are quiet, go reach out to them. This effort would offer only upsides, even if absolutely nothing about FFXIV's development changes. The only bad feedback, is no feedback.

[Stormfur]

I think they probably fear that for every question they posed to us, they'd get 1,000 different answers. Of course, that's the nature of a community. I just wish that we could see the impact we, as both fans and subscribers, have on the game.

[Riardon]

If you are not Japanese then you are worth 0 attention from SE.
The NA/EU forums and their feedback come 2nd or even 3rd to their list of attention.
Just watch how quickly they respond to the JP needs and feedback.
All we get here is some input from forums mods that they are reading the forums and that they are passing the feedback back to JP.
I don't doubt they do but clearly we are not priority.
The other issue is that JP players want different things than the NA/EU does.
I'm pretty sure there are some difference between the EU and NA as well.
One thing is certain. The communication between SE and the Community is problematic and lacking.
Something needs to be done.

[Vhailor]

I think they probably fear that for every question they posed to us, they'd get 1,000 different answers. Of course, that's the nature of a community. I just wish that we could see the impact we, as both fans and subscribers, have on the game.

Honestly, the most concerning part to me is that SE isn't even trying. There are no post-cancellation surveys, no official forum questionnaires, very few official interviews in which SE actually discusses their internal reasoning. There's nothing.

Now, perhaps the hypothetical fears you posed turn out to be warranted. Maybe, at the end of the day, surveys come back with a large number of wholly distinct answers that can't really be grouped together and used to inform development. OK - then SE goes with their gut, as they currently do. But even IF that happens, they've still got a win under their belts, because now they've got data they can share with the community, and the community knows they asked the questions.

[Remedi]

I think that if they will idd ask us questions or surveys, it would simply turn the problem into SE manipulates the surveys/listens only to w/e they like.
Frankly I wouldn't really blame this vision, but imho we should also learn that maybe things aren't simply meant to be or accept defeat.

I'd rather have explanations on why something can't be done tbh, rather than asking for something that cannot be done and then wondering if it's beign considered or not.

Take the glamour plates for example.
What is making so hard for items of a different job to be used as a skin for others? It's just them not wanting it or there's more to it?

[Alleo]

Well if they need to manipulate the questions in a survey that would just show them in a bad light. Because at least for me that would sent the signal that they dont really want our opinion and only want to do it their way. But if they were honest with good questions and at least half of the playerbase took the survey they would have far deeper informations than they have right now.

Show some results of these surveys, be open with that and use it to explain changes. This way nobody could argue that they are only doing something that a "loud" minority want. It could be changes that I dont like but at least I would understand why they did them and I could say "well then I was in the minority this time." Right now we simply have no clue about it. Sometimes we will see how the community likes or dislikes stuff by the amount that its played after a time. (Like LoV or Diadem) But most of the time we wont really know if they do stuff because the majority of the community wants it or because the devs wants it to be that way..even if most of us dont.

Heck even if you have x amounts of different views in a survey you could still use them to brain storm new ideas. It could give them a new view on stuff that they themselves might have never considered.

IMO anything would be better than right now. All those japanese interviews that we would miss if we did not have some nice people in the community that find and translate them. All the server visits which are also just translated by the community (and can be faulty). The writings of Yoshida in that one magazine which is again japanese only. If the japanese playerbase would be 90% of those that play it right now I could understand it a bit. But NA alone has at least the same if not even more active players and together with EU we are the majority..and yet most of it is still done for the japanese playerbase..

[Remedi]

Problem is you would never know if they are manipulating them or not, because you have no way to know unless you do a survey of your own which then needs to be taken by the whole community and this is already unrealistic.

Anyway, no more update threads on the OF for LL, only twitter newsfeed, but they say will provide digests quicker.
Meh if you ask me

[Alleo]

Problem is you would never know if they are manipulating them or not, because you have no way to know unless you do a survey of your own which then needs to be taken by the whole community and this is already unrealistic.

Anyway, no more update threads on the OF for LL, only twitter newsfeed, but they say will provide digests quicker.
Meh if you ask me

Yes we might not know but honestly I hope that we can have at least so much trust in them that they will not manipulate the answers in this. Otherwise can we trust them even in anything anymore? And wouldnt that be a horrible thing for a company?

[Vhailor]

Problem is you would never know if they are manipulating them or not, because you have no way to know unless you do a survey of your own which then needs to be taken by the whole community and this is already unrealistic.

It wouldn't be in SE's interest to manipulate any hypothetical survey results. For one, they'd almost certainly be outed by a former employee at some point in time, leading to potentially severe backlash from their customers. For another, if they disagreed with a particular community desire or response, they can simply explain why, and be done with it. It's not like they would be required to listen.

Also, in fairness, by this reasoning, there are a lot of laws and regulations that societal infrastructure that would never have come into being. "Why bother having elections? You'd never know if they're manipulated." Hypothetical fears about potential corruption shouldn't be grounds for not even trying something out.

[Dustytome]

The person in charge of all the community stuff is taking questions for the upcoming live letter if you'd like to ask anything.