Quote Originally Posted by Deceptus View Post
Because if enough people voice their opinions against what SE thinks is the "best course moving forward" they have been known to change.
Can you name one time player '"opinions" lead to a change between the prelims and patch release?

As another poster pointed out, the devs do listen and will make changes based on player feedback. However, this process takes time as it involves compiling and filtering tons of information. The adjustments they determine needs to be made will then take place in a future patch. The information they absorb is never going to come from player predictions regardless of how accurate they have been in the past. They want field data, period. Many of the adjustments that will take place in this patch, will be based of the feedback obtained throughout 5.1. and prior. As an example, one of the first threads I remember seeing in the DPS forums after 5.1 dropped pertained to a concern that SMN was doing some serious deeps.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...o-much-in-5.10

In a thread this large, you already know you're going to get a mixed bag of opinions, back and forth bickering, voices of reason, and the whole nine-yards. But as the thread evolves, it starts to take on the data obtained from savage and ultimate. As usual, balance within the role becomes a focal point which lead to a lot of comments about RDM being undertuned. Lo and behold, the devs decided to disclose that both SMN and RDM are being adjusted accordingly.

In retrospect, these changes - whatever they are, have nothing to do with that thread. Superficially it can seem like it may have contributed to the changes, but again that thread eventually conforms to the true data obtained from the players participating in high end content. It is impossible for that to happen between the preliminary release and patch release.

The devs will never get the game all right. It's a continuous process of adjustments that are perpetuated by the release of new content. We would literally have to sit on zero new content for quite some time for them to perfect everything, and as soon as they release something new; the process starts all over again. The release of a new expansion being so large, warrants the most amount data acquisition, and ironically it also requires the most immediate attention.

Of course there is the frustration that has accumulated from changes that have needed to take place for several patches, which I believe is where the, "The devs don't/won't listen" come from. Understandable. Some changes such as the demand for AST cards to be changed, just will not happen until a future expansion. These take far more time, and I think a lot of us are aware of that, and so it is also understandable that more communication from the devs is desired. Why should they though? When we as a community have shown what we do with the information they do give us?