1. We need to know who within PDX decides these things.
2. We need to know whether PDX actually survey their communities for what some internal standard system assesses as "good ideas."
3. We need to know whether PDX operates (1) and (2) relatively independent of its own in-house or closed-beta testing (as most respondents here seem to suggest) or if they triangulate plans from multiple sources (as would seem to be the case from my standpoint).
4. We need to know if PDX attempts to make an effort to "farm" suggestions/comments/debates/disagreements from their communities to support their own internal decisions or if, as most respondents here seem to think, "they aren't sure how to design their games, and seek guidance from their communities."
None of this means it is not worthwhile to participate in discussions, to voice disagreement or to offer suggestions. Yes! It may well influence development and improve the game for some or even all users, so definitely do it!
The point is that there is not much point in "not being chill" about hypothetical impending changes. It is THEIR game, we just paid for EULAs. Best thing is to chill, see what they do, and see if it sucketh or not, and moreover, to attempt as much as we are all able to consider that whether or not a change sucket or not may in large part be dependent on the playstyle/use-case. Singleplayer users of various sorts may find a particular change to be excellent, while competitive multiplayers hate it and mod-users and coop players are indifferent.
1. Ultimately me, but these things are often the result of a lot of conversation and debate within the design team.
2. No. We have limited telemetry which we can use to infer habits and inform our reasoning, but we do not generally ascribe to data-driven design. We make games we want to play, however:
3. We are a small team that has relatively loose discipline boundaries. Anyone can expect to be listened to upon any design decision, whether team or closed beta (or forum user, usually).
4. We read most forum posts and suggestions. I can tell you that the number of features I've taken wholesale from the forums and implemented with no changes is, and always will be zero. However, good ideas shouldn't be passed up just because of where they come from. This said, there are plenty of ideas many people would 'upvote' that have no place in the game as I see it, or that miss the
point of a military simulation. Good ideas aren't good because they win a popularity contest.
4.5. There are exceptions to this. If a lot of people are frustrated by the same thing, I am likely to question if it should be a priority for us - but the answer won't always be yes.
