OP's got a point.
A lot of us have seen this before, seen what happens when a developer starts focusing on one group of players.
A lot of gamers have this unhealthy hero-worship of game devs, and will do anything to get the devs to notice Them. This often involves pumping out as much content as possible on Youtube, and setting up a false sense of "community interaction" by inviting other, non-affiliated players to their videos to make it look like They are a major and central part of the player base.
Devs see this, and jump right on it, as it free's Them from having to do or pay for any real PR or advertising Themselves.
And when this happens, the devs usually stop listening to their audience, and just listen to the one group in question. Because it's easier.
Eventually, this small group will convince the devs that
They represent the thoughts and feelings of
all the audience, and that the devs need only come to Them for feedback on the game itself.
And then the only feedback that reaches the devs, is just the preference of that one, small, group of shills.
Now the only way to get feedback to the devs, is through the shills, and if You're not licking the shill's boots, or if the shill just doesn't personally agree with Your point of view, then Your feedback either doesn't make it to the devs, or is hand-waved away by the devs,
because said feedback didn't come through the shill, and as such is considered unimportant.
And I guarantee You those shills are profiting by it. Now players may feel compelled to play on
Their server, or post on
Their forums, or contact
Them with balance opinions. They become middle men. Very opinionated middle men.
I'm speaking for myself here.
I'm rarely going to sift through the entire community (I'm busy, it's just the truth)
This is where it always starts.
Guess what Duke? You don't have to "sift through the entire community", the entire community is rather small. just keep an eye on Your forums, listen to Your moderation staff if any topics appear to be trending, and remember that
all player should be listened to, not just the ones who crap up the youtube search results with daily "content". Can't do it Yourself? Then don't. Hire more staff, or at least put a heavy emphasis on interaction only at Your official forum.
Think about it, players like this go above and beyond the normal habits of normal players, You already acknowledged this. Which means They are an exception,
not the rule. You
never base Your work on the exception.
And no, They
do not represent the player base as a whole.
And really, why should We the players have to dedicate ourselves to Your
product like a bunch of cultists, just to get You to listen to us?
We're players / customers, Your supposed to be listening to us, to keep Your product from failing.
Or You can not listen to
any player feedback. It is
Your game, right? Just do Your own thang, mang.
No developer should use fan generated content as official advertising, outreach, or as a news outlet, it creates bias.
Look, I'm a Mechwarrior junkie, which means I was stupid enough to fall for PGI's lies and support Mechwarrior : Online. Now, PGI may suck balls, but the one thing pretty much all mechwarrior's agree on is that some of the worst damage happened at the hands of that game's shill: The "No Guts, No Galaxy" team.
They crapped out videos constantly, got the favor (and eventually and covertly the payroll) of the devs, because They were a massive and constant source of cheap advertising, and eventually the devs refused to listen to anyone else
but NGNG.
Official contests, polls, balance changes, Etc, started getting filtered through NGNG and Their own agenda.
Now, if You want Your voice heard You have to suck NGNG's various naughty bits
dry before anyone will pay attention.
So yeah, OP's got a point. The devs already hang out on Mushroom Fleet doing play alongs and QnA's, MF's doing the trailer with MF ships, We usually have to sit through MF videos for offical info on weapon and system changes, and then there's threads where Tomino will come into and dump all over
the majority's opinion, just because it's not
His opinion.
