Do the Devs Take All Feedback Seriously? Or Just the Stuff They Wanna Hear?

WuffyCerulei

I and many other people are pretty dang ticked about how the devs at Zenimax are hitting sustain right in the gut with Morrowind, and there's a crap ton of outcry about this. The Champion Point changes are fine, cuz that's something that can be worked around, but all the other nerfs are seriously aggrivating people. However, with all these changes, I'm only seeing them comment on stuff that seems to be more on par of what they're trying to push. So let me ask, do you, the head devs at Zenimax Online, take all this negative feedback towards all the sustain nerfs (not including CP changes) seriously? Do you all understand that forcing people to take slower and more agonizing gameplay is driving away a huge number of loyal players? From Deltia to friends who have been playing since release, they're all leaving due to poor understanding of what ESO's huge community wants, and I hope you devs understand this.

Stamden

If the Devs took all feedback into consideration, Sorcs would have been nerfed long ago. It does certainly seem like they stop listening when it is stuff they don't wanna hear.

Dragath

its a complicated subject, but since i have some experience in the field, here's how its normally going:
There is always a vision for the future of the game and in which direction it should go. Part of this vision is how you like your game to be, what has to be done to retain and acquire players and depending on which company owns you, what they expect from you (which is actually a big problem in the business nowadays).
There is basically nothing that can change that, except for really huge events like massive loses. That changes things up, like going from pay to play to free to play and such.
If you are a Dev, the game you are working on will always be your baby, and you will always have strong feelings about how it should be. You listen to Feedback, but its seldom so comprehensive and convincing that its able to change your mind on important things. Feedback, most of the time, doesnt come from the Playerbase itself. Its filtered through various other channels, like Community Managers for example.
Feedback that comes from the Playerbase is always all over the place. Some Players like the changes, others hate it. It can, and often does, swing in one direction, but its very rarely convincing enough for big changes to happen. Not only because you have your own vision about how it should be, but because the feedback you get as a dev is just from a very small percentage of all the players.

Whats important and what you should never forget:
Devs make mistakes and as a Dev, you almost never get things right on first try.

Lets take the Resource changes as an example.
ZOS wants resources to matter to a degree, that you have to worry about them. They don't want you starved all the time, but the don't want you to have infinite sustain either. The best you can do is to give feedback as clear as you can.
"I HAVE NO RESOURCES I CANT CAST EVERYTHING I WANT THIS GAME IS ***" doesnt help anyone at all.
Give examples. How and when are you starved? Which Skills seem to be problematic and why? Numbers help a lot, but how the game feels to you is important too. As a Dev, you want your Players to experience the game in a certain way and you rely on them to tell you how it feels. Not overly dramatic, but honest.
Feelings are good to stir you in a certain direction, while numbers will make it easier to balance everything around it.
As a Dev, you won't always have the same opinion as the louder part of the playerbase.
But they do care and they do listen.

TL;DR:
The Devs want sustain to matter more than it currently does. No Feedback will change this. How much more it matters, and how well it's balanced, that is the point where feedback becomes important.
Don't expect infinite resources, but don't worry about "Heavy Attacks Online" either.
There is middle ground and exactly for that reason, we have this forum to give feedback and discuss.

LiquidPony

My observation is that "the devs" take good feedback seriously. As in, well thought-out, detailed feedback that demonstrates a holistic understanding of the game and mechanics. Preferably with video, parses, comparisons between live/PTS, etc.

There's a lot of garbage to sort through on the forums. Seems like every other post on the PTS forum is from someone who hasn't even played the PTS build. Lots of low-effort whining, ALL-CAPS ULTIMATUMS, assumption s drawn from patch notes or hearsay without actually testing, etc.

But then sometimes I see posts that clearly are the culmination of hours and hours of testing, that clearly demonstrate deep knowledge of the game ... and the devs respond.

I'm sure the devs and the community managers can improve the feedback loop, but the players can too.

MaxwellC

I believe Devs take feedback seriously when there's an outcry (as one ZOS member stated they addressed sorcs curse due to the outcry) and if they like the class. ZOS clearly hated DKs for the longest time at-least Stamina variants although Magicka is currently on IV packs while us Stamina DKs are 6 feet under. If ZOS wanted some serious feedback like numbers and descriptions, I'd give it to them. I would record live and PTS and give an in-depth analysis for them showing why I feel X should be changed. I'm dead serious, if @ZOS_GinaBruno told me Rich wanted an indepth analysis about the DK class I would drop 3 to 4 hours and record or privately stream (so they can watch).

I want my class to be what it used to be which was standing it's ground and when I'm out numbered you just increase my ultimate regen. I missing standing my ground but unfortunately the ground I stand on today is a thin layer of ice.

Turelus

As others have already said they take it seriously, but you also have to remember that reading and taking seriously doesn't mean doing everything players ask for.

The sustain changes are happening, they're not going to 180 because people are upset, but they will tweak values mechanics if good sense is made.

Like how they changed the way shards and orbs give back to the highest total now. That was because we showed them flaws.

Rohamad_Ali

They listen a year later when cash flow slows down from new players and hype . Then they start making those changes asked for from last year all while secretly putting a new frustrating system into a future expansion not yet released . Then they make evil laughter under their desks with bags full of money .

Sarcasm

Banana

They tell you what your getting. End of story.