Why not have -Weekly- OFFICIAL dev polls?

[Azurymber]

FFXIV is not the most successful game out there. Most of the updates and patches have failed to please numerous players or draw players permanently back to the game. A number of new features are soon to be implemented, and will most likely be praised by some and criticized by others. But these forums are swamped with many who are highly dissatisfied with the game and many who will defend the game regardless of its faults. This seems to result in extreme views often being the focus of debates.

As such I suggest a very simple way for the dev team to continuously probe the feelings, desires, and opinions of the player-base that they are shaping the game to please:

[SIZE="5"]Weekly Official Forum Dev Polls.[/SIZE]

Each week (or if that is too difficult every 2 weeks), a forum poll is posted and pinned at the top of the general board. The results are not displayed until after the poll is completed in order to prevent bias.

As an incentive to partake in the polls, whenever someone votes they instantly get 1 "like" added to their "like count".

The topics of these polls are specifically designed to determine what players, like, want, are concerned about, etc. Anything to help improve the game, and to help the dev team focus on the right things.

Here are some possible examples of questions:

"Which of the following features would you currently like to see first"
ex. Mounted travel, Improved quests, Story expansion, Battle tweaks

"Which of the following are you most concerned about"
ex. The economy, future system changes, 3rd party program use, rmt, lack of updates

"One month ago we implemented X (ex. side-quests, targeting changes). How would you rate this improvement"
ex. great, good, decent, poor, unwanted


How would these polls help the game and help you?

1. They would allow the dev team and Yoshi-p to address what -really- matters to you.
If 80% vote that they want chocobos over other options, the dev team can put extra resources there. 40% concerned about the economy? Then Yoshi-P can assure players actions will be taken in his next letter.

2. They would provide a -real- estimate of what players want, as opposed to normal forum posts which tend to draw and debate 'strong' opinions.
Forums tend to attract extreme views and discourage people with average views from posting (as those with extreme views often heavily criticize them and often personally attack them). An anonymous polling system would eliminate this bias by allowing everyone to vote without fear of reprisal or reprimand from other players.

3. They would create a feedback mechanism for newly implemented content.
If players are polled on what they think of the sidequests and 75%+ rate them poorly, then the devs will know not to waste time on adding in more undesired sidequests.

4. They could quickly help devs determine how to fix content that players are dissatisfied with.
Rather than guessing what players want or vaguely trying to determine it from hotly debated forum topics, the devs could ask players specific questions.
for example if the devs determined many are dissatisfied with current sidequests they could ask:
What would you like to see changed with rewards: [less rewards] [stay the same] [better rewards]
Do you enjoy the stories and lore: [yes] [no]
How do you feel about difficulty: [decrease difficulty] [stay the same] [increase difficulty]
How do you feel about length required to complete : [reduce] [stay the same] [make longer]
Would you prefer less quests but more cutscenes and longer stories: [yes] [no]
etc.

5. They would:

• Create a sense of customer-appreciation and awareness.
• Reduce speculation (which seems to plague these English forums) by displaying what the majority is truly interested in.
• Help to ensure players that the dev team is hearing and aware of their views
• Promote community involvement
• And most importantly, show that the devs and SE "Cares" about the future of the game

Conclusion

Having more information about your customers wants and desires is never a bad thing. Knowing what your customers will appreciate always helps you become more successful and improves your efficiency.

If a poll system like this was implemented, -EVERY PLAYER- would benefit from it.

The system is simple, low-cost, has a high impact on the quality of the game, requires little time to maintain, and can easily be implemented into the current forum system in -all- languages.

This system would also improve FFXIV's reputation.

If you believe that this would be a benefit to the game or the forums, I ask that you either post your support or like this post.

[Rinsui]

Definitely true. Even if it is just a mockup (and they don't really care) or just used to prioritize minor adjustments,
it would give the remaining community a feeling of being actively involved in the improvement of the game.

But SE never knew how to play the psychology game.

[darkstarpoet1]

i'd deffinitely like to see more polls, but instead of weekly or bi weekly why not let them add their major patches(like say start with 1.18) and say 2 weeks after that update give the poll. it would give them major directions as well as input on what people think of the additions that they did in the previous patch. that would allow them to concentrate on fixing those issues on 1.18b to help make the customers feel as though the game is at least somewhat influenced by what the majority wants. say they put in auto attack and 75% prefer the way things are now instead of it. that would save alot of manpower working on something people not only did not want, but allow them to see where people want them to focus their efforts.

to me just the idea that the game is headed in the right direction and that a player can influence a game to head the way they want may draw a small amount of players back at first, but would draw in more as time went on. the more changes the majority got that worked well the more players that have left would give it another shot.

[Marline]

This is a great idea and I think it would satisfy customers as well as SE.
Why stumble in the dark when there is a light switch behind you?

[DoctorMog]

Nah, not polls each week.

Teasers, information on their work, AND polls (sometimes, monthly maybe)

[Elexia]

As for this:

1. They would allow the dev team and Yoshi-p to address what -really- matters to you.

Indeed, and therefore the game would collapse even further because then it would be expected to add useless features instead of what really matters to the game and make it work. Example, people would constantly request jump or an AH over a client side UI and reworked animation system.

[Neptune]

Yeah, I for one thought polls were going to be ongoing and I'm pretty surprised that they dried up along with any real openness back in Feb/March.

[Dreamer]

I'd rather SE put their development talent to task and have them do what they're paid to rather than trying to go by some guideline based on feedback from a group of people (us) who all want different things from the game.

[Greencactaur]

While I'd like it I just don't see it happening =\

[Meridian]

I like the idea. It would give the devs a good overview of the current community mood towards various features. It would also allow people who would otherwise not have the confidence to post their feedback for fear of getting flamed the ability to do so.

Everyone knows that dissatisfied people should louder than satisfied ones, so perhaps this would allow the people who are quietly happy with what's going on to show that.