Why not have -Weekly- OFFICIAL dev polls?

[BlaiseLallaise]

Although it would be nice to see polls on the hot topics or soon-to-be-implemented changes they're working on, I just don't see them having enough poll material to do them more than once monthly.

[vax]

More work in game, less poll on furums

[darkstarpoet1]

More work in game, less poll on furums

more polls for game, better quality stuff in game.

[Firon]

I don't want the devs to listen to everything the players want then the game would really crash and burn

[Eekiki]

Frequent polls are counter-productive. Frankly, if SE doesn't know what the majority opinion is by now, they will never figure it out.

I'd rather see semi-daily updates in the form of work-in-progress screenshots and videos than anything else.

[Onidemon]

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.

That would be a mess. They got Yoshi-P to manage the priority order of what is being developped and he does not need us to tell him what to focus on. Also they already got a plan layed out as per what needs to be done and what is scheduled to be developed so they can't keep changing the plan every week based on everyone's mood. They need to finish off the current plan and once it is done they will probably turn to us for another poll if they are unsure of what direction to go regarding a specific feature.

[Azurymber]

I don't see how anyone can argue that the game would crash and burn if it was designed to make players who play it happy.
If it implements what players actually want instead of what the dev team -thinks- players want, then there would be 1000s of happy players, who in turn wouldn't cover the forums in pessimistic negative topics, making others perceive the game to be better.

Further, by going by a "plan" the dev team may waste significant time on aspects of the game that only 5% of players actually enjoy. And knowing what current players enjoy and don't enjoy would give them an idea of what new players would like.

Side quests and guild tasks seem to be the best examples of what could have been done better if these polls had existed.
From what i've read on these forums and heard in game, very few people like or even bother to do sidequests since they essentially take a long time for a few lines of lore and give no "real" rewards.
And guild tasks seem pretty pointless since you get a small reward for an expensive or harder-to-get item when you could just craft a cheap item 1 or 2 times and get the same essential reward.

Lets just say for the sake of argument that only 5% of players like both of these things.
But if SE doesn't know that they might devote hours to adding in new sidequests or creating guild tasks for DoW jobs, preventing them from implementing something that 95% of people may want (like chocobos).

Even if the dev team doesn't listen to people and goes by a "plan", knowing how people are reacting to their plan and to the game will help them make a better plan for the future.

And one last argument to those who say the dev team has a plan and its important to ignore what we want and to focus on that plan:
Tanaka had a plan.... in my opinion he had a pretty good plan... and what happened there? an Epic Epic failure.
Plans are -RISKY-, by understanding your players, you can greatly reduce that risk.
If Tanaka knew ahead of time how much of a problem surplus would have caused he could have changed the system quickly and avoided many negative reviews of the game. Instead he chose to leave surplus in and tell reviewers to "hold off for a few months". Clearly that didn't work too well.

[Elexia]

I don't see how anyone can argue that the game would crash and burn if it was designed to make players who play it happy.

Because players only think of themselves, not the game.

"I want this!"

"I want that!"

Not everyone wants the same thing and the game would need things that benefit everyone, e.g having a responsive UI would be a lot less of a want compared to how people want content and jumping, they'll overlook the important thing and go for things they want.

Tanaka had a plan.... in my opinion he had a pretty good plan... and what happened there?

XIV got rushed out ahead of scheduel (this can't be denied, all evidence of higher up intrusion (wada) is there.) hence the whole "please wait a month to review the game" thing because they weren't done even debugging the game.

Plans aren't risky or else games are never made in the first place.

[Azurymber]

Because players only think of themselves, not the game.

"I want this!"

"I want that!"

Not everyone wants the same thing and the game would need things that benefit everyone, e.g having a responsive UI would be a lot less of a want compared to how people want content and jumping, they'll overlook the important thing and go for things they want.



XIV got rushed out ahead of scheduel (this can't be denied, all evidence of higher up intrusion (wada) is there.) hence the whole "please wait a month to review the game" thing because they weren't done even debugging the game.

Plans aren't risky or else games are never made in the first place.

-Many- games fail to regain their costs. So yes, plans -are- risky. If plans are not risky then i highly suggest you develop a plan, go to a bank for a loan, and create a game. If it's not risky then you are pretty well guaranteed a profit.

the idea that players only think of themselves is exactly what benefits the game. People who are self interested will vote for what they want. If 95% of people all want the same thing, then implementing it will improve their gameplay.
Its much like the capitalistic concept of "greed is good" where people acting in self interest end up benefiting the economy by optimizing it.

Even if the UI sucks, if 90%+ are ok with it, and 90% want chocobos, it makes sense to implement chocobos. If the devs think a good UI is important for new players then they can just ignore the poll. But at least they know current players don't care about the UI and they should therefore not try to focus attention on changes to it.

[Versivus]

Definitely more interaction and updates would make this experience that much better.