GCDC 2007 - Best Selling Games Panel
Feedback from the journos and the massesThe discussion then moved on to the issue of figuring out when something in a game doesn't work. Julian Eggebrecht stressed that developers have to take criticism: "The press is not the enemy." Vast majority of journalists writing about games love them passionately, and their advice can be very good. Panelists recalled several cases where games actually got changed in the last minute because of a preview or a comment from a reviewer mentioned a problem, and the comment got passed to the developers. Don Daglow from Stormfront Studios also mentioned that developers should listen to their PR people - sometimes press gives feedback to PR people that they wouldn't give straight to the developers. It can be hard to say the ugly truth to the face of a developer who has worked his ass off on a game for several years, so I can personally relate to this. PR people are there "just to sell the game", and it's easier to tell them if the game sucks.  Word of mouth helped Fable and its expansion Lost Chapters get a cult following - now Lionhead Studios hopes to continue the success with Fable 2 (planned for release in 2008) Another subject that came up was that of hardcore gamers, those that patrol the fansites and the forums relentlessly. Michael Capps said upfront that Epic's employees read their own forums a lot, and the feedback from the most devoted players of their games is very important to them. George Baker from Lionhead Studios also pitched in, saying that games communities are very important: they extend the shelf life of a game and promote it by word of mouth. Sometimes, however, the most devoted gamers can also be a nuisance. Hardcore gamers tend to nitpick about everything, and it's impossible to innovate if you try to please every critic that says "you should make this more like Halo". In the case of Lair, hardcore gamers who tried the game at trade shows didn't like the Sixaxis motion control, and Julian Eggebrecht actually thinks that there may be a rift forming - among both gamers and journalists - between those who love and those who hate motion controls such as Wii's Wiimote and PS3's Sixaxis. Some games try to innovate, and get flak simply because the controls are not traditional. If you're a developer and don't want to risk that, you should go for something tried and true - Julian Eggebrecht said it best: "If you copy Halo['s controls], copy [them] well. Don't get sloppy." On the issue of critical acclaim from the press vs. big sales, they don't always go hand in hand. Don Daglow commented that "The head goes for the sales, but the heart always for the reviews." Ideally you want both, but sometimes a great game fails to sell. Julian Eggebrecht said, tongue-in-cheek, "If we could have one billion [in sales] or critical acclaim, we'd go for the critical acclaim every time" (laughter). Somehow people were not convinced.
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