Most game developers don't communicate with their fanbase much. Mostly because they have other stuff to do. I often think however, that its rather due to the fact that they don't experience the fandom first-hand. I presume Alec and Derek doesn't want to see Naija nude or/and doin' it with [unspecified for the sake of sanity].
Personally, its rather interesting to see how people talk and discuss about a piece of art they like.
For example:
http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Stardestroyer.net is the result of the top of ST and SW fandom and about speculation about a hypothetical war between Star Trek universe and Star Wars universe. The guy who made the site is a university-graduated engineer that basis his arguments with the knowledge and academic standard that he learned.
Now, stop there and read that aloud again and think for a second.
A guy is using his university-earned engineering degree to analyse a hypothetical battle between the Federation and the Empire.

The site also contains essays about science and science fiction in general of course, which can be interesting reading.
We did beta and play testing for the PC version, and we're doing it again for the Mac version.
From what I gather, don't just beta-test. Playtest. Ask the testers questions like "what are you impressions of this level?", "do you find this boss difficult?", "what is the first reaction when you first see a new monster?", "do you find this section tiring or unnecessary or overly silent?" and so on.
By studying the reactions of the playtesters you can gain a much bigger control over the player and/or improve the experience.
I'm actually not terribly concerned about the reality of it. It sounded generally cool and accurate. Smiley And I think its an interesting theme to explore, two different motivations within one being.
If this is an recurring theme for you, then maybe you should look into it a bit. I find that researching and looking deeper into your lines of thought may give more inspiration and ideas then merely letting it grow on its own while making rather interesting conclusions and discoveries about yourself.
Its hard to get to a point where you're happy with what you've done. (at least for me) Then after that point, you have to release the game, and have everyone else tear it apart.
Art is allot like this: at a distance you see intracity, however when you look at it more closely then you see small things and flaws. People will notice them. It speaks of them how they react.
There is a strange love/hate duality sometimes when certain people look at various forms of art. The more moderate Star Trek fans that usually hold an engineering degree often groan when another technobabble plot device is used but still love the series and characters.
They also say that you aren't a fan until you don't try to vaguely justify the errors of flaws of the art you are a fan of (Godo shot first and stuff like that).