Is our feedback worthless in the eyes of the devs?

[Arcalias-2773]

Hello everyone !

I’m making this thread to point out a strange reaction coming from the devs (or at least the forum managers) recently so this thread is mainly addressed to them, but is also here to explain to forum users what’s going on.

I won’t make you wait any longer so here we go.

You probably know that, hiden in the forum’s abyss, a small (actually not small at all) thread (the legend says it is the oldest thread of all) mostly filled with Mercy feedback still continues to grow.
The thread was initially created by Blizzard in order to regroup feedback about Mercy’s rework, and has been divided over time into 8 (if not 9, I stopped counting) smaller threads, and they totalize 60,000+ (maybe even more) posts.
Among all these posts there are excellent suggestions about Mercy. Very carefully thought out and very well written ideas, sometimes never-ending but always extremely valuable (you probably know who I am talking about ).

At the beginning, people were told by the devs themselves that the threads were being read daily. But now, after months during which the devs refused to even acknowledge Mercy players’ main concerns, it is clear that it was only a smokescreen.
Contrary to what has been said, this thread is not used for feedback. It serves no purpose other than to be a quarantine zone for Mercy players. Countless topics from balance suggestions to “nerf Mercy period” have been thrown in it.
This so called “feedback megathread” is nothing more than a trash bin, a vacuum for Mercy ideas, a prison, a black hole, or whatever you want to call it. At least it’s how it is used by the devs.

Since many people are still upset about the rework, the only solution for us to voice our opinions is to create topics outside of this M.E.G.A.V.O.I.D.^TM (Mercy Egregious & Gigantic Area for ideas to be Vanished & Opinions Ignored Definively).

But now we reached a further stage. Topics are no longer merged into this thread, but instead they mysteriously get 404’ed.
But now it is going even further. People get suspended for posting this threads. (btw I hope you’ll be back soon (they will recognize themself))

Does that mean devs find our feedback worthless ? Or did they gave up and start censuring people who spend time giving feedback ?

I want to conclude with something Jeff said in the developer update introducing the rework:

@Jeff Kaplan

We know that she is a character that’s played almost second-to-none, so we think we’re going to get a ton of feedback from you. And we’re really eager to hear… we want to hear what the Mercy players have to say and we want to hear what people who have played on the receiving end of that team-wide resurrect feel and how they feel about Valkyrie. How do you feel like the balance is?

Developer Update | Hero Balance Updates | Overwatch

Sincerely,
~ Arcalias

[OhEmGee-2979]

If true, that’s appalling behaviour.

[Cleopatra-21937]

Seems like it. They decided on their direction, and if your feedback doesn’t support their choice, then too bad for you.

Though first signs of it were seen long time ago: positive threads avoided being sent into megathread void.

[Krotoan-1841]

or… they said she was good and weren’t planning any new changes in the near future and people continued to post "but 1.0… " and "IF YOU JUST REVERT… "
… there’s really only so nice they can be before just deleting the spam.

I get y’all want this or that and mercy is in a spot you don’t like. But the devs said she was where they wanted her to be for now and I think they’re done with being nice about it.

[Fruitslayer-21286]

No, i don’t think it’s ‘worthless’ to them.

They just don’t react very well to harsh (and sometimes abrasive) criticism. That has been the case since the first summer games when you couldn’t buy event items with credits and people were quite upset.

[NObackfill-1162]

Jeff also said Deflect was fine before.

[Krotoan-1841]

The backlash to deflects nerf has died down. I have seen maybe 1 or two threads a week on that. Mercy however continues to have 10-20 threads created daily

[NObackfill-1162]

The point is: Jeff words are not final. And he can be also wrong in his statements. It’s a human, after all.

[Brawl-2310]

@Krotoan-1841

or… they said she was good and weren’t planning any new changes in the near future and people continued to post "but 1.0… " and "IF YOU JUST REVERT… "

… there’s really only so nice they can be before just deleting the spam.

I get y’all want this or that and mercy is in a spot you don’t like. But the devs said she was where they wanted her to be for now and I think they’re done with being nice about it.

But that’s no reason to 404 constructive Posts and to suspend the poster.
Also the post was not about “give me mass res”, it was detailed explanation.

[anon91024191]

Honestly the thread didn’t need this much because of how blatantly clear it is that our feedback means nothing. We’re just twiddling our thumbs.

Sym Mains: Hey can our team see our ults through walls?

Dev team: Did you say remove her shield gen, move tp to an ability, and give her an ult you can’t possibly miss? On it.

[Krotoan-1841]

This is true. However the statement he made still stands as the last words said, and if it’s not at least acknowledged I can see why the spam is just starting to be deleted. It rarely is anything new.

[Krotoan-1841]

If all they see all day is revert/rework mercy threads I can see anything “new” getting lost in the shuffle. Not that that’s GOOD. Just understandable.

[Brawl-2310]

By the way.
This is not about the “She is unfun and i want Mass Res back” thing.

They started to censore very constructive posts which debunk all the problems of her kit, without being offensive, political or anything.

[Krotoan-1841]

I’ve read some of those threads and yes, they are occasionally new ideas or takes on the subject, however I can see them getting lumped in with the rest.

[NObackfill-1162]

“Rarely anything new.”
Devs can only blame thenselves for it.
When you say something and is blatantly ignored about it, you repeat yourself. Also, anything new is prematurely labeled as “spam” in consequence.

[Brawl-2310]

@Krotoan-1841

If all they see all day is revert/rework mercy threads I can see anything “new” getting lost in the shuffle. Not that that’s GOOD. Just understandable.

So you think that that stuff can stay or is just moved, but the threads which are highly detailed and debunk a lot of problems have to be 404ed?

[Krotoan-1841]

I think they originally had the intent of moving all relevant mercy threads to the one megathread and yes, reading it. But now since there’s just a firehose of mercy this and mercy that they’ve decided just to nix it all until they’re ready to do some work on it. Once again, I don’t APPROVE of their method but I can understand it.

[Brawl-2310]

I see your point. But as i said, they just completely delete, so that no one can read it anymore, ONLY the detailed stuff.
Everything that endangers the “successful state of the rework” gets entirely removed.
This is not understandable in my opinion and is equal to censorship.

[Krotoan-1841]

It is their forum to censor and foolish to think that posting anything here where they have complete control would do anything but get deleted. This is still THEIR forum after all. While I am fine with where mercy is right now and feel there are other characters that deserve attention far more I still sympathize that those peoples beloved character just isn’t what they wanted and they long for the days that she was “fun” for them. Just don’t expect a “revolution” to happen in the space they control entirely.

It’s also a little silly to think the “censorship” is anything other than a lazy handwave. I don’t think it’s them not caring, but it may be them running out of their “polite customer service voice” .

I can say that leaving mercy where she is isn’t really hurting the game, she still gets played a LOT and yet does not imbalance gameplay even when one side doesn’t pick her.

Maybe if the torrent of mercy chaff was to lessen they wouldn’t be as quick on the trigger?

who knows?

all in all I’m a little sick of having to pick through so much mercy gunk as well as having "BUT WHAT ABOUT MERCY… " interjections in other threads, so I may be biased here.

[Djangor-2589]

This forum is a very small percentage of the playerbase. And most of the time just an easily outraged vocal minority.