Fan opinion and Game Design

[Wolf Kanno]

Looking back on how Square-Enix is dealing with FFXIV and XV, I'm wondering if this level of fan feedback and design change is good for gaming as a whole or if this might be something that may bite game companies in the back if they do it too much. My question is, how much should feedback from the consumer be accounted for in a product? It makes sense for MMO/Community style games as they will have a lifespan beyond release but in the case of a game like FFXV, is it really a good thing that SE and Tabata are incorporating so much feedback into the game before release or do you feel this may result in some disjointed mess with lack of vision? How important should fans be in the development process?

[Slothy]

Fan feedback is generally fine for identifying possible problems with a game. But it almost never pays to listen to fan suggestions of how to fix those problems because the average human is just too stupid.

[Fox]

From my point of view as a designer, design by committee is rarely a positive thing. Feedback is great, but if you try to please everyone you'll end up screwing up and pleasing no one. I love it when people say to me "here's what the players are asking for!" and hate it when they follow it up with "so let's give it to them!" Everyone wants something different, and everyone has different ideas for how to achieve it. The smart designer knows how to pick out the useful information and ignore everything else.

I do worry a little about something like FFXV with how much we've heard things like "Oh you want this? We'll see if we can do it!" Tabata has proven himself more than capable with his previous work though, so I have to just hope it's all under control.

In their defense, Episode Duscae was a really good idea and fantastic from a data gathering point of view. Players getting widespread unrestricted hands on with your systems before you even hit alpha? That's amazing, and a great opportunity to allow for meaningful iteration (like as Wolf mentioned that you get with MMOs) before release. I expect the combat in the finished game will be notably better than in the demo, largely as a result of information obtained by​ the demo.

[Ayen]

From my point of view as a designer, design by committee is rarely a positive thing. Feedback is great, but if you try to please everyone you'll end up screwing up and pleasing no one. I love it when people say to me "here's what the players are asking for!" and hate it when they follow it up with "so let's give it to them!" Everyone wants something different, and everyone has different ideas for how to achieve it. The smart designer knows how to pick out the useful information and ignore everything else.

I do worry a little about something like FFXV with how much we've heard things like "Oh you want this? We'll see if we can do it!" Tabata has proven himself more than capable with his previous work though, so I have to just hope it's all under control.

In their defense, Episode Duscae was a really good idea and fantastic from a data gathering point of view. Players getting widespread unrestricted hands on with your systems before you even hit alpha? That's amazing, and a great opportunity to allow for meaningful iteration (like as Wolf mentioned that you get with MMOs) before release. I expect the combat in the finished game will be notably better than in the demo, largely as a result of information obtained by​ the demo.

Case in point, Resident Evil 6.

I agree with Vivi. Latching onto other people's opinions ftw!

[Pete for President]

None!

This is how I suspect focus group research goes: "Would you be interested in buying product X featuring ideas Y and Z?" Consumer goes: "Yes, that is totally awesome even though I imagine it way differently than the actual implementation of the ideas will turn out, nor do I have any actual knowledge of videogame development irl."

Let the creators create their own unique games from the heart and soul instead of from the bank accounts and I think both the quality and quantity of games will go up, both of which will make feedback a lot less relevant, let alone necessary.

Hurray for idealism!

[Mirage]

Maybe it's even more constructive to identify what people don't want, rather than what people do want. Might be a better consensus on things that are terrible ideas than there is on what things are good ideas.