I’m not sure if FatShark has ever thought about it or had anyone suggest it to them but I feel like a lot of the current issues with balance and things like the store or Melk’s could have been avoided with a tighter feedback loop from players, especially one’s with trust in the community and deep knowledge of the game. The example I know of is HiRez and the Olympians (or whatever the term is), a group of community members and players that meet with a HiRez rep like once a month or something to talk about the biggest concerns in the community and give feedback on the state of the game. It gives players the feeling that they have representation beyond yelling into the void of discord or the forums and gives the company a chance to engage with the community more deeply and apply / address player feedback more effectively.
We have community managers that do that but dont get listened to.
Right, but they’re also employees of FatShark directly (as far as I know) and while they’re the community facing members of the company, it’s not quite the same as having actual community representation directly I guess.
Edit: I also think there’s a lot of value in being able to have community suggestions and grievances discussed rather than just passed along. If nothing else it makes people feel heard when someone comes back and says ‘Hey I talked to the devs about X and here’s why they made that decision or why it can’t be fixed or they said they’re working on it etc.’
I’ve seen that lead to some pretty awful development directions for games.
There is no interest from FatShark to interact with the community. Although there was once, last year, the declaration of intent on the part of FatShark to work on it, but that has not even held 3 months. The community survey that was started in this period was not even made public to my knowledge (despite announced efforts by Aqshy). Communication on the part of FatShark is unfortunately only through PCGamer magazine, who have been working with them for quite some time… It’s just the easiest way to “take a stand” without having to answer critical or maybe sensitive questions… In the end, FatShark is a company that cares about numbers and not about making it as right as possible for the community. The whole “Shitstorm” regarding the store could have otherwise been avoided after 5 minutes of thinking.