We need better comunication with the Community team

[Vhailor]

I have to ask: What anger and frustration? Apart from a few loud mouths here on the forums I am not seeing much anger or frustration.
I suppose I could be missing all of it, but from what I can see the majority of players are more or less happy with the current state of the game, and not angry at all.

If you'd bothered to read the post I was responding to, my "anger and frustration" statement was precisely in reference to the "few loud mouths here on the forums", as you so insultingly phrased it.

That said, there's a difference between not being angry, and being more or less happy with the state of FFXIV. The bland and predictable update cycles will generate anger in a certain subset of players - those of us who are very emotionally invested in FFXIV. For far more people, it will generate apathy. So, go through your Friend List. See anyone who hasn't logged on for months? That's someone who quite possibly are picking up on the same problems as forum loud-mouths like me - they're just choosing to unsubscribe and play something else, as opposed to providing feedback and attempting to fix the problem.

For me personally, that's most of my FC, most of my Linkshells, and most of my Friend List. There was a renaissance around the time Stormblood released (as always), and then a return to apathy for most of them. Eureka, incidentally, did not draw anyone back. And I know of at least four close friends who left permanently because they were bored with SE's content cycles, and two others who frequently take long breaks.

To draw this back on-topic, this is a good example of why SE needs to solicit more feedback. Those of us who get angry, we make ourselves visible. Those who are head over heels for the game, tend to make it clear via purchases (Mogstation, multiple accounts, alts we actively play, etc.). There's very little concrete information about those who just stop playing, though - not even so much as a survey sent to someone's email account once a subscription expires. So neither SE, nor the community, knows whether these players left because of solvable problems, or because of external reasons. This game's player base is like an iceberg; only a small portion of players is visible at any one time. SE should be making far more efforts to reach those who naturally remain quiet.

Do we need better communication with them, or do they need to reach out more, to us?
Community Managers should do THREE things:

1) Should be able to figure out a way to collate as much feedback information as possible whilst filtering noise.

2) Forwarding that information regularly to the Developers.

3) Engaging with the community, constantly, and giving them a reason to contribute back.

Wholeheartedly agree.

I've said it so many times on different threads; being noisy doesn't make you right.

There is no 'right' or 'wrong' when speaking of feedback, which is the purpose of this thread. On occasion there are objectively clever ideas or objectively poor implementations of game systems, but by and large, whether someone enjoys a piece of content is very subjective.

Nevertheless, it's very much in SE's interest to listen to its players. If those players are noisy, great - engage with them. If those players are quiet, go reach out to them. This effort would offer only upsides, even if absolutely nothing about FFXIV's development changes. The only bad feedback, is no feedback.