I've been thinking quite a bit lately about game development and the impact communities have on it. 
 In my eyes it seems like communities can either make or break a game.   If you have a big trusting community which you have a good relationship with the game will benefit so much more (Minecraft?). Increased sales, more input, less whine and a form of self moderation. 
  
If you have a bad relationship with it then people will be far more willing to pirate stuff, whine and generally give the game and company a bad rumor.  My point here is Valve while they do have a good standing as a developer they do seem to have one of the shittiest communities to date. None of my friends ever play random public games anymore. It also seems that if you actively milk something or try to get as much money as possible people lash out more (Ea, Activision)
  
I can also assume that once a community gets to big people try to stand out more... by being obnoxious assholes. Case in point, the WoW-community. I don't remember the community being the way it is now back in beta and the first year of WoW's release. 
 
So how do you get a good community then do you think? Should companies be heavily involved in the community? Post on forums? Bring outsiders in on events, tests etc? Should a company do more than write a few posts on a forum?  Should the company listen to the forum people when it comes to game design? (To many chef's etc? and them not having any experience in game dev? altho they know what gamers want... or do they?) 
 
I'm just curious. I realize it's a scatter-brained post but I blame it on me being sick but yeah. 
 
Thanks for reading my nonsense.