Do they really need ideas? This is a real question of mine.
I've played Eve online for over three years (and quit recently) and coming up with ideas was unavoidable.
I think it would be fun to discuss gamedesign. There are a few blogs out there that tries to put things into perspective.
Having said this, undoubtedly there is alot of work to designing a game. However, I suspect that the mechanics of larger games today, are set in stone for the next ten years prior to starting development. And this would suck (if you pardon my language) because if devs dont' need or want ideas, the thought of implementing new ideas as an afterthought must scare the most if not all of developers/publishers.
Take player death for instance. Huge problem in a decent MMO imo, unless it happens to suit a permadeath mechanics. Eve online has a genious way, that even hides the notion of player death, when you die, you are simply reincarnated into a clone a distance away. The last moment of life, is a machine scanning the brain and copying it, destroying it in the process, or so the lore say. Then the data is sent, magically to a predetermined cloning facility, and the memory is imprinted. And voila, you are up and running again, so to speak. I doubt that many players in Eve online are aware of this mechanics, as "player respawn", because it all make sense.
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