Well...We don't get final say, you know.

They make the game they WANT to make, hell or high water. What they think will make for a fun video game. We're just sidebar ideas that may or may not work.

Only some of us.

If they were listening to us, they would clearly see how much we love New Vegas and wish for them to emulate it. Build upon it, but they didn't. Looks like they just saw what mods were popular and threw it in there.

I hate how they don't acknowledge Obsidian's hard work.

My only wish is for them to work on a DLC with Obsidian. Work with the original creators.

The devs have their fingers in their ears saying, "Nah nah nah, we don't hear you, we don't hear you!"

I'm new here, so I'll... wait a while before I make any judgements on that.

No, really, Bethesda doesn't actively communicate with their fanbase and for a large part of criticisms levied at them they are doing what Apocalypse2012 is saying.

It has to be set in stone for a November release.

There were a lot of features they showed off at e3 that I've seen here in the forums in one form or another. Like the settlement building. Someone mentioned having some "Rust" like online features and instead they integrated building towns into the single player. Mech gameplay was also mentioned as well as more distinction between high and low SPECIAL attributes like Intelligence and Charisma.

So somebody is definitely listening.

The Devs always listen, but they never speak.

It's not useless to use these forums to suggest/complain about the game. Unless, of course, you're expecting the changes to be made in FO4.

While we're annoyed that they never talk back, they do listen. The majority of Broken Steel was made precisely because of fan backlash against the forced ending. Fan love of Morrowind was likely the reason we got to see Telvanni stuff and bonemold armor in Dragonborn. Fan praise of Sheogorath's portrayal in the Shivering Isles is likely the reason we got him back in basically the same form in Skyrim, even though almost every other Daedric Prince has new voice actor and altered look.

Okay, that's one ... let's be modest, one and a half example from the how many? From the top of my head, the only real expansion coming this year is for Pillar's of Eternity. And roughly that's it.

To be honest, these scenarios must be the closest to the truth. Sticking to what they think is popular instead of remaining true their franchise's own identity is a double-edged sword, but it seems selling out is still a safe option.

Listening? Maybe, I know devs roam the forums from time to time.

If any of our remarks and wishes will have an impact? I don't know, it's kinda late in the development cycle. Maybe it will give them DLC and patch ideas. But yeah, if features you want aren't in the game already I doubt they will be in the game on release.

Pretty sure that's why we get the info release so close to the actual release date. They don't want to be bothered with any suggesting we may make. Just too late. Games almost done and they're not changing it.

^ They don't really listen to suggestions, but large scale dissatisfaction. Well they do actually care about people being happy with what they made. Most studios do, even if its only because it affects a company's bottom line.

Regardless of what features are locked in for release, things will and do change even after the game has shipped. Updates, patches, DLC. Games don't really stop being worked on anymore. At least not as long as there is money in it.

About the questions "did the dev listened to us" i would say that some players suggestions were included, like custom weapons, building settlements or having a dog companion again. I wouldn't find those ideas the most appealing, but those ideas were suggested by players.

About if they are currently listening, you would only find out if they make a Fo5 game.

I don't recall anyone wanting a voiced PC when FO3 came out.

Of course they listen. But they have their own ideas too and can't make everyone happy. I am more than happy with what I have seen so far. They did a great job and I can't wait to play.

IMO the only time they're "listening" is if they actually post asking for input on a certain game system, but that very rarely happens.

From here to release these forums are a home for speculation, news updates, complaining, and flame wars.

We can suggest new things and have done so since the release of the last one. They read the fans comments, consider the things they hear most often and make decisions about the game they want to make. It's not hard to see that they listen. FO:3 came with no ending, the fans made their distaste for that known and they added a dlc that ended the game. There are many examples of this throughout the history of the games they have made.

You mean they don't talk to us. There is a reason for this but really, we don't need them to talk to us, just listen to us. Nobody can listen if they are talking.

I think it's to early to say they didn't borrow from NV. We know nothing about the main story right now.

They had 250 speculation threads to draw ideas from. If they wanted to listen, they have already done it. But judging from how many mod ideas they tend to incorporate into their games, creating a hugely popular mod might be more effective than a forum thread.

"We love NV"? Some love NV and think NV got it right. Just as many don't see it that way. If you hang out with like minded people you start thinking everyone feels that way. I don't feel that way. I wasn't overly fond of NV though I did enjoy it, I preferred FO:3 over NV. Not because of who made it but for many other reasons too numerous to get into here. So be careful thinking that "we love" and instead see that you and those you talk to "love". The fan base is deeply divided on this. Bethesda chooses the direction they want to go.

As for not acknowledging Obsidian's hard work, I'm fairly sure they were recognized with a nice big paycheck and credits. I think they even threw a big party for them upon release. And there is always hope that they will give them another shot at it. We just don't know. It would be lovely to get another game between this one and FO:5 don't you think? But make no mistake, this is a Bethesda game now, they own the rights and that gives them free reign to take the direction with it they want to take and we get to choose if we are happy with those decisions or hate them. And we get to decide if we will buy and play the games which is where success or failure is noted.

Maybe they'll get another spin off? I know Urquhart said they'd be interested.

There are something like 250 speculation and suggestion threads, so I'm guessing the laws of probability dictate that some of our suggestions will end up in F4. Hell, about three or four years ago I suggested a prewar sequence, an interview with a Vault-tec employee to determine stats and a prewar protagonist who was frozen. Do I think some Beth designer saw my ideas? Nah.

If anything devs are silent lurkers. I haven't seen active devs, and I mean very active in communicating with the fans, since Bioware announced Baldur's Gate 2 as in the works. I've seen devs interact at Obsidian but that is mostly in the bugs forum of their games. Can't recall ever seeing a Bethesda dev interact with people here since I joined in 2009.

They did long ago but at some point they stopped talking and just started listening because if they would say something about what they were doing and then had to make changes or toss it to the side, they would be accused of lying. The forum became a hostile place about the time they bought Fallout and thus they just stopped interacting and started lurking. They are often here looking and reading and quite often they log in as invisible so fans can't even see they are here. Moderators can see who is invisible so, we see them. Anyway, no they no longer post and for good reason. Fans are sometimes vicious.

I agree. Fallout 3 has many faults to it and New Vegas has faults of its own. While we don't know anything about Fallout 4's story, just a brief glimpse at the gameplay confirms my readjusted and much less hostile opinion 'Fallout 3 isn't problemed because Bethesda doesn't care, it's problemed because Bethesda were dipping their toes into the pool of the series and getting their bearing'. Look at the settlement building feature and improvements to Power Armour design, these were all commonly suggested and discussed things. So Bethesda DOES listen to us and it's obvious they look to improve on things they failed at or just never considered before that fans thought of.

Yeah, it's pretty horrible some of the crap talking people, even long standing users, say. Bethesda made some mistakes with Fallout 3 and I had a more hostile attitude over it post-Vegas release, but eventually it kind of dawned on me in my previous point what I just said about Bethesda. They're actually trying and Fallout 4's new approach to the series seems like a step in a very good direction and I'm looking forward to this installment to see what Bethesda has learned since Fallout 3.