A lot of people here seem to assume that the only possible reason for transparency is the solicitation of feedback from fans. I don’t agree with that at all. I think transparency is a good PR move and that secrecy leaves a bad taste in potential customers’ mouths. That doesn’t mean that every single move the designers make needs to be made public. It just means that the designers ought not treat their customers as outsiders and, by extension, enemies.
If you make a great game, it doesn’t matter whether gamers know all about it while you make it. People knew very little about Half-Life before Day One appeared. Same goes for something like God of War, which I played for the first time tonight.
Keeping things secret also creates surprise and excitement, far more in fact than if everyone knows everything there is to know before the game launches.
–Dave
It’s the unexpected gem that’s exciting, not the unexpected release. Surprise releases don’t do anything but make it take longer for things to get into our hands, or at least our thoughts, where we can see that gem. Having cool stuff to look forward to is a great part of this hobby, and surprises don’t do us any favors on that end.
We knew enough about Half-Life to know that it was taking forever to come out. Most of us saw the magazine previews and said “Whatever. Sin sounds cooler and doesn’t look like shit.”, because Valve was screwing around with engine changes and whatnot. It wasn’t until we had something in our hands that we saw the gem and started telling everyone else about it.
Moreover, that was back in the day when “When it’s done” had yet to be skullfucked into absurdity by countless smirking devs who thought it was clever to act nonchalant about information, player interest, and release dates. Before players had gotten jaded enough to develop a “That’s right about when we’ll care” response. If they’re going to dick around like that, like with Duke Nukem Forever, then yeah, it’s better that they just shut up until they really have something to crow about. It is better to be surprised when the alternative is being jerked around.
I think part of the issue is that publicly exposing your project early needs to be an all-or-nothing affair. If you reveal a limited amount of info at the beginning, turn into a black box for six months, and then come back and give conflicting info, it can upset some fans. Let’s call this, say, the Molyneux Effect. The total transparency of Stardock’s GC2 development is impressive, and I would expect that the fundamental design trade-offs it exposes must help to molify the community somewhat. It’s very clear that your design decision aren’t just being made haphazardly. If hard-core fans don’t get that exposure, then the cutting of their pet features (which are usually products of their imagination anyway) seems arbitrary or worse. Thus, if you aren’t willing to go all the way, it might be best to wait for the last half-year.
How hard is it to consolidate a fan base? Have an official forum, or have your people occasionally post on one site you target and boom, your fan base is consolidated.
What if people don’t the direction of Age of Empires III? You know fans of Age II really just want that game remade with better graphics. They may say they don’t, but any changed made to the core game would likely be met with screams and horror! And if you can’t show them why it’s better, if they can’t play the game and see for themselves, you run the risk of alienating your fan base.
The idea of opening up certain decisions to the public is actually terrific PR; those people that vote for something might feel a greater sense of ownership with the product. Of course the opposite may also hold true, that the person that vote for Design B over Design A may feel like you’ve really fucked up the look of your game. Had they never had a choice, they’d never know what they were missing.
These are worst case scenarios, obviously, but I think this kind of stuff could backfire.
Hell, I shouldn’t even post about magazine stuff online. It doesn’t really give us any benefit. I doubt anyone will subscribe just because I answer questions on message boards, or because I asked for their opinion on something.
If you reveal a limited amount of info at the beginning, turn into a black box for six months, and then come back and give conflicting info, it can upset some fans. Let’s call this, say, the Molyneux Effect.
I can say for certainty that you can zoom in on a ship and in the window you can see a crewman eating an apple and in that apple there is a worm…well until the next build where that feature is gone. ;)
What if people don’t the direction of Age of Empires III? You know fans of Age II really just want that game remade with better graphics. They may say they don’t, but any changed made to the core game would likely be met with screams and horror! And if you can’t show them why it’s better, if they can’t play the game and see for themselves, you run the risk of alienating your fan base.
I think game developers have a vested interest in being able to justify such changes. We’re doing pretty major surgery here on our game. There will be unhappy people – especially the ones who feel we need to change some other feature.
But the idea is to make sure we don’t blow the whole thing by missing something obvious or put in nice things that we may not have thought of.
Remember, what we’re talking about is customer feedback, not customer design.
Brad, I think I agree with a previous poster on the idea that there are mostly benefits for smaller developers to be open. Any generally positive customer awareness of your product that you can drum up without paying for advertising is really important when you don’t have a lot of money in the war chest. Heck, it’s important for the big guys too, but they have a much easier time getting into magazines with previews, exclusives, etc.
I get the feeling though that the more rabid your fans get, the more wary you have to be of their input. Grognards and flight sim fans are good examples, but just imagine Fallout fans getting a crack at the designers of the next game.