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Old 09-23-2007, 09:26 AM   #14
Lucien21
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Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Edinburgh
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I think playtesting can be a powerful tool for good or evil and it probably depends on the strength of the design and the vision behind the game in the first place.

I watched a decent interview with the designers of Bioshock who talked about their initial playtesting. They stated that when asked to playtest a lot of people suddenly become critics about the design of the game. I.e I think this character looks wrong or this colour should be blue etc.

I think they are more helpful for useability rather than design. i.e Is the interface easy to use, are they getting enough information at the right times to proceed etc. Obviously in bigger companies it's better to be watching the people play the game as then the developer gets a sense of what is working and what isn't by watching the players. However this probably is going to happen in small or independant companies.

Other information will come out of it, but I think it should mostly be ignored if it is design related. (Unless it is universal)

Too many cooks spoil the broth.
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