How to see whom I am at war with???

[Arryn]

Gandalf Parker said:
So this is.. what? The virtual Version of redecorating a room?

Yes! Isn't it obvious? Some of us women that fiddle with computers prefer more intellectually-challenging activities than having pool parties and interior design in the Sims ...

[Cainehill]

Arryn said:
As for geeky game designers prefering tweaks other than to UI as being more enjoyable, that's such a short-sighted attitude. It too readily dismisses the annoying tedium of having to constantly deal with awkwardnesses that rapidly detract from the overall pleasure of other aspects of a game. Inconsistent controls, missing controls (Dom's lack of arrow-key support), poorly placed controls (HoI's tiny '+' controls placed dangerously close to delete controls), controls that aren't smooth (HoI's jumping sliders), controls that require excessive clicking (transferring large amounts of items/cash in Fallout), such things quickly earn the ire of all but truly rabid fans of a game.

Indeed. Something more programmers need to consider is that one hour of tedious UI programming on their part can save hundreds or thousands of hours of unpleasant tedium on the part of the Users. There's more than a few of these UI issues in Dom2, sadly.

[Arryn]

Indeed, Caine. Another aspect is that in software engineering there is a little-appreciated and even less understood concept called "usability testing", and one of the tenets of this is that you never let the programmers who write the code do that aspect of the testing. They are too close to their code both in terms of liking their design and familiarity with it to see what may be obvious to another observer. Ideally, you also do not let programmers write the requirements for an application. That should come from the people who will actually have to use the software.

Unfortunately, in the gaming industry (even more so than in other fields), devs set what features an app will have (regardless of whether it's what gamers want, ex: MOO3) and devs either don't test apps for ease of use or, worse still, ignore tester feedback (again citing MOO3 as the most egregious example of this). MOO3 is the poster child for what can happen when devs think they know better than their customers what those same customers want, and for how people with good intentions can create an unmitigated disaster. MOO3 released after HOI. HOI still sells copies today in stores. MOO3 cannot be dumped even at under $10. More telling yet is that HOI was still selling at full retail 6 months (and in some stores, 12-18 months) later, while MOO3 got returned to stores in droves and was put in the el cheapo bargain bins within just a couple of months (setting new records for the rapid decline of a game with a grade-A franchise). It short, MOO3 bombed. And it was so easily avoidable, but for developer arrogance.

Fortunately for us, IW at least listens. They still do whatever they feel like (IOW, they work on the features they themselves most want to see rather than what we most want), but compared to the rest of the gaming industry, they're wonderful, and they go out of their way to answer our questions and make us feel like they appreciate our business. At the other end of the scale are Atari and EA ...