In many cases the company should NOT listen to the gamers because quite often the gamers are pushing their needs/wants ahead of whats good for the game.
And, in my experience, many gamers are just plain stupid in regards to game balance and beneficial game mechanics.
Kinda what I was thinking too......Listening to half of these people in chat yo usure wouldn't want them to decide how the game was going to be played......Half of them cant even construct a sentence, not to mention what should be in a MMO.......Also gamers have no clue what they do and don't want.....Ask 10 different gamers what they think the death sentence should be and you'll probably get 10 different answers.
The problem can be when the feedback is based on content that is being released, rather than feedback helping with developing content.
So in most/all cases the feedback only begins after the devs. make the core features of their new content and feedback is limited in that scope.
So devs need to be iniuitive, creative, adaptative, and current with the range of demands. Then the core development is from those demands which then devs recieve feedback on will be from customers who are more involved and knowledgable when there are forum discussions.
Also I can see getting the community too involved can backfire as well. However, with MMOs, developing what customers want is very important since there is a lot of feedback from players. So devs. need to intelligently develop content which adds the most value to their game abdsatsufying their customers as well. Which seems to work in games like WoW and content being developed well, but in other games, they seem to be holding back on features which would add more to the Gand and is in great demand by their players but devs made no effort to develop those features.
Write bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble
No, the game would be constantly pulled in too many directions. If they changed every little thing everytime someone started whining and threatening to leave(and somehow take the entire population of the game with them) it would turn into a big mess.
Don't be terrorized! You're more likely to die of a car accident, drowning, fire, or murder! More people die every year from prescription drugs than terrorism LOL!
The developers vision has NOTHING TO DO WITH THE QUESTION.
A game being "better" is based on the opinion of the person asking and thus "a company listening" would mean listening to YOU...and since nobody is going to ask for something they DONT WANT...it would mean you asking for something YOU want.
So, if you think a game wont be better because of something YOU want being in it...then, lol...total ban for actually saying what you are.
He asked a trap question, you fell for it hard.
I said no because FANS say they want one thing but will play something else because it is what they are used to not what they want. Example, look at how people play the game Rift. There are so many neat build but they all pare down to Warrior = Tank, Cleric = Healer, Rouge, Ele = DPS. People want things to fit in their comfort zone not what is outside of it.
Yet how many million are playing Guild Wars 2 that doesnt have the holy trinity? Yet how many are still playing that thing called TSW? How many people played and liked SWG? How many did the same with AC1?
Doesnt MATTER...it is NOT the question. Which you cannot seem to comprehend because of the derp.
I hope we shall crush...in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country." ~Thomes Jefferson
In general terms no, I don't think decisions made 99% by players would make the game better because they aren't designers. They only balance their opinion based on thier gameplay and could be missing relevant info "behind the scenes".
There are indeed people knowledgable in the community that provide great feedback but they are a small minority. I do think random polls and a good feedback system should be a part of every game. The results would be private but it would let the company read the pulse of the playerbase. They ultimately decide what to risk and spend on and if a company doesn't trust the dev team why would they be there in the first place?
In PVP I think that people are quick to rat out someone that is overpowered. With the right numbers, yes they should be heard.
The game overall though has to have a theme, if you stray from that, even if it's requested, you leave yourself open to losing those that came for that reason. Yes, I'm thinking about GW2 doing that within 6 mos. of opening.
What did GW2? Im actually curiously asking because I never played but what large MMo's do interests me... and I don't care if it hijacks the thread!
we'd have a game 50% populated by flying unicorns shooting rainbows out of their horns and farting epix, and the other half being huge boobed, 4 armed sword swinging demons with lasers as their eyes.
uh yea, and there'd be 2 or 3 humans complaining about everything else being OP and skillless :P
"I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!"
companies should have a clear design strategy, and stick to it, they should listen to the community but only make the changes that made sense according to their strategy.
the problem with "listening to the community", is that most of said community never want to be in contact with the developers, but simply want to enjoy the product...so the minority get to talk for the majority.
For the most part I don't think a company should listen to their players much. They should definitely be gathering data though... For instance, I have played so many MMOs where everyone is building the same character with the same gear and grinding in the same areas. If those companies were doing their job and watching the data, they would see the massive shift towards certain builds and players farming certain dungeons/areas. Then they could nerf or buff as needed. Same goes for PvP; if the data keeps showing that one build always beats another build, then that needed to be either deliberate or it needs to be fixed.
If the company is going to listen to the players, they need to do it properly. Simply put: In-game polling. Polling is the only real way to gauge player opinion when you have so many players and only a very small group of them are vocal. By putting the polling in game you reach more casual players, who matter just as much as any other player.
Everyone gets a freggin say in who represents us in government and look how well THATS working out.
Personally I think democracy is dead. Because when everyone is ass retarded the only things that will ever be result of that is...more.....retarded things.
Wanna know my idea? Everyone has to take an IQ test. If their IQ is below 120 they aren't allowed to post on the net or open their mouths at all outside of their own homes. How about that.
Then we could rely on what other people say. Somewhat. Except for the smart asses. Which there are plenty of those too. #&$(#$)!!!!! Just forget it.
Comments
Kinda what I was thinking too......Listening to half of these people in chat yo usure wouldn't want them to decide how the game was going to be played......Half of them cant even construct a sentence, not to mention what should be in a MMO.......Also gamers have no clue what they do and don't want.....Ask 10 different gamers what they think the death sentence should be and you'll probably get 10 different answers.
Feed does help.
The problem can be when the feedback is based on content that is being released, rather than feedback helping with developing content.
So in most/all cases the feedback only begins after the devs. make the core features of their new content and feedback is limited in that scope.
So devs need to be iniuitive, creative, adaptative, and current with the range of demands. Then the core development is from those demands which then devs recieve feedback on will be from customers who are more involved and knowledgable when there are forum discussions.
Also I can see getting the community too involved can backfire as well. However, with MMOs, developing what customers want is very important since there is a lot of feedback from players. So devs. need to intelligently develop content which adds the most value to their game abdsatsufying their customers as well. Which seems to work in games like WoW and content being developed well, but in other games, they seem to be holding back on features which would add more to the Gand and is in great demand by their players but devs made no effort to develop those features.
Write bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble
Don't be terrorized! You're more likely to die of a car accident, drowning, fire, or murder! More people die every year from prescription drugs than terrorism LOL!
Yet how many million are playing Guild Wars 2 that doesnt have the holy trinity? Yet how many are still playing that thing called TSW? How many people played and liked SWG? How many did the same with AC1?
Doesnt MATTER...it is NOT the question. Which you cannot seem to comprehend because of the derp.
I hope we shall crush...in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country." ~Thomes Jefferson
There are indeed people knowledgable in the community that provide great feedback but they are a small minority. I do think random polls and a good feedback system should be a part of every game. The results would be private but it would let the company read the pulse of the playerbase. They ultimately decide what to risk and spend on and if a company doesn't trust the dev team why would they be there in the first place?
What did GW2? Im actually curiously asking because I never played but what large MMo's do interests me... and I don't care if it hijacks the thread!
Taru-Gallante-Blood elf-Elysean-Kelari-Crime Fighting-Imperial Agent
we'd have a game 50% populated by flying unicorns shooting rainbows out of their horns and farting epix, and the other half being huge boobed, 4 armed sword swinging demons with lasers as their eyes.
uh yea, and there'd be 2 or 3 humans complaining about everything else being OP and skillless :P
"I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!"
and you are one of them?
companies should have a clear design strategy, and stick to it, they should listen to the community but only make the changes that made sense according to their strategy.
the problem with "listening to the community", is that most of said community never want to be in contact with the developers, but simply want to enjoy the product...so the minority get to talk for the majority.
For the most part I don't think a company should listen to their players much. They should definitely be gathering data though... For instance, I have played so many MMOs where everyone is building the same character with the same gear and grinding in the same areas. If those companies were doing their job and watching the data, they would see the massive shift towards certain builds and players farming certain dungeons/areas. Then they could nerf or buff as needed. Same goes for PvP; if the data keeps showing that one build always beats another build, then that needed to be either deliberate or it needs to be fixed.
If the company is going to listen to the players, they need to do it properly. Simply put: In-game polling. Polling is the only real way to gauge player opinion when you have so many players and only a very small group of them are vocal. By putting the polling in game you reach more casual players, who matter just as much as any other player.
Play as your fav retro characters: cnd-online.net. My site: www.lysle.net. Blog: creatingaworld.blogspot.com.
No because most people are idiots........
Everyone gets a freggin say in who represents us in government and look how well THATS working out.
Personally I think democracy is dead. Because when everyone is ass retarded the only things that will ever be result of that is...more.....retarded things.
Wanna know my idea? Everyone has to take an IQ test. If their IQ is below 120 they aren't allowed to post on the net or open their mouths at all outside of their own homes. How about that.
Then we could rely on what other people say. Somewhat. Except for the smart asses. Which there are plenty of those too. #&$(#$)!!!!! Just forget it.