Know Your Maker?

[Lordender]

I think most of FFXI problems would be done away with had SE hired actual long time veteran players to be on the testing team, I know blizzard has a select group of veteran players testing and giving them ideas on how to make WoW better.

[Force-Attuned Krogoth]

I can't help but think of EVE when there are discussions about player/developer interactions. Maybe it's related to being a smaller company, but the employees are more involved with the product over there. Devs and GMs are a major presence on the official forums, and many of the unofficial ones. In addition, many of them have accounts in the game that they play on their own time. I remember back when I was still playing, they had an event where a foreign ambassador was visiting the game area. The Devs drew up a map of zones of control, and planned a route for the ambassador to visit each of the major factions. In addition to the four NPC nations, there were half a dozen player-owned organizations on the tour. There's always tweaking and balancing going on, according to trends, new widgets, and new skills. When something goes awry, it gets noticed and corrected.

Sometimes I wonder if the problem is more of understanding than having open ears, though. It can be easy to have someone tell you our product is unsatisfactory, and you say, "well, we wanted it to be challenging." But the complaint may not be "it's too hard" but rather "this kind of 'challenge' isn't fulfilling." I think it's getting better though. They seem to be learning how to communicate more effectively, and changes are more rapid than ever before. It'd be better if they hired more people from the playerbase, maybe we should press that point on them like locking AV and Three Kings.

[Khalil]

I think most of FFXI problems would be done away with had SE hired actual long time veteran players to be on the testing team, I know blizzard has a select group of veteran players testing and giving them ideas on how to make WoW better.

SE could learn a lot from Blizzard. I've been playing Tabula Rasa a lot lately. The Devs, GMs, even the Creator Richard Garriot, are playing the game, as well interacting with the players on boards as soon as the game came out. I'm pretty sure they'll be there for awhile. It took SE about 2-3 years to finally listen to the NA player-base, roughly 2 years to fix a major problem in Sky (Ullik), add several locations to attain abjs from Kings (Einherjar), create a STF unit to combat RMT, botters, etc.

[Nazrious]

Hmm I see what you saying about vague statements like SE FFXI sucks.
But if you go through post on several forums people have actually sat down and put effort and thought into describing what problems are and how they might be fixed.
Again SE seems to either not listen or take unreasonably long to do things about it.

[Yutuyu]

The Fan Festival spoke volumes on how SE views interacting with its player base.

If you wanted to find out in depth information about Wings of the Goddess, you had to attend or read information from those who did. The only information about Wings of the Goddess from the Fan Festival they ended up releasing to the public directly came weeks later.

They charged large entry fees and even convinced some players to work for them in exchange for being able to enter without an admission fee. And they gave an exclusive item as a reward to those who shelled out the cash.

Their attitude seems to be "we care if you have money." Granted, this is a business, so a certain degree of that is entirely understandable. But when you're creating a virtual world which can easily be considered a work of art, you'd think they'd have some measure of respect for that as well as the players who enjoy it.

They view us as subservient in every way. They don't seem to understand that as customers they serve us, and should be adjusting things to our liking, to increase our enjoyment of the game; not in a way which is consistent with their whims.

I think the biggest thing is that, some of the answers they give during interviews are downright insulting to our intelligence.

I think it all goes back to the cultural boundary thing. The game is acceptable to Japanese players, because they have different economic philosophies than we do. "The Customer is always right" is a very American viewpoint, here corporations serve us. But in Japan employees have a very real sense of pride and belonging to their employer which tends to foster a more understanding and forgiving stance towards the companies which make the products they use.

[Nazrious]

personnally I don't see an issue with having to pay to go to a fan festival so long as the price isn't to high and its in NEW YORK.
So yeah SE fails as they never have anything on the east coast.
Hell florida even would be acceptable if they had fanfest or somethign in the summer.

Its sorta sad that I can't refute anything you said. Blizz is an american based company and seems to get the "Customer is always right" thing to a degree.
SE on the otherhand seems to not rly care.
Funny thing is if you spouted off about how you would never do things with xxx race/nation that would make u a racist something which SE should care about as they are a corporation that might be in some way liable or in the least left open for some kind of law suit but they seem to care little about.
I'm not saying JP player should be forced to play with NAs / EUs that would be lol, but they also should not be able to tag JP only at the end of a search comment. Hell if they don't want to play with NAs or don't speak english etc and don't want the hassel I'm cool with that but either don't repond to english tells or hell if you respond with a simple < No Thanks > that should sufice.
ITs also not like it would be a hard thing to stop, simply toss any hoser with racist comments in their search comments into jail for a day or two.
Hey GMs would finally have something slightly fun to do.
Yes tossing some racist hoser into prison would be fun to me.

But I digress.

Whether SE wants to milk us for our money and stick it to us in every way it would only be in their best interest to allow the players to get more involved and get more players to join.