Discuss : is ffxiv in trouble

[Striker44]

I’ve never understood the argument of “the forums are a negative echo chamber so you should just assume that everyone who isn’t on here is mostly happy” for 2 reasons

1) this is where we are told to come to make a complaint if we aren’t happy with something in the game, complaints are why this forum exists

2) if square has such hard and fast data on the fact that these complaints don’t represent the general playerbase why do they never engage with us on here, you could shut the entire healer subforum up in 5 seconds if a GM posted “according to squares internal data healer gameplay and engagement are where we desire them to be at and as such we do not see a reason to redesign the healers again”. Instead they remain completely silent while we argue over the tiny bit of data we can pull from the game ourselves

The fact that the devs tell us to come to the forums then just ignore us while we argue amongst ourselves is exactly why the forums are the way they are

1.) Complaints are only one small, small portion of why this forum is supposed to exist. If it was the sole reason, it would be called the Complaints forum, or even Complaints sub-forum. This forum exists for a wide variety of purposes, in the case of "General Discussion," to discuss anything and everything about the game.

2.) "if square has such hard and fast data on the fact that these complaints don’t represent the general playerbase why do they never engage with us on here" I feel like this sentence answers itself. They don't engage with us here because they know this forum isn't representative of anything useful. I'm guessing they also realize the psychological value of giving people a place to vent, anyway. They are a business, after all, and people who get the chance to vent and/or feel like they're making a connection with other forum posters are more likely to stick around longer. Just my thoughts on the matter...

(General Point - I can't recall anyone ever saying someone should assume everyone who isn't here is happy. All I've said is not to assume that everyone in the general playerbase mimics the forums in thought, and that the devs have far more information than we do on the subject. You seem to be setting up a straw man, which implies a lack of ability to validly counter the actual point being made.)