BBC NEWS | Technology | Online sci-fi shooter listens to fans
This article from the Beeb, quoting the unreal 2004 developers, made me think that this is what marketing should be about and exactly how you should enhance a product after its intial development.
What is important is game makers ensure they go through a step by step process to make the game even better, he said.
That means having a good idea of what will be fun, talking about it, brainstorming it and improving on it in "evolutionary steps".
Part of this process has been to post comments on player forums and it is not uncommon to see the developers playing in a match.
"We took everything the community said was good and we made it better and everything they said was bad, we worked to make that better too or eliminated it completely," said the Epic developer.
Even better is this development:
Or you can sit back and watch the game from afar using UT2004's new feature, UnrealTV.
UTV is a software process called a spectator proxy that allows many people to connect to games in play and watch the battles. Thousands can be watching, live, with only a few seconds delay.
It is a classic example of user-generated innovation which came from the developers listening to players. It was originally a mod developed for the Unreal Tournament by two Swedish players.
As broadband gets better there will be more to come, perhaps video screens where you can simultaneously see or map peoples' faces, mused Mr Wilbur.
"Who knows? But the key, world changing innovations are going to come from some place you never expected and are going to be delivered in a manner you'd never consider, from people you thought would probably never have made it."
It also mentions that broadband is clearly a driver in the development of the games and the functionality. Something that I feel ntl should take more heed of and look to develop products specifically for gamers, like the current console service.
If we go out and listen to our customers there may even be a chance of this kind of successful collaboration between developers and players.
Posted by Paul Goodison at September 1, 2003 10:00 PM | TrackBack