Quote Originally Posted by Galaktica View Post
Hot take: Yes and No.

Sure, we don't get everything we ask for, but there's enough shit added to this game that it's obvious they're listening loud and clear. We got a bunch of cutesy hairstyles and glamour every now and then. We're getting Cloud's ugly ass bike. ffs, they're even entertaining the idea of adding Viera to the game. It's clear they're not above adding anything the community begs for if it's possible.
I think they tend to listen when either (a) the rage reaches a sort of critical mass, or (b) when following through is a relatively trivial matter.

Examples of (a) would be the recent about-face on the Need / Greed changes in 24-man Alliance Raids and the woefully limited housing availability up until this most recent Ward expansion. Examples of (b) would be what you largely described: hairstyles, cutesy Glamours, Cloud's ugly-ass bike, probably Viera when all is said and done (I'll bet significant sums of Gil on Viera being 99% humanoid, just like Au Ra).

Where they don't listen - and where they're clearly out of touch - is in regards to underlying systemic issues (the blandness of content update cycles; RMT; Diadem 3.0 - err, Eureka*; etc.). Here, we get nothing from SE. No real mea culpas, no player surveys, no explanations, no fixes over time. Unfortunately for SE and FFXIV, these areas are quite important. It's hard to say when exactly SE's failure to address them will have consequences, but it'll happen in some form or another. They're poisoning their core fanbase, one small predictable content drip at a time.