The number of people who post on these forums are nowhere near as large as the number of people who will play the game.

How many pages someone sees is what they have their profile set to. At the moment, for me, this thread is only two pages. I have mine set to display the max number of posts on a page to make it easier if I have to delete a lot of posts or threads or something.

they do read it

but the game is to be released soon, so I imagine its pretty finished now.

You know in Fallout NV when you look at a desk or something it says [Empty] at the bottom? That was a mod first.

I think it's cool they adopted it. They also hired a modder for FNV.

I apologise, when s.o. said 10 pages it sounded an awufl, discouraging lot, while 3 pages, well...

They don't really care about us. They care about our money and thats about it. They would rather appeal to the masses with a more mainstream game because they will get more money that way.

Wasn't one of the reasons why they hired Grandstaff to keep a look on the forums and report back to the rest of the team? That might mean that he should look for fan feedback, what they like and what they don't like.
I think Bethesda have a pretty clear idea of what the majority of the fanbase think about previous elements of the series. Like level scaling, dungeon variety, lack of skills etc. I am absolutely sure they have taken our feedback into consideration.

As for if they use some of the suggestions we've posted, I think a few of the devs might have stumbled across some ideas that they found interesting. But in the end they are making the game on their own terms, they are fans of the series as well and they also have hundreds of ideas for how their games can be improved. They also have a lot of experience in game developing so they have a much better idea of what would work and what would svck.

If anything, I think we have contributed to their brainstorming sessions, but probably not much more than that

I hope they don't use any. 90% of them are terrible.

11 months is almost 25% of the game's develpment total time. There's still plenty of time, in my opinion. Now, if anyone that has worked on a game development and understands how this works tells me that on this point there is no time, I believe it :thumbsup:

Adding minor things like, for example, make guild's members do something as it was suggested on a topic I saw here (like a thief on city breaking on a house, or members from fighters guild fighting against maradeurs near the city) can't be too difficult for a Bethesda team to do, because fan modders (without wanting to disrespect modders' work) can do it. Or for example adding random adventurers to dungeons, or add merchants and travellers to the roads. Even if they can't do any major changes already, these minor things can really improve the game, and they can probably be done in a day or 2.

Yah but if we know they are terrible Im sure their team will as well... think if its worthy of discussion their developers will come up with right conclusions either way.

They listen, just that only 15% of all the suggestions are important or sane. Then there is like 10% of those suggestions that can possible be done or that they havnt got other plans for.
So if we gave them 1000 suggestions, only 15 would work... Hey, that isnt so little at all!

Damn, forgot:
They listen, just that they only manage to hear like 50% of everything, 15% of the suggestions they hear are important or sane. Then 10% of those that are important or sane can be made or cant be done because they got other plans for it!
So if we gave them 1000 suggestions, only 10 would work... A bit mood-dampening but, hey! Its still something!

Not mentioning the "Meh, lets just screw this crap!"-chances that can always be thrown into the pot.

Don't worry I'm sure they know that using the "ONLY MONEY MATTERS" mentality will cause the eventual demise of any company/organization.

its true, balance is key in anything, they want to make money but they know that WE are the ones that are paying them, we are the people that keep them alive sort of , society is a structure that depends on everyone to stay up, software companies are not separate from that system.

The "mainstream" don't give a hoot about ES lore or the franchise in general its the fans that do its the fans that buy the games, the expansions, the books...etc

If any specialized company (such as Bethesda) wants to stay in business they HAVE to respect the fan base which they built over the years, they are not selling Coke or cloths.... "mainstream" will only get them so far.

so cheer up

No. I know its hard to accept that a company that makes the games you play doesn't like or respect you. But its true. Just think about if you were in their position.

Plus, every member of this forum combined would equal only a small fraction of their profits.

And I'm actually quite happy right now. Why would I need to cheer up?

This should have been /thread.