Why doesn't Zenimax create posts for us to vote on before and idea goes to PTS?

NewBlacksmurf

Is this just me or does it not seem like a decent idea?

Elsonso

People would expect Zenimax to follow the results of the poll. For as much as some believe that Zenimax just follows what people whine about, I believe that they follow user suggestions because they agree with them, not because they are popular on the forum.

Mondo

Has God asked Adam if he want Evas Milkbar bigger?

Akiainavas

It would be good to take suggestions, but on the other hand - ZeniMax is the developer of this game, not us

Aett_Thorn

In addition to what @lordrichter said above, people can be jerks, and vote on the possibly hardest route for the Devs to take, meaning that things take much longer than they need to to get fixed, cause longer-term balance issues, and other generally negative things.

Also, while the Devs do want to please the paying customers, it is, in the end, their game, and they can decide what direction to take unilaterally. Most of the time, what they do is something that they believe will be better for the game in the long run, and this is true of any Dev team.

Whether that works out in practice is generally hit-or-miss, but there is no need for them to poll us on most stuff.

Sotha_Sil

Because if they did, they would get nothing done.

Enkil

I think it's better if it comes from the grass roots.. We make our polls and suggestions for our ideas and they read them... Otherwise, when they make unpopular decisions they would get way more hell for it. The majority is not always right... LOL

Sharee

Only a tiny fraction of the game's playerbase frequents the forums, which diminishes the value of such polls.

Still, the devs do ask for player opinion from time to time. See the thread about provisioning revamp.

Enkil

In-Game Surveys would be far better at gaining a real sample.

Tabbycat

The devs do listen to us. You may not notice it until you realize they took an idea you suggested and put it in the game.

killedbyping

They actualy do
Most of those poll topics are so easy noticeable that they arent made by some random player...

Guppet

NewBlacksmurf wrote: »

Is this just me or does it not seem like a decent idea?

It's a terrible idea. The forum community is a very very small proportion of the player base and includes those most unsatisfied.

In addition the proportion if more hardcore posters is vastly higher than hardcore players as a whole.

This would only be a good idea if you wanted the game to be more hardcore.

That would be like asking only convicts what laws should be passed.

Forums can give them an indication to Investigate an idea, but never gives them anything beyond that.

The forums will have encouraged them to look at VR levels, but I can assure you the decision was not based on the forums, but on internal metrics and their internal investigations.

madangrypally

Very bad idea. Most people do not know what they really want or need, and will vote in some very stupid game destroying features.

Enkil

just look at American politics and it's very easy to see that voting is not always the best path to desirable outcomes.

rbenkepub19_ESO

This is EXACTLY the means for dumbing down the game to the most common denominator.

BRogueNZ

rbenkepub19_ESO wrote: »

This is EXACTLY the means for dumbing down the game to the most uncommon denominator.

fixed

MongooseOne

Very bad idea, asking the sheep to lead the Shepard.

Iluvrien

Votes? No. Directed discussions? I think so.

Certain things might have input solicited on them. This could run along the lines of "We were thinking of bringing in <x>, how would you do it?" or "Looking at the problems with <y>, what solutions would you suggest?".

This way they could tap into the ideas that the player-base has (especially the members of the player-base invested enough to actually visit the forums and make suggestions) without be beholden to a poll result.

...and yes, I am aware that this is what the Developer Discussions should do, but this is a good mechanic that I feel they make far too little use of.

kitsinni

Because they are developers and we are players. What sounds good to a player may not be possible or make much sense for development, especially when we don't know the long term development goals. It may sound counter intuitive but my experience is that developers that listen to the player base to much ruin their games. Players can't ever agree on what they want in a game and if the devs keep changing things based on the fotm idea of the players the game ends up ruined.

AlexDougherty

NewBlacksmurf wrote: »

Is this just me or does it not seem like a decent idea?

lordrichter wrote: »

People would expect Zenimax to follow the results of the poll. For as much as some believe that Zenimax just follows what people whine about, I believe that they follow user suggestions because they agree with them, not because they are popular on the forum.

@Lordrichter has the core of the problem.

Zenimax are better off having their own gameplan, and not sharing it with us, the more people contribute to any idea, the more the good aspects get watered down.

That's not to say Zenimax shouldn't listen to us, and modify the game when we complain. Just that they should have their own vision of where the game should be going.

KleanZlate

NewBlacksmurf wrote: »

Is this just me or does it not seem like a decent idea?

Camel is a horse designed by committee.

Surragard

Too much bureaucracy haha! We should vote on whether or not to test a feature on a test server before providing feedback that leads to additional in-house testing that might result in a feature being implemented in the full game?

Enkil

kitsinni wrote: »

Because they are developers and we are players. What sounds good to a player may not be possible or make much sense for development, especially when we don't know the long term development goals. It may sound counter intuitive but my experience is that developers that listen to the player base to much ruin their games. Players can't ever agree on what they want in a game and if the devs keep changing things based on the fotm idea of the players the game ends up ruined.

Developers are players also.... Player complaints are like background noise and any dev worth his/her salt has already learned to tune that nonsense out...

timidobserver

To avoid this in zone/guild chat.
"Quick everybody we can get XXXX nerfed/buffed/changed if you all go vote."

BBSooner

Because the biggest argument against democracy is a 5 minute conversation with the average voter. Leaving every design decision up to a vote is definitely not a scenario I want to play out.

UPrime

I'd have to agree with the posts above. Plus you can't effectively put a whole vision into a simple pole. And too many ides are way to interlocked.

There's just so many reasons why not not do this, except for some very trivial things that it's hard to list them all without having a huge wall of text.

NewBlacksmurf

Not sure anyone comprehends my post.

The developer would and is making decisions and directing ideas or what would happen. A company has a group of thinkers just like us.

The ideas they talk about in public would just move to a post. Do you all like this. Yes or no and why.

No different than our posts but in this example there would be direct responses for an explained topic.

What we have today are reaction posts missing details and directions. This wouldn't determine what they put in but it gives feedback before it's put in


No idea why this was taken as allowing the customer to run the company.

Theosis

(some have mentioned some of this above)

Honestly if they did that the forums might explode with negativity (even more so) and zone chat would be spammed with madness.

1. We would assume they would follow polls right away.
2. Much of the polls and suggestions we have show them what we want anyway
3. Many players would rage with them because they would think they need to do something over what they are doing in polls. (They should do this first.)
4. Seriously let them do their job.. Many would disagree with me but it doesn't matter. They are doing a great job despite the few hurdles they have had along the way.

Bleakraven

They're asking for opinions on the Provisioning Revamp here:
forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/119265/provisioning-revamp#latest

Spottswoode

NewBlacksmurf wrote: »

Is this just me or does it not seem like a decent idea?

It doesn't. Mainly because most of the ideas that get to the testing phase are already either decided on or are destined to be scrapped before they leave testing. Were they to poll us before they begin expanding the design phase, it would be a decent idea.

Zorrashi

Votes? For future implementation and stuff of that sort....nah, especially if its on these forums. Now if it was in game however....then very super duper slightly maybe, I don't really count voting on future ideas as part of my gaming regimen when I log on.

I think they can get a clear idea on what the gamers want based on the numbers they already have.