Mark Darrah was instrumental in Anthem or the Dragon Age series. He has now warned other developers in a post about handling fan feedback incorrectly.
Mark Darrah, the Executive Producer of the unfortunately deceased shooter Anthem or the role-playing games Dragon Age II and Inquisition, addressed community feedback in a video on his YouTube channel.
Already in the provocative title, Darrah sets the direction: Listening to the community is bad advice. In the video itself, the developer breaks down this statement and explains what he means by it.
Players recognize problems, but…
What does Darrah warn about? In general, it is not bad to listen to players as they often play a title a lot and intensely and recognize problems. The community is a “valuable source of information”, telling when and where they are frustrated.
The sheer mass of players can even surpass the best QA team within a studio. However, Mark Darrah immediately makes a caveat:
“Players are really very, very good at recognizing problems. However, what they are much less good at is finding solutions. They are not developers but players. They may know that they don’t like something, but the solution they come up with may not be the best one.”
Mark Darrah
It is then the task of the developers to understand and analyze the players’ feedback correctly. Only then can a solution for the actual problem be found.
Here you can watch the full video:
Another important point: Darrah emphasizes that a community consists of many small groups. There is a significant difference between casual players and hardcore fans. These groups have different wishes and expectations for a game.
If you find yourself in a discussion that seemingly unites the entire community, you should take a step back and ask yourself: ‘Is this really the entire community, or have we established a very special relationship with a particular part of the community and are mainly listening to that part while ignoring other groups?’
Mark Darrah
For developers, it is important to use as many and diverse data sources as possible to reach different target audiences of a game. Mark Darrah’s final tip to his colleagues may be the most important of all.
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