We need a polling system in the game

[Canadane]

Players do not make good game development choices.

[ShadowNyx3]

The history of the Old School Runescape Polls is a massive rabbit hole that OP has completely glossed over.

The provided example for a new skill was exactly one poll in the game's history. Almost every other poll is a Yes/No question asking about whether the devs should make a particular change. In XIV's terms, this would be literally every change that is mentioned in the patch notes requiring a 70% Yes vote to be implemented.

Since the polls can be voted on by anyone with a small amount of game time played, changes that would only affect small portions of the playerbase can be affected by players who have never even touched that content. In Runescape's case, this led to years of neglect for PVP, which would almost be a guaranteed victim of this system in XIV. This also means that every adjustment to jobs can be voted on by the entire playerbase.

It is hardly worth elaborating further on the potential flaws of this system because OSRS and XIV are just not remotely similar games. You would have to completely change the content cycles of XIV in order to have players vote on new additions like they do in OSRS. The more important thing to leave with is OP's claim that this system "provides tangible feedback for the developers."

It actually does not. This is a system purely meant to cater to that game's target audience who successfully managed to win a legacy version of the game once the original had changed far too much from what they enjoyed about it. The system holds the developers in check from wildly changing the 2007 version of Runescape that is so beloved. They actually receive their feedback by communicating with their community via dev logs, responding to questions on Twitter, and showing that they read their subreddit and forums. (And the only reason this even exists is because the original version of the game: Runescape 3, is a whale farm of microtransactions to generate funds)

If you want a polling system in FFXIV, the best thing that this game could get is just more attention given to feedback questionnaires. As mentioned above, some people get them, some people don't, and some people just have no idea that they exist. They really do need to do a better job of showing that more players than just streamers can have a voice in the direction of the game, and they can do that by treating feedback questionnaires with more care and attention.

[GTK0HLK]

It ultimately falls down to.
Is the community well enough to establish what it truly is that bothers then.

Or do they Bandwagon without knowing what it is they say, most of the time.

Do they Join Cause someone they admire says it.

Do they Say It out of Spite

Do they say it out of need to deny others of nice things

do they want to get more rewards for a few rather than for the benefit of all active players.

You can just get your answer by looking at the forums. (while most will agree its not close enough to generously say, it ain't perfect) It can be improved, and steered away from irrelevant things that some have done to derail threads and troll. and actual lead to more conducive discussion.

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My Lil TLDR: is that if we have a community that understands what they want, and what they believe. without falling into passive or active derailment from the minority of hateful. Who can easily accept not being picked from various options. then yeah, a poll will work wonders.

But Polls have too many variables.

that also is, If the question on the poll/s is exact, and not vague. as to not confuse or misdirect users.

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For Example with jobs or skills.

I personally believe that the game can only have 9 more full jobs before it becomes unsustainable. But also cause it leads to:
6Tanks / 6Healers / 6Melee / 6Ranged / 6Casters

Which jobs have their subclasses. (sustain/damage, shield/pure, raidwide/selfish, support/pseudoselfish, quickcast/longcast. Atm, since I feel they can each get a third type.)

and Armor or Materia type/slotting priority.
(Maiming/Striking/Scouting. or Sps/Sks, Crit/Dh, etc)

Not everyone will agree to 9 more full jobs, or that the jobs should follow these rigid Rule of Two, Duality/Mirroring within their Armor Type. and the Archetype of Gameplay be it pure, long, sustain, damage, support, gcd based, ogcd based/heavy job.

[Kalocin]

There's a more straightforward way to do something like this, just occasionally have player satisfaction surveys like most mobile games do. Pretty easy way to pool player data without much difficulty. I'm okay with players wanting an easier way to give feedback but I'd rather leave development to actual devs.

[Sjol]

Players do not make good game development choices.

I would go farther to say that they make TERRIBLE choices. They're not designers. They're not developers. They don't have enough information to make truly informed decisions because you have to have a TON of information to do that -- most of it will be internal to SE.

Pain points and things that you like that already exist in game are useful bits of feedback. How you use the game and the various systems in game are useful information for designers.

I really, really hope they don't start polling players for what they should do. I truly think it'll make the game even worse.

[Sylpharia]

It works for Runescape, I'm not opposed