Resident_Hazard said:
If you've ever worked in anything like retail, you know most customers are wrong on an awful lot. Customers, no matter where they're shopping, are idiots. A story was once recounted by a guy I know who works at Wal-Mart's electronics counter who encountered an angry wife when he tried to explain to her how Halo 3 wouldn't play on her Playstation 3. Customers buy Carnival Games in droves because they don't know the difference between that and a game with effort put behind it. I worked at Toys R Us for two years and no matter the age, financial or social status, or relative intelligence, customers were usually guaranteed to be moronic on any number of occasions. These are the people that buy a Power Wheels for their kid, and expect it to fit inside a car damn near the same size as the "toy" they just bought. If a business wants to ruin themselves, they'll start listening to customers. Listening to customers is why Atari made the original Lynx the size of a refrigerator--because customers wanted something giant, so they felt they were getting more bang for their buck. Meanwhile, Nintendo seemed to ignore customers and focus groups and made a small portable system that was battery-efficient, and affordable and above all--actually portable. The same genius thinking that created the Lynx also created the ultra-massive 5200, which, last time I checked, was responsible for gravitational anomalies detected by astronomers. Funny how Atari didn't learn from that. The first rule of business is often the same as the bottom line: Profit. If a company wants to guarantee failure, they'd assume customers know anything at all. |
Ok, start a business and take the strategy of "the customer is a moron, I am right!" and see how long you last. If the customer wants a product, particularly a $50 video game or $200 console enough to spend their money on it, then they obviously want it, and that product is doing something right.
Yes, the first rule of business IS profit. And how do you profit? By making products that the most people like..
What other measure of success and quality of video games is there besides sales? You may think MGS4 is the best game ever, but i may think it's awful. I may love Galaxy 2, you may think it's an insult to gaming. "Quality" in games is relative, sales is defined and measurable. And you get more sales by listening to what the consumer wants, and doing more of that.
