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?

Comments

HL2

[Associate]

Ask yourself this. Would you want to play HL2 having seen the beta that got released? Or would rather have been suprised?

Ubi Soft with Dragon's Lair 3D

[bjb]

My two cents are that I shelled out nearly $50 for the Dragon's Lair 3D game from Ubi Soft for the PC. There was obviously a problem with how the game handled the keyboard.

The game works with the typical FPS keyboard layout (ASDW/ALT/SPACE/Mouse). However, whenever you were walking forward (holding down 'W') and then wanted to jump (alt key), Windows XP would beep and then bring you back to the desktop. You could switch back to the game by clicking on the task bar, but this problem bugged me, since it made the game unplayable.

I opened a ticket with Ubi Soft's tech support, and I was told to do the "get latest drivers" routine. Did that. Still didn't work. Their solution? Remap the keyboard. For those of you that play FPS games, you know the layout I described is the most sensible way of doing it, unless you want to shift everything on your desk and use the number pad.

I was appaled by Ubi Soft's lack of an acknowledgement of a problem in their software and refusal to fix the issue. I vowed never to buy another product from them again.

(ok, my rant is done)