As the title suggests, was there a person that was paid oodles of money by game publshers to determine the formula for what makes a good game (and I am not sure if they meant good as in good quality or good as in $$$) I remember hearing about it briefly in one of my classes, but I don't know the name of the person. This person came up with a system that determined whether a game would do well based on things like difficulty, levels, and other gameplay elements. For some reason, I had a feeling that this person is a woman as well, but I don't remember. Any information about either this person would be much appreciated, thanks!

The Oracle? (just kidding[wink])

Seriously, I don't think I have heard of such a person. I have heard of various business analysts making predictions on hardware/software sales. Mostly hardware though.

"Market analyst." He works on Wall Street and wears a suit.

Don't know of any particular person. Could it have been the Strange Agency you were thinking of? http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=10969

Moe - You're right in that alot of people fit the bill on this, but I had the notion that this person was more prominent. Perhaps not though.
tsloper - Well after thinking about it, in my class we did specify it was a woman. So apparently she wears a business suit and works on Wall Street ;)
Obscure - The content of the link you provided was very inspiring, and close to what I am talking about, thanks

Quote: hon wrote:
it was a woman. So apparently she wears a business suit and works on Wall Street ;)

You were looking for a person's name, not a job title? Sorry, I missed that.
Hint: there isn't just one.
If you'd read GamaDaily, GameBizDaily, and FierceGameBiz every day, I'm sure you'll see their names come up again, as they do every so often.
OR... are you thinking about that women I've heard about who makes a profession of predicting what 'tweens will buy next?
A thorough Google search ought to turn up some names...

Seems pretty unlikely for such a specialized job to exist. Probably a market analysis company of some kind, potentially not exclusively limited to games.

Whenever I think of market analysts, I always think of someone throwing darts at a copy of BusinessWeek and putting big ups on whatever the dart hits first.

That person is in the marketing department and 99% of the time they don't understand the difference between correlation and causation: "all FPS games that scored a 90 or higher metacritic had jump; therefore to get a 90 or higher metacritic you need jump..."

But yea, what you describe is marketing and they are the bane of my existence. They should stick to actually marketing products instead of trying to predict success; they suck at the latter.

-me