Quote Originally Posted by Havenchild View Post
Truth is, there is no topic of conversation currently that will go over well.

Make healer role more complex (rewarding gameplay) etc, and you lose alot of casuals in PF.
Make story encounters challenging, casuals struggle.
Make content catering to casual base, casuals want more, hardcore base complains
Make savage or ultimate encounters, casual complains..

The only metric that generally matters, is engagement numbers. That is the rule of law of MMOs regardless of what anyone wants. They can sprinkle content here and there for everyone and thats about it.
No, the only metric being "engagement metrics" is an oversimplification. That is not the "rule of MMOs". If it was that simple, then you could have drag any virtually anyone off the street and -voila- here is how your game is doing, this is precisely what needs to be done in order to make more money, and keep doing more money, for the amount of time that the company wants to make money.

People in "marketing" (and technically- I work in the Marketing division) routinely get feedback from different segments and their interests have to be reviewed and balanced - however that doesn't mean that each segment needs to be weighted equally. Square could decide (for example) that casuals are >>> the very hardcore if that fits their business model . It would then be more helpful if instead of promising they will do it "one day"- they explain that going forwards, the game direction will be more casual/mid- this way the very hardcore aren't misled.