What do we want?

Probably one for Matt, But I'm curious to know what sort of market research SI/Sega do, as I've not seen any examples of customer interaction aside from the odd post on the forums.

Are the forums the main source of feedback on the games?

Are the forums the main source of customer suggestions for future features?

Are there any general questionnaires etc. done to find out what sort of game, what features etc. that the public want, and if so who are the target audience?

Are the majority of decisions driven by public feedback/expectation or from in-house sources?

Whilst there's no doubting the success of the games, or the quality of the staff working on it. I'm wondering if it's the brand name, blind luck or calculated marketing that continues to see the franchise develop - especially given a lot of the negative reaction on the forums (not just regarding the bugs, but the intuitiveness of the tactics also)

Some decisions are obviously made in-house without public feedback (such as the removal of the sideways arrows) and others I've seen tagged with (FM-Suggestion) with comments like "we're looking into it".

Curiousity killed the cat. Luckily, I don't meow.

Shameless bump.

Wouldnt quite a few of the things you ask for be in the "wishlist" topic?

Miles is the best person to answer this.

I shall poke him with a large stick.

I shall poke him with a large stick.

Don't say that too quickly or when drunk.

Quick side question/suggestion

Would it be a good idea to test the water with a poll of suggestions of what may be planned to be implemented/improved in the next edition to see what the public want? Whilst it's easy to look at all the whinge posts and think something may be drastically wrong with the colour of the left-hand nav bar, a proper poll might reveal drastically different results