How to complain effectively about the new banner (and anything else related to Heroes)

[TriforceP]

Hey guys, made a similar post on Reddit, popping over here to spout the same ideas:

IS probably doesn't read SerenesForest. I doubt they read Reddit either. Complaining on internet forums is doing nothing. If even half the complainers were to just go to their feedback boxes and make requests maybe IS would be more willing to listen. But there are so many Slacktivists out there hating without giving actual feedback that they'll read in an official channel that aren't doing that. So I say you guys should too. Request your favorite characters. Request your favorite games. Even if you want new non-alt Fates characters, that's great! Ask for that. Tell your friends to do the same thing. Complaining here isn't doing anything to help. 

What would be best is to create another group that will be a large mass of people sending the same basic message - asking for specific units or characters - that would be best. That's something we can discuss here or elsewhere. Maybe we can make a FEH Activists Discord or something. But honestly anything helps. 

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk. 

 

EDIT: Credit to @Florete for the below suggestion

"I'm not one of the complainers, but I've seen this a lot when people post a screencap of their feedback and it bugs me.

If you're going to send feedback, do it right and don't use fan-made terms. Case in point here, 'banner.' This is a term that has never been used in any official capacity and chances are whoever is working customer support will have no idea what you're talking about and just throw the feedback out. The official term is 'Summoning Focus.'

'IV' and 'Nature' are other fan terms to be wary of."

Edited January 21, 2019 by TriforceP

[Baldrick]

Are you a whale? If not, IS doesn’t care about your feedback either.

[Arcphoenix]

11 minutes ago, TriforceP said:

Complaining on internet forums is doing nothing. If even half the complainers were to just go to their feedback boxes and make requests maybe IS would be more willing to listen.

I've actually wanted to make a topic on something similar for a long time. Basically a topic where everyone shared their feedback they sent to IS as a way of encouraging sending feedback and perhaps gathering ideas to collectively send to IS.

I feel that it is really important that everyone who has a problem sends feedback. It's a bit like the US voting turnout and complaints of the results. That said, I never really was sure what other players were doing so I never posted it.

It's definitely a point to be made though.

I always felt that if we want to influence IS's opinion, it must be in large numbers. Enough to where they literally must be aware of it and how big of a deal it is. That said, these large numbers aren't just going to come out of nowhere or from "someone else who will give feedback so I don't have to"

Edited January 21, 2019 by Arcphoenix

[TriforceP]

3 minutes ago, Baldrick said:

Are you a whale? If not, IS doesn’t care about your feedback either.

If we had better banners, I could be

Actually my wallet wouldn't allow for that but IS doesn't know that

[eclipse]

I like the sentiment, but the title isn't particularly helpful.  I'll change it to something a little better.

[Florete]

I'm not one of the complainers, but I've seen this a lot when people post a screencap of their feedback and it bugs me.

If you're going to send feedback, do it right and don't use fan-made terms. Case in point here, 'banner.' This is a term that has never been used in any official capacity and chances are whoever is working customer support will have no idea what you're talking about and just throw the feedback out. The official term is 'Summoning Focus.'

'IV' and 'Nature' are other fan terms to be wary of.

[TriforceP]

2 minutes ago, eclipse said:

I like the sentiment, but the title isn't particularly helpful.  I'll change it to something a little better.

Thanks for the help. I really wasn't sure what to call it

2 minutes ago, Florete said:

I'm not one of the complainers, but I've seen this a lot when people post a screencap of their feedback and it bugs me.

If you're going to send feedback, do it right and don't use fan-made terms. Case in point here, 'banner.' This is a term that has never been used in any official capacity and chances are whoever is working customer support will have no idea what you're talking about and just throw the feedback out. The official term is 'Summoning Focus.'

'IV' and 'Nature' are other fan terms to be wary of.

I... didn't even think about that. I'll be more wary of that in the future. Thanks!

[eclipse]

Just now, TriforceP said:

Thanks for the help. I really wasn't sure what to call it

I, uh, tried.  If you can think of something better that gets the point across ("send your feedback to people who care, not random Internet strangers"), feel free to edit it~!

[TriforceP]

1 minute ago, eclipse said:

I, uh, tried.  If you can think of something better that gets the point across ("send your feedback to people who care, not random Internet strangers"), feel free to edit it~!

Nah I'm cool with it. Definitely better than what I had. If I think of a better one overnight though, I'll be sure to tell you. 

[Jave]

11 minutes ago, Florete said:

I'm not one of the complainers, but I've seen this a lot when people post a screencap of their feedback and it bugs me.

If you're going to send feedback, do it right and don't use fan-made terms. Case in point here, 'banner.' This is a term that has never been used in any official capacity and chances are whoever is working customer support will have no idea what you're talking about and just throw the feedback out. The official term is 'Summoning Focus.'

'IV' and 'Nature' are other fan terms to be wary of.

To add to this, "Seasonal" is also a fan-made term. The correct term is "Special Heroes Summoning Focus".

[Fire Emblem Fan]

This is a very good topic. I have sent feedback to IS about the last couple of banners, and I'm doing so for the next seasonal one as well. I've requested a couple of characters, too. I'd send some for other peoples' favorites if they wanted as well! Ya'll need to send feedback requesting Brom!

16 minutes ago, Florete said:

I'm not one of the complainers, but I've seen this a lot when people post a screencap of their feedback and it bugs me.

If you're going to send feedback, do it right and don't use fan-made terms. Case in point here, 'banner.' This is a term that has never been used in any official capacity and chances are whoever is working customer support will have no idea what you're talking about and just throw the feedback out. The official term is 'Summoning Focus.'

'IV' and 'Nature' are other fan terms to be wary of.

I didn't even think of that. That's very good to know!

[Arcphoenix]

20 minutes ago, TriforceP said:

Thanks for the help. I really wasn't sure what to call it

I... didn't even think about that. I'll be more wary of that in the future. Thanks!

You should probably add it to the OP given how helpful it'd be

[TriforceP]

Just now, Arcphoenix said:

You should probably add it to the OP given how helpful it'd be

And so I shall

[Landmaster]

I begged for Elise in feedback and it worked!

[Arcphoenix]

My feedback as of late: (Yes, I did actually make a list before this. I originally was going to make a similar topic some time ago and still had this list from it)

Spoiler

1. General expression of concern of the direction the game is going in. Mentioning how I feel they aren't taking as much care to abstain from powercreep (along with a description of what I meant: additions that objectively overpower previous features of the game, leaving them stuck at a permanently inferior level, making them feel worthless in comparison). Closing by asking them to keep innovating and adding more, but not at the cost of everything else in the game as it stands (I posted this and the following three around the time of the beast banner)
2. I have asked for a skill refinery recently and asked that higher tier skills be added to older units
3. I've asked that "magic" be more specific in descriptions
4. That a sound room is added
5. This (I sent this one today):

Spoiler

Intelligent Systems, please be a bit more “fair” in banner representation. I’m sure you’ve noticed the like and dislike ratio on the Adrift banner and the new Hotsprings banner trailers. As a community, it’s not that we dislike Fates. It’s just you’re mainly doing Fates and not much else. Please give more equal representation of your games. Give us a Geneology/Thracia seasonal, a Valentian/Gaiden Seasonal, a Radiance Seasonal, and a Shadow Dragon seasonal before giving us another Fates or Awakening seasonal. Furthermore, there are those upset about the units chosen in some banners. If you do another Fates banner, please pick some beloved characters besides the royals. They’ve had enough seasonals. The retainers such as Oboro, Peri, and Subaki and nonretainers like Scarlet, Benny, Rinkah, Hayato, and Izana are yet to get seasonals. Some aren’t even in the game yet. If you could, just put the Fates royals on a blacklist for future seasonal banners and make  more seasonals for other games

 

 

Edited January 21, 2019 by Arcphoenix

[redlight]

35 minutes ago, Baldrick said:

Are you a whale? If not, IS doesn’t care about your feedback either.

Dolphins make the majority of gacha income. The amount of dolphins make up for the size of their wallet compared to whales

[Roflolxp54]

Also worth considering is the official Fire Emblem Heroes Twitter account (keep in mind that it's Japanese only, however).

The comments section of its Twitter posts - especially on undesirable banners like the Hostile Springs one - is a magical place.

[Sayyyaka]

Feedback does not always work.  Just because you only see people complaining on here doesn't mean they aren't also sending feedback.  Before I quit this game I sent feedback quite frequently, since last January actually since Christmas bothered me, mainly on things like new units, lack of character interactions, more meaningful recurring content and the terrible changes that ruined arena when that happened.

Spoiler

Their responses were:

•making a Training Tower clone with the most boring casts possible (Why was the first Forging Bonds about characters that can talk in their own game???  They didn't even explore any new topics)

•endless waves of alts over new characters (this is ESPECIALLY awful in Fates' case, imagine wanting a new Fates character)

•more and more powercreeped units and now t4 skills locked to 5* (lol @ anyone thinking we'd get a skill refinery)

•YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO FORGET RELAY DEFENCE, THAT STAIN WILL FOREVER BE IMPRINTED ON FEH 

•ruining the only potentially interesting mode since Tempest Trials (which is only good because of the rewards anyway) with new Arena and Blessing mechanics (RIP Aether Raids 2018-2018)

Tap Battle was fun for a bit, but why are there only like 3 songs in the whole event?  Why do they only last a month now?  Why aren't there rewards for higher difficulties?

Grand Conquest is okay, but why can't the huge styled maps be in normal, specifically-designed chapters instead of time locked content?

Telling us about RD and FE6 characters is cool but why would you force discontent people to wait 3-5 months for that?

I get that they wanted to push out the OCs already since people wanted them, but that isn't an excuse for several months of no demotions.

About the only thing they did right last year were Valentine's and the Jugdral representation, and that's pretty much why I quit, because I don't want to play a summoning simulator.

 

I think I really went off on a tangent but all I will say at this point is that Intelligent Systems does not really care about feedback unless it has something to do with potentially making money.  And honestly, that's fine, they are a company.  They are supposed to make money, but it reflects quite poorly on them and FEH as a whole.  Good luck to those who still have faith and want to push for a change, but I feel that it'll be for nothing.

[Cute Chao]

I send feedback every time. I'll start sending requests for characters I like to see again but I'm not a whale. I was. Pretty big spender for a time (maybe not whale level but a good chunk of money) but stopped ages ago because of this - something I have also mention in my feedback.

[Baldrick]

2 hours ago, redlight said:

Dolphins make the majority of gacha income. The amount of dolphins make up for the size of their wallet compared to whales

There are more dolphins, but an individual dolphin makes a small splash compared to an individual whale. If you can get a fleet of dolphins to have the exact same demands, that might simulate a whale’s demands. But it’s far more feasible to become a whale yourself.

Edited January 21, 2019 by Baldrick

[Dandy Druid]

The best way to send feedback is by not pulling/spending money on banners. If you're not happy with the banner, then take your free pull and stop there. No doubt they keep track of when people buy orbs and how many orbs are spent on an individual banner. If most people don't bother pulling on this banner, than they probably won't do this concept again or use those characters for a while.

Sending constructive criticism is great, but unless they're specifically asking for it (usually through a survey), chances are they won't be too interested in hearing people complain about their character choices. Perhaps they should actually do a real survey (not just CYL) and get more in-depth answers of what their client base wants, but I don't work at IS so...

I'm not trying to be a pessimist, but if they're getting an overload of these complaints, I'm pretty sure they'll just skim them at most and open the next one. We don't even know if the person reading these things is the same person who decides which characters go on which banners.

[Kyokko]

I don't normally post, but I thought I'd share the feedback I sent to the Heroes team after today's banner reveal as well.  My main game is in Japanese, so this is a translation of the feedback I sent them in Japanese.

~~Notes:  The Princess Cup was/is an official Fire Emblem Cipher ladies-only tournament with a tea party afterwards.  The Osaka one was yesterday (Sunday) and the Tokyo one will be on Saturday.  For these official Cipher party events, every participant is asked what their favorite FE title is, and to name one character in particular that they like.  At the event, you are given a blank bingo sheet and asked to talk to other participants and fill out the bingo sheet with the characters that they picked.  At the end of the event, everyone uses those sheets to play bingo for Cipher merchandise.  Young is an IS employee currently on the Cipher team who moderates the live broadcasts and such.  And yes, the lady who used Eldigan as their favorite character actually called him Elt-niisama instead of his name.~~

 

My feedback:
"About Summoning

More Special Heroes from Fates?  Yesterday, I attended the Osaka Princess Cup and asked everyone there who their favorite characters are for the tea party's bingo game.  Rather than seeing the same characters repeated over and over again, I'd like to see some of the characters I wrote down on that bingo sheet, like Heath, Julian, and Mitama.

I might be biased, but the Genealogy characters seemed fairly popular.  I saw Sigurd, Finn, Elt-niisama, Ishtar, and Ayra (myself).  Could we get some Genealogy Special Heroes?

I also talked with Young a bit about how Ike is extremely popular overseas.  Could we also get some Radiant Special Heroes?  In particular, I'd be thrilled to see a few more male Special Heroes.  Thank you!"

 

Hopefully they read it.  It's a BIT frustrating seeing this banner only a day after an Intelligent Systems employee walked up to me to start a conversation about why Ike is so popular with foreigners!  I know the Cipher team, at the very least, has data on who is popular where, so please, please use it!

 

Some random observations:
In order to attend the afternoon tea party, you had to either do a lesson/trial tournament for Cipher or participate in the official tournament in the morning, so all of the ladies at the tea party were rather serious fans.  At my table, more than half had started the series with Genealogy of the Holy War, one had played since Mystery of the Emblem, one since Binding Blade, and only one started with Awakening.  Since a good deal of us are at least semi-serious Cipher players, we clearly aren't adverse to spending a little bit of money, either.

I just realized that I forgot Olwen in my list of Jugdral characters that were on the bingo sheet.  She was the character that got me a bingo, too!

The only favorite Fates characters I saw at the tea party were a Corrin F, a Takumi, and the lady with the aforementioned Mitama.  Fates characters have really declined since I first started attending Cipher events.  I used to see ladies with Ryouma, Xander, Leo, Jakob, and Azura as well.

[Anacybele]

I didn't think about not using fan-made terms. That's a good idea, since yeah, they're not official.

[Fabulously Olivier]

I've historically been a dolphin of sorts, at about $700-ish so maybe my feedback would have some value.

 

I think I'll request more Magvel and Tellius banners, because that's what I want to see. 

Edited January 21, 2019 by Etheus

[omegaxis1]

A rather fair point. It honestly would not hurt any of us to send complaints to IS, as it's 100% more effective than complaining over here. Someone over there HAS to read these feedbacks, right?