Nintendo fans are no strangers to disapointment. As the mainstream gaming indusrty moves in a specific direction, as one man refered to as "the obvious choice", Nintendo loves to be different. It is both a blessing and a curse. Nintendo is undoubtedly one of the more major piorneers of the indusrty because of turning the other cheek and heading down a different path. Many developers reference to Nintendo's flagship titles (Mario, Zelda, Metroid, etc); recently I read about Batman Arkham Asylum and how the developers took some of their ideas from Zelda/Metroid's design on how to gain new equipment that will allow you to make further progress throughout the game (also Dark Siders made the same reference). But this also poses a major problem, particularly for the consumors.
If any of you have looked at a sit-down with developers, you might have run across some that pointed out that looking at gamers' opinions played apart of their development process, extracting ideas to add contant to their game. Ill take this chance to mention a game that some of you might not have heard about, PyroBlazer.
In an interview with the CEO of Eipix, Mirko Topalski, he was asked, "You have some online forums at EipixUniverse.com, and I noticed that you take ideas & suggestions from the gamers. Have there been useful suggestions so far, and do you think developers should pay attention to audience more often?"
He answered definitly yes. Miyamoto mentioned several times, most recently and this past E3 (FAILURE!) that he develops games that puts a smile on peoples faces. Now with out getting into the whole hardcore/casual conflict, how true is this for the hardcore? Correct me if Im wrong, but Nintendo, to me, isnt really known for listening to its audience. They go on about their mary way, conjoring up their own ideas, sometimes its a phenomenal success (many as we all know can be used as examples), others make u wonder, "wtf were they thinking", and most times they just simply dont do what seems to be an obvious, benefitial success. Now i could go on and on on how this could sevearly hurt Nintendo in the future, but that's not worth my time. Simply, I just want to know if Nintendo listens to their dedicated fan base, and if not, why?