@johnmiceter Are they in touch? No, not at all. The only place they interact is on Reddit or Twitter, and even then it's scarce. On Reddit they'll infrequently reply to bugs and fanart, and Twitter it's pretty much the same. On their AMAs they'll constantly not have the right people involved to answer questions, and even then the AMAs are seasonal (once every four-ish months) the "devstream" is just them re-reading the patchnotes aloud with meaningless drivel added into the mix, like what the developers were thinking when they tried to do X.
Balance wise? Still a no. After 7 seasons they're still trying to balance Wraith's tiny hitbox and animations, and instead of just reworking it (which the reason why they said they didn't is because "it's a lot of work uwu") they messed with her abilities for seasons, and then made her animations a little taller and removed her Naruto run, then made her 5% bigger. Despite the incessant complaints of Wraith mains (which mean next to nothing, they play Wraith) she's still pretty much still the smallest target in the game by a wide (haha) margin. It hasn't done much, if anything, just like the "Low Profile" "nerf", so if anyone is feeling anything, it's quite literally a nocebo.
Pathfinder was nerfed into the ground because they, "muddied combat legibility" because their grapple was on a 15 second cooldown. Apparently the single target mobility allowed them too much power so they nerfed it heavily. They removed a portion of uniqueness from their kit and gave it to other Legends (beacons), then they gave them a janky "CD based on distance" tweak to grapple, but it doesn't work properly so it'll just slap you with a 20 second cooldown while you're sliding but it'll keep refreshing to 20 seconds for however long you're sliding, effectively increasing grapple CD to 20-30 seconds. But then they release Horizon, with a smaller hitbox than Pathfinder, who has the ability to elevate entire teams quietly up to high ground for a 20 second flat cooldown, offering those who are inside the tactical itself time to heal despite its lack of cover. The elevation + air strafing makes anyone ground level really hard pressed to knock targets within the lift, and I've seen multiple Horizons win fights by popping batteries within the lift while air-strafing, dropping down and killing off whoever was shooting at them.
Weapon balance? While they have done some good, overall? It's pretty much still a no. Just look at the Havoc and energy weapons in general. LSTAR has basically been a cult weapon, with only the most devoted using the thing, same with the Havoc, while everyone rushes for a Volt. Havoc is a far cry away from the accurate energy weapon that S1 / 2 players loved, now that it's been nerfed to shake more than a cheap stripper. Then the LSTAR has...never been good enough to warrant using over say a, Devotion or Spitfire, the only other LMG weapons. The Prowler SMG is a fan favorite, with stellar performance both burst fire, and full-auto. Full-auto out DPSing the R99, a reward for sticking with it until you found the Select-fire hop-up, which was pretty rare. Then they nerfed it, because...? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The most notable example of them not understanding weapon balance, is back in S3 when they increased the projectile size of the PK and EVA. It was supposed to make the EVA more viable, so then they gave the same buff to the Peacekeeper, the only shotgun used for 3 seasons basically. An entire month went by, and the PK basically beat out every weapon at nearly every range, and the first "nerf" that they did instead of reverting the projectile size was, drumroll please, making it rechamber a round .1 seconds slower, and nerfed its headshot multiplier.
Crafting? Don't even get me started on that mess. Their "justification" for putting it in was, "We want people to do the opposite of core-gameplay. We want to try and reward people for walking around and pressing E on crap, instead of killing people in our fast-paced PvP Battle Royale game." You'll be hard pressed to find anyone skilled interact routinely with crafting when purple backpack isn't on rotation. It's a system built on desperation rather than being useful, and it shows in implementation and lack of versatility.
SBMM, now here's a popular one. A significant majority loathe SBMM. Supposedly it's designed to match you with and against similarly skilled players to create an engaging match that's challenging but fun. Except it prioritizes creating a match, rather than matching you with similarly skilled players. I have quite literally recorded 72 games now where a significant majority of those games are lost because my teammates are simply outclassed by the enemy. SBMM is also supposed to prevent new players from getting stomped on by high skill players, like top 500 Predators. But it also fails at doing that, because again, it prioritizes making a match rather than matching you with similarly skilled players, which is why when you're on the upper half of the SBMM spectrum, it'll frequently match you with low level newbies against top 500 players. My second to last game was a level 14 versus multiple 3 time Predators, at least 5 Diamond players, and 2 or 3 Masters players. But Respawn stands behind it because...? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Lack of solos is another reason they're just out of touch with their player-base. You'll frequently hear people parrot the, "Solos just wouldn't work! It's not Apex!" It won't work, because Respawn doesn't want to make it work. That's literally it. People have suggested ways to make solos work over and over, and it just falls on deaf ears because Respawn's more interested in "new player retention", which is just being hypocritical since it seems like being crammed into Predator lobbies at level 14 would also hurt new player retention more. Somehow a shoddy matchmaker that frequently throws newbies into a meatgrinder is fine, but solos aren't.
I could go on and on, but I think I've made my point. They're not listening, especially not here. They don't care about player feedback, and will continue to do what they want as long as it doesn't result in severe backlash like the S7 BP changes did. I've been around since Week 1 of Apex, and seeing how little this game has improved, and seeing how it's just been watered down constantly to attract a casual fan-base rather than a massively dedicated one, is sad to see. Apex is flash over substance, just like cotton candy. Like cotton candy, people who are looking for a refined gameplay experience to sink their teeth into, rather than a casual "play for 30 minutes then get off", are most likely sorely disappointed.
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