They should put actual MMO players on the development team.

[indira]

i dont know about working ON the mmo but if they offered me a GM spot, i know i wouldent copy paste responces :l

problem with customer support jobs in a company is that you have to do what the manual says and thats it. or your liable for your actions.

[Aion]

tl;dr

how this actual MMO players will represent all kind of player base?

I am imagining if a food critique involved in cooking process in a restaurant....i think it will be "fun"

[Nuru]

I find this sort of offensive. Only giving hardcore players a position on the team is like suggesting making the game ridiculous for people that cannot provide the same amount of time that a hardcore player can. Of course, in an MMORPG, one that I, many others, and YoshiP envision is a themepark. You have your fun content, grinding, quests, hardcore content, etc.

Hardcore players tend to do all of that, yes, but usually a hardcore player wants everything to be challenging, and most of the time, everyone's idea of challenging content is very different. Most of the recent updates provide content that not just a party can complete, but it has to be with the same group of people. Not many people have linkshells that do this kind of content. I mean I am lucky enough to have gotten through Skirmish a few times, but with content like Garuda or Ifrit, a stable group of the same people does not leave any room for new players to come and experience any of it.

Suggesting that only hardcore MMORPG players provide feedback for this game is giving leeway to content that is near impossible, leaving players that are not suitable to either deal with it or leave the game. At that point, there is no use having the best equips and bragging rights because nobody will be there to be impressed. :P

They way SE is handling the game now is fine. Perhaps instead of suggesting hardcore basement geeks to provide feedback, they could use all sorts of players. Some that are interested in lore, others interested in the scenery and environment, others that are fond of the MMORPGs with the best battle systems. etc. An all-around suggestion, not just hardcore players who are out to get the best gear and then quit the game once they have everything. Long-term players are the casuals who spend a longer time obtaining everything. The game should provide content for both, but focus more on providing "fun" content that both casuals and hardcore can enjoy.

[Zhinse]

Curt Schilling

[Andrien]

So you think this forum represents the whole player base? I don't, most players don't use these forums.

That is obvious.. about 3% use the forum daily but a larger percent participate in player polls. When the dev team make player polls for feedback, Yoshi-P gives us the results himself in his producer letters. The devs read the forums daily, not only in the official forum but also on fansites.

Besides even if things were perfect on the forums, how much information gets filtered through the English speaking Community Reps to the people in charge in Japan. I bet it isn't much.

The reps made clear that they read everything. Just because if they don't respond to a suggestion doesn't mean they ignore it, they need permission first to give info. I'm not going to look for that specific post from the rep that said that because I don't remember which thread it was in.

[Grimwald]

The real problem is not beta testing content patches plus putting in a system that allows players to give reports that go straight to the devs, and not inactive community reps that respond to snurble threads over game breaking mechanics and class inequality.

[Mijin]

Would it really be any different than how it is now?

In my opinion yes it would be. My argument is that gamers know what they want to see in an MMO more than the people currently making this one. While I acknowledge the fact that a large amount of planning for the game is left to research data, I still think that the years of personal player experience has something more to offer.

I am grateful for the player polls that they provide by the way, and I would like to see more of that type of correspondence. While polls are nice and all I still think that there is more to be gained from having people on staff who really have a tight grasp on what a MMO should be.

I agree with the concept of playtesting with gamers on the payroll. However I disagree with your target pool.?

I really liked your post and I think you made a really good point about having people from all different play styles. My original thought was they could prevent really bad ideas from meeting fruition if they had hard core players as go-to people for advice, but after thinking about what you said I think your right. The advice of only hardcore players could indirectly push the game in a direction that would isolate the rest of the audience. I think I'll change my OP to reflect this.

The only thing I don't fully agree with is that they only need this sort of player correspondence at major milestones in the games content releases. I think they would benefit from this sort of interaction with the players for every version update.

A real developer is educated with a bachelors degree or two, has creativity, artistic and computer knowledge along with other sh!t you never heard before in your tiny, elementary~high-school life.

lol I like how you try to make a 4 year bachelors degree sound so prestigious. Considering SE is a major gaming company I would hope that most of the people on the development team have masters or better. That bachelors degree isn't worth much more that that high school diploma you were being so cheeky about.

A word of advice when you accuse people of being teenagers kind of makes you look like... Well you know... An angry teenager.

tl;dr (Too long; didn't read)

Then why are you posting? Especially on an English thread... It doesn't look like your primary language is English.

Perhaps instead of suggesting hardcore basement geeks to provide feedback, they could use all sorts of players.

Maybe your right about that.

Curt Schilling

Kenny Powers

The reps made clear that they read everything. Just because if they don't respond to a suggestion doesn't mean they ignore it, they need permission first to give info. I'm not going to look for that specific post from the rep that said that because I don't remember which thread it was in.

Yeah I believe you that they said that. There's no doubt in my mind about that, but are they actually doing it? My guess is they glance and a Japanese thread for five or six minutes a day IF that. Since all of the development team are all Japanese and our community reps are largely inactive I doubt any ones opinions here are being hear at all.

The real problem is not beta testing content patches plus putting in a system that allows players to give reports that go straight to the devs, and not inactive community reps that respond to snurble threads over game breaking mechanics and class inequality.

I agree 100% the best way to fix this problem would be beta testing content patches. I figured the only reason that they don't have a system for this implemented is because of the extra costs. That's why I came up whit this whole idea... To be honest though I have no clue if that's why they don't add beta servers to test each patch, my cost theory is speculation. However, I do know that most other MMOs have beta testing to each major content patch...

It would be nice too as you mentioned if we had a way to give reports strait to the devs, and actually have someone read them. I'm pretty sure there is a feature somewhere on the SE site to send suggestions or something, but I can't be bothered to look. No one reads that kind of stuff anyway.

About the community reps, I always thought they were a charity work and that's why they're so inactive, and that's why they're so inactive. Someone several pages ago assured me however that they're on payroll O_O

[Malix]

Yea because players aren't biased to their own class/job... oh wait...

[Mijin]

Yea because players aren't biased to their own class/job... oh wait...

Lol you only read the title didn't you.

[Venat]

Travel to Japan... drop in your resume. Good Luck.