Why not have -Weekly- OFFICIAL dev polls?

[Peregrine]

They need an efficient, clear way for the player base to mass-shoot bad ideas down so they can avoid Groupthink errors http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink, which is essentially just their wasted effort on fail ideas because they didn't realize they weren't going to succeed until it was already too late.

For instance:
Sony exec: Playstation Vita is a great name!
Sony exec2: I think so.
Sony exec3: Yes.

Player: You mean sony PITA?

So many limbs are gone out on by the devs that players could have easily told them wasn't going to end well, had they just asked us first. That goes for abilities, class balance, class roles, magic spells like AM, agro icons...I dunno...this entire game?

We could have told them they shouldn't release it. We could have told them a lot of things. Actually we kindof did.

And that didn't work, so clear and efficient are the key words.

[Elexia]

We could have told them they shouldn't release it.

So? Are you running the company? Are you an investor? You can't tell a company, especially a C.E.O/President/Etc what to do or not to do and even investors barely can these days. If Wada wanted the game out before WoW's cataclysm and to have something on their record for the rest of 2010 and early 2011 (remember their upcoming lineup for the rest of 2010 and early 2011, almost nothing), it's his decision alone. Good or bad decision aside, nothing could have fully prevented it.

clear and efficient are the key words

Player Polls fell into this and they already explained why they didn't take all of the feedback from the beta period ("We were too focused on debugging even after the launch of the game in september.") so now it's clear they're looking even closer than before for feedback. Weekly polls however isn't efficient because sooner or later the community can abuse this to get something changed that didn't need changing just because they'll know the company would be listening.

[Rydin]

We could have told them they shouldn't release it.

Except.....

the players told them to release it, no matter what state it is in....
Hence the problems the game had since launch....
User base is just as susceptible to group think as anyone....
Honestly, I don't want to design a game...
Most people don't... What would be the point of playing a game for which you wrote the story, or designed the dungeons?
the only reason I voice my opinion is because so many others voice silly opinions and I don't want SE to think these people represent the entire player base... but honestly... we play a game, not to have input on the games direction, but to be taken on a journey based on the design teams vision....
I've got a 4 year old nephew and if we listened to him, every single food at every meal will have chocolate in it....
the point is, sometimes you have to stick to your guns and make the best game you know how....
From Day 1 the players have made that really hard on SE

[Rowyne]

We could have told them they shouldn't release it. We could have told them a lot of things. Actually we kindof did.

the players told them to release it, no matter what state it is in....

No, Peregine's right on this one. We absolutely did tell them not to release it. The beta feedback forums were inundated with posts telling SE, straight out, push back the release date on this game. It's not ready. I remember the deluge, because I was one of the many people saying it.

They just didn't listen.

[Azurymber]

No, Peregine's right on this one. We absolutely did tell them not to release it. The beta feedback forums were inundated with posts telling SE, straight out, push back the release date on this game. It's not ready. I remember the deluge, because I was one of the many people saying it.

They just didn't listen.

I posted a lot about how the game was severely flawed and needed serious updates before release and HUNDREDS of people responded by saying that the open beta was just an example and when the game was released there would be more zones and lots more content and UI fixes (they said UI was only bad because they were testing limits) etc.

Sadly official release was -no- different than open beta and im pretty sure 90% of those people quit.

this is another example of poor communication. I wonder what would have happened if SE was honest and said the release would be like the beta instead of letting 1000s of people speculate on what the official release would be like and get let down.

[Mack]

I posted a lot about how the game was severely flawed and needed serious updates before release and HUNDREDS of people responded by saying that the open beta was just an example and when the game was released there would be more zones and lots more content and UI fixes (they said UI was only bad because they were testing limits) etc.

Sadly official release was -no- different than open beta and im pretty sure 90% of those people quit.

Yep so true. I defended this game in beta, I was so sure it would turn out better than XI at the very least and while I knew there were plenty of problems with the game in beta I didn't think they would release it half finished. I was actually so sure that the zones we got were limited to 3 out of plenty more! and I would bash every naysayers head in if they said anything remotely bad about the game and well little by little I became worse than the people bashing the game during beta because it eventually hit me how lackluster everything was and how its like they didn't even care about making a good game.

[Wynn]

No, Peregine's right on this one. We absolutely did tell them not to release it. The beta feedback forums were inundated with posts telling SE, straight out, push back the release date on this game. It's not ready. I remember the deluge, because I was one of the many people saying it.

They just didn't listen.

^This

This is absolutely, 100% true. However, on the other spectrum (as there is always both sides present) there were just as many people saying "no release now. We don't wanna wait. No MMO is ever finished. You can fix this stuff later." Of course, these people mistakenly believed there was better stuff they were not allowing beta testers access to, so naturally they wanted the game to release so they could see it. Too bad it wasn't there. ^^