Josh Sawyer from Obsidian on the opinions of EA/Beta test Gamers:
"Your audience is self selected to the most hardcore enthusiastic people. They give very good feedback but it is also feedback for psychotic gamers. They...like...have the strongest opinions , they are going to grind your game into the dust. It is very valuable but it can kind of skew your understanding of how your game plays for a wider audience."
From Josh Sawyer, Breaking the Mold RPG Revolution - the PoE2 Post Mortem.
Yeah, I watched dozens of times. I was sure someone would attempt to hold that as a cheap excuse to defend bad design.
You'll find just as many developers making arguments for the opposite point, by the way: "You'll tend to get attached to your own design to the point of defending it almost irrationally. Listen to the feedback you'll get from your audience" etc, etc.
An audience in its totality may not always be reliable when it comes to picking an ideal solution, but you can almost always trust the background noise when it comes to identify the existence of a problem.
To be clear, I am not defending any bad design decisions. I just thought that it was a funny quote. Its true - Everyone on this forum, including me, is certifiable.
100% crazy-town banana-pants. Mods too! ^^
But listen, my brother used to say "Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't after you"
Which - is to say that doesn't make the feedback invalid - even if it comes from nutcases. You just need to know how to sift it.
