Has anyone quit healing?

[GrimGale]

What would constitute proof that players like or dislike healing? Population? Numbers? Is there some sort of metric we could use to see what the general response from the player base is in regards to Healer design?

[QooEr]

What would constitute proof that players like or dislike healing? Population? Numbers? Is there some sort of metric we could use to see what the general response from the player base is in regards to Healer design?

nothing short of a survey will do. enjoyment is qualitative, and the other measures are quantitative and theyre also affected by other variables.

[IDontPetLalas]

nothing short of a survey will do. enjoyment is qualitative, and the other measures are quantitative and theyre also affected by other variables.

i wouldn't dismiss population analysis out of hands, that with surveys could be quite useful since surveys are not so easy to design

[QooEr]

i wouldn't dismiss population analysis out of hands, that with surveys could be quite useful since surveys are not so easy to design

perhaps, but theres so many variables that muddy the picture. every party on duty finder *must* have a healer for instance, and even if its possible to clear with nonstandard comps the huge majority of people will use 2 healers for almost anything on PF that isnt a complete faceroll. adventurer in need is infamous for being wrong. subs are affected by so many factors that unsubbing because of healers alone would be practically impossible to point out. levels also dont mean much from the amount of people who just level things once for completion, etc.

i do wonder what quantitative metric could work for gauging healer enjoyment. queue times? PF fill times? perhaps something like luckybancho's main weapon ilvl? but the devs would have to be tracking every players armory chest for that to work, since just scanning lodestone pages like luckybancho is extremely prone to getting things wrong.

[IDontPetLalas]

perhaps, but theres so many variables that muddy the picture. every party on duty finder *must* have a healer for instance, and even if its possible to clear with nonstandard comps the huge majority of people will use 2 healers for almost anything on PF that isnt a complete faceroll. adventurer in need is infamous for being wrong. subs are affected by so many factors that unsubbing because of healers alone would be practically impossible to point out. levels also dont mean much from the amount of people who just level things once for completion, etc.

i do wonder what quantitative metric could work for gauging healer enjoyment. queue times? PF fill times? perhaps something like luckybancho's main weapon ilvl? but the devs would have to be tracking every players armory chest for that to work, since just scanning lodestone pages like luckybancho is extremely prone to getting things wrong.

Well, I wouldn't say that it would *muddy* the picture, all of the other roles are also required as well. So it's more a question (and what you call muddying is maybe my just saying yes, some of that needs to be considered) A population survey looks at things like how many people are specific levels in a levels in a certain role, and may extend that to have completed certain content, have logged in since whatever time period under that role, have whatever gear equipped, etc, etc. So that population survey would then indicate some of the factors you just mentioned , since you'd see how many healers are likely just levelled and left in low gear and never run through anything. Then you'd want to look at trends- over time, and between healing jobs.

Survey on the other hand - you have to be quite careful on what the intent of the survey is and the wording, both to make the questions clear, and - depending on the type of the survey - not to introduce bias.So even if you ask what looks to be a simple question like "is your main healing job a healer"- often you'll see a definition added such as - "where a main is the job that you're on at least ......amount of time" to improve the quality of the survey results (hopefully).

[LeonKeyh]

nothing short of a survey will do. enjoyment is qualitative, and the other measures are quantitative and theyre also affected by other variables.

True, but the real question is, "Does the enjoyment of people actually matter?" I mean, yes, it should matter, it's a video game. But it's fairly easy as a company to get stuck in the same mindset that Blizzard did with WoW.

If they made a change to healers, and more people play healers, those people stick around in the game longer than average. It would be really easy to say that the change was a success. Enjoyment is a really difficult metric to figure out because people don't answer surveys the same. You and I could both enjoy healing the same "amount" and I might give it a 5 because I realize that's "average" and you might give it a 7 because we as a society largely see:

<6 - Trash
7 - Below Average
8 - Average
9 - Above Average
10 - Excellent

[IDontPetLalas]

True, but the real question is, "Does the enjoyment of people actually matter?" I mean, yes, it should matter, it's a video game. But it's fairly easy as a company to get stuck in the same mindset that Blizzard did with WoW.

If they made a change to healers, and more people play healers, those people stick around in the game longer than average. It would be really easy to say that the change was a success. Enjoyment is a really difficult metric to figure out because people don't answer surveys the same. You and I could both enjoy healing the same "amount" and I might give it a 5 because I realize that's "average" and you might give it a 7 because we as a society largely see:

<6 - Trash
7 - Below Average
8 - Average
9 - Above Average
10 - Excellent

Wlll, enjoyment can still be measure- people measure usability all of the time. Think about what makes a job enjoyable, and you can come up with questions.

Not saying mine are good, but some could be related to the job actions-let's say sometimes people complain that they don't feel more powerful as they level, sometimes people complain that they aren't challenged enough in a lot of content . So you could ask someone if they enjoyed levelling, did you feel that you grew and improved, that it got more interesting, your skills got more fun to use (1-10) . You could ask, do you feel that when you run content, you really need to know how to use your skills and you feel rewarded or you could just hit anything and it wouldn't make a difference (1-10) 10 for challenging 1 for any button will do, in fact my cat hits my skills for me.
Again ,

[Renathras]

What would constitute proof that players like or dislike healing? Population? Numbers? Is there some sort of metric we could use to see what the general response from the player base is in regards to Healer design?

Basically:

nothing short of a survey will do. enjoyment is qualitative, and the other measures are quantitative and theyre also affected by other variables.

That.

No matter the thing in life, the people who DISlike it are pretty much always going to be vocal, and often VERY vocal about it. This gives an outsized perception weight to their voices. In reality, the majority of people have a "go along to get along" mentality and are content with whatever they have. If they weren't, they'd (in something like a video game where you can just do so) leave quietly without saying a word. This is why MMOs tend to have that "if you're quitting" questionnaire when you cancel subs, so they can see why people are leaving and consider options to address those things. There actually ARE people somewhere that read that feedback and compare it to everyone else.

But in general, the majority of any given thing is either enjoying it or finding it acceptable. This goes for almost everything in life.

But yeah, outside of a major survey that is either open ended questions OR an extensive multiple choice system (e.g. not just a "Do you like X? Yes/No" kind of thing), there's no real way to be sure other than noting how few people, as a percentage of the playerbase, are even on these forums to begin with.