For the negative feedback in general in the forums: You all have to consider, that mostly the high developed players write in the forum (in the beta forum especially). This of course gives a perspective of the most active users, but not the majority of players. I don't want to say, that your feedback in the forum does not matter, but what I want to tell is, that this is not the only source of feedback.
Have you ever thought that the most feedback comes from guildleaders ?? So i represent about 200 active players as a feedback.
I'm sure that others here also are leaders and representing not only their oppinion but speak for their guild to.
So i think that the feedback given is pretty what the majority of players think.
Other source of feedback is probably the same as with the first attempt pvp-arena, massive negative feedback here, other sources (never told us wich cause that was a big secret again) were very possitive we heard here, they moved as test on the EN-server because we were not representive enough and guess what after 2 days more then 30 negative pages so they quickly removed it again.
With respect to the feedback from developed players - that should have more weight and be more important than simply random players that are not experienced with the game. Casual or new players are least affected by these types of changes because they do not utilize most of these features. They might even "like" the changes without even noticing the effects on their gameplay. Simple cosmetic changes are often enough to dazzle casual players thatdo not play the game in a competitive way.
Not to say that their feedback isn't important, useful, valuable, etc. More to say that oftentimes they don't even understand the differences they are giving feedback on in the first place. They have no frame of reference to understand the impact. For example, those types of players might give positive feedback about a new map because it looks nice and yet, they have never played in a gbg league where there's ever been a single race and/or they've never seen every single sector on a map taken. Frankly, who cares what that person thinks about the new gbg map? Their opinion has literally no value with respect to the functionality or playability of said new map. that's just one simple example.
As jovada said, many of the people responding here represent far more than just ourselves. Guild leaders speak with their guildmates, with other guild leaders, and the members of those other guilds. Players like mooingcat or me have large audiences of players that speak with us in channels outside of Forge and give feedback about their experience with the game. That's not to say that our individual opinions matter more than others, they don't, but we have a much wider perspective of general players sentiment than any random casual player.
Furthermore, feedback from "other sources" is a bit dubious. I can only think of 1 time that I've been asked to provide feedback about something ingame. it was a survey about how i liked an event and whether i thought the prizes and quests are good/balanced etc. I've never had any requests for feedback with respect to any other feature of the game, nor has anyone else that i know personally. And i know a lot of players.... So I'm at a total loss as to where this other feedback is coming from.
If the other source is simply collected user data - remember that all data has to be looked and and understood within a context. Making GBG a 24/7 game feature might have triggered players to get on and play more frequently and for longer amounts of time. But it also could lead to burnout and many players quitting. Ramping up playtime doesn't necessarily mean greater game enjoyment. Right before I retired from regular play, I was playing the most i have ever played. Point being that simple usage data doesn't tell the whole story without asking players how the feel about things. #justsayin
The concerns raised by a Vet is far less likely to be solvable by just changing tactics when playing. Whereas when talking to a new player I can 80% of the time solve the issue by simply explaining game mechanics to them.
Juber, you said it yourself in one of your posts: there’s a underlying fundamental issue. New players aren’t going to be able to give you a underlying fundamental issue unless they‘re particularly perceptive in picking up on issues immediately (even more so given you’re not observing the player in real time, in real life to see their thought patterns as they work things out). That’s something the person receiving feedback would also need to be able to discern: how perceptive is the user giving feedback on the problem? What’s their level of understanding of the problem?
Here’s the thing with feedback from less developed players. The vast majority of new player feedback, it’s going to be surface level stuff. For the vast majority of
new players, your biggest takeaway is going to be ease of use and what needs better clarification. The root cause of their frustrations and feedback is more often than not from a lack of understanding how the mechanics work, what options are available and even how to find a mechanic to use it. If you want a deeper level feedback from a new player you’d need to have a conversation with them to dig into the problem to find out whether it’s a mechanics issue or a lack of experience issue
If the game had a solid learning platform (integrated into the game itself), then your new players would have a much better transition into the game and you’d have much better quality of feedback (from new players) as then they’d be able to provide a better informed opinion. As an experienced player I mostly ignore the Splash Screen “info” popups because they rarely if ever offer meaningful info….. When I do read them usually it doesn’t contain what I’m looking for
When talking to new players a very common complaint I hear is lack of info available in the game on how the game mechanics work.
Whereas if you get experience from a vet player you know they likely already understand the game and the issues raised aren’t just surface level, they’re much deeper.
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In regards to Guild Battlegrounds, if the problems Inno is trying to solve is from the top tier(s) of the game then it’s the experienced players that will be able to give relevant feedback
if Inno is looking to solve a Guild Battlegrounds issue in regards to entrypoint then you’ll need to talk to newer players to see what their issues are and how to ease them into it better
But here’s the biggest issue of all, if there’s specific problems to specific leagues then Inno needs to create different rules for different leagues. If it’s the same root problem in every league then Inno needs to address the fundamental underlying problem, not window dress it
A generic solution one-size-fits-all-leagues is useless if there’s a issue that only applies to some leagues
Case in point:
Indeed, from copper to low-platinum, the systems work just fine - largely because guilds don't have enough power to dominate an entire map to the exclusion of other guilds.
From high platinum to diamond there's issues. Some innate (that there's so many guilds at 1000-diamond creating a complete lack of parity), others player-created but still up to designers to discourage (that guilds actively try to lose to not reach 1000 in the first place thus promoting guilds that belong even-less to 1000 instead).
It is however not a small number of guilds this impacts - roughly the most active quarter of guilds (=150ish guilds per world) - which likely includes the majority of big spenders..
Removing or changing the % Siege Camps exclusively to the Diamond League would be one step towards solving that issue. Heck, even just limiting every sector in Diamond League to 1 building slot max would reduce camps effectiveness