So right now the big thing that the players don't like is the changes to the radiant sun shards and ionized salt bomb lines. Now, Njthug tells me that this isn't so, and that lots of players are fine and happy with the new bombs, etc.

But that isn't what I'd like to talk about. There is a reoccurring problem with the forums- that many of us write things so that the game can be improved but cannot back up any of our claims because of this apparent selection bias caused by us being "the forums". So rather than just forever be happy and not continue to argue, we should obviously overcome this problem so that we can once again have lengthy discussions that go somewhere other than 'something from the whiny forums'.

So like I said, the idea that we are "wrong" and "whiney" comes from the fact that we are just random players drawn to the forums, and that we are a small group of players. But: Who SHOULD be the ones giving input? Obviously those who are effected by a change to the game that have enough information to come to conclusions, meaning that in the context of the shard bombs, wealthy bombers who have enough bombs to come to conclusions. Asking say, a swordy or gunner isn't going to provide accurate feedback, as neither of them uses a bomb, until you consider that they are directly effected by the bomb… this further limits us however to players that use both bombs, guns, and everything, as they are the only ones who can gauge the effectiveness of the weapon, although other people's feedback is also good due to the fact that they are seeing the bomb from a certain context. Do the gunners like the change? Why? Do the swordys? Why? Etcetera.

I suppose what I'm saying is that we need a way to communicate and classify players on a large scale. I am suggesting that someone from a larger guild volunteer some of their time and try to get some of their guild members to poll the opinions of the masses fairly. Record names, opinions, thoughts, everything about the player in question. Doing so would allow us to say things like 'most gunners favor the changes done to RSS' and 'most bombers dislike the changes made to RSS', if that is the case. Keep in mind that it isn't as daunting a task as one might think- to represent a fair portion of the player base, one would only need to measure a sample of the actual population, and that the population need only consist of certain knights that meet the requirements determined.

Until someone does this, the only measure we have is the forums and what the devs tell us, and as such the argument "The player-base doesn't feel this way" should not hold any weight as the forums are the only way to measure what the players want.

Please read the thread entirely and understand that the references to the shard bombs are only intended to say why this is apparently necessary.