We need better comunication with the Community team

[KisaiTenshi]

A couple of responses to this.

(1) The community team gets paid to have thick skin. While I'm not condoning abusive language or the like, receiving criticism for a variety of little things is an objectively poor reason to wall off community outreach efforts. Housing is a terrific example; the development team, to this day, literally years after implementing Housing, has not managed to resolve player concerns. Not only has this surely cost SE subscriptions they might otherwise have kept, but they can't even find out how many - because there isn't any feedback process. Is this really the proper approach to take?

Square-Enix never listens to player feedback, even during beta tests, otherwise they would have not released V1.0 at all. While they do seem to listen to PR embarrassments, eventually, just go look at anything else they release for the PC. Buggy, ugly, and broken, and not even a "Sorry we will do better and fix it." Even the Mac Version of FFXIV, completely fumbled.

Either Square-Enix employs no beta testers, or their beta testers are afraid of actually reporting anything that might be seen as "this is a bad design", and can only report things like localization errors (which is in fact how most english-language versions of Japanese and Korean games are during beta tests.)

(2) We don't need an immediate plan from the developers, but we need to feel heard. Right now, many of us don't. There's absolutely no reason why SE cannot make intentional efforts to build a formalized feedback process so people at least feel like their opinions are being listened to.

This is a kind of millennial type of "I'm a snowflake, I'm important, I'm entitled to be heard" type of opinion that many people think their opinion matters to a large company. Reality check, unless you are helping their bottom line (eg MrHappy, MTQcapture on youtube) you will never have the ear of the developer.

If Square-Enix actually had active GM's and community management, there would be zero bots, and zero rude posts on the forums, but you can only throw so much staff at money-losing abuse-reduction. SE's solution for the forum was to limit how many posts you can make in X hours and how long you can make a message that people quickly figured out how to circumvent by immediately editing the post. Otherwise you wouldn't see so many fights on the forum about the same thing over and over.

As soon as you see how the sausage is made at a game company, you never want to play the game again. We're sitting here thinking maybe they have 30 GM's or so, it's more likely they have two.

https://support.na.square-enix.com/c...382&la=1&fty=2

This is what they are letting us give feedback on now. Bugs, Harassment, Copyright Infringement, and RMT. No "suggestions". Even on the forum, you only have "Bugs" and "Technical support", no suggestions.

[Hestzhyen]

Square-Enix never listens to player feedback, even during beta tests, otherwise they would have not released V1.0 at all. While they do seem to listen to PR embarrassments, eventually, just go look at anything else they release for the PC. Buggy, ugly, and broken, and not even a "Sorry we will do better and fix it." Even the Mac Version of FFXIV, completely fumbled.

Either Square-Enix employs no beta testers, or their beta testers are afraid of actually reporting anything that might be seen as "this is a bad design", and can only report things like localization errors (which is in fact how most english-language versions of Japanese and Korean games are during beta tests.)




This is a kind of millennial type of "I'm a snowflake, I'm important, I'm entitled to be heard" type of opinion that many people think their opinion matters to a large company. Reality check, unless you are helping their bottom line (eg MrHappy, MTQcapture on youtube) you will never have the ear of the developer.

I don't think us "special snowflakes" really believe that SE cares about our individual opinions. No large origination does unless you're a high net-worth/seriously influential customer. The point is though, when your customers don't feel like you care about them, they get dissatisfied and upset. Unhappy customers spread negative PR, stop using your services, and will not recommend you to their associations. That's bad for business.

All kinds of companies across diverse industries are interacting with customers on a more personal level than ever due to social media- it's in their best interests to keep up a rapport and accept customer feedback in all kinds of ways. The company I work for scans social media posts made to them every day to look into problems customers encounter. Not all of them can be solved and some take longer than customers like to be fixed. In the end, though, it builds good-will and gives customers a place to feel like they'll be heard. Since game companies live and die based on the user experience, it's probably in SE's best interest to at least let us know they're listening. Having a formalized feedback process like Vhailor suggested is a great way for customers to provide input without requiring SE to read each and every report; you can scan for key words and phrases based on categories customers select to get a sense of where you can improve things. And customers have a way to directly interact with the company, even though they won't get individualized attention.

Talking with senior management and developers is also good. The UI developer's post on technical limitations was fantastic! Even though I don't like what they did to the expanded inventory view, now at least I understand why they did it and have some sympathy. They don't want to be constrained like that, but they did the best with what they had. Controversial changes large and small need to be addressed. A lot of people on the forums have expressed concern about what Eureka means for the future of the game. A few (yours truly included) have expressed worry that the game will not try to break out of the ARR formula going into 5.0. Our concerns could be allayed a bit if we felt like our opinions were being heard and considered.

A related example I have is from Riot, the company behind League of Legends. I haven't played the game in years since I burned myself out. But I have a ton of goodwill for the company and pass on the positive experience when I can because of their level of customer interaction. Pendragon (one of the very senior people at the company) directly asked me for my input on their new (now current) forum design and colour scheme because I had championed for a dark theme due to medical reasons. I critiqued, they listened. They rebuilt their new forums from the ground up based on what the community wanted to see too. In general they respond to player concerns and explain rationale for changes in a way that I deeply appreciate. They don't balance based on collective player feedback, but they account for the user experience at all levels and the game is that much better for it. SE can take a page from their book when it comes to interacting with us - they don't have to bend over to every demand or directly thank every player for submitting feedback. But having a two-way conversation instead of leaving players to rant and rave on various discussion platforms does a lot for customer good-will that can't be accounted for in the game itself.

[Vhailor]

This is a kind of millennial type of "I'm a snowflake, I'm important, I'm entitled to be heard" type of opinion that many people think their opinion matters to a large company. Reality check, unless you are helping their bottom line (eg MrHappy, MTQcapture on youtube) you will never have the ear of the developer.

Bullshit, and I resent being implicitly labeled as a 'special snowflake' in a derogatory manner. This isn't a millennial thing, it's not a special snowflake thing, it's not an entitlement thing - it's an awareness of basic psychology, a core part of being an astute developer. Companies fifty years ago would have killed for the type of feedback potential that SE has at their fingertips, and yet the dev team isn't even trying.

Hestzhyen summarized this as well as I could, so I won't bother reiterating. I will say though, that the days are numbered for companies that don't bother with substantial customer feedback. It's easier than ever to get, it's more important than ever to have, and SE has arguably regressed from the days of FFXI. It's not a good look.

[Ruf]

SE has arguably regressed from the days of FFXI. It's not a good look.

T h a t ! .

[Tridus]

This is a kind of millennial type of "I'm a snowflake, I'm important, I'm entitled to be heard" type of opinion that many people think their opinion matters to a large company. Reality check, unless you are helping their bottom line (eg MrHappy, MTQcapture on youtube) you will never have the ear of the developer.

Funny, it's my dad who is most likely to complain to a company if they don't deliver a satisfactory experience. He's most definitely not a milennial. And you know what? He gets results.

The idea that it's a new thing that people expect companies to care what their customers think is the most comical milenial hatred BS I've ever seen. Companies like to make money, and unhappy customers aren't good for the bottom line. The only time it's not true is with monopolies.

[KisaiTenshi]

Funny, it's my dad who is most likely to complain to a company if they don't deliver a satisfactory experience. He's most definitely not a milennial. And you know what? He gets results.

The idea that it's a new thing that people expect companies to care what their customers think is the most comical milenial hatred BS I've ever seen. Companies like to make money, and unhappy customers aren't good for the bottom line. The only time it's not true is with monopolies.

Baby Boomers and Echo Boomers actually have money and tend to complain about changes to things over time. Millennial's had their future stolen by their parents generation. So I get why Millennial's tend to complain more often, more frequently, and over much smaller grievances.

But I'm just stating things from experience. The younger someone is, the more they believe their opinion matters on social media, but seem to not vote with their dollars, or vote at the polling station. Thus the term "slacktivism".

Just the same, many companies do have a social media presence, but no interaction. To them it's just another (free) advertisement venue. So while I'm more likely to stick with a company who reaches out to my complaints about their company online (like my ISP) the general response is "could you DM, email, use our webchat, or phone", not "I'm sorry", there is no initial empathy, thus people keep becoming negative.

We could also talk about how the PvP community is dying on NA/EU servers due to a plague of botting and win trading, too. Many people speaking up do so because they enjoy the game and want to see it prosper and improve.

Yet, where is the "please fix PvP" thread on the front page? It's not there. The most recent thread I can find about PvP in the general forum is 4 days old, complaining about a mount reward. Right now the front page is mostly complaining about Eureka. If it's important (and it is), it should not be bumped from the front page, but as it is, it seems like absolutely nobody plays PvP in my data center as the "needs DPS/healer/tank" indicator never shows up, and if you queue for the roulette the wait time starts at 30 min. I've only ever seen it have no queue time at 4.0's release when people discovered that it handed EXP out like candy, so no doubt everyone who got all their combat jobs to 70 in three days did nothing but that.

All that's being said in this thread repeatedly is that SE doesn't take feedback from the non-Japanese community, and we would like to get equal treatment. However, unless the rest of the world wants to suddenly be nice, 100% of the time, this will not happen.

[Vstarstruck]

Baby Boomers and Echo Boomers actually have money and tend to complain about changes to things over time. Millennial's had their future stolen by their parents generation. So I get why Millennial's tend to complain more often, more frequently, and over much smaller grievances.

But I'm just stating things from experience. The younger someone is, the more they believe their opinion matters on social media, but seem to not vote with their dollars, or vote at the polling station. Thus the term "slacktivism".

Just the same, many companies do have a social media presence, but no interaction. To them it's just another (free) advertisement venue. So while I'm more likely to stick with a company who reaches out to my complaints about their company online (like my ISP) the general response is "could you DM, email, use our webchat, or phone", not "I'm sorry"

Your last post and this one.. why are you posting this? it.. I can't see the point in this. The purpose in the thread is asking for better communication from the development team, not some kind of.. borderline prejudice? on analysts on social behaviour.

Usually people that pull this stuff is usually ... nvm I don't want you focus on what I was about to say while ignoring my main ^ point

For the edit update of your post.. you really have nerve... it may be suggested not to speak out on stuff you know nothing about. Look on the PvP forum, there is more then one section that exists on this site. Just because I do not post there, does not mean I am not aware.

In short, they do not do much to curb all the win trading, match throwing, pvp botting, and class balance problems people complain on it and in the past.

[KisaiTenshi]

In short, they do not do much to curb all the win trading, match throwing, pvp botting, and class balance problems people complain on it and in the past.

If it's not constantly on the front page of the general forum, SE will not see it as an issue. Look at how many "whm 4.0" complaint threads blew up, and how fast they blew up at 4.0's release that they eventually merged all of them.

I've seen PvP complaint threads on the General forum before, but they quickly get bumped down over more petty arguments that people won't let go. Why do people keep creating new threads, and when they don't get anyone to agree with them in one thread, they start another, thus just spamming up the general forum with yet another thread.

If players want SE's attention on their own forums, they would concentrate their complaints and issues in a SINGLE THREAD, and keep it there until the Community Manager addresses it. Yet there are 10 separate Eureka complaint threads on the front page alone.