Interesting point. Sadly I dont know about the vast majority of developers on the list to even consider making such statements. Do you do reviews or something similar? Additionally they stated that the list was an opinion of the editors at NextGen if memory serves.
I've written freelance paid mobile/laptop product reviews, yes. I also write game reviews but it's those user reviews (mine are normally very lengthy). I tend to stay highly-informed about what's going on and get involved in modding, sometimes.
The underlying motive of my statements was that I have had personal interaction with David Braben and think he handled situations very professionally. He should really be bumped up on that list quite a bit. I haven't got a clue if I've had personal interaction with Cliff Bleszinski because I've been chased around the internet and insulted by another producer working at his company named Jeff Morris. It's policy of their company to ignore and/or delete and/or ban customers and their feedback. With David Braben and Frontier they listened to feedback even if it was overly negative (it's like how we have Stardock/Ironclad people on this forum often). I remember David getting frustrated people got so mad at Frontier for releasing Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 with water rides that would never slow down after the first hill, among other things. However, Frontier didn't run around rampantly eliminating any negatives or passing the blame off to someone else. They took ownership and fixed the problems, and a lot of this had to do with David Braben participating on their forums and chats. He was available, interactive, and down-to-earth. He kept you in-the-know about what was going on and you could trust what he said. He wanted input for fixes, tweaks, and more much like Stardock/Ironclad does. Now when you try to explain to Epic/Cliff/Jeff about their products deleting save games and forgetting cd-keys daily, they (or other staff) rush over to lock or delete what you typed without notice. Type it again and you get automatically permanently banned without warning from their forums and they hunt you down on fan sites to see what you're doing. Even modders with released content are not immune to this. Then they run character assassination via private messages with the admins of that fan site.
I do not know if Blair Fraser visits this site, but when the team and companies involved in a product like Sins are available, interactive, and down-to-earth it creates customer loyalty and appreciation. In David Braben and Fronteir's case, following their support of the RCT series I have been keeping an eye on what their company is doing. I will consider a product just because Frontier's name is on it same as I will now keep an eye on Ironclad and Stardock's future products. NextGen editors are entitled to their opinions, yes, but I think the interaction with the public adds an extra dimension that needs serious consideration.
