If you remember back a month or so, I posted something about an April Fools idea that POTCO could do, where they could make our swords toy swords, our voodoo dolls become barbie dolls, etc. I sent them an email, and the reply made me think that they actually really liked this idea. He even said "Maybe we could change all the ships into toy boats too!" That made me feel like this was an idea that they may do. I dunno, lets wait and see.
I do think that they listen to them. Most at least. The people who get the emails probably look over it for these things:
- Practicality. I'm sure that they would take on somewhat of a challenge, but if it is just plain and simply too hard or unideal to do, then they probably won't keep it, and it will end up in the virtual trash bin.
- Is it new? I'm sure they've gotten thousands of emails about the Kraken and Ship Customization, so I doubt they forward all of those unless it is something unique. Whats the point in forwarding an email if the idea is already being worked on?
- Quantity. I'm sure that if they like the idea, they show the developers, but the developers may not work on it until they get enough emails saying that the players want this. If just one or two players want this, then they should probably make something else that many other people would prefer to have. They can never make everyone happy, so they need to try to make the majority happy.
There are probably many more factors, but those are the factors that I can imagine would be up at the top of their list.