Well if you have 100 requests and only 2 are actually fulfilled... I would not say that they listen (numbers are hyperbolic).
That is more like random chance that they wanted to do it anyways.
Its more like 1000s and 1000s of requests (just read the Pimp Dreams forum) many of which are completely contradictory to each other and many others beyond the scope of the game and others still just not technically possible (although the requesters often don't understand that because they think programming what they want is probably simple...). The devs have fulfilled way more than just the two that you mentioned. Its actually hard to take you seriously when you say that the only two items you can think of that the devs did in response to player feedback was the bear model and the lava monster model.
Listening is nice, but I feel like (personal opinion) they do not actually take it into consideration... or at least not for long.
Which means listening becomes pointless, because the result is not changed. I can claim a wall is listening to you, but you wouldn't try to convince it of anything.
I don't think they are OBLIGATED to. But I do think that pushing your vision against the paying supporters is not ideal.
And they have done that time and time again.
How long are they supposed to consider something? What it comes down to is that if they took a year, three years, or even ten years to consider but then decided not to agree with what you want you would still feel they didn't consider long enough. The fact is that you feel that your ideas and your desires for what the game should be are the gospel and anyone who disagrees must not have considered what you said. There is no defense against that kind of hubris. Any time the developers ever do something contrary to what you want the reason will always be that they didn't listen or if they did they didn't consider or if they did then they bad developers for making the wrong choice.
As to pushing their vision against the paying supporters? They are not. They posted their vision for all to see and the supporters paid them to push that vision. They still are pushing that vision and fulfilling all of their promised features and goals and then some. Just because some customers came along during A16 and fell in love with the mechanics of that version and then were disappointed when the developers chose a different mechanic to fulfill the same vision, that doesn't mean that they are pushing against their paying supporters. There are probably many customers who bought the game without ever checking to see what the vision was that they were supporting. That ignorance on their part doesn't mean that the $10 they paid during a Steam sale gives them the entitlement to push a different agenda or dictate what the game should be.
TFP has been open about their vision for the game. Some of you thought that LBD was the vision and the game but you were mistaken. It was simply one way to accomplish their vision of player progression and they chose a different way to do that. When those community members gave their feedback that they were against it, TFP chose not to agree. They listened, considered, and made their choice-- and now the game is more popular than it ever was in A16.
A17 was just the most major one, because it basicially changed the genre, was released WAY too early to be sold in the wintersales and made modding a lot harder to do. It was an all in one FU to the community.
A17 did not change the genre. The game's genre has always been what it still is. The genre descriptor on the Steam store page has remained the same throughout its development and there is no need of a change to its wording because there has been no change to the genre. It has been and will always be an open world zombie survival game with elements of tower defense and roleplaying. It is Minecraft meets Fallout meets The Walking Dead. That was the elevator pitch for the game back in the beginning and I see nothing 8 years later to change that.
That whole bit about A17 being released to coincide with the Winter Sale is just a bunch of hooey. A17 released to experimental on November 19 more than a month before the winter sales after being in development for over a year and a half. There was nothing rushed about it. Alpha 17 went from experimental to stable in little over a month. Alpha 18 went from experimental to stable in a little less than a month. Alpha 19 went from experimental to stable in about a month and a half. There was nothing out of the ordinary about A17's release schedule.
A17 was the beginning of xpath and modlets which hugely simplified and streamlined modding. One dev from the TFP team in particular worked together with modders to make that happen. Maybe you mean something different about the difficulty of modding but you'll have to explain further than just the one liner you threw out there which by any measure is just a flat out inaccuracy when you consider how modding blossomed thanks to changes that came with A17. Heck....even I made a pretty nifty modlet pack because xpath made it manageable and accessible to someone like me who had never modded before.
There is no doubt that a lot of people were unhappy with the changes that A17 brought. Those people were very loud and persistent in voicing their desire for TFP to abandon what they'd changed and go back to the way things were. TFP listened but did not agree with doing that. I think you are letting your disappointment in the A16/A17 changeover and TFP's insistence on sticking to their changes color your view. I feel for you. I wish you weren't so disenchanted and disappointed. But I also don't think your experience defines the reality of how they interact and listen to the community in many cases and I certainly can't stand by as you attempt to rewrite history with some blatant inaccuracies.
I would still appreciate it if they gave in once or twice.
lol...I have lost count of the number of threads and posts by angry players who are angry precisely because they believe that TFP gave in to the demands of other players. I do know it was way more than once or twice. I guess what you mean is that you wish they gave in to YOU once or twice. Maybe what you want just isn't in the cards for this game-- or at least the vanilla version. But TFP has most certainly been listening to feedback and implementing it as it pleases them.
