Johan Andersson the Studio Manager at Paradox Interactive wrote this article for The Escapist. They have always been one of my favorite developers, but their games are not for everyone. Paradox has had some missteps int eh last year or two, but most of those are games they published, not developed in house. Either way this guy seems to get it.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/features/10814-Respect-Your-Gamer

Number one rule of business, If you want to stay in business, listen to your customer and/or offer them what they want. If you break this, nothing else matters.

This is very good in principle, but I'm thinking that a company like Bethesda has simply too large of an audience for a man like Todd Howard to deal with fan feedback directly. If he did, he would have to pick a very few and no matter what, someone would feel left out.

If Paradox respects me why do they keep trying to charge me extra for CKII portraits, unit models and songs?

Respecting players doesn't necessarily mean accepting direct feedback, it simply means being fair about weighing in your consumers' overall opinions. It always takes good judgment to do that right.

Shhhh. It's for your own good.