I admit I haven’t been paying much attention to Marvel Rivals as it’s progressed, largely because I don’t care about shooters and I don’t care about Marvel all that much either (Marvel Heroes was my exception, not my rule!). But it caught my atrtention last week when the devs implied they were listening to informal player votes when it comes to deciding which heroes to add next.

“We […] have noticed that players frequently take the initiative to vote on new heroes they would like to see in the future,” NetEase’s Guangyun Chen said. “We consider these votes to be highly valuable and will use them as an important factor in our planning for upcoming seasons.”

This is not a unique feature in the games space, of course; RuneScape rather famously allows players to vote on content. Is it a good idea, though? Well, let’s talk about it for this week’s Massively Overthinking. Should MMO players get a vote on the direction of their MMO? Should it be informal voting on which the devs have final say, or should the players’ vote be binding? How should votes be conducted? Or is all of this a terrible idea?

Brianna Royce (@nbrianna.bsky.social, blog): I love the idea of a democratic MMO in theory, but I can’t see it surviving long unless the devs are controlling the proposals to a degree that renders the player vote largely ceremonial to begin with, in which case I’m not sure why it’s worth the bother. It makes sense when we’re talking about “which hero would you buy,” and I think devs should be soliciting player feedback on content for sure; in-game and email surveys cover the vast majority of active and lapsed players. But do I think players should be able to submit and vote on petitions that could drive the game off a cliff? Nah.

See, while I know some player ideas are really excellent, the average player idea is going to be significantly worse than the average developer idea, so I’m always better off with the professional in the long run. Call it utilitarianism if you like. I want to pay for pro work from a team with people on it who understand every corner of the game, with a long-term financial incentive for making the game high-quality and long-lasting for a large number of people. MMO players just don’t always care about these things; they are short-term, selfish voters who don’t even know there’s a bigger picture to look at. Am I still talking about video games? Hmm.

Also, let’s be real, gamers would vote for really dumb things. They’d vote to rename the game Boaty McBoatface. Then again, this might be one of the least destructive things they could do. I would play Boaty McBoatface.

Chris Neal (@wolfyseyes.bsky.social, blog): I’m definitely of the mind that it’s on a game-by-game basis but mostly a terrible idea to let player voting steer a game’s direction. The vast majority of people who voice an opinion about a game’s direction are usually wildly ignorant of how a game’s design should work, especially if they’re the sort of person who believes their inexperience trumps actual developers’.

That’s not to say that all player feedback is bad, of course, and perhaps polling if carefully guided can be useful, but it should be taken as a smaller part of a larger aggregate of data, which should also include general feedback and most importantly whatever activity metrics that are gathered. It’s frequently been my experience that those who are playing are the ones not going into forums braying about everything.

And even if polling data is taken in, it’s definitely not something that should be bound by blood or ritual. So long as players are informed that questions asked are intended to be part of opinion and not a final say, I would rather that the studio have final say on whether design aligns with player ideas.

Justin Olivetti (@Sypster, blog): I’m reminded of that sneaky parental strategy of giving your kids several choices to vote on – but all choices serve the parent’s purpose. I definitely want devs to pay attention to the community but not be slave to it, especially if there’s a vocal minority that acts against everyone else. So I’m not big on voting for content overall, but again, listening to the community and developing content based on a well-spread-out array of feedback? Sure.

Sam Kash (@[email protected]): I like it as a matter of consideration, but certainly not binding and certainly not as a first pass at design. To quote a oft quoted piece of movie genius, ”A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it.” Which applies close enough.

Players often can come across bugs or balance issues that the developers may have missed, overlooked, or just didn’t consider. And I think it’s important that players have a good outlet for expressing these things, but you don’t want to fully rely on it. With balance decisions, players will usually advocate for their favorite class or playstyle to the detriment of others. I think devs should pay attention to it and even respond if it’s vocal enough, but it can easily swing from one extreme to the next.

The vocal minority aren’t always the most correct, but they do represent players to an extent. Looking at Dune, you can see that clearly players have a desire to play more endgame content without being ganked. It’s important that they aren’t ignored.

If they are, you end up with a Wildstar situation where the entirety of the endgame was focused on raiding, despite all the player calls to share the love with other parts of the game.

Tyler Edwards (blog): I think in that specific example it’s a decent idea because Marvel Rivals is already drawing from an established cast, so there’s no reason not to let the fans guide who gets picked next.

I don’t think it’s a great policy for broader issues or more complex games, though. Players aren’t designers, and design by committee is usually not an effective policy. Letting the fans dictate every decision is a good way to end up with an unfocused game drunkenly veering from one path to another.

This is more or less how The First Descendant has been run so far. The developers keep making drastic (over)corrections based on whatever the loudest fans are saying right now, and let me tell you, it is not going well.

Every week, join the Massively OP staff for Massively Overthinking column, a multi-writer roundtable in which we discuss the MMO industry topics du jour – and then invite you to join the fray in the comments. Overthinking it is literally the whole point. Your turn!