Do not listen to fans too much

[Jack Dandy]

Hey there-
I have a very general suggestion;
since I never played the previous game I won't pretend I know what exactly should or shouldn't be in the sequel, BUT-

Please, make sure to not go overboard with fan's suggestions. It may be silly saying this to experienced industry veterans, but I've seen a couple of times where an over-reliance on fans for ideas just ruined the entire game project.

What I'm meaning to say it, while acknowledging the advice from the fans, try and keep your own distinct flavor for the game- I'm sure it will be for the best.

[TellarHK]

Seconded. Though I will admit, I'm seriously hoping for a somewhat affordable tier where I can pay to be involved in scripting something for the game. But only if the setting, story, mood, etc. is known in advance. The developers need to focus on getting all that locked down, documented and decided before allowing anyone else to tinker.

[chris]

+2

[Bill]

Thirded.

[infestor]

i think fargo knows what suggestions to filter.

[Sharkyzero]

i think fargo knows what suggestions to filter.

^ that.

If the guy can give me even a glimmer of FO goodness, I'm set. I trust the people that worked on Fallout (not Bethesda) innately. They gave me perhaps the best game of my life.

[TwinkieGorilla]

lolz.

Dudes. I don't think they opened this forum so they could use us to write the goddamn thing. They're just testing the feckin' waters, y'all.

[Lexx]

I am / was worried about this issue too. Fan input is nice and stuff, but just because a majority wants something, doesn't mean it's actually good. :>

[hiptanaka]

I, too, agree with OP. Staying true to an established core vision without too many whimiscal changes based on fan input is important, but I think that's what Fargo and team have in mind.

[Quarex]

Agreed; I actually made basically this exact same thing a formal suggestion earlier just to hopefully get support for the idea that "it is all right to ignore our intense salivations for the sake of the game being good."

It is easy for me to say; I would probably consider putting my academic career plans on hold for the chance to somehow be involved in this project (despite having no useful skills, of course), so I am probably just the kind of fanboy whose ideas should be ignored.

[selkin]

it would probably be good to have some sort of short final questionnaire about major issues before donating so devs could have a picture of what fans really want. And if an answer is 50% no, 50% yes, they just go what they think is the best.

[Tinkerbell]

Hey there-
[..]
Please, make sure to not go overboard with fan's suggestions. It may be silly saying this to experienced industry veterans, but I've seen a couple of times where an over-reliance on fans for ideas just ruined the entire game project.

[..]

This! To much listening to fans is generally a bad idea, everyone has differen opinions. If you please them all it is going to be without its own flavor at all.
And with this I just want to let one of the experts speak about this: http://jeff-vogel.blogspot.com/2012/01/ ... s-and.html

However, I think this is more brainstorming than anything else and the developers have more than enough experience to deliver something unique.

[Brother None]

I think some people are getting the wrong idea if you think they'll put up core design decisions to a vote, or anything.

In a lot of ways, this reminds me of the way BIS used to handle development, where they'd have open discussions through much of the cycle too. Fargo never minded that, but that's because he introduced the idea of vision documents to InXile. Wasteland 2 will have such a vision document, and no amount of fan feedback is likely to budge it from said core visions. The feedback is there to iterate, not to create.

[Sobboth]

Yeah, i don't expect Inxile to follow much, if any, of our suggestions.
This forum is more for us, the fans, and for letting us happily babbling untill the games come out/get funded.
It was really nice to ask our feeling about the kickstarter rewards though, and even nicer to adjust them following our comments.

[Brother None]

Now you misunderstand in the other directions. They will listen very closely to fan suggestions, but not to any fan suggestions that clash with core design principles. If you can argue why something is better *within* the concept of what Wasteland is about, they'll listen. If it falls outside the core principles, there's not much to discuss.

[Bonecrusher]

I think some people are getting the wrong idea if you think they'll put up core design decisions to a vote, or anything.

In a lot of ways, this reminds me of the way BIS used to handle development, where they'd have open discussions through much of the cycle too. Fargo never minded that, but that's because he introduced the idea of vision documents to InXile. Wasteland 2 will have such a vision document, and no amount of fan feedback is likely to budge it from said core visions. The feedback is there to iterate, not to create.

i didn't see any company that evaluates the ideas and thoughts of the fans.
those companies always do what they believe is right.
therefore i don't think the topic in this forum will have any effect on the main game.
i think nobody should worry whether listening fans will spoil the broth or not.

in many game forums, i saw many great ideas. some of them were small details, like color of a flower (fictional example: "rose petal colors should be pink, not brown."), some of them were larger details, like colorblind mode feature (fictional example: "hi, i am a colorblind gamer, i have difficulties while playing this game. i would be really happy if you put a colorblind mode for players like me.").

it doesn't matter whether that topic becomes hundred pages long and included scientific articles or not. they just simply ignore those ideas and keep their own.

appealing to more customers is mostly based on marketing and advertising campaign. listening to fans and applying their ideas to the game, doesn't change the number of players that much.

[ghorahn]

...just because of what people on the forum said.

I say this because I've been looking at this thread for a little while now, and I've seen some strongly-worded (read: profane) 'arguments' against various game elements. Some I agreed with, some I didn't.

But I have no sense of entitlement about the design of the game. My pledge gets me a voice, not a decision. It's because I believe that the designers know this that allows me to put my trust in their decisions.

I'd hope that the majority of pledgers feel likewise, even if they choose to stay quiet about it.

[jarg]

I'm writing this because Fargo's "you are my new boss" comment concerns me a bit.

It's good that you seek feedback from the fans, and there is certainly a place for that, especially when it comes to stuff like the interface, but major design decisions should come from the team and the team alone.

It seems many key people from the original Wasteland and Fallout games are on board, and that's one of the main reasons so many people donated. They trust your ability to make a party/turn-based rpg in the wasteland, thats why they gave money for you, not a million random forum posters. Anything designed by too many people will inevitably end up being a mess, and you can't be everything to everyone.

Make the game you wanted to make, and if it's true to the spirit of the original Wasteland and Fallout games, lots of people will love it, especially old fans of those games. And they are the ones backing this project anyway.

[TheRabbitsGeorge]

word

[Gennadios]

seconded... or thirded.

I do plan to spend quite a bit of time arguing against ideas I dislike or for ideas I support, but I trust you guys enough not to put my own crappy ideas forward. I expect a few good executive decisions shutting out topics or decisions that get too out of hand, I'm already seeing quite a few competing ideas that can't coexist in the same ecosystem.