#180 - July 31, 2015, 2 a.m.
07/30/2015 05:47 PMPosted by
Nanooka 07/30/2015 05:35 PMPosted by
Crithto ...
We may not respond to many, but we certainly read them, note them down, and relay the feedback directly to developers. We've said it before; there are times where we just can't comment, or we're privy to information about upcoming changes that we've been asked not to address (we don't want to spoil all the surprises). It's part of the process and part of our job. But that doesn't mean we don't care or aren't reading your feedback. Sure, we could jump into a suggestion or feedback thread and merely post, "Thank you!", but that's often seen as antagonistic to some, and not nearly enough for others.
By all means, please keep posting suggestions and feedback. We do appreciate it, and we'll continue to relay it to the developers.
You may not be able to get say much, but a small little pop in saying you at least saw and are relaying the topics would be HUGE. When people see no responces even though we may believe you guys are listening it starts to look otherwise. The players are just as passionate of the game as you guys are and simple small acknowledgements would go a long way to have people at least know you saw the post. Especialy with the big hot topics. I really feel sorry for the pvp'ers. those poor buggers don't get any info at all.and every suggestion seems to be countered with another terrible idea.
I won't say that's a bad idea and I don't mean to come off as stubborn here. In principle I agree with you and we've done those types of acknowledging responses in the past. Sometimes, though, the acknowledgement creates a separate issue unto itself from the "we're being ignored" perception, in that people sometimes take the acknowledgement as an indication of action on our part. At first it's a pretty innocent, positive thing to show acknowledgement. But, depending on what the feedback is about, some people will ask why we haven't done anything about it 24 hours later, a week later, a month later, what have you.
It creates an almost cyclical pattern where people still feel ignored if we let the acknowledgement sit alone and linger without more input from us, except it can create even more tension 'cause we're viewed as blatantly disregarding something we previously acknowledged. Now suddenly we're viewed as willfully or stubbornly ignoring a topic we've clearly seen. The act of acknowledging is just another empty gesture at that point.
Again, I'm not saying it's never a good idea. It usually depends on the circumstances. But those are just things we have to think about and weigh before tagging something in blue. As I said earlier in the thread, the blue tends to bring a lot more attention to a topic. If we throw acknowledgements around without more meaningful input to provide as a follow-up, or without some type of clear design reaction, after a while it's going to come across as insincere, and synonymous with ignoring the issue anyway.
The field of Communications can be pretty complicated, even when you want to keep things as simple, transparent, and honest as possible. No matter what type of community is formed around something, especially online, people will dissect everything that's said, pick statements apart, reinterpret words, band together over common beliefs/opinions, drift toward whatever popular theories are going around, etc. And I don't mean any of this in a cynical or condescending way. It's just sort of how we're wired, and the internet adds a whole other element to social behavior in a community. If that makes sense... :p
