Asheras wrote on Jun 20
th, 2013 at 3:56pm:
It's early but there seems to be more communication and more looking for feedback with the players. I like what I am seeing from them in regard to communication and feedback, even if some of the ideas (Epic TR loss of XP, I'm looking at you) are not up to par.
The problem is that we have seen Turbine make sporadic communication efforts in the past, but not seen sustained effort. Is this an "oh shit we are losing our player base" knee jerk reaction that will disappear if they can reverse the current trend or is it a change at an organizational/process level that will be ongoing? That part remains to be seen.
That
quest XP message from PurpleFooz is the type of communication I've been wanting to see for a long time. They could save themselves so much doOOOooOOOoom and ill-will just by listening more, and throwing out early plans to let people kick the tires. Knowing the rationale is huge - if I don't like a change, but can understand why it was done and what alternatives were considered, I can live with it more easily.
All changes in the game need a message like that. Major changes (like the TWF nerf or AC) might need one every week for a month or two, to allow for response and evolution of the change. I'm tired of building characters, gearing them, and really getting to enjoy how they play just before the nerfbat hits, or there is a major gameplay change because some dev wants his work to replace whatever was built by the previous guy (enhancements, crafting, Epic TR, level cap increases, etc).
They have to really change their mindset to get the devs and community team to stop fearing / despising the playerbase so much. The devs also need to avoid getting so wedded to their ideas that they are immutable by the time players see them.
They need to focus on making the game fun for a change. If they put half the effort into fun that they do on squeezing more money out of players, this game would kick ass.