duckroll said:
Fans are not really going to "help" Capcom develop the game. This entire angle is part of the marketing of the game, and it is meant to give the smaller (but more hardcore) fanbase of the series a chance to have some input into some of the things in the game so they feel an ownership in the game. The reason for this is so Capcom can hopefully build a stronger community around the game long before its ever released. This will, in their eyes, hopefully result in the fanbase telling more of their friends about he game, being more passionate about it, and resulting in maximum sales for the title, however limited.
In part, this is true. Fans won't decide key parts of the game design or development. As you say, this is something mainly for marketing purpouses.
But they will decide some things that aren't important for the game, just details, but in some cases very important for the hardcore fans. And this small niche is the entire market of this game, so better hear them if you want to succed.
Maybe to choose between several visual designs candidates for some characters. Maybe to decide between certain characters who is the one to appear in a cameo as a NPC secondary character. Maybe to decide between 3 or 4 videos what is going to be the official trailer. Maybe to decide the main theme of the game between some candidates. And things like that.
Often game companies use focus testing to check the feedback of the people in certain areas of the game, in order to know how the users would react in front of these things in the final game. If they would like them or not, if they prefer something in a way or in another, etc.
It may sound stupid, when you are developing a game sometimes you are too focused in your ideas and misses to implement something "important" in the proper way, not in the way your ego thinks it's the best one. And a random people -specially the fans- quickly notices it.
They won't follow 100% of what the fans demand. But they will get some great ideas from them(sometimes even for another games too). And in a game like this, focused to a really small niche of hardcore fanbase, is really important to know what they want, and how, to keep them happy and succed.
I work in a game company were we also do this "community driven development" approach. And it works. Both in the marketing side (keeping the fans happy and enlarging virally the fanbase) and in the development side (improving the quality of the product, better focus in what your market wants, targeting fails and getting some fresh ideas).
If you are trying to do it using polls in a hardcore forum like gaf for a casual game like Wii Sports, or a new IP, you may fail. But it isn't the case. To check the community is really important when you are focusing a closed and stablished fanbase.
