We are listening to all feedback and we've even taken some suggestions and implemented it in the game. An example of this would be the change to the Baal/Cerb finale because the biggest players would get the last hit every time. Another example is changing Pirates so that players get half the rewards on sailing and half on completion. We do listen, and we've proven it time and again.
That said, its important to note a couple things:
- While we listen to feedback and definitely take it into account, we are not putting players as our development lead. Our developers have some very awesome ideas about where this game is heading and that means doing things players haven't asked for and maybe haven't even thought of. We want player feedback and insight on what we're doing, but that doesn't mean we'll fulfill every player.s deepest wish. That would not be any way to run a game.
- No one on the forums speaks for any other players. No one represents a group of players. Each person speaks for him or herself. Wording things as if you are a group does not get us anywhere. If your entire guild feels a certain way, then each player in the guild should post their feelings individually, so we can get a real picture of what different players are thinking. If someone doesn't want to use the forums, that is fine, there are plenty of people that disagree with that person who also aren't using the forums. The forums are just a sampling.
We're not able to give ETAs on projects. This is for 2 reasons:
First, if we give an ETA and we miss, many people will encircle the castle with pitchforks and torches, calling for our heads. We've seen it before and we don't want to make players angry when we could avoid it.
Second (and more importantly), we use the Agile Method of development which means that based on judgment calls by our developer, things can be completed in a very big hurry during a Sprint. Something that might take another company weeks or months, we can do in days with a Sprint. There might be no movement on other projects while that happens, so we have to always be refreshing our priorities to make sure things don't fall through the cracks.
One way to think of the Agile method compared to traditional methods is the way Habitat for Humanity builds houses compared to traditional home builders. A normal home builder will have hundreds of employees and contractors building dozens of homes at once and each home takes weeks or months to complete. Habitat has all their volunteers for a specific project on a single job site and as a result the home goes up in days or even hours.
This is far more efficient because it means we can be more responsive, and get new features out quickly, but it also means we have to be very careful about ETAs because the development director doesn't know exactly when he'll have the people free to Sprint and might not decide to Sprint a specific feature until the resources actually become available. Being Agile means not making short-term promises on time frame, but it also means regular updates and improvements, which you've already seen with dozens of patches since the game launched just a few months ago.



