In September I had a go at investigating forum happiness. So, what has changed?
I randomly selected 25 starting posts from the first 5 pages of each forum section, then judged the happiness of the creator of the thread and rank it on a scale from 1 to 5 (1 being rather unhappy, 3 neutral, and 5 being rather happy). This was largely done based on my judgement, so other people might have had different views.
OVERALL
The overall happiness score in December is 2.9, which has increased slightly from a September happiness of 2.75. Posters may be happier than before, overall things are not all that happy. This is not unexpected, people do use the forums to vent anger and frustration – I understand that it may not be a fair and true representation of people in the game.
STATE OF THE GAME – as judged by the happiness of its forum posters
Rank December (September)
1 WvW———(Lore)
2 Audio———(Audio)
3 Races———-(Crafting)
4 Professions (Professions)
5 Lore————(WvW)
6 Crafting——(SPVP)
7 BLTC————(Events)
8 Events———-(Dungeons)
9 SPVP————(BLTC)
10 Dungeons——(Races)
11 Story————(Story)
I find it interesting that WvW is the happiest forum overall. There was largely a disappearance of complaints about free world transfers and night-capping, while also I saw a lot of posts happily thanks an opposing side for giving them some good times.
Interesting that lore fell from the top spot in September right down to 5th in December.
Happiness score of Audio, Professions, SPVP and Dungeons remain almost identical to before, which is quite interesting.
Personal Story is still the bottom of the pile, although it has made some improvement from before. People are still very frustrated about bugs.
GENERAL
This section got a score of 2.92, which is a decent increase from the previous score of 2.58. This is probably owed to the decrease in level of complaints and “goodbye, I’m quitting” posts.
THEMED EVENTS
The Halloween event was the winner on this one, it sat cleanly on a score of 3. The Lost Shores event copped a fair bit of negative criticism and scored only 2.46.
I did not collect data from the Wintersday forum since the event has not even started yet.
RACES
In September, the happiness of the races was all pretty similar; Charr and Sylvari sat on top, Asura and Norn were tied second and Humans came not far behind.
Now in December, the Asura stepped it up to take out the top spot along with the ever-happy Charr. Human and Sylvari tied on second and Norn came in last place.
There are still a fair few complaints about the races, but in the end all the races increased in happiness (Sylvari remained the same) – perhaps the new makeover kits had a part to play in this?
PROFESSIONS
So in September, Thief was not only the happiest profession, it was the happiest forum section in the whole game. So, how did it fare come December?
Rank December-(September)
1 Engineer——-(Thief)
2 Elementalist—(Engineer)
3 Elementalist—(Guardian)
4 Guardian——(Necromancer)
5 Thief———-(Warrior)
6 Ranger———(Mesmer)
7 Mesmer——(Necromancer & Ranger)
8 Warrior
As you can see, Thieves took a nose-dive and plummeted to 5th place (complaints about stealth and nerfs), leaving Engineers the chance to take out the top spot as happiest profession. Go Engineers!
Elementalists and Guardians remained strong, sticking behind the Engineers and came in second and third accordingly.
Necromancers made an impressive come-back, rising from the bottom position in September to finish up in 4th place (noticeable absence of bug complaints). Even Necromancers are now happier than Thieves! Rangers got slightly happier to take out 6th, Mesmers stayed at the same happiness as before, falling to 7th and Warriors fell in happiness, dropping to last place (too strong levelling damage, attacks missing, boring abilities).
HATE POSTS (Happiness = 1)
Overall, Dungeons received the most hate: 25% of people posted rage.
Out of the races, Sylvari copped the most hate at 12.5%.
The Mesmer and Warrior professions tied on being the most hated, with 12.5%.
The Lost Shores event got the most hate, with 8% of posts hating on it.
LOVE POSTS (Happiness =5)
Overall, Audio received the most love with 21% of people posting posts rated at 5 happiness.
The Charr and Norn races proved the most lovable, tying on 17%.
Only the Elementalist got any love from its forums, with 4% giving some love. None of the other professions got any.
The Halloween event got the most love with 17% complimenting it.
