Gamasutra's Christian Nutt sat down with Insomniac CEO Ted Price at their recent community event; the discussion centered heavily on Resistance 2 and the Insomniac development process. Price has a lot to say about how Insomniac deals with requests and suggestions from the user base, both on their own community as well as elsewhere (and gives us a ringing endorsement with "Well, sure, Kotaku is a good source."). A particular challenge was and is getting a handle on how best to design for online modes, since it's a bit of a 'black hole' for developers:
We're still learning what players want online, and what the "typical" behaviors are. But, it's evolving quickly, and I don't think that we can ever look at a particular online behavior and say that's typical. It's just, lots of people want to play lots of different ways, and we try to make games that will accommodate as many of them as possible. But I think our community helps us out in a big way, because that is our direct access to the people who are playing games. We can get their opinions on what they want, very quickly, versus having to go into a game and listen to the chatter. We're seeing those posts on the forums; they're emailing us, or sending us PMs and saying, "Hey, Insomniac, we want X, Y, and Z." And so, we can discuss those requests and decide whether or not to change the game around the next time, or include new features in our patches, etcetera.
A somewhat lengthy interview that's worth a looksee, especially if you're into any of the Insomniac franchises. Peeking Inside Insomniac: A Conversation With Ted Price [Gamasutra]