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BioWare On Tracking Player Feedback
simoniker writes "BioWare's QA director Phillip DeRosa has written a piece called 'Tracking Player Feedback To Improve Game Design' over at Gamasutra, which deals with how game developers can use statistics, even before a game is released, to improve gameplay. DeRosa "...explains how the Mass Effect creator has set up and executed code-based monitoring of key metrics to test, analyze, and refine its projects through playtesting." Is this approach sensible, or could it be more like movie producers 'pandering' to test audiences?"
Unlike movies, in which taking into account the opinions of test audiences is thought of as compromising artistic vision, video games are made for players to play interactively. It's not just their money that matters, it's their ability to play and have a good time. The best game designer in the world doesn't always get it right. Playtesting is not just done for marketing reasons; it's absolutely imperative if you want to make sure the game is as good as it can be.
I piss off bigots.
I think it depends on the size and scope of a test audience. If they're picking up a group of 15 year olds at the mall on a weekend and having them sit down to play the game for a half hour, than yes, it is definitely pandering to a certain audience (this conversely could be said if they pick a few college aged gamers who spend several hours at a time on the game). However, if they have a decent beta/playtest application and select a good cross section of who they believe will be playing the game, then I think it's sensible.
The ultimate goal has to be to create a game that the most people will find enjoyable, but we all know that "you can't please all the people all of the time."
Baldur's Gate games were amazing, but saying they've gone downhill since is a bit of a stretch.
KotOR was awarded game of the year by a ton of publications, and is generally agreed to be one of the best XBox games ever.
Jade Empire was received well and agreed to be one of the best RPG's of the year.
Neverwinter Nights was also a franchise that was well received and supported by an active community.
Music's been around for a little while. You telling me it doesn't pander?
Hell, commercial art sluts like Thomas Kincaid could be called pandering.
Done with slashdot, done with nerds, getting a life.
The community was the only thing that saved NWN from total disaster, as a game it *SUCKED* and it sucked hard. I would like to say that bioware was never been truly a consistent top tier developer. Kotor was above average, but bioware is pretty hit and miss, since different dev teams for different games do not all produce equally.
Neverwinter Nights was also a franchise that was well received and supported by an active community.
Neverwinter's community was generally die-hard tabletop RPG fans who wanted to recreate the experience online. They used the DM and builder tools to create single-and multi-player modules as well as persistant worlds that managaed to capture the pen-and-paper experience like no other computer game before or since. You could actually have a living, breathing DM generating custom content on the fly. You could create mini-MMORPGS like Arelith, Forgotten Realms:Cormyr and Layonara where a hundred players could adventure, craft and whatever else on their own and then go on custom and unique DM-driven adventures. Aside from certain MUDS (of course) there really hasn't been anything like it. And hell, it ran on Linux and Mac !
If Bioware was listening, and I mean really listening, they would realize that this was the reason the game was a success, not the lackluster single player campaign or modules (which were only playable for the "hey, I'm playing D&D!" factor, not the story themselves.) There's a real call for a new "online role playing game construction set", D&D or d20 rules or not, to replace it, and Bioware would be just the company to make it. They most likely won't, as they probably think it would hurt sales of their single player games or some future MMORPG, but there is a community and market of role players who are begging for a GM-created and driven experience instead of another linear 40-hour single player story or massive multiplayer grind and gank fest.
(And no, Neverwinter 2 just isn't cutting it as a replacement-- it's too bloated and only runs on high-end Windows systems, and the tools simply aren't there to create modules and worlds on the scale of the original.)
That is your opinion.
I for one sincerely enjoyed the original campaign, it wasn't the *best* I've ever played, but it was very enjoyable for me.
I think too many people say the community is what saved NWN.
Bioware's internal surveys and statistics always indicated that the singleplayer portion of NWN was far more popular.
It's one of the reasons they launched the Premium Modules program (which was very successful until Atari killed it).
Neither are most movies and most novels. They're light entertainment.
Video games are an art FORM, just as painting is an art FORM, but not every painting is a work of art, nor is every game.
I piss off bigots.
There's nothing wrong with easy games. The market for them is substantially larger than it is for hard games, and that's why the industry is moving in that direction -- and about time, too. It has treated the less-skilled player with contempt and derision for far too long. You're an old-time hardcore gamer, so you think of easy games as bad ones, but the days when the industry would pander to the hardcore gamer's every whim are over. Don't worry, though, I'm sure a few companies will still make games for your little niche.
I piss off bigots.
Actually, Bioware is working on this. It's called Dragon Age, will be based in a new, bioware-created world, and will have a full-featured editor from the start. It is not based on d20 but on a newly developed, probably more computer-friendly character+combat system.
Too bad it will take at least another year until its done.
The world always seems brighter when you've just made something that wasn't there before. - Neil Gaiman