Studios Interaction with their Fanbase

[Zeta333]

This is somthing that has irked me for a bit. Here is a bit of story on what im talking about.

Im talking about Game Studios that directly interact with their playerbase, These studios have a Website/forum system to directly interact with their player base, they have weekly updates and talk directly to posts and or emails or just issues brought up by the players. Iv honestly only seen this kind and level of interaction in 2 companys and thats Blizzard and Bungie and Bungie takes the cake even more since the updates for WoW are ussually brought to our attention by thirdparty sites.

Throughout Bungies history from Halo 1 till their recent public shutdown of their outgoing info they have interacted with the fans on a level iv never seen, Weekly updates, Devs posting directly into the forums not just CM's like Blizzard. Through the Development process of each of their games from Halo 2 to Halo reach they had updates, videos, Community Input and more. They also ran countless contests.

The reason iv thought about this is because of how Halo was passed to 343 Studios and i went looking for a bungie style site and there is none to be found.

So my question is, Am i the only one who thinks more Studios should focus on this more? Should make areas for their fanbase to talk about the game without and with the devs or members of the Company, should keep us updated and interact with the community as much as possible.

[thesmall001]

I think game designers need to be in touch with but not ruled by their customers. As a service, it is owed to the customers that any company strive to provide the best service to their customers and often this does NOT mean bend over backwards to please them, I look at how WoW started and those guys were making a game for themselves because they weren't happy with things like Everquest and now they're jumping from trying to please the "old schoolers" and the "casuals" and the "hardcorers" and the "pvpers" and they're just failing to please one without upsetting the other! I'm only just starting out with my own game design company (Felstorm Games - We're gunna be huge, promise!) and as soon as I've got a fan base I'm going to let them have a choice in the direction my games take but ultimately I'm making a game I'll enjoy because I'm just like everyone here in that I enjoy games and have similar tastes to them so they SHOULD enjoy what I enjoy.

On the other hand, when it comes to things like what direction your thinking of going in whether it's a design issue or something like realID or changing sub costs or even a philasophical thing like "are we going to make something easier so that more people can play?" then a company should be upfront and even if they can't be swayed, they should let that be known.

[Kankuri]

Go to Heatwave Interactive's forums for Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising. You'll shit bricks when you see the amount of communication between the developers and players. Hell, about a month or two ago I posted questions for their live chat. I figured that they would cover most of the questions with a blanketed statement or something. They quoted my questions word-for-word, then answered them directly. That communication is one of the biggest reasons I still play the game. That, and its pretty damn fun.

OT: Yes, developers should be concerned more with relaying information to the playerbase. When a company opens themselves up like that, it causes people to stay around even if the game is lacking. It's kind of like refusing to leave a job, even if there is another job that pays more, because you enjoy the environment.