>I'd be curious to know if there has been any independent audience research
>since Quemas took over. They seem confident that what they are doing is a
>dead-cinch to improve the books readability, but what evidence do they have
>beyond Jemas's hubris over his gifts for storytelling cultivated through
>years
>of working at a baseball card company?
>

Focus groups and audience testing have been two of the biggest reasons for the
general decline in quality television programs over the last few decades.
Nothing of value is ever learned, and the results are always used to justify
dumbing down the stories to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Shows
that test poorly often do very well; shows that do well with audience testing
almost always fail. I was watching a focus group once where an audience
member, during testing, said he didn't like a given show because it "wasn't
science fiction."

Upon being asked by the group facilitator what he would consider to be good SF,
he replied, very earnestly, "Power Rangers." This is in no way or shape an
exaggeration or distortion. That's what he said.

Hearing that comics were going to focus groups/audience testing would be the
fastest way to get me the heck out of comics permanently.

jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
(all message content (c) 2003 by synthetic worlds, ltd.,
permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine
and don't send me story ideas)