We need to compromise as a player base

[aemon_azucar]

Unfortunately, we're going to have some amount of "tragedy of the commons" on this one and I don't think that can be avoided. Because every person who isn't happy with the results has every reason to get hopping mad about the change and demand a fix for their specific issue. From their perspective, it's one relatively small change, perhaps a day of work, something that almost certainly could be squeezed in before launch. But say 20% of the active fanbase is upset. That's hundreds of thousands of people. Even if we assume that 99% of those claims are redundant, that's still thousands of "just a day or two" changes to be made. Meaning, it'd take thousands of days to implement them all, and that's definitely never going to happen.

And yet, for every person who wants a change and doesn't get one, what happens? They'll be upset. They'll feel resentful--and why shouldn't they? "Someone else got their changes, but I didn't!"

Thus, many, many, many people walk away feeling they've been ignored or even actively snubbed, despite the dev team doing everything they can. As you say, it might even be enough to convince them to just never bother with future graphic updates that affect player characters, thus dooming the 80% of satisfied customers (plus however many folks got their complaints addressed) to never get any further benefits. Because even when the vast majority of people are happy, and the vast majority of upset players get a fix for what bothers them, that can still leave thousands or even tens of thousands of people angry and motivated.

Even when you have 99% satisfaction, 1% of ~1M is still ~10k. Out of ten thousand unhappy customers, it's quite likely that a handful will be angry enough and motivated enough to kick up a fuss...or worse.

[Fuyume]

Unfortunately, we're going to have some amount of "tragedy of the commons" on this one and I don't think that can be avoided. Because every person who isn't happy with the results has every reason to get hopping mad about the change and demand a fix for their specific issue. From their perspective, it's one relatively small change, perhaps a day of work, something that almost certainly could be squeezed in before launch. But say 20% of the active fanbase is upset. That's hundreds of thousands of people. Even if we assume that 99% of those claims are redundant, that's still thousands of "just a day or two" changes to be made. Meaning, it'd take thousands of days to implement them all, and that's definitely never going to happen.

And yet, for every person who wants a change and doesn't get one, what happens? They'll be upset. They'll feel resentful--and why shouldn't they? "Someone else got their changes, but I didn't!"

Thus, many, many, many people walk away feeling they've been ignored or even actively snubbed, despite the dev team doing everything they can. As you say, it might even be enough to convince them to just never bother with future graphic updates that affect player characters, thus dooming the 80% of satisfied customers (plus however many folks got their complaints addressed) to never get any further benefits. Because even when the vast majority of people are happy, and the vast majority of upset players get a fix for what bothers them, that can still leave thousands or even tens of thousands of people angry and motivated.

Even when you have 99% satisfaction, 1% of ~1M is still ~10k. Out of ten thousand unhappy customers, it's quite likely that a handful will be angry enough and motivated enough to kick up a fuss...or worse.

I get this if it's something like "I don't like the new lighting" or whatnot, there's not much that can be done without starting completely over. But what about faces that were totally changed? I fail to see what necessary upgrade it tied to give face four au ra dimples, a pouty lip, and a rounded chubby face when they had none of those things before. Why should every player of face 4 au ra be sacrificed on the altar of progress when they could have just not changed the lip and face shape. I've seen people make the existing faces high poly before without changing their shape, it is in fact possible.