Morning/afternoon Retro,
So it was briefly chatted in the chaos of Discord, and figured discuss here. Not sure if this is a submit suggestion.
This is that "Forza test and tune" stream idea, to find a way that allows for running ideas past players while also maintaining privacy of your development process and to prevent an expectation on a hard deadline.
This type of stream or posting wouldnt be a whole, new features and what we are working on type presentation. Intead, it should be or could be considered part of the development cycle. Primarily for things that have an adjustability to them. The idea is vetted, it is well on its way to completion, so a month or a couple weeks before they go live, have the test and tune. Show just parts of the feature to present the variables. What your team thinks, vs what players think. Allows for that bit of discussion and then tweak to show the final complete package as normal.
To example, with playlists, it wouldnt be telling us about the playlist features. Instead, it would be that plan on having bonus rewards for regular play and what we feel about such and such milestones. It doesnt reveal the features, but does open for feedback.
Another one is playground games. Low activity and would like a new championship. Five rounds of play or a better way? Not really a new feature, more of just adding more to what exists. This can go for other types of championships if thinking something new.
I think it would be beneficial for both players and developers. It saves developer time by less having to adjust, rebalance or stop having said events all together. It also has opened up a large pool of ideas to make it a better experience at launch. A better launch experience means less negative posts or complaints, good for people coming for info and player satisfaction for new events. All in all it should be a win/win. It will even benefit support with all suggestions being in one forum stickie vs filtering through tickets.
But rehash, doesnt need to be the feature itself, but just presenting for discussion a concept for variables that can be adjusted during final prelaunch testing.