Why is communication Users <=> Developers seemingly so difficult (and what to do about it)

[nuu1212]

This thread is an attempt to help establish a better communication line between users and developers.
I have no idea how to do it, so your help is needed.

I have some insider knowledge, since I used to work for a company with similar product.
It was on a much smaller scale, though. About 5 developers, 100k users.

Still, nothing was done about user requests or complaints, except for the special case where some user somehow knew or came into contact with one of 3-4 special users who had direct contacts (phone, email) to the devs...
We were always busy with our own problems, updates, new content etc.

How difficult can it be for a large company to establish a contact person who's sole responsibility is to improve the product from a users perspective.
90% of the manpower is probably required for creating new tracks/cars, which is quite important,
but using 1% of manpower to care about the users would make a HUGE difference.

 

[simsimsheree]

The issue lies squarely at the feet of the developers. No shortage of user feedback is available on user forums, you could task an intern with a day's work and easily compile the top 5 issues users regularly gripe about. If that intern played the game, they'd probably be reasonably qualified to weight the results.

In truth, racing games' main gripes seem to remain the same. And the lack of response to them remains the same.

But until the player base abandon the product for another game that addresses the gripes without introducing even worse gripes, where's the incentive? To my mind, games (especially long running franchises like GT) have some of the most complacent, most easily satisfied customer bases in business. Once you call yourself a fan, it seems you have to turn off your critical faculties, and refuse to try other alternatives.

GT Sport was the first PS4 game I bought, having been a diehard GT5/6 player, but once I had overcome my dismay at the lack of content and the loss of weather and time, not to mention how bad the penalty detection in Sport Mode was, I decided the alternatives needed a try. Glad I did!

I keep coming back to GTS every time there's an update that addresses things like tire models or penalty detection and enforcement, but so far, nothing satisfies like GT5/6 did. But at least on PC2 I get a great track lists and plenty of cars I want to drive (no VGT BS!), and weather and time. If not a great online (but scarily fast AI!)...

I think the devs of all these games really don't give a 🤬 until the numbers go down to the point that their jobs are in jeopardy... It's up to us to make sure that happens!