Whats a game developer you feel truely loves its fans?

[Mortons4ck]

Valve seems to really care about its fans. I think Bioware also cares about its fans.

I was playing through Portal on Friday with the developer's commentary turned on. In one section with cat walks, one of the devs explained how they were originally scenery. Since play testers kept trying to reach them, the devs redesigned the level to allow the player to reach them.

Now some may argue that this is just good level design, but to me it seems Valve actually cares about feedback and giving the player the best possible experience. So yeah, valve loves its fans.

Bioware has always been great, and recently has been very generous with DLC. So "yay!" bioware.

 

[major28]

i feel bethesda focuses on making a really good game over the profits it will bring

 

[veloper]

I think most devs have game designers in the house who honestly geek it out for us.

How the company as a whole feels about it is shown through support.
Blizzard keep supporting and patching and balancing their old games for a very long time. Bioware put alot of effort into NWN patches and extra content.

 

[ldbmikey86]

Rockstar (at least pre-GTAIV. Not so sure about them anymore), Valve and maybe Hi Rez. That's about it.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Judging by the latest Borderlands DLC, I'd say Gearbox.

They did everything the fans wanted in it: Hihger level cap, new weapons and abilities, better characterisation, better vehicles

I think they have a bright future.

Bethesda tend to listen to the fans too, judging by Broken Steel.

 

[Anticitizen_Two]

All of them, it's the publishers who don't care.

Absolutely this. People who develop games are in it because they love making games, but publishers are just in it for the money.

I wasn't exactly surprised to see the 9,001 posts about Valve, because most gamers seem to have some sort of weird obsession with them. I mean, they are a great company, and they've made six games I would describe as being great (HL, HL2, CSS, TF2, L4D, Portal), five of which are FPS's, which is a big deal for me because I hate most FPS's. Also, they're very good with free DLC and pretty regular deals and updates, and Steam is awesome, but I still think it's a bit strange that they receive such high praise from so many gamers.

Also, Nintendo deserves a mention because the sheer number of great games they've given us over the years is somewhat overwhelming. And because I'm a huge Nintendo fanboy.

 

[Nazz3]

Infinity Ward

 

[DragonChi]

Blizzard.

 

[Angerwing]

Valve, Nintendo.

I'd say Valve. I'm a console gamer, and even I have respect.

Also I'd like to say Blizzard, because they always put out a quality product, but WoW is a pool of gaming malevolence.

I'd disagree on Blizzard.
They're only basing all of their games on WoW now, even Starcraft 2 looks like WoW, not to mention Diablo 3.

Blizzard loves one thing and one thing only:
The stupidity of Mainstreem gamers who keeps feeding their purses.

Let me clarify what I said, because I was being very vague.

I meant that Blizzard doesn't give deadlines or premature releases, and instead prefers to wait and release a finished product. This I respect.

Whether you enjoy the quality of the games put out, that's up to opinion

 

[Wardnath]

I'd say Valve. I'm a console gamer, and even I have respect.

Also I'd like to say Blizzard, because they always put out a quality product, but WoW is a pool of gaming malevolence.

Ehhh, I've seen worse. =P

But yeah, I'm gonna say Blizzard, too.

Also, Infinity Wa- oh, wait...

 

[EvilestDeath]

Hands down, Harmonix! The Rock Band Network sealed my vote on this.

Valve is great but they lost my vote with being secret about Half Life 2 episode 3.

Infinity Ward lost my vote when they swapped from the stunning and realistic COD4 to make a fucking Halo clone with all the pew pew pew duel welded weapons intact. *sigh*

2K games...Bioshock 2 took my vote away, it is not what the series needed. *cry* I am going back to Rock Band 2.

Nintendo lost my vote after I realized all they do is remake the same games each year. Thats not fan service that is just lazy.

 

[Craftybonds]

Valve. they go out of their way to fuck with their fans all the time, and i love it.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Valve and Bungie have been pretty good to their fans. Valve for releasing amazing games and free DLC (at least for the PC) and Bungie for interacting with their community all the time.

DICE is good to, but a little "eh".

DICE? Bullshit, their useless punkbuster crap, and their utter faliure at making Battlefield Heroes a balanced, FREE TO PLAY game put them low on my list.

 

[Volafortis]

Valve and Bioware. They listen to what fans want, enjoy giving to fans, and just love making great games.

 

[bismarck55]

To be honest I think that most developers appreciate their fans. Of course profit is the number one concern for any company but most (imo) people who go into the games industry (as developers) do so because they have a passion for gaming, and are usually gamers themselves.

As for a specific company, I'd have to say VanillaWare. I also think that Atlus deserves an honorable mention despite being a publisher.

 

[Tharwen]

So, what you're looking for is the 'Innocent smoothies' of games development. Hmmm... Valve seems the best choice. At least it's the best I can think of.

 

[boyvirgo666]

2k games and bethesda usually do good by us

 

[Tanzka]

Valve came to my mind as soon as I saw the thread, so that'd be it.
Loved the ninja-Portal mindfuck update.

 

[Jadak]

Really? Nobody else said Stardock yet? The developer/publisher with no DRM, and who's 'top dogs' regularly hang out on the forums with their fans? Openly discussing and responding to feedback?

Shame on you.