
Originally Posted by
Alec97
No one is disputing how hard they work. The issue is whether the developers are working hard on the correct feature or investing time wisely to help soothe current pain points or mitigate players' frustration. As a developer they should have a mindset where they can take the feedback on board no matter the tone and understand where the player is coming from and what is causing their frustration. Acknowledge what is causing the frustration and give players a solution with a feasible timescale, i.e. 1-2 patches. Not we plan to continue support, and nothing happens for 3 - 6 yrs. If the players are not complaining, something is wrong, but you must remember that people pay for the product to work as intended.
Regarding class balance, people are upset not because they think their class doesn't do enough damage or the developers have not solved a utility or functionality issue with their favoured class. If people feel the need to scream, this is usually a symptom of people feeling that the development team has not acknowledged their concerns. Players need more transparency and communication from the class designer to think their time, effort, and emotional investment are worth it. Leaving players in a state of anxiety, anger, or emotional distress due to an in-game feature or company solution is disgusting and should be called out.
On your point about how it's only 1-2%, you don't know that, and you don't have the resources to qualify that data. This is you just trying to dismiss these people, which doesn't help the situation. If people are voicing these concerns on the forums, and these are the most engaged players, you can be sure more players with these concerns are silent. So leaving these issues to rot will make players feel abandoned they will leave the game.
No one is disputing that they are human or make mistakes. That's clear to see on many layers in the game. Identifying the issues takes time and experience. However, their failures at the end of the day are still their failures. For example, suppose they are not meeting the expectations of the player base. In that case, they need to change their way of developing and communicating or how Square invests its time into features across an expansion. I have seen a massive case in this expansion of the developers giving people things they didn't ask for or care about while leaving the game's core features to stagnate. In a sense, it feels like the team is more interested in providing bread and circuses to distract players than fixing that actual issue in the game, i.e. glamour, housing, reward structure, class balance etc.