stryck9

Erm... the worst thing someone in charge of marketing can do is give everyone a horrible impression of your game and/or flat-out lie about its design. The people who make commercials for Ford don't get to tell Ford engineers how to design their vehicles and products. "Nebulous term like marketing," he says... Silly goose. OK I am complete satisfied with the answers provided by @badler. That said when ever you see product placement on tv/movies/games, guess what? Marketing! When your email address is being sold by your insurance company/cellphone carrier/credit card company, guess what? Marketing! If you think that coke or nike doesn't have redline privileges on how their product is shown in any media, think again, marketing. Any Disney animated movie, while story is one component, marketing is working overtime in tandem to make sure $s...Work in LA or SF for a bit and you will see how marketing does or can influence design decision. Your ford example is flawed. Ford doesn't ask its ad agency what car to build, but ford execs sure as hell asks the internal marketing team what will sell, and then designs and build cars accordingly. Any how I asked the question I wanted, and got the answer, I am perfectly content.

I can assure you, it was a conspiracy...

I asked for clarification, I fail to see how that is outrageous.

@Bryy Er, ok, that's not helping your argument, partners make joint decisions... Do you want a publisher "partner" making joint decisions about a game you funded? Asking for clarification, especially when it comes to a nebulous term like marketing seems fair in my book... @BAdler thanks for the clarification!

When you say: "Simply put, Paradox is assuming responsibility for the marketing and distribution of Pillars of Eternity. What this means is that Obsidian can now devote all of their time and resources to the development of Pillars of Eternity and make the game the best it can be" Does this mean that Paradox has any input in regards to development? For example, lots of publishers have lots of input, due to their desire to make games more marketable. Is there any circumstance in which Obsidian will make changes to the game based on marketing feedback??