Designing games based on "players desired" features

I often compare game design with IT application designs and patterns (probably because I'm still working on that side of the fence), board games or movies. A growing belief is that the more you listen to the "customer" to design your thing, the more accurate it fits their needs and desired features... NAH! I still don't believe this today after years of gaming and developping applications. While we listen too much to our customers, we may end up building quite an abomination.

I often compare Architects in the IT and buildings world with Game Designers. Of course either of them have the absolute truth and flawed design may occur. That's why some building or bridges fell during history because the weight or the level and frequency of vibrations where not well taken into consideration before and while designing.

The job of a game designer is to see which feature will fit the gameplay, the level design and the setting of a game. It will also try to measure the effort needed to implement it technically in the final build.

Future players can provide inputs and ideas of course, it may be part a good development pattern as it has been done for years in games like Eve Online regarding features to be included in each expensions based on "desired" features posted on the forum. But in the end it all comes down to the game designer and the team which is behind.

There is a growing philosophy which tries to measure the playing habilities of players and then go with what they really want. I don't know today at what level this philosophy has taken over but I think there may be some kind of risk involved. Let's compare this to the movie industry.

Today, it is still hard to come up with a complete final cut of a movie which had no imposed guidelines from major studios to make the movie as "commercial" as possible. Big productions want to be rated 13 or below to have the largest audience, they put into sci fi movies humour, cheezy love stories and cute childish characters which the whole family will love.  But it's all about a recipe and it's in the hands of the filmmaker.  Not the audience which would ask many things which would not necessarily fit well together.

Remember the car designed BY Homer Simpson FOR the people... Though I like him a lot, he's sure no car engineer. ;-P

Designing a game is of course about using patterns and recipe which tends to become standards, though after a while they feel exhausted. It is also about listening to the audience for what works and what doesn't work. BUT! Because the citizens of a city may have all an idea about what should be the next stadium to be built, don't ever let them make plans and give ideas about the architecture and the facilities of that stadium. You could end up taking ideas from many people among which no one has a global view of the final "build" or "solution".

That's where Architects take their role.