This is the problem, most of these games are diku's and the people with the most experience with this type of game are all grow'd up now and don't have the time to thoroughly play and test a diku.
So either hire them full time to thoroughly test and play or thow them aside and quit trying to please them at all as they haven't been your target audience for quite some time now.
It's funny that you'd mention this. I've been playing diku since there was a diku and yet I still never get invited to beta tests anymore because I'm outside of the target demographic.
On topic, I can understand the frustration that many development houses must have with the public. Their desires are a moving target and their complaints are often unwarranted. I think the key is finding a subset of people that can articulate what they see in the game during the testing phases but have diverse enough tastes in gaming to bring a variety of perspectives to the table. Making a game for the masses is certain to piss off everyone in one way or another. As long as you satisfy 80% of their needs, the other 20% is little more than white noise.
They saw this post and figured you would try anything.
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