I can't help but feel that they're slowly becoming more and more disconnected with the player base with their line of thing now.

True, they say they look into the forums and try to implement some of what we've asked ... but is that enough? I am thankful that they do listen to the players in that way, but still, they could do more. Especially since they seem to listen and take data more from the Japanese forum than western part.

They could do things such as surveys and polls.

Take for example LoV; nobody really asked, nor wanted that. While it's true that some wanted a minigame for minions, they could have executed it better. Instead of asking us what kind of future minigame for Gold Saucer we want they just seem to add whatever. Not sure how LoV is doing gin Japanese servers, but it's a big failure in the West