Zepla about FFXIV Relic and Square Enix not taking any Risks

[ZephyrMenodora]

That respect should be a two way street. The more emotional and galvanizing posts from unsatisfied people are a result of the devs demonstrating time and time again that they are not listening. I don't think I've ever seen a dev post in this forum, and the most I've seen of these topics being brought up in live media is YoshiP mentioning having heard something about something in passing. It's also not an issue of "it's my way or your way" there are issues being discussed that can easily be designed to satisfy a much broader spectrum of players without turning against those who like how things now. But the devs have seemingly deliberately chosen to not even humor those who would like more of something else. Respecting the devs time and efforts is all fine and good. But at some point, as you say, there is the last straw that breaks the camels back.

As for the memes, insults, and echoes. At this point, I've seen both sides of the forum have resorted to it.

Some people are not as content with the notion that they "have no power to change" the game they play and pay for. The customers feedback should be exactly what a spurs change in a product. And then comes the argument of "just play something else"...

In MMOs people build their character, they earn achievements, make social circles, invest in the story and world and mechanics, and otherwise commit to a game they love and put a lot of effort into. This phenomenon is the the entire basis of the MMO genre's success. This is the reason WoW is seeing it's 9th expansion - not because it is or has been a good game. Getting someone to abandon an MMO they have invested in is not a simple process.

This is why the "play something else" argument is unconvincing. People WANT to play the game. And when they do they want to feel like they are enjoying it and they feel stuck when they have to choose between continuing to not enjoy the game or abandon their investment. This coupled with the feeling of powerlessness due to the lack of dev interaction is especially disheartening.

I'm not saying either side is right or wrong. I'm just trying to rationalize what it is you and I are seeing and experiencing in the forums nowadays.

Edit: This doesn't pertain to people who are blatantly trolling and making no effort at good faith in their posting.

With how little behavior and tone is moderated here, I wouldn't come here as a dev either. They really need to hire full time community mods like ESO.

[RyuDragnier]

With how little behavior and tone is moderated here, I wouldn't come here as a dev either. They really need to hire full time community mods like ESO.

Just not as...gungho as them please. I've seen people with nice attitudes and good suggestions get banned just because of a criticism of something that was in the game and how to fix it.

[ZephyrMenodora]

Just not as...gungho as them please. I've seen people with nice attitudes and good suggestions get banned just because of a criticism of something that was in the game and how to fix it.

Haha yeah, sometimes they moderate the smallest things. But, I'd still take that over what happens here if I had to choose one of the two.

[Frodnoxx]

With how little behavior and tone is moderated here, I wouldn't come here as a dev either. They really need to hire full time community mods like ESO.

Moderation is definitely a problem. But it is a separate problem. The devs should be receiving and processing feedback whether or not the forum behavior is poor. Imagine if the answer to "why aren't you listening to feedback?" was "because it hurts my feelings". That's an exaggeration but you get the idea.

[ZephyrMenodora]

Moderation is definitely a problem. But it is a separate problem. The devs should be receiving and processing feedback whether or not the forum behavior is poor. Imagine if the answer to "why aren't you listening to feedback?" was "because it hurts my feelings". That's an exaggeration but you get the idea.

Well honestly a lot of game studios protect their devs from a raging playerbase, and most of them do not engage with a lot of the types of posts we see here for a good reason. These are working professionals and a lot of gamers on the internet can get unnecessarily nasty and dealing with that isn't part of the job description. Some discussed actually developing mental health issues exposing themselves to constant over-the-top negativity gamers can throw at them.

You had commented that you haven't seen any posts here, and I think it's the poor quality of these forums and lack of moderation that is why. I have seen devs interact on very well moderated forums, at least for a time. But without that here they have no real incentive to come here - and if they do definitely no incentive to post and open themselves up to the behavior tolerated here.

[Frodnoxx]

Well honestly a lot of game studios protect their devs from a raging playerbase, and most of them do not engage with a lot of the types of posts we see here for a good reason. These are working professionals and a lot of gamers on the internet can get unnecessarily nasty and dealing with that isn't part of the job description. Some discussed actually developing mental health issues exposing themselves to constant over-the-top negativity gamers can throw at them.

You had commented that you haven't seen any posts here, and I think it's the poor quality of these forums and lack of moderation that is why. I have seen devs interact on very well moderated forums, at least for a time. But without that here they have no real incentive to come here - and if they do definitely no incentive to post and open themselves up to the behavior tolerated here.

Certainly the devs should focus on actually coding and building the game. There should be a pipeline of people that gets the information from here to the developer's work. A pipeline like: community reps that specialize in interacting with people on the internet collects information and passes it to project leaders and designers who process and then adjust what they get developers to work on. That first step - the people who are trained for interacting with people and for whom internet tolerance is a qualification - has been lacking here and is blocking the rest of the pipeline. For these guys, the playerbase being unruly is not an excuse to neglect their role.

I should be clear that NO ONE, least of all someone just doing their 9-5 job deserves any harassment or toxicity. Unfortunately the internet is what it is and it would irresponsible of a business to sacrifice collecting feedback just so they don't have to engage in a difficult part of the job. The mental health of workers comes first and this issue is of much higher priority than any in game complaint that anyone can come up with. If indeed feedback isn't going through because of this environment then they should be putting resources into fixing that as a first step in fixing the feedback-development cycle of the game. As it stands, we have no dev responses, no community rep interactions, AND no moderation.