When working for industry, I do think it is correct to throw away the desires to make ‘your own game’ and just follow and make whatever the clients ask for. However, if you are an established game company that does ‘make their own games’ rather than make games for other people, then you should definatly follow your own creative needs.
You do still need to cater the game to the target audience, but its often not good to listen to what the audience wants. Good game designers will know what the audience wants better than the audience themselves and are able to create games that really amaze their target market. This means that developers also need to throw away some of their own ambitions in order to satisfy what the target market wants.
Of course the really good game designers are able to implement the elements of the game they want to implement and satisfy the target audience at the same time.
It is very hard to generalise saying it is either way because it would depend on the particular game, the background of the game and the company that is developing the game. A small company that makes Shrek games for other companies cannot have their own say in what they want in the game and will need to only put things that will make people buy the game into the game.
Game companies like Square Enix, Blizzard and Capcom often spawn many sequals to their existing good games. Most of these new games contain many elements which are new and creative, while still satisfying the target market. These companies are in a financial position to experiment with different styles of gameplay and insert their own ideas, themes and mechanics into their games as well as satisfy the target audience.
Most independant game develops have no obligation to their audience and are free to make whatever they want, even if they plan to sell it.
Re: http://comp4431.wordpress.com/2009/08/25/reflection-wk-6-player-centred-design/
