I'm wondering if there's been thought of collecting information of how players play and the gameplay choices made.
It'd obviously need to be opt-in, but I'd think there'd be many willing to share the info and would think the info to be useful.
A small package automatically sent when saving the game, or something like that.
Like, if there's this awesome quest that's only available if you pick this one companion, but it'd turn out 97% of players don't
pick the said companion and 57% don't even talk to him. Maybe he's in non-intuitive position or has an ugly nose, the data
wouldn't tell that, but it'd tell the raw numbers of very few players picking the character.
Then later, if there's this forum questionnaire, the said quest and companion would score very highly, nearly everybody
having had the companion and done the quest. Because majority of forum dwellers would have replayed and consulted
a walkthrough, found the elusive companion and done the awesome quest and liked it.
Or if it turns out 33% of players abandon the game when getting a item strip and being hit with pox,
or when having to do some long quest in a long, long depressive dungeon. Or for whatever reason.
I'd guess stuff like that would be valuable data when designing the next game.
I'm sure there's plenty of feedback from testers and beta-testers, but they're unlikely to just give up halfway for example.