It wasn’t too long ago when interaction between gamers and developers was mainly a one-way street. Developers trickled information out to gamers through carefully established channels like E3 press conferences, magazine exclusives and press releases. Gamers were left to share their feedback and concerns with other gamers. Granted, you may have been able to write letters or e-mails to developers, but there was no guarantee that they would be seen by anyone.

That type of controlled chain of command slowly started to change as the Internet opened more communication lines, but only recently has the gamer-developer interaction exploded into the full-on, two-way communication that we are experiencing today. Thanks to message boards, developer blogs and technologies like Twitter, gamers and developers now freely exchange information and ideas on a daily, hourly and even minute-by-minute basis.

The broadening of this conversation is obviously a good thing for gamers, who now have a means by which to make their voices heard.

But what about the developers themselves? Do they see this open communication as a boon or a hindrance? Do they find themselves overwhelmed by the minutiae of complaints raised by gamers? And most importantly, are they happy with this new arrangement?

Operation Sports spoke with a couple of OS regulars from the development community and asked them those very questions.

Marcus Stephenson is a producer on NBA Live 10, but he’s no stranger to Internet forums, having previously served as the community manager for all of EA Canada's sports titles, which include the NHL, FIFA, NBA Live, Fight Night and NCAA Basketball series.

These days, Stephenson spends a good part of his time gathering feedback and listening to gamers on sites like OS, IGN, Gamespot, GameFAQs, the NBA Live Series Center and Pasta Padre.

For Stephenson, the increasing interaction between gamers and developers is one of the most important determinants of the success of a game.

"You’re the people who know the game inside and out, better than anybody else," Stephenson said of gamers. "Places like OS are instrumental to the building and development process of a game. I’d be lying if I said that we weren’t looking at every single thing you guys talk about with the game."

Stephenson said throughout a typical day, he is constantly interacting with all types of gamers.

"I always have OS open, I always have my Twitter on, I’m always just reading. It’s always on in the background, even if I have work to do. I always have that window open and I’m constantly hitting refresh to see what new topics have been raised. It’s what I do."

NBA Live 09 saw dramatic improvements, which coincided with dramatic increases in community interaction.

Stephenson, who joined the NBA Live team in 2008, said that the dialogue with gamers is acknowledged as a valuable resource by all involved, which includes senior developers who were making games long before community interaction became such a big deal.

"It’s totally accepted now, 100 percent," he said. "It’s not only accepted, it’s expected now. We would be stupid if we weren’t paying attention to what you guys are saying, because you guys are the best testers in the world."

Ramone Russell agrees. Russell is the community manager for SCEA San Diego, the studio behind MLB 09: The Show. Like Stephenson, Russell said community interaction goes a long way towards making a better product, something everyone on both sides of the equation wants to see.

"Nobody can tell us more about our game than the people who play it," Russell said. "If the games are better because of structured community interaction and feedback, it’s a win-win for everybody because we all want the best baseball game."

Russell also happens to have proof that the folks at the San Diego studio are reaching out to the gaming community.

"Last year, for the very first time, we opened our doors to the consumer base and brought five or six really core guys out to playtest the game. They gave some early feedback and helped us fix a couple of bugs before the game shipped, and that was a great success."

This year, Russell said, SCEA San Diego hopes to expand on that foundation by bringing gamers into the fold even earlier in the development process. The early-bird approach is an attempt to allow a select group to have a more profound impact on the final product.

"We think that feedback will have a direct effect on the success of MLB 10," he said.

In addition to facilitating playtesting, Russell also serves as what he describes as a bridge between the creators of the content -- the developers -- and the consumers of that content. He came to Sony in July of 2008, but he has served in similar roles with other companies since 2006.

Citing Valve, the development studio behind the Half-Life series, as one of the companies that pioneered community interaction, Russell said he makes a point of communicating with any group of dedicated fans he can find.

"Any place where there’s a community for The Show, and I know about it, I’m going to try to reach out to them," Russell said. "It doesn’t matter if there are 50 members or 50,000 members, if they’re into MLB: The Show, I’m going to try to reach out to them."

So as two people who spend a great deal of their time listening to a litany of suggestions, ideas, complaints and gripes from gamers, do Stephenson and Russell have any reservations about the process?

Stephenson said he notices only one downside to the increased interaction between the two camps, and that is the lack of knowledge that has a tendency to run wild on both sides of the gamer-development equation.

"There are some things that you’ll never know because you’re not here [at the development studio]," he said. "If it were up to us, we’d bring everyone up here whenever they wanted to, but that’s impossible. So on our part, we need to be educating you guys more on the development process of the games so that, for one, you guys can make educated responses and two, you’re just better educated about what we’re doing so you can give more clear, concise feedback. That process needs to start and move forward.”

But with developers interacting with various gaming communities on a daily basis, another potential pitfall could be the barrage of negativity that sometimes surrounds their games -- keep in mind, these can be criticisms that are not always of the constructive variety. However, Stephenson said that criticism should not be a problem for developers.

"I feel like if a developer is a good developer, they should be able to take criticism," he said, "because at the end of the day, we all want the game to be good. Everyone does. I’m confident that I could sit with any one of you guys and you could tell me a hundred things that are wrong, and that shouldn’t upset me because I want the best game as well."

For his part, Russell said the only potential pitfall of community interaction is if studios try to use it as a marketing tool, rather than a true back-and-forth communication with gamers.

"If you go about [community interaction] right, I don’t see any disadvantages," he said. "But if you try to be an extension of marketing, it can be a big disadvantage. If it’s not done correctly, there are plenty of things that can go wrong."

The key, Russell said, is that both sides need to really listen to each other.

"There are a lot of common-sense things that go into making it feasible and making it work for the development team and the community," he said. "There has to be some two-way communication, and we’ve tried to do that."