Is having an Official Forums good for FFXIV?

[darkstarpoet1]

The danger I see is player base's likes and opinions are constantly changing. Is the direction of the game based on the changing MMO's players mood, or is based on experienced MMO professionals who have a precise gameplan layed out for how this game will be developed. I for one like auto-attack, but at the same time, my curiosity would of liked to see how Tanaka's plan would of played out if it had not been torpedo'd by a combination of a game released too early, and poor poll results by the player base.

i don't think it's really the opinion of the player constantly changing. you just see new faces each time a change is made and it was something they liked. the ones that are enjoying the game don't come in to say anything bad. i, personally, rarely visited the forums at all until i heard about the upcoming battle changes. i came on the forums then to defend the system as it was(although it did still need work), but by then the decision was made because of the constant complaints in the forums by people that didn't like it.

if the poll had asked directly any question about whether or not people wanted auto attack and the majority voted for it i would have supported the move and if people had voted to have the old system worked on to make it better i would have supported that way. the old battle system failed, in my opinion, because the game was released in a half completed state and everything was not ready to be put out to the public. this blame goes directly to the head honcho's that decided they wanted to release it then and work while it was out.

the thing was the poll asked about drastic changes(not auto attack) and almost everyone, including me, voted we wanted it. yes, i wanted drastic changes. i wanted to do more than constant crab parties and having very little story line. i wanted a vast story with many available side quests like every other final fantasy game that was released to date.

[grandm]

i think u have this all wrong to begin with. its not like the ppl in charge are asking for u to design the game for them. the forum is just a place where we can all chat about things, and if for some unknown reason a player comes up with a better idea than a dev. its nice for them to have access to that information, and be able to develop on that idea. the main point in te forum is just a place for us to rant and rave, and chat about things also a way for the dev's to us know about any things they got going on that might be of intrest

[Sovereign]

I think official forums just help to centralize the community. If we didn't have these forums, I assume that many of us would just end up picking our preferred fan site and using their forums. It also provides the community team with a way to distribute information and answer questions without either having to coordinate with multiple fan sites, or having to post a whole news post on the main site just to address relatively minor bits of information.

TLDR: The forums are a great tool to collect feedback and distribute information. While many posts are rather useless, I like being able to get direct feedback from the community team in an official context.

[Alexis_Arteme]

It's here because we voted for it.

And, it should get better after the re-launch. I'm glad it's already firmly in place.

[Coglin]

I have had the oppertunity to to communicate with the dev team, ask questions, and have my oice heard by them, as many of you have as well.

Doesn't matter if its official or unofficial, you would have similar issues.

[Gath]

I like them, only because I can recollect on how awesome I really am when i look at my posts.

My 1 gil is worth more than your 1 gil.

[Anonymoose]

Sure, there's a lot of worthlessness floating around the forums, but that's why we have community reps that dig through it all. It's not just about looking for good ideas and solid reactions, it's about getting into the minds of players. Did anything even remotely tangible come out of our arguing about the bow-harp for 50 pages? Maybe not for us, but SE knows quite a bit about how we might react, what we're expecting, and what they should adjust to make it a bigger hit and a smoother transition.

Combined with the localization forums, which are probably the most useful and fun area of the site imho, I think the forums are working out just fine.

It's not SE's fault that MMORPG populations are mostly children and people with a lot of free-time, social awkwardness, and confrontation issues. That's who they're selling to, that's who they have to deal with. It's business.

[Betelgeuzah]

Getting player feedback is crucial, as long as you can distill the good from the bad. That's a part of being a good developer.

It's not like the forums are mandatory feature though, you can achieve the same results with third party websites too. But obviously this is more centralized and focused, which can undoubtedly help.

[Vesper]

Games need official forums it provides the easiest two way communication between the developers and their consumers. Of course the forums are a mixed bag, with mostly people coming in to piss and moan about things, the people who have no issues with the game have no reason to pop in here as much, they just play the game. Those with issues raise the issues on the forum. THAT is the point of the forum.

If you see no benefit to official forums why would you even bother posting here at all? Just pop in read the dev tracker and leave since this place is apparently pointless.

[Neptune]

The forums are neutral towards the game.. it is just a place for people to post their thoughts.

Is it a good thing for the game that the devs are listening to people on the boards? I would say 9 out of 10 times no, it isn't. Imagine if you drained an Olympic size swimming pool down to the last inch of water. All that would be there is the scum clinging for dear life to the bottom.