Should they add a survey in-game?

[RArchet]

Mobile Games such as Arknights, Fate Grand/Order, Genshin/Honkai, etc. do this a lot. Though I cannot attest to how often they actually listen to the feedback, I mean, Genshin still hasn't buffed the OG4 (Traveler, Amber, Lisa, Kaeya). It none the less is always nice that it is there. They also give incentives to give your feedback and participate- a literal 'Penny for your Thoughts'.

It's also a good way to check with the community about your upcoming ideas so stuff like the SAM changes and such can be looked at by the playerbase to decide if that'll kill their enjoyment. I'm aware YoshiP said they don't mind if you unsub or stop playing, but they should probably care if the players no longer have a class they enjoy playing when they do.

It would also help compile data. most of the example games will give "Strongly Disagree/Disagree/Neutral/Agree/Strongly Agree" sliding scales, but then a text entry on some of the more complex things.

[Jeeqbit]

I've been thinking that polls would work better as well, such as a poll to see the popularity of each ability for each job. Then the developers would have a clear idea of which abilities people like or think should be changed or removed.

- 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.

When I play the game, everyone is happy but when I come to the forums a lot of people are negative and rude and paint a picture of the game being in a really bad state. It's not in a bad state at all and there are so many things that are good. It's important to acknowledge the good things and to be polite and understanding of the challenges developers face when making a criticism, but that is lacking on these forums.

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.

I enjoyed AST in Shadowbringers. It can still be enjoyed now but it was better at the start of 5.0 where you would work towards Divination and put cards you don't want into Lord/Lady.

[StriderShinryu]

When I play the game, everyone is happy but when I come to the forums a lot of people are negative and rude and paint a picture of the game being in a really bad state. It's not in a bad state at all and there are so many things that are good. It's important to acknowledge the good things and to be polite and understanding of the challenges developers face when making a criticism, but that is lacking on these forums.

That's largely been my experience as well. Pretty much everywhere you look except the forums you see a largely very positive perspective on the game, and I would imagine any in game polls would probably reflect that mostly positive attitude. I do think the devs could absolutely do a better job communicating their thoughts and intentions with the players, and I would never turn down another tool to give feedback, but I highly doubt there would suddenly be some massive development shift just because a poll existed.