Answers and opinions why please.

You're asking two different things (sales OR players) but your poll only has Yes and No... :spotted owl:

Show me a company -any company that is in any line of work- that isn't in it for the money.

The general rule is, you have two options to sell,

1. Advertise Well
2. Make a game players actually want to play

Do both and you will probably have a hit game. All of it is to sell. Is anyone naive enough to think Bethseda have no interest in making money?

lol sorry for the goof up.

That poll makes no sense.

"Is it option A, or option B?...Yes or No"

They want both.

They can't have one without the other.

No players = no sales/money.

Edit: Voted for the new, appropriate option.

i just edited in that option before i read your comment.

First of all, "the players" are not some sort of monolithic block.

Morrowind sold four million.
Oblivion sold six million as of whenever the Wikipedia article was last updated.
Skyrim sold 3.4 million at retail. That is, not counting Steam sales.

There's two conclusions to draw. The definition of "the players" of this game is a lot different than it was when I first joined these boards (that'd be eight years ago), and Bethesda is plainly doing something right. This false dichotomy between corruption and deliverance is just [censored]. They're passionate about their game, but they're also trying to make money. If they weren't trying to make money, they would have just released Morrowind 2 and Morrowind 3, which would have gotten them less and less sales. When you dedicate yourself to the hardcoe, only the hardcoe remain. The more you try to distill your essence to placate them, the more distillation they require and the more you alienate new players.

Basically, we're all crying because Bethesda is bringing in new blood. Bringing constructive criticism is one thing. But crying for its own sake is pathetic, ridiculous, and incredibly irritating. It's also inevitable.

There's the answer to your poll.