Given Marc's prior performance, it's doubtful that forum participation, even in the pre-pay forum, will have much, if any, beneficial effect.
Hmmmm. Not all of us feel entitled to foist our own agendas off on a designer. And yet, that still doesn't mean that input is irrelevent. What it means is that a designer owns the product, and in the final analysis is the one obligated to put their name on it to stand or fail. Marc's prior performance suggest that he's willing to work on stuff within his ramework, and if it veers outside of that, the response is "no thank you"; unfortunately, the response (at least in the gaming community) tends to be very hostile to hearing, essentially, a rejection for cause.
Honestly, there's a level of entitledness in some fans that is little short of pathological sometimes -and internet forums do tend to concentrate them.
Look at it this way. You sell houses; You're painting your next potential house green and have a few friends over to help, I offer to help..you say sure..
then I say, "I looked at the color swatches you wanted help deciding on, but the issue isn't the color, its the front yard..you need to zeroscape it. It'll never sell"
You say "I'm painting my house, not remaking the yard; I want to sell it, and I don't think the yard is the issue.";
I say "no, this is what needs changing, I walk by it every week, and am sick of looking at it; so who would ever want to buy a house with a lousy yard, regardless of the color ".
You say..."well, I do sell houses for a living, and I thinnk I know what it needs, plus, this is what I budgeted and planned for"
I say " No, that was then, this is now, you're out of touch selling the same house as ever whereas I'm a house customer, or will be someday, and I know what i want, and since I'm smart and clever, I'm sure that thats the opinion of todays house buyers"
You say" No, I want to paint my house, thats what everyone is here for, they think it looks good, plus, not everyone wants a zeroscaped lawn; in fact its kind of niche feature"
I say,"then your helpers are a bunch of toady fanboy syncophants who only tell you what you want to hear, and idiots for volunteering to help for free; and the buyers you've worked with before are clearly idiots or boring old farts, and do'nt deserve consideration. me, I've been walking by your house for years now, and you have to redo the yard, I'm a gardener, and I know your garden is wrong, and BTW, the house needs to be lavender, and you have to add a second story. Did I mention that i am a gradener ? And an art critic.
You say, "My house my project, my choice, and what I'm doing is painting it green, after all, it's mine, i know it is, cause I get the mortgage bills until I sell it maybe you should work on selling your houuse the way you want to sell it ?"
and then...
I insult your planning and organization skills, your elitist attitude, your lickspittle helpers,( who I start arguments with) denounce your painting plan, your garden, and single story design, point out that your car is ugly, too, as is your dog; write an angry letter to the newspaper about your tyranny and unwillingness to listen to critics, tell every passer-by you have no interest in feedback from a professional, and are out of touch with the gardening and painting community, start up a bitter blog about how I now hate the site of your house, and then erect a sign overlooking the main road announcing that your house sucks and no one should ever buy it..
You end up standing there with a green paint bucket and brush, your hair blown back like the Coyote in a roadrunner cartoon wondering...what just happened ?
The fact that this is often done to unreleased rules, which is the equivalent of doing all the above over the phone, makes it even more remarkable.
And the punchline is, if it turns out that if you are a crappy painter.... you have problems selling the house...but I'm all comfortable still living in a broken down camper in my grandparents back lot.
