| shams said: Its great stuff. If I have any "hero" (and ever have) it is definitely Miyamoto. My #1 desired job in life would be to work with Miyamoto on designing games for Nintendo. Maybe one day I'll apply there again :) [I applied to Retro many, many years ago - but didn't have the experience they were looking for :P]. These days I find it much more fascinating watching someone else play a game - than playing it myself. You watch their reactions, expressions, emotions - it really is fascinating. There is definitely a science to this - and no one has really cracked it yet (bat Miyamoto of course... :>).
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I wouldn't say it's a "science" it's pretty much a qualitive consumer psychology approach... the only difference is he's doing it himself instead of paying some psychology expert a bunch of money to do it. 
Companies do similar stuff with 1 on 1 focus interviews for some focus group stuff. The brilliant part about using it in a videogame is that the output is readily visible. You can see on the screen what he gets and what he doesn't get. Unlike other products where the consumer psychologist has to ask many measured and detailed questions, that have to be flexable enough to flow with what the subject is saying... because often times the subject doesn't really know what he missed or what's important to him. You have to wrestle it out of him.
With a game it's easier, and much more cost efficient because you can see the reactions and like is aid... the output is right there. Most companies don't do this because of the cost/time it takes for a few subjects that may or may not be representative of your target audience.
Some do however, and the ones that do are greatly helped. I'm sure it helps Miyamoto that he works ina place where there were plenty of guineia pigs that he pretty much knew represented his target demographic.
