EA engagement isn't a waste of resources on their part - the EA community is a resource. If it goes largely unexplored, then that's the waste.
Especially here, on their home boards, where the feedback is more long form and rather more generous than a little thumbs up/down or a disjointed one liner on discord.
I think it was really unfortunate that they decided to use their old DOS forums to handle their new BG3 game- that they didn't seem to do much work in advance to set up a distinct feeling community, or to build out a home base that could handle the kind of influx of feedback they were bound to receive when trying to bridge into D&D.
How many extraneous posts and comments and thread piles on these boards could have been avoided simply by migrating to better forums with more integration? Something that didn't feel like it's been around since before the dawn of the new millennium. Or I don't know. maybe just like hiring someone who's whole job it was to liaison between the developers and the community - to try to provide some modicum of structure to the Early Access wild west. I don't mean just promoting their existing unpaid moderators from Divinity boards to put out fires once they hit the 5 alarm scale, but like actually doing directed discussion prompts, or surveys, and little things like that which reward participation and continued engagement. Especially now, when people are all accustomed via new media to having a much more tailored and reactive experience.
Unlike simply gathering telemetry about whether or not people are playing with the dual wielding salamis or still insta merc'ing Gale or whatever, here people actually try to get somewhat analytical and explain their impressions (positive or negative) in more detail. Why, for example, they maybe don't actually care about the salamis and instead think the UI is way more important. Trying to outline what they really want that would make them smile and slow clap, and present their takes on whatever the controversial game topic de jour might be. The depressing part is that after a year of allowing things to get all overgrown and unkempt, even a very limited (but consistent) form of engagement would probably seem super attentive by comparison.
Most of my critiques have less to do with the game in it's current state, and a lot more to do with the EA in it's current state. I think it was acceptable for a time last year due to scaling up issues, and pandemic woes, but after a while it's hard not to catch the drift here. The curious thing is that when you read the various publicity articles, they usually have nothing but glowing things to say about their EA community and their appreciation for their players. They'll also say things like 'the most important thing is that the game be fun!' But it's like how would you really know whether that's working or not? They can try to intuit it I guess, based on whether or not people quit and reload or quit and don't, but come here and you can actually approach some real answer. Like "yeah I played through that for a few hours, but it felt like a slog and not really enjoyable. And here's the thing I did like, and can we please get more of that instead???" Sure you'll still run up against issues of people thinking they know what they want, when perhaps they don't, but at least here people are still trying.
The thing is, you don't actually need a roadmap unless you feel lost. When you're just enjoying the drive and the navigator in shotgun is good company, stressing off the final destination isn't such a big deal.
It's only when you suddenly realize you're out in the middle of nowhere, and probably made a wrong left at Albuquerque, that's when you start panicking and really wishing for a map or a road sign or anything to give some sense of reassurance that you're not going to die alone in the desert. At this point I don't know what they do. It feels like they already missed a bunch of opportunities here, but it's not too late. There's clearly still some gas in the tank, but they need to put on some better music or something, or hit some roadside attractions to keep us kids in the backseat from going absolutely insane hehe
Are we there yet? are we there yet? How long? That long!? Gah
