Opinion: The Development Team should revert to Q&A for Livestreams

[Carin-Eri]

I'm not sure, personally.

I mean, I found the Q&A segment of the last live-letter really frustrating personally. It didn't feel like it addressed very much and there were too many replies that basically amounted to:
- Player Feedback: "this is a problem"
- YoshiP: "We will consider addressing this in the future" OR "I don't consider this to be a problem"

I know for a fact that the last Live-letter caused a few people to cancel their subscriptions (sadly, @Mawlzy being one) - whether the lackluster Q&A session contributed to that decision or not I don't know.

However, I DO know that holding Q&A sessions where the replies are corporate non-answers holds no value whatsoever.

[Mikey_R]

At minimum a modicum of response when we've been asking questions into the void with years and years of feedback when X, Y, or Z is going to get fixed. There's numerous things, but they've grown passive since Shadowbringers with Jobs, then Endwalker with content and story.

That I can agree with. However, I was mainly looking at keeping people's expectations in check, as we know they can take speculation, parrot it so it becomes 'real', then get upset when it inevitably gets changed. Which is something they have also seen happen and is a likely reason why they try not to give too much.

If this is targeted at me, I understand ...

It wasn't, it was a response to Valance who was effectively saying, it doesn't matter what tone you give off whilst giving feedback, they should just deal with it.

This isn't bullying

'Bullying' probably wasn't the right word at the time, hence why it was in quotes. Also, the things about the dev team being incompetent etc. I put in to provide an example of something that is not good feedback, which I then contrasted with a better way of giving feedback. Though this wasn't aimed at you, but it is definitely something I have seen countless times.

Being polite can only get you so far if you aren't heard. If I recall correctly, being ignored is extremely rude ...

Whilst yes, it is rude, it also doesn't give people the right to be aggressive back. Making topics, like this, that highlight that you want more transparency in what is being done and how things are going. However, it is also worth to point out that, even if they do give more information, and some people do not like the direction, it does not mean they will change it based on that feedback.

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I mean, I found the Q&A segment of the last live-letter really frustrating personally. It didn't feel like it addressed very much and there were too many replies that basically amounted to:
- Player Feedback: "this is a problem"
- YoshiP: "We will consider addressing this in the future" OR "I don't consider this to be a problem"

And this is the crux of everything. If people do not like the responses, it will just aggravate them more.

To go to an example of 'job identity', they could (as has been said in another topic), give a few bullet points as to what they aim to do. People will make theories based on that, get excited over those theories, then, when they get the full action/traits list, they then complain that it isn't what THEY wanted, despite the fact they were never promised that in the first place.

This community, especially on the forums, is very volatile and expect nothing but perfection and even then, I'm pretty sure someone will find something to complain about.

[Mawlzy]

I'm not sure, personally.

I mean, I found the Q&A segment of the last live-letter really frustrating personally. It didn't feel like it addressed very much and there were too many replies that basically amounted to:
- Player Feedback: "this is a problem"
- YoshiP: "We will consider addressing this in the future" OR "I don't consider this to be a problem"

I know for a fact that the last Live-letter caused a few people to cancel their subscriptions (sadly, @Mawlzy being one) - whether the lackluster Q&A session contributed to that decision or not I don't know.

However, I DO know that holding Q&A sessions where the replies are corporate non-answers holds no value whatsoever.

Mostly it was the content, particularly Cosmic Explo, that pushed me over the edge.

The LL just confirmed for me that things are unlikely to get better any time soon.

[Valence]

It is absolutely to give feedback properly with the right framing. Starting a topic with the title 'The Dev Team are incompetent', with the post starting with how they have messed up massively and how this isn't what they wanted, before even giving the feedback comes across very aggressive. People, for better or for worse, tend to ignore others who try to just 'bully' others to get their point across.

Contrast that with a topic where the topic title clearly states what the topic is about and the post goes straight into why they think the dev team took a wrong turn. By being more polite and more thought out in your feedback, as well as explaining why you gave the feedback, not only does it come across far less hostile, it also gives the impression you do actually care.

Even if both forms of feedback say the same thing, you are more likely to act on the more polite feedback than the more aggressive one. That is just human nature.

You don't say?

Because while we're on human nature, rude feedback in video gaming is certainly not going to disappear just because he asked "pwetty pwease". I understand that a little reminder never hurts, but the fact that they do keep bringing this up again and again and again is frankly, yes, weird as a fixation. It sounds almost like they're trying to deflect.
But I do wish them luck in their crusade for civility, I truly do. I'm not a big fan of human nature as well.

It wasn't, it was a response to Valance who was effectively saying, it doesn't matter what tone you give off whilst giving feedback, they should just deal with it.

I am not even gonna indulge. Re-read my post.

[Valence]

There are a range of factors there. They want to allow them to do other roles to avoid burnout. Sometimes this could be something as drastic as being completely reassigned to other departments like FF7R or just as simple as a different role within FF14 development or CBU3.

One thing I am sure of is that when CBU3 are specifically working on multiple projects, they still are "together" as in they can talk and oversee what eachother are doing. Some of the ones working on other projects are credited as Supervisors of FF14 or vice versa and that would be challenging if they had no contact.

Considering some of their interviews, if just going by Soken's, they seem to literally crawl under work. Not only doesn't he have any time for anything, but even the way he talked about his team suddenly being able to just play one single game once the latest patch was delivered because they couldn't before was so full of red flags to me about some serious heavy crunch. I don't know how this company can not only under deliver in terms of content, but also literally overwork their employees.

Also I have worked on multi projects a couple of times and all I'll say is that it generally feels terrible. You're being moved back and forth between multiple projects which means you get interrupted all the time into focusing over something you care for just to go work on something that was the last thing on your mind, for weeks or months, then tossed back where you were left except half of it has been picked up by other teams.

Believe when I tell you: it feels like a gigantic waste of time, it's unproductive, and it sucks.

[Jeeqbit]

going by Soken's, they seem to literally crawl under work. Not only doesn't he have any time for anything

I can understand that about Soken since he was the one person that had to make music for multiple games and felt overworked. Due to his fame, it would be hard to imagine getting someone else to do it, although he was certainly training people to do his quality of work in Shadowbringers, because he talked about how they made Eden's second tier themes, and that was before we knew what he was actually going through at that time.

the way he talked about his team suddenly being able to just play one single game once the latest patch was delivered because they couldn't before was so full of red flags to me about some serious heavy crunch.

I guess they could split work enough to not be busy, but sometimes there is something about one person just doing a task with a consistent focus and vision. At least that can consume a lot of time for me if I get caught up in making something, in addition to just eating and sleeping.

You're being moved back and forth between multiple projects which means you get interrupted all the time into focusing over something you care for just to go work on something that was the last thing on your mind, for weeks or months, then tossed back where you were left except half of it has been picked up by other teams.

That would of course not be fun. Hopefully they do it because they want to. They do have a column on their applications to say if you want to work only on a specific game, and have the option to be reassigned if you're burned out. That said, if they have a project and none of their employees care for it, they might have no choice but to force some of them to work on it ie. destined to fail mobile games.

[Valence]

We're talking about a job, not a hobby, Jeeq. If your job is literally eating up all your time so that you can't even play a single video game on the side for months, that's called crunching.

[MatchaokaCha]

It's already a trash fire at this point. They had the audacity to drop that hot sack of crap called Occult Crescent, while attempting to assuage outrage over, what is clearly, downgraded content by FINALLY giving Hroths and Vieras some hats. They're mocking your intelligence at this point with the recent CS marketing ploy they know some suckers are going to be conned into buying. SE no longer respects your intelligence, so why the hell should you respect their business? Don't wait and hope they'll do anything in 8.0. They clearly don't respect their customers at this point.

[HyperiusUltima]

Looks like they aren’t delaying on the Forked Tower fix. This is a step in the right direction, but they’ve got a long road ahead of them if they want to regain our trust.

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

Looks like they aren’t delaying on the Forked Tower fix. This is a step in the right direction, but they’ve got a long road ahead of them if they want to regain our trust.

Can't wait for them to take 3 steps to the left direction in near future, someway, somehow.