"Gamer's choice day" We think of a game... they make it...?

[Argonian alchemist]

Now this is obviously a very far fetched idea... but I've seen some of the other threads on here, so uh... why not join in?

Now then, what do you all think of the idea of a "gamer's choice" day. A certain large company, perhaps Bethesda or even Blizzard opens up a poll, a written poll. Gamers send in ideas for games, anything they want.

After a certain amount of time, the company chooses an idea, one that a high percentage of people wanted or one that integrates a little of everything that bunches of high groups of people wanted. For example, if 5,000 mentioned wanting a lot of blood in the game, they'd add it and if 3,000 people mentioned RPG elements, they'd add that into it etc etc.

Or they'd just pick an idea that everyone seemed to want. It'd be huge, whole website communities would dedicate themselves to sending in a game they had all pieced together on the forums or something.

Sure, the company would have to pick something in that was actually possible. But since they know so many people already want that... it isn't a matter of who buys it... but when.

Yay or nay? good or bad?

Any opinions...? or just some idea's to add in even.

 

[dessertmonkeyjk]

Hell, why not?

 

[WorldCritic]

Sounds like an alright idea to me.

 

[bob1052]

Sounds like a fun idea but would never happen the way you suggested.

The number of people who care enough about the company, or even the number of people who pay enough attention to news about their favorite games compared to the total number of people who purchase games is such an incredibly small number that making a game of what everybody (everybody who enters the poll) wants would not guarantee that the game is going to sell well because it is not what everybody (everyone who purchases games).

It would be too big a leap for bigger companies to let the community pitch the basic idea of their game, even if they rehaul the game into something of their own.

Now if a smaller indie developer tried this I think it would be a great idea.

 

[Frotality]

sounds terrible. i can just see that ending up like that episode of the simpsons where homer designed a car...

im with yahtzee; devs shouldnt really listen to the fans; listen to complaints yes, but there is a reason they are the developer and we are the players; most people know neither what they want nor how certain concepts work in relation to each other in development. youd end up with either something incredibly generic, or the horrendous, expensive to make abomination of a car homer simpson designed.

 

[thenamelessloser]

Democracy should never define art or science, it should just stick to politics.(bit dumbed down this sentence I guess and a bit unclear... can clarify maybe, but lazy. lol)

I would like to see perhaps would be a bunch of elitist assholes with tons of money, some rich families with extremely critical opinions about things pay for a game themselves. It would be like the Medici/Florence/etc of video games. What we really need are a bunch of super dorky rich people who have enough free time that they can play video games and want to pay for a an awesome game that they may let others play. (note there may be some awful problems with this idea and maybe even worse than the idea of having gamers vote on what games should be like but I still find it interesting)

 

[Katie Paxton-fear]

I disagree, it's people who have great ideas and want to make them which bring people into the game industry. Indie games work really well because of their format, a company can't really take an idea and transform it into a product the same way an indie dev can. We need the indies, so the companies can't make the new ideas.

 

[dOrOrOwait]

Agreed, I know gaming is no longer an art form but a marketing tool but we could turn it around...right?....right?

 

[Sinclair Solutions]

I'm only afraid of what hideous monstrosity the masses might create. Just look at the created levels on LittleBigPlanet. Some crazy stuff goes down there. Plus, all the different tastes and opinions? It would be a "too many cooks" sort of conundrum.

 

[thenamelessloser]

Agreed, I know gaming is no longer an art form but a marketing tool but we could turn it around...right?....right?

Voting for specific features in a game by vote is closer to marketing than what we we have now.

Agreed, I know gaming is no longer an art form but a marketing tool but we could turn it around...right?....right?

Adding features by people voting for it may make the games even less as a form of art, if asking the majority of people who play games that actually buy the mainstream titles that come out.

Actually come to think of it modding is probably a good middle ground. Have a game be made by a company than have fans edit the stuff in or out that they want.

 

[L-J-F]

You would get something resembling Call of Duty but everything would be all over the place and totally stupid. I'd rather play something made and thought up by professionals, even if that something was designed to please the lowest common denominator.

 

[dOrOrOwait]

That wasn't my point at all but good work.
My main point was to get input from the artistic little man, people who aren't jaded or care about how much money it will make.