There seems to be some sort of disconnect between the developers and the players over the last years, and recent events have kind of brought that to light (questionable job changes that no one asked for, the hrothgar hair debacle...) Yoshida often asks people to give their feedback in the forums, but these forums arent the best for discussion and most people dont even consider actually posting in them unless something goes really bad. Many also feel like anything not written on the JP forums gets ignored, regardless of what reality is.

A similar idea was brought up in JP, but i thought to expand a bit on it. I think if they added a survey some days after a patch drops, or before taking certain decisions (like amputated hrothgars), in a one-time popup on login or in the launcher, it would really help to communicate our opinions to the developers as a complement to the forums.

For instance:

- forums are inefficient.
Very little people actually go through the trouble of making an account and posting threads or replies, and a lot of those threads/replies often have people arguing in circles, trolling, or not really adding much of substance. A survey would probably gather more people's opinions simply because its less effort, and it could have more direct feedback too.

- forums are overly negative
People that are content, indifferent or even mildly discontent with the game are not wont to go and post on the forums. This makes the forums overly biased and its hard to tell the true opinion of the majority of the playerbase. A survey could gather milder opinions so they dont get drowned out by a loud minority.

- New dimension of data
I dont know how the developers gather the data they use for making decisions, but it's most likely a mix of participation and success statistics. While those numbers do give a lot of insights, the truth is that such data can be misleading because participation does not equal satisfaction. For example, I've been playing AST since Heavensward, and while im still playing AST i think Endwalker's is the worst iteration of the job up to date. Similarly WHM was objectively the weakest healer before 6.1 but it remained the most popular.

- Feeling ignored
A lot of players often feel like the feedback in the forums doesnt reach the developers, or worse it gets disregarded completely. The truth is that having to parse through dozens of threads and hundreds of replies on multiple languages and maybe even social media is too much for anyone to properly do. Add in language barriers and lack of consensus from the playerbase and its a recipe for disaster. A survey could better collect data to be easier analyzed.



Now, I'm not saying a survey would solve every miscommunication, nor should it. Make a survey too extense or too often and people won't fill it. A survey also runs into the risk of being "for or against" and since people are generally averse to change, it might seem counterproductive. In the JP forum it was pointed out that more casual player might not even care to fill the survey so the data collected could be skewed.

Nevertheless, despite the cons and pitfalls, i believe a well implemented survey could help the developers to have better idea of what the players want and how they feel, even if its a mostly general one.

what do you guys think?