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Thereās likely some truth to that. PvPers, PvEers, RPers and all the flavors that exist as some combination of the three all want different things and want FC to focus on their ** thing. But itās not like FC doesnāt know this and hasnāt known it for many years. Letās remember Age of Conan and the Wild West forums there! LOL But that was probably well before the time of a lot of people here. In terms of games, itās pretty ancient. But the point is they know thereās dissention among playergroups and playstyles and itās already their job to find the happy medium. And the survey did not really address any of that.
No one is mad at FC for giving us a survey. People are just floored by how poorly it was designed and implemented. Honestly, I think FC would be well within their rights to demand their money back. I hope they do. This company has embarrassed them and made them look unprofessional and clueless.
Actually, they kinda do:
Interestingly, this is the only question you get to opt out of.
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flies away on my trusty old Nimbus 2000
Yeahā¦ I would have been more surprised if it didnt ask 
I get bombarded by corporate surveys for my job that have nothing to do with my actual work so maybe Iām a bit jadedā¦ I guess I accepted checking boxes for people as a hill not worth dying on back then.
I find it odd that Funcom needs to pay another company to find out what content their playerbase satisfies and which not. I wonder what this forum is for when not for giving feedback and having discussion about the content of the game. Do you really think that this survey will reach the majority outside of this forum? I donĀ“t think so.
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You know you have very valid and well thought out points. here. I can simplify what FC is looking forā¦
Make a great game people will buy it.
Super Mario Bros. almost 40 years old and people still play it, new generations enjoy it. Because it is fun. No microtransacti9ns, dlcs, drops etc. Just fun. That is how you get a loyal and large fanbase.
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I mean thatās basically what Iāve been doing all along. Iām appalled that Funcom got suckered in by this company and actually paid for such a shoddy product. I kind of feel bad for them. And yet they kind of need to take responsibility for the fact that they did so.
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it would have been cheaper to set up thier own survey page and post the link on login message of the day for officials as well as hit up the private owners some way to get the real player base info they need. It would help cull how involved the player base really is without psycho analyzing who we are.
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A lot of companies claim to be world leaders and they are not, FUNCOM comes to mind when I think about an example.
āCompliance Cultureā should be a huge alarm bell for people. Outsourcing quality control feedback is just asking to get shafted.
Organize an independent audit if you are professional enough to take the feedback.
If this is the way 10 cent runs their business it shows they have a shallow involvement in their products.
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Just a bit of info for those concerned about their personal data being collected or used:
(Source: Finlandās Data Protection Ombudsmanās Office. Finland is a member of EU, and therefore what is shown here corresponds with GDPRās contents.)
Nothing asked or collected in the survey constitutes as personal data. Thatās why thereās no need for a pricavy statement or anything like that.
If youāre afraid that theyāre secretly collecting your IP address - well, any web site you visit can do that, so I suggest using a VPN or getting out of the Internet. If you have no evidence that the survey collects personal data without your permission, please do not accuse them of such. False accusations may be interpreted as slander or similar criminal offense.
Whether you think the survey was conducted in an unprofessional manner, or whether theyāre asking questions youāre not comfortable asking, is another matter. But if weāre entering discussion whether theyāre doing something illegal, please keep it within facts.
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Yes, but if they cannot connect the data to who you are (as I quoted above, āidentify a person directly or indirectlyā), itās not personal data.
You did not give your bank account or credit card info on the survey either, did you? If a shop collects data that 120 people buy bread each day, thatās not collecting personal data. But when they collect the card numbers used to buy bread, then they are collecting personal data.
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You do realise this topic is bashing, right? Opening one topic is not bashing. Opening multiple topics and repeating the same thing in 30 replies is bashing.
This topic looks like a cheap media outlet throwing shade at a celebrity for financial compensation. 
About FCās answer
FCās answer seems ill-fated to me, too.
The complaint had two points,
- very personal questions with no promise of data protection and
- a pretty obvious intention of introducing micro-transactions for āconvenienceā, i. e. not even selling cosmetics, but the hard-core blackmailing kind.
The answer addresses whether
- it is voluntary to take part in the survey and
- if the company that was tasked to do the survey has a good reputation in the industry.
Both points werenāt in question. Of course the survey is voluntary. Talking to a friend is voluntary. Still, if the friend ask very inappropriate questions, asks for money and gossips about you after, well, he/she is not a friend for much longer.
Whether the survey company has a good reputation regarding their results is something important to Funcom, but not to the customers.
When somebody kills their neighborās flower garden when mowing the lawn, the neighbor wonāt care if the lawnmower is a good product or was sold by very reputable salesperson.
About how to make money with Conan Exiles
The survey has one intention: securing and increasing revenue. That is a legitimate cause. Companies need to earn money to pay their investors, their expenses, their employees. They also need money to invest it into new products, in this context new games or new additions to Conan Exiles.
That being said, the survey focuses on "micro"transactions. It is legitimate to ask about that. Lots of companies do it, some companies are very, very successful with that, so naturally, investors will want answer to that.
In my opinion: Conan Exiles is not a good game to sell via microtransactions, at least not without major changes that will drive people away. Why?
- The player demographicās age is probably above average. On the one hand, thatās a good thing for microtransactions, as older people tend to have more money. But theyāre also more wary of business practices like that, or at least I assume they are.
- The typical way to force microtransactions is to make the game inconvenient to play without. That doesnāt really work when the game can be played on private servers. Mods, server settings and so on would allow to counter-balance any inconvenience added to the game, at least when one wants to avoid major changes that create new problems.
A better way for the customer as well as the company, in my opinion, is to sell content: new areas, dungeons, cosmetic DLCs as the current ones.
Thatās the way taken so far, and the survey suggests to me that the management/investors are looking for alternatives. I say: Continue on your current path, but with more speed. Sell a new area every year, a new dungeon every three months.
Maybe find a way to cooperate with mod creators. Snowhunterās dungeons, the excellent The Savage Wilds map, many other community creations are very well made and could be sold. Support their work, milk you customers for a fiver for a new area or dungeon and offer half of that to the creators.
I know, I know, that isnāt all that easy, from legal hurdles to the danger of community backlash. The Fallout 4 store, for example, suffered from a.) horrible quality and b.) overly high prices. But one can avoid these downfalls - donāt be to greedy with the pricing, and people wonāt complain about the occassional bug (or at least not more than with the base gameā¦).
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I have to agree with this. With maybe the exception of the last paragraph, but we can have that discussion in another thread (and I understand it was said to be a little sarcastic and not 100% serious, but just throwing my opinion because I can 
), as I donāt want to derail the other excellent points here.
The survey was long, it was boring, and like many said, it didnāt ask personal questions. It did ask questions I can understand are uncomfortable for some. Like peopleās relationships with others in game and how they interact.
But I didnāt have a problem with a survey asking about stuff like that. I see people yammer on about this subject in the forums all the time, about how solo players need this or that to compete. Wellā¦ why are people soloing? How many people are actually soloing?
āWellā¦ they are! Its what they like to do!ā
Apparently that wasnāt enough information for Funcom and had this company ask about it in a deeper and more thoughtful way. Because let me tell you this. If youāre a solo player, and you have your reasons, but refuse to let Funcom know about them, theyāre gonna assume you donāt exist going forward. Iām not trying to convince you all to take the survey, Iām just pointing out a fact with a particular part with it.
And Halk is right about the microtransaction thing. If people want them, we might see them. If people donāt. Then we wonāt. But hereās where we donāt know of @Alexandria 's intentions here. First of all, I want to say that I do not want them myself. I am playing devilās advocate here. So Alexandria donāt take this personally. Iām just keeping this discussion honest and open.
So now that Iāve brought out the question of their intentions, let me explain, since Iām putting them on the spot and not doing so in a frivolous manner. Its common for many players in the communities to be very vocal about their stance on microtransactions. Yet if you see the mobile gaming market. It appears that many are fine with it, in the fact it thrives there.
So my question is this. Does the majority actually want that? And if so, is a very vocal minority (us, Iāll include myself in this, since Iāll post all day how it isnāt good) keeping them from voicing that opinion by making these threads showing the āhorrorsā and problems with them? And I ask further, is this thread and the other that Alexandria made an attempt, either intentionally, or unintentionally (subconsciously) meant to keep said information from those who could make decisions in the future?
Alexandria, again donāt take this personally, I am NOT accusing you of anything. Iām being open and honest and the questions I posed are genuine. Is this what you are doing? If your first reaction is to say āNo, of course not!ā Then dig a bit deeper and think about it.
Again I want to stress that I am not trying to insult you, accuse you of anything, or belittle you in anyway. Because if you answer yes, thereās nothing wrong with that. Thereās nothing wrong with that stance (again Iāll say its a stance I will agree with).
But if we hide our intentions, it can muddy the waters in these sorts of discussions. But like I said, even if the answer is yes, it doesnāt invalidate your concerns. So donāt take this as an attempt to discredit you.
Now for my personal opinion on the survey and peopleās response to it. I think its slightly overblown. As these things normally are. And any information they are asking in the survey can probably be found by social engineering in these very forums. Like for example, many of the āpersonalā questions people describeā¦ well reading many of these peoplesā posts in the forums, I can put together whether they are goal oriented or make friends to get stuff done or not.
Its just the forums only give a fragment of the whole population and one shaped by a general consensus. And to be honest, that consensus is always going to be slightly hostile. People donāt normally come to the forums to post because they are happy with the game. Those people just play the game. And there are tons of people (even what I would call a silent majority) who are happy with the game. So a survey link offered from within the game does a better job than forums.
Not to mention there are many who have opinions and ideas who arenāt willing to post them because it is in contrary to that consensus and in todayās social climateā¦ deviating from established norms can be anathema and expose them to a variety of nastiness. Case in pointā¦ Iāve been called a nasty hard core PVPer and a casual carebear PVEer. Still trying to figure that one out! 
But finallyā¦ I think Funcom may have used something a bit too hardcore for the survey if Iām to be honest. It could have been shortened up a bit. Or they could have given an incentive to completing it like we got with pre-ordering with the Atlantean Sword or Royal Armor. Not quite a full DLC, but a little thank you. Then they may have gotten a larger sample size. Though some people may have clicked through it (though if Immersyve is world classā¦ they should have a means of timing a survey to see if it was taken too quickly and dump those results or flag them).
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IP address is my concern and what they are doing with them. Obviously thatās the only piece of personal data that can potentially be collected and used. But we do have a reasonable expectation to be told if they are using them for anything and, if they are, what that might be.
Sure we can all purchase a VPN to protect our privacy and probably should. But the point is we should also be able to expect transparency about any and all data collection FC OR the company they hire to interact with their customer base is going to engage in. Thatās really not being unreasonable and is all that is being asked.
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First I am not at all offended! So no worries there. I donāt mind people who question my motives, just as I question the motives of people who jump into this thread to bash me and cheerlead for FC while absolutely ignoring the legit concerns I raise, concerns that very well could have a negative effect on their own experience of this game. People who are obviously acting against their own self interest make me worry about them! LOL
So Iāll take a moment to speak to where Iām personally coming from. I love this game. Bugs and all. I wouldnāt play it without mods and I wouldnāt play it on anything but private servers. But the basic platform itself is fantastic. Since Iām old I didnāt grow up playing computer games but rather I read books and rode horses and did martial arts. I fenced, did archery and yes, even studied a little swordplay. And the influence of Conan (specifically Valeria and Belit) had no little to do with that. Because I grew up with Conan, both the stories by Robert E Howard and some comics. I grew up loving the art of Frank Frazetta and Boris Vallejo. So REH had a huge influence on my childhood and young adult life.
So OF COURSE I played Age of Conan when it came out and was active in its roleplaying forums for over a year before it did actually launch. I made great and long lasting friends (and no few enemies! LOL) in that game. I met my husband there while we both lived on opposite coasts. Yes, I married my guildie! LOL Our wedding rings are snakes to commemorate the Stygian characters we played and our first meeting in Khemi. And the development of Conan Exiles is what brought me back to Funcom after I vowed Iād never give them another penny after what they did to the roleplayng community in that game and how they ran the game down in general while they chased their next project, Secret World. I fear theyāll do the same thing to Conan Exiles while they chase Dune. So I would argue that few people can claim the same level of emotional attachment and investment in this game that I have. And that, to be blunt, is why I am such a harsh critic and why I take the time out of my day to address my concerns with this survey when Iāve largely departed from the forums outside of my own couple of pet roleplay projects I typically post about here.
So, to reiterate, I love this game. I want to see it succeed. And no, not by microtransactions. But by quality CONTENT. By ever evolving to be a better, smoother, higher functioning product. Yes, by bug fixing and by improving performance generally. By giving us quality expansions and fun cosmetic DLCs. By adding quality of life updates. More animations, more interactions, more things we can do with thralls, better control of thralls and their settings, etc. NOT by introducing calculated āfrustrationsā into the game that will lead players to buy ātime savingā gimmicks or items that will confer any other advantage, otherwise known as the dreaded āpay to win.ā And that survey definitely has made me deeply concerned that this might well be the route they choose to take to āmaximize their profits.ā I donāt WANT to think that about Funcom and I honestly DID NOT until I took this survey.
So if youāre genuinely curious or concerned about my motivations, well, there they are. You can take me at my word or not.
Now, you say, āAnd Halk is right about the microtransaction thing. If people want them, we might see them. If people donāt. Then we wonāt.ā
But thatās actually not true. When ESO announced that they were going to introduce loot boxes at a live event (I donāt remember which one it was) the person speaking was LITERALLY BOOED by the audience! The same reaction was given to the introduction of their cash shop. Their forums came alive with protest. Players did indeed leave. But none of that mattered. Not only did they introduce a cash shop and loot boxes but have broken every promise they made about the ālimitedā items that would be IN those loot boxes. Theyāve gone on to introduce mechanics that keep people mindlessly logged in doing repetitive tasks and at the mercy of horrible RNG rather than introduce more and better content. The game is slowly becoming a Skinner box. And no amount of player protest or appeals to ethics has so much as slowed down this trend.
Why? Because the studies are there to show that while a small percentage of players will abandon a game that does these things a larger percentage of players will, however reluctantly, accept them and over time they will become completely normalized and the protests will stop and the wallets will open. And companies like the one that crafted this survey are behind those studies. And they are very transparent about that if you bother to dig into their website. Itās completely predatory and we consumers keep letting it happen. I really donāt want it to happen here.
Do I want to silence players who might actually WANT microtransactions, ātime savingā devices and āpay to winā items? Actually, no. What Iād love is for them to come forward and logically explain why they think these things are a good idea, are not predatory, and why we should stop resisting them. I would like for them to have the courage of their convictions and be willing to expose them to debate.
Lastly, you say, āBut finallyā¦ I think Funcom may have used something a bit too hardcore for the survey if Iām to be honest. It could have been shortened up a bit. Or they could have given an incentive to completing it like we got with pre-ordering with the Atlantean Sword or Royal Armor. Not quite a full DLC, but a little thank you. Then they may have gotten a larger sample size. Though some people may have clicked through it (though if Immersyve is world classā¦ they should have a means of timing a survey to see if it was taken too quickly and dump those results or flag them). ā
I didnāt need an incentive to take the survey. And I answered it all honestly myself despite being entirely put off by the personal questions and the lack of any sort of transparency about what theyāll be doing (or not doing) with our IP addresses. But both are valid concerns which is why I brought them forth. Ditto to my concerns about the many questions that were obviously testing for acceptance of microtransactions and other nefarious monezitation schemes. But one of the biggest things for me was how BADLY the survey was constructed. Spelling errors, questions that demanded a write in answer but didnāt provide the means TO write anything in, etc. all speak to anything but a āworld classā company that makes their profits on this kind of thing. It was a hack job and I feel bad for FC for being taken in by it. I hope they ask for, and get, their money back. Because the survey itself is so poorly executed that itās embarrassing.
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Admittedly I might be a bit more cynical than you. But I believe most people do like having an option to skip ahead in a game and are willing to pay for it. Its only due to the fact that many of us berate them that they donāt come forward.
While you might not do that and welcome a discussion on such a thing. Iām honestly a bit more biased and blunt (as many here can attest) on the subject since I believe that destroys the reason to play games in the first place and leads to bad design philosophies. Such as time sinks. I believe games ought to be fun to play in every aspect, you shouldnāt have to wait to have fun, or pay to have fun (for something you probably paid for already).
I might be wrong, and Iād be gladly wrong in this case. But like I said, Iām admittedly cynical on the subject.
But then again, I did say I was playing devilās advocate when I singled your post out. But I was curious to see where your stance was coming from. I do appreciate the sincerity and answers. I did read your other threads and I hadnāt had time to comment before now.
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I say this as someone who did the entire survey.
What isnāt clear about the data collected? They collected the data we gave them voluntarily. Even if the questions were silly. Theyāre trying to do what most companies giving surveys try to do, put enough questions in to differentiate the types of gamers into distinct groupings that they can then assess trends on. Itās even more important to do so in a game like Conan where there are very distinct types of players who focus on specific gameplay elements and ignore others and then everyone in between who blends all playstyles or mix and matches them according to taste. And clearly theyāre going to include such data when comparing Conan to other games in the same genre or other genres entirely. Thereās no nefarious plot happening.
As far as privacy, thereās nothing personally identifying in the questionnaire. The survey itself is entirely voluntary. There was no guarantee of what they would or wouldnāt do with the data we choose to willingly provide them entirely of our own volition for no compensation. If you want to contribute to something that may allow them to improve Conan, great. If you donāt for any reason, great.
Everything in the survey was relevant, even if the questions were worded in a way that made me laugh a lot (Iām in data analysis/statistics for a living). It was as much a simple psyche/personality test as it was a questionnaire about Conan because itās goal was to ascertain motivations, accomplishment, and happiness both inside and outside the game: what people enjoy doing, what things in game give them a sense of accomplishment, how important those moments of accomplishment are to people, and whether those answers are colored by how they feel about life in general outside of Conan. Itās not trickery or anything malicious.
Granted, I was in the other thread and I made light of the questionnaire, particularly the part about paying money to get past obstacles. In actuality I have no beef with FC or Immersyve at all over it. Iād be more than happy if they took my answers and used it in a dataset provided to other companies. And Iād encourage people to do the survey. In the least grab a beer and take an hour (yes, it was that long) and just laugh at some of the questions. If any contribution improves the game Iām all for it. And if youāre not comfortable answering some of the questions or just donāt want to do it, cool, nothing wrong with that.
If youāre annoyed enough to write this much on a game forum about a voluntary survey you donāt have to do, let me tell you about these two companies called Google and Facebook. Man are you going to be upsetā¦
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Kapoteeni showed the criteria of what constitutes personal information, and it is written into EU law, being the most stringent of privacy data collection based laws in the world currently. And the survey doesnāt violate any of that.
So just to keep the air clear, we should call the questions āUncomfortable Questionsā rather than Personal ones. As personal data collection has actual legal ramifications.
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I have to askā¦ worst case scenarioā¦ what could possibly happen here? That couldnāt happen with a less āinvasiveā survey?