Dear, MercurySteam. I'm a pretty experienced gamer who mostly played online AAA games. I've seen a lot of instances where user feedback have diluted the core experience in games. Have alienated the core audience. Made the game less fun.
Users are not professionals, they have way less insight into inner workings of the game. Feedback could be made-up in the heat of the moment as a way to back up the poster's point of view.
Logic gets bend on forums, because forums are closed communities, they practice nurturing their points of view.
The problems could be made up, and then bandwagon-thinking could amplify them because the original post was well-written, or because people were friends of the poster, looked for excuse to dislike the game, etc.
If you want REAL feedback - use forums only to identify the problems and then look the numbers, play statistics, or ask every player who actually plays your game in the form of in-game questionnaire. And take the answers with a big grain of salt, of course.
Not every player goes to forums, even in such small closed beta format. But every player plays the game.
Trust, but verify!
Try to find a way to check if the problem actually exist, better yet, if it's even a problem at all.
In the change-log I saw this:
We’e adjusted the camera control when your character is wounded. It’s now much easier to control your character and the camera, giving you better chances of survival.
Then I've remembered the forum post that talked about it, the poster was clearly angry and was making up excuses to hate the game.
As a seasoned gamer, my thoughts on the camera controls when the player is wounded are completely different.
I think it's alright, I think it should stay the way it was and I think it is a good game design. It adds depth and challenge to the game. And it is only natural that players don't like it. They are not supposed to! It's punishment for their failure.
Don't do it, don't listen to the feedback like that. Make your game, not ours. You are professional game developers here. Inconveniences in the UI, problems with connectivity - sure, our feedback can help you with that. But you know better about your game design and balance!
