ivc392 said:
Ok,I'm tired so I'm not going too expand of this to much.
Should developers listen to fans?... No. See fans are (I said fanS not a fan, its like people, not a person, dont take it personally) a confused moronic mass. They dont know what they want or how the want it. That doesn't mean they are always wrong, or that they shouldn't be entitled to their own personal opinion. That means game developer should focus on how THEY think a game can be improve. They are the ones trained to design a game.
If you listen to the fans you will get an incoherent game, so desperate to satisfy everyone that's completely unable to deliver at any level.
Well, I can concede that if you're lucky, you'll be born smarter than the average person. That doesn't make them stupid, just you, smart. So the will of them should still be listened to, at some level. Surveys, beta tests, whatever. Sometimes they know exactly how and what they want, even if other fans disagree.
Take a look at the car industry, for a moment, they often just do 'what they want' with dire consequences to themselves, it's the manufacturers that survey customers, listen to motoring journalists praise and criticism, whom ultimately make an improved upon product in the next generation/release, same concept for gaming is my feeling.
I voted Yes, but I think 'sometimes' is probably the right answer.
Thing is, it should have nothing to do with qualifications, and they certainly shouldn't ignore fans at any rate, so it has to be yes or sometimes for me.
If they didn't listen, and just kept releasing games that were only what they wanted to make (?) AND people still bought them, and still enjoyed them i.e. the majority of fans were still happy, even then, you'd think they'd ask themselves 'how do we keep them happy, what if we do something in the next game they don't like?'. That doesn't mean fans should dictate to the developers either, the developers need freedom of game design and construction.
I like the question though.
Skorpyo said:
Mass Effect 2 was proof positive of exactly how beneficial it can be when a dev has a listen to what critics and fans have to say.
But doing everything that fans TELL them to would be incredibly foolish.
That's your opinion at least, I thought ME2 was a step in the wrong direction, and that ME3 is going to correct many of those mistakes, pointed out by fans like myself, to which, the developers listened, took on board and agreed with.
But hey, it was still awesome, so I mean, they didn't make a 'crap' game, I just preferred the first one slightly, you preferred the second (how much I don't know), so it wasn't a failure to not listen, and public opinion, as in game reviewers, are more on your side, Bioware don't exactly seem to be (thankfully), as they've taken criticism on board, hopefully for the benefit of the third game.
