Discussion Thread: direct commits of balance changes without player input

[Flaborized]

Developers have no obligation to gather feedback from players or publicly broadcast any changes they make to the playerbase; there are just some things where it's not necessary, or situations where feedback wouldn't actually really impact the choices made, since the arguments against are already preemptively fairly understood. Devs are given a large amount of creative freedom to work on this game, and part of that freedom is being able to choose What Changes Are Good For The Game. Gathering player feedback is only a tool for trying to assess the merits of a change, it's not the be-all-end-all or even the primary method of doing so. Goonstation development (and really all videogame development) isn't a player-driven-democracy and it shouldn't be, in my personal opinion. 

You are, of course, *allowed* to give feedback on changes, but when doing so one should fully expect their suggested changes to never actually be carried out. Overall, devs are making the game they want to make, and improving it in ways they think makes it better. Players are not entitled to opportunities to give feedback on any specific change, or to any game design Compromises when they don't like a change. Devs will ask for feedback when they think it's a good idea, and that's just the way it has to be pretty much.