I wouldn't say it's about trust, per se.whatsittoya wrote: ↑Fri Apr 26, 2019 4:14 pmI've tried to raise this concern before, but it usually results in 'whoa don't you trust the devs?'The Whistler wrote: ↑Thu Apr 25, 2019 8:56 pm I believe the community should be consulted with polls when it comes to cosmetic updates. I know I was really unhappy with the elf skeleton change and had to get mine bumped down a size or two in order for him to not look like a toothpick in a chain shirt.
It's probably more often a case of impatience. Polls take time -- and often someone has an idea and is ready to work on it right away. We can certainly try to gather more player opinion as a general rule (that's partly what the "Coming Soon" forum was made for, after all) -- and that's something I'll almost always encourage. But it's not always easy for the devs to remember to do so when they're excited about something they're working on. Though it's also not always a case of forgetting: The obvious downside of opening a poll on something you want to develop or do is someone telling you "no" and now the wind's gone out of your sails. It requires some discipline (and an actual willingness to not work on, or even stop work on, the project if the poll says no) for someone to put their project out there before it's ready. Moreover, our community (even our staff) is generally prone to kneejerk reactions against proposed changes (human nature), and is not always prone to pulling punches when offering critique (uh ... Internet nature?).
Sometimes it's better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission, as it were.
It's also true, though, that some decisions are going to be made without consultation, one way or another. And it's not always going to be a case of wanting to work on it right away/forgetting to take, or being reluctant about taking, the public pulse. Sometimes it really is just a case of "designer's call." Which, I guess, is one of the perks of volunteering hundreds of free hours to the server: You absolutely do get more of a hand in the design and the direction of the server than others do.