Developers and players have a love-hate relationship. I believe this is an issue affecting more than just Graal, but the gaming industry as a whole. What I mean by this is players can never make up their mind on what they want, yet developers strive to cater to them every time. Honestly if server managers would just have developers use their own imaginations, the servers would be a lot more interesting. Not only that but staff would be more motivated to develop things they want in-game and are interested in.

Do you guys think developers should cater to players, or continue to march to the beat of their own drum? What other problems (Please try not to bring P2W models into this) affect Graal servers' gameplay and development? Discuss!  

Posted by Infernus Lapse

Honestly if server managers would just have developers use their own imaginations, the servers would be a lot more interesting

I'm not sure Developers should be able to do what they want, whenever they want. But I do believe everyone should be a bit open minded about a Developers idea.  

I believe that developers should be making their own decisions nearly always, while caterin to players. The reason players can't make up their minds is that not all of them agree on the same things and they're not thinking ahead.  

Posted by Newton

I'm not sure Developers should be able to do what they want, whenever they want. But I do believe everyone should be a bit open minded about a Developers idea.

Why not? Do you believe in player-run MMOs? (I've seen the idea work, but it takes a large and active player community which isn't very easy to maintain all the time)

Posted by ???

I believe that developers should be making their own decisions nearly always, while caterin to players. The reason players can't make up their minds is that not all of them agree on the same things and they're not thinking ahead.

Well, I do believe that developers should be catering a little bit, but yes that's true. The issue with graalians right now is one of the reasons I'm making this thread. We're arguing amongst ourselves spurting out suggestions and demands to staff if the servers to the point where some of them are getting overwhelmed trying to cater to everyone. They need to just take certain suggestions, look into them, THEN make a change based on what you find.  

Posted by Infernus Lapse

Why not? Do you believe in player-run MMOs? (I've seen the idea work, but it takes a large and active player community which isn't very easy to maintain all the time)

I didn't mean players should be in control. I meant there should be someone monitoring the work that comes out of the Developers. We can't just have 20 Developers doing their own thing.  

Posted by Newton

I didn't mean players should be in control. I meant there should be someone monitoring the work that comes out of the Developers. We can't just have 20 Developers doing their own thing.

Oh I don't mean that, I mean developers should create things for the server based on concepts they create, not just player suggestions. You can't truly succeed if you depend on others for it.  

Posted by Infernus Lapse

Oh I don't mean that, I mean developers should create things for the server based on concepts they create, not just player suggestions. You can't truly succeed if you depend on others for it.

I honestly don't see entire staff teams taking orders from players. Sure, they do take suggestions, but most updates have barely anything to do with player input.

Technically most Graal developers are players though.  

Posted by Newton

I honestly don't see entire staff teams taking orders from players. Sure, they do take suggestions, but most updates have barely anything to do with player input.

Technically most Graal developers are players though.

It's not necessarily the updates, it's the small fixes, which still get in the way of making larger updates and developing new content.  

Posted by Infernus Lapse

It's not necessarily the updates, it's the small fixes, which still get in the way of making larger updates and developing new content.

I don't see a problem in fixing small things, as long as it's worthwhile fixing.  

Posted by Newton

I don't see a problem in fixing small things, as long as it's worthwhile fixing.

But when they're doing it constantly because player of whining about a certain item being OP or events being too hard, it is a problem. It starts to get in the way of developing new content.  

I think that developers should generally do what they think is best, however they should listen to player input to an extent. If almost all players that are asked about a topic say that they think the idea is bad then maybe it is best to forget that idea. But then if it was roughly 50/50 on if it is good or bad then do what developers think best.  

I believe developers should stick to a plan, and only take suggestions once every while. Not every time.

I remember when iPhone Era had just been released and was amazing for the first year or less it was out.
Then gradually they started adding unnecessary content and made it more complex-looking, when in reality it should've been a simple yet challenging server.

This goes for iPhone Classic too, as the iPhone servers should've kept a simple style to them. The complexity be left on PC where they belong.  

There has to be a balance. Devs that don't listen to players are going to eventually alienate themselves from the player base and thus the player count will decline. Devs that cater to every player are going to end up with a server that has no direction consisting of unneeded features that only appeal to a few players.

Player feedback can be a very valuable source of critique if filtered properly. Sometimes developers really get into their own projects and don't realize that there are other fixes that can be done elsewhere that would greatly improve player satisfaction. But, devs also need some provide some transparency with the players, like explaining how some frequently asked features can't be created due to platform limitations of lack of time.

TL;DR: Player feedback and developer interaction go hand in hand in making a server successful.  

^^^ agree  

what i found out works is get ask for feed back, get as many viewpoints as possible including your own, then try to find middle ground. If you can't find middle ground, scrap it.