Maria Caliban wrote...
No one said you couldn't be involved in the discussion. The issue is whether BioWare listens to you and weighs your feedback as much as that of someone who likes the voiced protagonist.
I hear what you're saying, but its only one way of looking at it. What matters most is the method and reason behind making decisions.
What you're proposing casts Bioware in the role of game "artists". The decisions are essentially creative ones about what the artist wants to do, and other people's views are largely irrelevant provided that what they do sells well enough to cover costs (including minimum required profit).
Higher weighting will naturally be given to people who agree with the decision - partly ego, partly because it provides evidence that the decisions will translate into acceptable sales. For anyone who doesn't like the game and doesn't buy it because of the decisions, that's fine. After all, its art.
To persuade an artist's decision-making process to change, it either needs to become clear that it will result in a failure to cover costs (ie, mass rejection forces reality to sink in, artistic tantrums about philistines, but ultimately an acceptance that food on the table is more important), or the artist(s) need to be personally persuaded by the merits of a different decision that can appeal equally to them (ie, emotional persuasion, not with logical reasoning), or an appeal to every artist's inner desire for congratulation and appreciation - which can result in some unexpected "Well, you asked for this, so actually I thought I'd do it for you".
Whist creative individuals often have an element of this to them, and they may carry a disproportionate power over decision-making, its relatively rare for a
company to make decisions in this way.
The opposite end of the spectrum casts Bioware in the role of a game "corporation". In this instance, the aim of decision-making is to increase profitability, which means maximising short-term (and arguably long-term) sales. In this instance, weighting is defined by whether a decision will change someone's behaviour.
Assuming Bioware has perfect information on that, then in principle decision-making is blind to whether someone is a current customer or not for products with a short lifecycle, such as games - everyone is a potential customer for the new product.
So if a large group of potential customers really value a voiced protagonist, and the absence of it will result in them not buying the game, that will add significant weight to the decision. Note that this isn't specifically because of volume. A larger proportion could prefer a silent protagonist, but if they will still buy a game with a voiced protagonist then their preferences carry less weight as their behaviour will be unchanged. In principle, you could make a series of decisions that caused many potential customers some level of annoyance, but which resulted in a lot more people buying the game (and screw the fans, etc.)
In reality, its not that clear cut. Its partly an advertising problem and partly a segmentation problem. If you have non-customers who would have bought your product if they knew enough about it, that can be solved by advertising (up to the point where additional advertising spend fails to generate enough sales to cover its expenses).
The bigger problem is customers who don't buy your product because it fails to appeal. This may be because that segment of similar-minded customers value a combination of qualities which is absent in your product, but were you to provide them, you would face a dramatic drop in sales amongst your existing customers from a different segment who value different things. In reality, the only way to address this and appeal to multiple segments is to a) understand them, and
create different products and target them accordingly.
Some companies can get away with creating something that is relatively innoffensive to all segments, but that also tends to make it relatively unattractive. In a market with open competition, they'll almost certainly suffer against rivals who are more focused on specific segments, so you only tend to see this when markets are distorted in some way (e.g. lack of competition, or one company in control of distribution) or when a company produces a relatively generic product at such large volumes that they can afford to maintain a far lower price point through economies of scale. This gives them the opportunity to offer a different kind of value for money - cheap n' cheerful, versus quality and priced accordingly.
To persuade a corporate decision-maker presumes that they don't have perfect information, and so will give greater weighting to decisions where its clear it will impact purchase decisions and/or where a large volume of feedback proposes a similar change. They will also tend to give a higher weighting to existing customers, because its a more stable and well-understood market segment, and because significant gains would need to be made in sales from new customers to justify the expense and risk of affecting the existing customer base.
So...erm...the screw the fans version is actually the one which listens more closely to fan feedback. Remember that the next time you see someone rant about how Bioware / EA are only interested in profit.
Both extremes have strengths and flaws, and the reality is probably a fusion of both models and lots more people who work for Bioware and sit somewhere in between.
Influential creative people - Mark Darrah, David Gaider, Mike Laidlaw, may need to be influenced by more emotional persuasion, (ie. not ranting, not producing vast lists of statistics, not stamping on their artistic beliefs)...if indeed they allow themselves to be influenced at all by feedback. They may be willing to uphold their ideas, or ideas they are championing from feedback, irrespective of what statistics Corporate decision-makers wave at them.
Others will be more inclined to listen to the more rational, logic-driven arguments and genuine (ie, non ranty) feedback that shows how important different decisions are, and therefore their impact on the game's sales and fan base. They may be willing to stand their ground in defiance of a creative individual's strongly-held belief that they know what's best.
Both sides can persuade the other, both can champion or ignore feedback from specific players. The only consistent reccomendation is not to be ranty, as all it'll do is ensure your viewpoint is swiftly dismissed by all concerned.
Modifié par Wozearly, 16 avril 2012 - 07:54 .
they will manage to unbreak the voiced protagonist and dialog wheel. 
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