[MUD-Dev] DGN: Reasons for play [was: Emergent Behaviors spawnedfrom...]

[Michael Hartman]

Jeff Bachtel wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 11, 2005 at 03:00:09PM -0400, Michael Hartman wrote:

>> This is right on the money. Developers need to understand that
>> the tiny vocal minority who writes 99% of the forum posts and
>> emails, represents less than 1% of their users. You cannot rely
>> on unsolicited player feedback.

>> You have to go out and ACTIVELY seek feedback from a variety of
>> player types in your game if you hope to understand what is going
>> on in your own game, and make design adjustments (or expansions)
>> for the good of your entire playerbase.

> Does anyone have any actual evidence to back their assertions that
> the desires of the "silent majority" differ significantly from
> vocal players?

> I would expect, without evidence to the contrary, that the desires
> of vocal players are the same, proportionally, as the non-vocal
> players.

And you would be falling into exactly the same trap that these
careless developers fall into.

>>From my experience as a developer, the opinions of the small,
heavily vocal minority is often dramatically different than the
opinion of the majority of your players.

I have experienced this in two major ways, one good, one bad:

  1) I have had numerous situations where I gave too much credence
  to the feedback of the hyper-vocal hardcore players, made feature
  implementations accordingly, and had a disasterous result as the
  overwhelming response was heinously negative.

  2) I have had TONS of situations where I was (wisely) cautious
  about feedback from the vocal minority, and before acting, spent a
  significant amount of time polling and talking with tons of
  different types of players (different classes, different playing
  times, different playing amounts, different levels, different
  playing styles, etc.). I have avoided many mistakes this way. Or,
  the feedback I had to bust my butt to get from the less-vocal
  majority was able to be combined with the very different feedback
  from the super vocal minority in order to do something in a way
  that was good for everyone.

While it is true that sometimes the opinions of the small, hardcore
minority is shared by the entire playerbase, it is actually more
commonly the opposite. Any company that does not actively seek out
feedback from a variety of sources within its own customer base is
setting itself up for some titantic mistakes.

--
Michael Hartman, J.D. (http://www.thresholdrpg.com)
President & CEO, Threshold Virtual Environments, Inc.
University of Georgia School of Law, 1995-1998
Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, 1990-1994
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