The Wasteland 2 forums actually became quite monocled after the first few months. There are some seriously hardcore bros there.
I systematically bullied 'em until they became monocled.
But you are arguing it, so goddamn, put forward some proof maybe?
Brother None Please tell us about inXile's approach towards gathering fan input.
Well, I could go all "we have a brilliant system" or "community interaction can only make the gamer better!!" and similar PR bullshit but honestly, a lot of it is playing it by ear. We don't have any complex systems or focus test systems or community schedules in place, we just have a lot of devs on (social) media, Facebook, blog, twitter, formspring, forums, external forums, and from there we kind of just get a feel for fan input.
How seriously do we take it? That kinda depends on how smart it is, and how well it works inside the creative vision of the designers, writers, artists. If community suggestions go against that vision, then I'm sorry but we just can't help you, no matter how many of you there are. But if it makes sense, if it's just something we haven't thought of before or a legitimate complaint or suggestion that has to do with interfacing in the game, it'll be brought up in design meetings, discussed internally, and followed up on, positively or negatively.
Ultimately it's a balance between having a strong core vision that you're confident in, and taking "the crowd" in as a part of the iterative process. A significant percentage of design is iteration, and while you do constantly need to be wary of the "too many cooks spoil a broth" effect, you can include "fan input" into this iterative process, especially if you can find and connect with fans/crowds that share your core vision. I wouldn't claim inXile has done so flawlessly, haha, not remotely, but we do consider it a part of our approach and are looking at ways to improve it (hence UserVoice, for example).
