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Message: <blockquote data-quote="billd91" data-source="post: 5226283" data-attributes="member: 3400">The real risk I see from paying too much attention to the internet discussion is the way it shapes the discourse. A relative few gamers can have a large impact on the discussion, channeling it in ways that you don't see so much in the broader gaming community at large. This may be whether they are really active fans, willing to run demos and game days, or not.So there's a risky element in paying attention to the most active posting fans as well. You may "fix" the squeaky wheel only to find that most players preferred the root cause of the squeaking unfixed.There's also the echo chamber risk. Positions and ideas may bouce back and forth among the subset of gamers that comprise the set of active posters until they become common "wisdom". Yet they may not reflect the opinion of gamers or the world at large. You see this in all sorts of relatively insulated groups ranging from internet fanboys/girls to political think tanks. If the common wisdom produced in the echo chamber fits the biases of the game designers, you may see it them heavily drawing on it to the game's ultimate detriment.It's because of these issues that I have absolutely no problem with people chiming in with alternative play style commentary. Open forums, marketplaces of ideas, need to have diversity of ideas.</blockquote>