I have no personal experience as to what happens on the other side of the velvet rope, but I have gotten some clues, hints and inferences over the years. There is 1 real, "idea guy". That's Jason. There are things that he can do in support of his ideas, there are skills that he has, but his passion and his proven ability is to spin a universe our of thin air. Everyone else on the team is there because they do something (or a collection of somethings) VERY well. And because they are all so good at what they do, they also tend to be creative and have ideas. Beyond that, there is no hierarchy, pecking order, layered structure or "chain of command" when it comes to ideas, suggestions, criticism, questions, what-if-the-phones-rang, you name it, input. From everyone. I imagine that it is possible that someone could hear Marty working, him looking pleased and proud, raising his eyebrows with a look like "These Viennese certainly know good music when they hear it!" and someone tells him that it needs to be "more bouncey" or that it has [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_UsmvtyxEI]"too many notes"[/url]. Marty then considers the source and the potential meaning of such comments and takes them under advisement. I am also reminded of an intern (who came from the lame excel developing team if I remember correctly) who suggested "pregnant sentinels that were on like fire and went werrrroooowww wapoWW! and stuff". Sounds silly doesn't it, pregnant sentinels? Yeah, Halo 2's Enforcers. Thank you Skip freakin' Weasel, intern, ladykiller and game idea guy. So, the ability to offer input and ideas isn't restricted. People just have to clearly express their ideas, defend them, modify them, and champion them if they really believe in them. And then, even so, some brilliant ideas end up cut. It doesn't hurt the ego of a professional when their "baby" dies. They are there for the work of the team, and every idea (except Skip's apparently) goes through a lot of tough consideration before it makes it to the disk.