Grymm
14
Whenever Surveys are mentiond anywhere, I just think about Survey Vendors cowering on bust sidewalks trying to get the general populace to feedback on some amazing subject.
99% of passers-by just walk on trying not to make eye contact. The few that stop to take the time usually have a set (a) axe to grind, (b) angst to offload, (c) agenda to push, (d) spleen to vent. Occassionally there are useful, meaningful responses, but these are rare as porcelain warhammers.
With games, players usually vote with their feet. In many cases players will respond with the time honoured ‘ooh, it’s sparkly and new’ and move on. Others will stick about for longer. The key, from my very limited and jaded perspective, is for a game to keep on being added to. To keep the challenges going. To keep adding to a narrative. And all of that that retains most of a demographic - or pulls in new players. There’s always a core group of manic zealots that stick through thick and thin.
Any company, from Games through Food to Travel to Gadgets, etc know to filter out most feedback along the lines of ‘screaming’ and ‘hate’ - these are unproductive.
Unemotive logging of faults, useful feedback and suggestions, getting involved via Testlive, modding, etc are all way better indicators for a game than straw polls. You can always guage something from a poll, but they are seldom true indicators of anything.
ps I do think that Screaming and Ranting areas are beneficial though. Venting spleen is often cathartic. Throw a ‘Speaker’s Corner’ into maps. Or have mini-games where the angry can go head to head with a programmer - or just allow some players to press an angry button to summon a Crom avatar or get an ‘on hold’ tone from the gods.
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