Quote from: Lohoris on July 08, 2013, 05:02:08 PM

Quote from: Deprived on June 14, 2013, 06:21:25 PM

But investors in S.MG (should) want whichever will give the best return on investment - the company's focus should NOT be on "what will make the most players happy" but on "what will make the most profit for our investors". And I'm VERY certain MP is on the side of investors not players.

None of which to say the two (pleasing investors and having satisifed players) are mutually exclusive - it's just that it's far easier to develop something that focuses on one of them than to try to deliver to both.

I disagree here.

Even if investors care only about profits and not happy users, unhappy users will not bring profits in the long term, and likely not even in the short term (though that may happen).

If your game is horrible it won't sell, no matter if it has a good business model (actually, having a bad game is a bad business model itself). Furthermore you'll alienate players for your future games.

If instead your game is great but it doesn't have a sound business model, it may be a financial failure, but at least will give you a head start for your next one (assuming you manage to try to make one).

So, both of these failures bring you no money, but while one gives you an advantage for an eventual next try, the other gives you a penalty!

Why must things be so absolute and extreme?

Players can both enjoy a game AND have complaints about it. I'd bet that you could even find a correlation with complaints to "success" ratio.

A game both be imperfect or merely above average and be a success as well.

A game be released, yet not be ready for final judgment. This is a work in progress, and likely will be released as one as well.