Unfortunately gaming is one of the most complex areas to make good use of user feedback in, as the customers are just so blatantly passionate about it, combined with the fact that it’s a young industry full of just as passionate people who look at game design as more of an art form than a business. In other words, they’re much more likely to “trust their gut” – which sometimes pays off, and sometimes doesn’t.

Anyway, beta feedback in a game, especially in a public beta, and even more-so in an MMO is an extremely complex and tricky subject. It’s not something that can really be trivialized to something you should or shouldn’t do. I personally believe that it takes a great deal of skill on the role of the designer to understand what to listen to and more importantly what not to. The biggest challenge is the fact that user opinions are often so heated, quite often very self-interested, and generally fueled by a number of overlapping and clashing often extremely vocal minorities. Honestly not a job I want. (:

On top of that there’s the logistical nightmare of deciphering 50,000+ individual pieces of feedback, and figuring out what bucket each of them fall into. (:

I think Blizzard is a good example of a company that’s earned a reputation amongst many hardcore gamers (at least in regards to WoW) for not listening to user feedback, and yet nobody can hold a candle to their success – so obviously they’re doing something extremely right. I’m curious what your thoughts are on that?