Gamers are always concerned about if developers are taking them into consideration when creating their product and Bethesda has no intention in forgetting that fact. Marketing Vice President, Pete Hines, was interviewed by Gamasutra recently and he had a fair amount to say about how fans of a series play a part in their game development.

"I think that we do have a pretty good understanding what all of the different sections of our fan base are interested in, but it comes back to the thing of, you know, gotta make the game that we think is the best. Certainly, try and take those things into consideration, but there are people in the office who spend 14, 16, 18 hours a day making this game, and sometimes, if you're going to break a tie, you go with our instincts."

One of the key factors that has helped Bethesda a lot throughout the creation of Fallout 3 is the prior experience with Oblivion. Both titles feature an expansive world with a lot going on around the main character and this results in a ton of AI needing to be configured to act accordingly.

"Like having somebody go off and get themselves killed while you're in the middle of a forest isn't fun, but it is fun if you walk into a town and everybody is acting in a believable fashion. And when you overhear conversations, they're referring to each other by their first name. Like, it just adds another level to the realism. So I think we've tried to focus on putting more of that stuff in front of the player, and less stuff like, "Oh, this happened two towns away from you!" Just, hey, by the way. That doesn't mean anything."

Hines delves into the difference of working on a final build of a console in comparison to a console that was still in the process of being finalized like they were with Oblivion. If you'd like to check out the full interview, feel free to click here.

We'll keep you up to date with anything surrounding Fallout 3 as the release date approaches later this year.