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Should Developers Listen To All Gamer Feedback?
Thanks to GameSpy for their 'Spy/CounterSpy' editorial discussing whether the videogame developer should listen to all fan feedback regarding in-development titles. The writer suggests: "Who in their right mind ignores advice from the people who are going to pay for your product? And in the end, that's what it comes down. Fans pay the bills - and they deserve respect." Bit he also points out the negative angle: "Fan suggestions are usually what would make the game better for that one individual. Developers need to consider the global effects of any suggestion and work to keep the majority happy." Are there some game titles or genres where a vocal minority's agitation for change has resulted in an inferior title?
Sometimes "feedback" is more than just e-mails to the technical staff. There was so much (righteous) negativity towards the shoddy GameCube port of BG:DA that they are not even releasing the followup on the GameCube, citing that "not enough money was made on the GameCube version for the first port". So BG:DA2 was cancelled for the GameCube because it didn't sell.
However they misunderstood the feedback -- they assumed that the reason nobody was buying the GameCube version was because nobody was interested, when the real reason was that the port was shoddy and so much later than the PS2 release that most interested parties had already bought and played the game, and the other interested parties were capable of reading a review.
So BG:DA2 is on the incredibly inferior PS2 and not on the GameCube at all. The strange thing is that this "lesson" is being repeated by many gaming companies of late: release a late, shoddy port of "game X" on the GameCube, it doesn't sell, and then halt development for the GameCube. It's strange that the companies don't learn from "Soul Calibur II" that all consoles given equal footing, the GameCube version sold incredibly well.
Even games as recent as UbiSoft's XIII suffer from substandard GameCube ports -- XIII for example doesn't offer LAN play for the GameCube, so obviously people would prefer the XBox and PS2 versions which have that feature. The sad thing is, Ubi will probably assume that there just isn't any interest for the GameCube version and not release the sequel on the GameCube, or something ridiculous like that, when what they should be doing is apologising to the GameCube owners and releasing a version with LAN play and watch it sell like hotcakes. Are you kidding? A $99 console, and we can get 4 players on each of 4 boxes, for 16-person LAN shooter madess? How freaking insane would that be. But no, they put LAN play on the $200, 100-pound (ok the weight is an exaggeration) XBox and the $200, 8-bit-graphics (ok that is another exaggeration) PS2. And on top of that, how about using the GBA-link feature to use the GBA as a radar device, or for guided weapons, etc, some feature which would actually make the GameCube version even more appealing? And each of the other consoles has something "exclusive" like a multiplayer mode, why not an exclusive multiplayer mode for GameCube such as "Reverse Tag", etc? Although this is just another stupid gimmick -- these "console-specific" feature-wars are just stupid, stupid, stupid and don't seem to have any technical basis whatsoever.
Bottom line: the GameCube just outsold the PS2 for the insanity that was Black Friday and Thanksgiving week. When are developers going to stop misunderstanding the "feedback" when their games do not sell on GameCube?
MORTAR COMBAT!