Player Happiness Investigation: The Results

Player Happiness Investigation: The Results

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Posted by: Karina.9871

Karina.9871

Hi everyone!

First off, just want to thank the several hundred people (most of whom were on the forums) for participating in the survey! I ended up getting 362 observations. Particularly thanks to those (sadly, few) kind Henge of Denravi folks that responded to my “Hi! Would you mind answering a quick survey? I’m collecting data!” requests

Secondly, I do want to apologize for my poor survey design. I know designing this stuff is PhD-level high quality stuff… and in in hindsight I could have improved it and possibly my results would be more conclusive. As it stands… basically none of my data is statistically significant (I know, I was let down too).

But was my survey? Well;
1. What level are you?
2. What class are you?
3. On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your happiness right now?

METHOD
I started off running around zones in-game (Henge of Denravi server) and whispering pretty much everyone I saw if they wanted to do a survey. Some said no, some said yes, but most didn’t reply. Also a thanks to Thithiphis, Rizon Reav and Fratlogar for helping me survey people.
But I got tired of that and posted a data call on the General Discussion part of the forums. I was overwhelmed with data there! Although I am aware that the Forum may have given less reliable data (people messing around, not answering the question as intended) I hope that the sheer mass of responses balances this out.
Also, apologies to those forum posters that offered lots and lots of extra data that did not make it into the analysis. I enjoyed reading them though!

Statistics Bit
I have no evidence to doubt the normality and equality of variance assumptions for the tests I carried out. It is reasonable to assume that for asking people surveys in-game, the effect of one person’s response had no effect on another person’s response. However for forums, the effect of one person’s post may influence other people’s posts. Since most of my data came from the forums, the validity of the independence assumption may be in doubt.

STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT RESULTS
The only statistically significant result (and it wasn’t even really statistically significant: a weak p=0.054) was that Necromancers were unhappier than Warriors (if I had more Thief data it probably would show that Necromancers were unhappier than Thieves as well).

I have also attached the Happiness versus Level graph so you can see the relationship (or lack thereof) for yourselves.

INTERESTING RESULTS

The overall average happiness was 7.5/10.
I suppose that gives Guild Wars 2 about a B? Perhaps a B+?

Profession Composition
1. Ranger 19%
2. Warrior 17%
3. Elementalist 13%
4. Guardian 12%
5. Engineer, Mesmer and Thief 10%
6. Necromancer 9%
Interesting that Rangers were the most common profession, but also one of the most unhappy. If you Rangers are so unhappy, why are you playing so many of them? Haha.

44% of the overall responses came from level 80’s.
The average happiness of a level 80 was 7.4/10.

15% of the overall responses rated their happiness at 10.
Of those, the top professions were Warriors (21%) and Rangers (17%).

23% of the overall responses rated their happiness between 9 and 9.9.
Of those, the top professions were Warriors (19%) and Rangers (17%).

2 people (0.6%) rated their happiness at 1: a level 80 Necromancer and a level 80 Mesmer.

3 people (0.8%) rated their happiness at 0: a level 8 Necromancer, a level 75 Necromancer and a level 40 Elementalist.

AESTHETIC RESULTS

Profession Happiness Ranking (Happiest to Unhappiest)
1. Thief
2. Warrior
3. Mesmer
4. Guardian
5. Ranger
6. Elementalist
7. Necromancer

For those who saw my previous study, Thieves are once again on top! This encourages the belief that this class is the happiest.
Common complaints that held back other classes were:
1. The lack of effective ranged weapons/slow scepter attacks on a Guardian.
2. Not sure what the problem with Rangers are. They scored low on my previous study as well (to many people’s displeasure).
3. Elementalists being “under-powered”.
4. The many Necromancer bugs.

Level Bracket Happiness Rating (Happiest to Unhappiest)
1. 61-70
2. 51-60
3. 31-40
4. 21-30
5. 41-50
6. 11-20
7. 71-80
8. 1-10

It’s interesting that the first level bracket 1-10 and the last level bracket 71-80 are the unhappiest. I guess no one likes to start and no one wants to finish?
The most common level-bracket complaints were Orr-related (bugged skill points, Risen everywhere).

Hope you guys found this investigation interesting!

Attachments:

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Posted by: Vahn.2734

Vahn.2734

Very thorough! Thanks for the information, it was an interesting read.

I’m surprised no one else replied yet.

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Posted by: Bguk.1309

Bguk.1309

Fun read. I would say that a 7.5 would equate to a C overall. At least that’s what a 75 was back in school.

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Posted by: Brick Mantooth.9520

Brick Mantooth.9520

AESTHETIC RESULTS

Profession Happiness Ranking (Happiest to Unhappiest)
1. Thief
2. Warrior
3. Mesmer
4. Guardian
5. Ranger
6. Elementalist
7. Necromancer

You forgot Engineers.

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Posted by: Mongo.2490

Mongo.2490

“Engineer” was left off the “Profession Happiness Ranking (Happiest to Unhappiest)” results..

Very interesting though, Nice job! Always neat to catch a glimpse at the person behind the character.

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Posted by: Payne.5062

Payne.5062

On the scale to Happiest to Unhappiest …Engineers dont even make the list

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Posted by: wollie.9751

wollie.9751

great read! nice work and thank you.

now if only we could do this in game than perhaps we could get a more realistic view on the actual player base.

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Posted by: Satakal.6971

Satakal.6971

This is very interesting, thanks a lot for the effort.

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Posted by: Korrigan.4837

Korrigan.4837

8. 1-10

I love when people who barely played a game as big as a MMORPG give negative opinions about it. There’s a name for that on forums.

The Farstar Alliance [TFA] – Gandara Server.
A PvX guild for mature players with a life.

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Posted by: Eivene.9127

Eivene.9127

I feel a bit outnumbered as a happy elementalist :P

Very interesting read, thank you!

Perfectionists’ Cult [NICE] - Family Friendly PvE/WvW community
Sanctum of Rall

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Posted by: fingis.2867

fingis.2867

AESTHETIC RESULTS

Profession Happiness Ranking (Happiest to Unhappiest)
1. Thief
2. Warrior
3. Mesmer
4. Guardian
5. Ranger
6. Elementalist
7. Necromancer

You forgot Engineers.

Engineers didn’t make the list.

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Posted by: Silver Chopper.4506

Silver Chopper.4506

Very interesting. This would be a great study if it was available as an in-game poll.

I only played Guardian (about 190 hours) so far and the unhappiness reasons for that class were spot on (lack of ranged options).
Also, level 71-80 being unhappy due to orr design is also spot on. For me this is what made the game dull. And the Arah dungeon in story mode was the most horrible experience in the game (bugs, lag, confusion, anti-climatic).

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Posted by: Pandemoniac.4739

Pandemoniac.4739

Very interesting read – thanks for taking the time.

I’m not sure why so many rangers are unhappy. It’s possible that it’s an expectation problem – as a ranged profession with a pet, maybe some folks expected that they would be more insulated from the action parts of the combat.

I love my ranger, but I have to be on my toes in hard fights managing my pet, maneuvering, trying to get facing the right way after evading, remembering not to use my “jump back” skill when I’m on the edge of a cliff… sigh. I think the expectation problems are illustrated by folks thinking that the bear is the only worthwhile pet (they can soak up a lot of damage, so you don’t have to be as careful with them).

Folks that choose a thief pretty much have their expectations met – some stealth, big burst damage, little bit squishy. Warriors also meet expectations – heavy armor, melee monsters. Elementalists – I think that folks expected a nuker in exchange for being squishy, but you really have to understand your class to get the damage output. I found that if I don’t switch my attunements to take advantage of synergies, I don’t really feel all that powerful. So folks trying to play as a traditional mage might be disappointed.

I guess my definition of happiness in terms of games is getting close to what you expected.

Don’t ever think you know what’s right for the other person.
He might start thinking he knows what’s right for you.
—Paul Williams

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Posted by: TheSabi.2378

TheSabi.2378

a 75% is a B+, wow…I knew the everybody winds generation was bad just not this bad. In high school, not to long a go a 75% (or 7.5 out of 10) would have been a D+/C-.

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Posted by: Rhah.9437

Rhah.9437

I wish you would have asked an additional question. Do you primarily do PvE, PvP, or equally do both?

So many opinions of professions are biased based on what the author’s primary activity in-game is.

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Posted by: Moonpuncher.7250

Moonpuncher.7250

You mentioned most of your responses come from the forums, which represents less than 1% of the population, typically. And the forum people tend to be harsher by far. So I do think these results need to be taken with that grain of salt.

That having been said, I enjoyed the results and think they mean something, directionally. I certainly think the satisfaction ranking by class looks accurate. I also think the 1-10 players haven’t figured out why the game is great yet, and the 71-80 were mostly 80s who feel they don’t know what to do now that they’re at the “end”. A predictable phenomenon.

Anyway, thanks for the interpretation!

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Posted by: tolunart.2095

tolunart.2095

I agree with the posters above. The results are intersting, but largely anecdotal. The forums tend to be more hostile than the overall gaming population, so relying on those participants for much of your data will naturally skew the results towards negative experiences and deliberate sabotage.

The spellcasting classes are more complex than “do I use a ranged or melee weapon?” classes and so it’s understandable that more people are frustrated with elementalists and necromancers. Also those who are very low level or at max level may be coming from other MMOs and are frustrated by the change in focus from level/gear/raid to exploration and pvp.

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Posted by: Derpinator.2894

Derpinator.2894

Folks, remember to us the +1 function if you like a post. I just did and it feels great!

This is great stuff, even if the results are necessarily limited to the subset of players who use the forums (and all the psychological confounding factors that implies ).

If you played in any of the beta weekends or stress tests, you may recall that Anet have a survey system in place in game.

I would LOVE to see them use it for a few of these things then publish the results, or at least share them with the OP as a thank you for being level headed, respectful and trying to actually be useful to the community.

Well played OP. Well played indeed.

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Posted by: luchifer.6401

luchifer.6401

1-10 players unhappy is understandable:

1. You dont have weapon swap until 5 (?), wich doesnt make sense because is a core feature
2. You start unlocking spells as an elementalist according to your level (wich is boring for people who wants to use Air or Earth)
3. Usually you dont start with the weapon you want for your class (Greatswords/Bows)
4. Every weapon has to be unlocked, even those you dont want to use, and since some utilities are mixed, you have to unlock utilites that doesnt make sense until you learn more about the game and you develop your own playstyle. This is annoying if you only do WvW, because you will unlock weapon skills slower than PvE.

Its understandable that ArenaNet does not want the players to have everything at the start to not overwhelm them, but that makes the game not enjoyable as it should, also:

Take rangers for example, almost everyone wants a Bow, yet they start with an Axe.

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Posted by: Durzlla.6295

Durzlla.6295

They start with an axe to 1) show you can throw axes, giving you a ranged 1h 2) show that rangers aren’t required to use a bow and 3) so you can get an off hand reward after the tutorial like everyone else…

I’m kinda curious why so many rangers are unhappy, sure I got bored because of me using the same like 2 weapons from 1-80, so I switched it up lol, my god changing torch —→ warhorn and a/wh-—> longbow made some significant changes to play style, didn’t expect that…

They sing dark, delicious notes about power and family.
As their mother, I have to grant them their wish. – Forever Fyonna

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Posted by: bluejay.6739

bluejay.6739

I think the reason for the strange results with Rangers is that the class is quite powerful but boring because of long cool downs on abilities, limited number of viable builds, and a significant bug in our class ability.

Rangers can pump out tons of dps but you spend way too much time auto attacking.

As a result lots of people play it for the dps but the satisfaction is low.

Just a theory.

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Posted by: ituhata.6830

ituhata.6830

I just like kiting on the shortbow, I know that’s mostly autoattack (especially me since I corner kite pretty well so I rarely have to use my dodges). It’s like a simple game of tag with every mob you meet, I’m not ‘it’ much. =)

As far as long cooldowns on abilities, I think most people haven’t learned to manage weapon swapping yet. When I burn my cooldowns in large fights I automatically switch to a new weapon and burn those cooldowns. Then all I have to do is wait until weapon swap cooldown is up before repeating. Along with the elite skills (I run signet builds so I don’t really use my utility skills).

Anyway, I’m getting to a point where I use abilities that match the situation, so I’m not just spamming whats up and I’m swapping weapons for the might buff and then back again, sadly, in time I will have a rotation for big fights, but I’m sure that will make alot of Rangers happy once they learn it. =P

Caelthras – Fort Aspenwood
3rd Flora Artillery Unit

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Posted by: Nyota.7062

Nyota.7062

You know how you could have achieved the goal of exploring overall player satisfaction much easier?

Just count the amount of goldselling ads. They scale with the concurrent players of a game and are the perfect indication of a healthy player population. It’s when they leave, that we have to worry…

- a happy engineer

Dolyak Engineer/Thief – Kodash (EU)

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Posted by: Bruno Sardine.2907

Bruno Sardine.2907

Wasn’t the survey more about the class in relation to the game? That sort of matters…

I put a fairly high score on my engineer cause while I’ve enjoyed the concept and execution of the class in relation to the game, I specifically left out my thoughts of the game as a whole. Yes, I’m pretty happy with how the class works in relation to the combat mechanics. I’m not as pleased, however, with the game mechanics overall.

So don’t confuse liking the classes with enjoying the game.

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Posted by: bluejay.6739

bluejay.6739

I just like kiting on the shortbow, I know that’s mostly autoattack (especially me since I corner kite pretty well so I rarely have to use my dodges). It’s like a simple game of tag with every mob you meet, I’m not ‘it’ much. =)

As far as long cooldowns on abilities, I think most people haven’t learned to manage weapon swapping yet. When I burn my cooldowns in large fights I automatically switch to a new weapon and burn those cooldowns. Then all I have to do is wait until weapon swap cooldown is up before repeating. Along with the elite skills (I run signet builds so I don’t really use my utility skills).

Anyway, I’m getting to a point where I use abilities that match the situation, so I’m not just spamming whats up and I’m swapping weapons for the might buff and then back again, sadly, in time I will have a rotation for big fights, but I’m sure that will make alot of Rangers happy once they learn it. =P

At level 70 that is pretty much what I am finding. It is the exact same rotation, then I have to watch my character auto attack while I wait for my swap, pet ability, and ability cool downs then the same rotation again. I even picked the lowest cool down elite and got the 20% cool down reduction trait.

I am not sure what Anet could do about it though. If they lowered the cd they would have to weaken the abilities too. Rangers don’t need a dps increase. If the abilities were more situational so that you had to think to apply them it might help.

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Posted by: Nyota.7062

Nyota.7062

Wasn’t the survey more about the class in relation to the game? That sort of matters…

[…]

So don’t confuse liking the classes with enjoying the game.

That’s why I phrased it ‘overall player satisfaction’. You know, one (the major?) third of the results (over 2 being ‘satisfaction in relation to profession’ and ‘satisfaction in relation to level’).

Dolyak Engineer/Thief – Kodash (EU)

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Posted by: mangarrage.1062

mangarrage.1062

Well considering probably about 90% of forum users actually come to the forums to complain as their primary function I am actually surprised that it is that high, which actually tells me that most people are actually above 7.5 which is a good sign

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Posted by: Vzur.7123

Vzur.7123

Fun read. I would say that a 7.5 would equate to a C overall. At least that’s what a 75 was back in school.

Getting an A in school is a perfectly realistic goal. To get a “A+” average rating, almost everyone would have to rate the game a 10. That’s just not realistic.

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Posted by: Karina.9871

Karina.9871

Sorry guys I didn’t realise about the Engineer.

Profession Happiness Ranking (Happiest to Unhappiest)
1. Thief
2. Warrior
3. Mesmer
4. Guardian
5. Ranger
6. Engineer
7. Elementalist
8. Necromancer

There you go :P

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Posted by: Karina.9871

Karina.9871

And about the B+ grade, that’s what it is at my University in New Zealand so that’s what I thought it was haha.
For us, 80-100% is A-range (90%+ is an A+)
60-79% is B range
and 50-69% is C range

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Posted by: Karina.9871

Karina.9871

The quote thing doesn’t seem to be working but in response to Bruno Sardine:
“Wasn’t the survey more about the class in relation to the game? That kind of matters…”

Technically the question was, ‘How happy are you right now?’ Which in hindsight was way too vague, and a major reason of my "sorry for bad survey design’ comment at the start. Mostly because people on the forums had a very loose way of interpreting this question, and I got a whole range of answers.
Just wanted to clarify that I was well aware of this… and a major problem with my survey design. I know I could have done a better job here, haha. When I was surveying people in-game people knew what I meant, since they were just on the one character and I could clarify the question with them.
Most interpreted the question as, how happy are you on each of your characters? So it kind of messed up my data. But I tried to work with it. If people weren’t answering the question properly on the forums I generally didn’t include them in the data.

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Posted by: Tradewind.6913

Tradewind.6913

You should conduct a new survey on Henge today, since last I checked we closed the gap with Eredon Terrace and their “ignore Stormbluff Isle and just zerg Henge because butthurt” win trading shenanigans. Myself and a few guild mates were instantly happier as a result.

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Posted by: killbill.7910

killbill.7910

kudos @OP for his effort making this survey

-Killbill

" When you judge another you do not define them, you define yourself "

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Posted by: Cik.6479

Cik.6479

Fun read. I would say that a 7.5 would equate to a C overall. At least that’s what a 75 was back in school.

Yes. A 7.5 is a solid C. Can’t argue with that. Good job OP. I thought it falls about into that category.

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Posted by: Izziee.8392

Izziee.8392

I speak for myself as a ranger and no one else.

I love GW’s but I have 2 problems with it. The first 2 weeks were great, then it started to die off or so it felt. Maybe people left my server I don’t know, people in the guild just no longer logging on, events getting less and less, so on and so on. Yes, people spread out zones, but not THIS drastically. I’d quite like the overflow as a permanent thing really.

As for my class, well, it’s buggy.

Pet’s run up ahead and aggro everything

Pet’s F2 ability rarely works

An extreme lack of interesting utility slots.

No viable, or even acceptable conditional remover. One from a pet, one tied to a pet. The first falls under the F2 ability, the latter falling under pet out of range, dead, long cool down and pretty mediocre aub-ability tied to it.

The main problem I dislike with the class are the abilities. They are CHEAP knock off’s from both the thief and warrior.

Auto attack for shortbow does nice damage, more than the thiefs, but IMO the other abilities are either more damaging, more flashy looking, or like our evasive shot deals minor damage and a short swiftness on a cooldown, thieves one I find better, not so clunky and can be used numerous times.

The lack of any decent utility slots and no real damaging abilites on the shortbow make it primarily just auto attack. This is not fun for what is rather a signature weapon alongside the longbow.

Our longbow while having nice abilities, is weak on damage.

Our 1 hand sword is also stupid, we have to turn off the auto attack to make sure of it properly. It’s a weapon that you can quite easily work against you than for you.

Greatsword is a weaker knockoff version of the warriors. It’s not really hard hitting either even if you pump all your traits into powe/crit while wearing glass cannon gear. Not compared to other weapons.

Axe 1h’s are “okay” for AoE, but boring. Axe offhand is once again, a weaker knock off from the warriors. This plate class can move while spinning, while the dexterous ranger becomes stationary and hit’s less.

Our traps are good for PvE but even spec’d for them I’d expect more from them. Damage wise at least. They are however pretty bad in sPvP since a competent player will just walk around them. Unless you once again, trait for them to ground target.

The traits feel very counter-intuitive.

Spirits are absolutely useless. For PvE and PvP. Even specing myself fulling into them I can summon all of them to follow me and a single AoE from a warrior/thief..whoever, will literally one shot them. Their casted ability is the same as the pet’s F2 and by the time they’ve gone through their pointless animation, it’s laid it down nowhere where you wanted it, they die in dungeons from a sneeze and a waste of talents making you useless elsewhere.

So, in short:-

It;s buggy, VERY uninteresting abilities especially for signature weapons, you can be shut down very easy and I feel I’m putting in 10x the work on my ranger than other class’s (Honestly I played to rank 10/Level 80 with it before even trying out another and trying warrior/thief for the first time I destroyed people far quicker, far easier and able to spec how I WANTED than rather how I NEEDED to spec to deal with certain classes. It’s also very bland looking and armour is not very rangerish IMO, with a lack of “real” AoE except for barrage or spec’d traps.

1v1 I don’t have a problem with them killing people, but RARELY do you, if ever, get a 1v1 in small scale PvP, in WvW they do fine but it’s a zerg fest IMO, and when it’s not 1v1 you can be shut down quicker than certain other classes and gibbed very quickly (I did spec a decent survival spec and could tank a long time, but again, VERY low damage yet playing 4 other class’s as a tank spec did more damage, or if I spec damage, it’s nice damage when you get the chance, but you need to have situational awareness, which is fine, not when other class’s can go in guns blazing and produce same/better results.

Seriously, my main gripe is such boring utilities. Either boring, or worthless. Same for traits, high end traits worthless, or which other class’s get for free anyway.

Solo PvE we are very strong. 1v1 We can do well, wvw again, well..but it’s all situational, or just plain boring. It’s not fun having to flank people and auto-attack to get their out-put of mashing buttons.

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Posted by: Bruno Sardine.2907

Bruno Sardine.2907

I didn’t mean that comment as a snipe to you Nyota… I was just making sure, based on some of the comments I was seeing, that people weren’t confusing the two.

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Posted by: mangarrage.1062

mangarrage.1062

well the 0-10 dynamic and the 0%-100% have no correlation whatsoever
so saying 9 is an A is just incorrect anyway

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Posted by: Hickeroar.9734

Hickeroar.9734

well the 0-10 dynamic and the 0%-100% have no correlation whatsoever
so saying 9 is an A is just incorrect anyway

90% was an A in my highschool as well as my college. :-P

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Posted by: Nyota.7062

Nyota.7062

Sorry, I must have misread, Bruno

edit:
And to the ranger dude above:
I feel like your impression of 1v2+ situations, is the same on any other class/build, that doesn’t dedicate itself to bunkering.

It actually is my main gripe with this game’s PvP – it is extremely hard to win a 1v2 in this game and there has to be a vast skill gap between the parties to make it possible. Ofc you can outlast 2 or 3 opponents when you spec for it, but you cannot defeat them (unless you drastically outclass them).

This is deeply webbed into the game’s design and probably has to be this way to make the 5v5 balanced and interesting, the way it is meant to be played.

It’s just that my favorite PvP game is a quite unknown gem called Bloodline Champions (if anyone should care: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntEDGUYBW-k). Think of it as WoW arena (classbased 3v3 deathmatch arena with tank/melee/range/heal archetypes) meets fps game (wasd movement, mouse aiming in 2D) meets moba (similar ui, topdown perspective, no ‘world’ outside of the arena, only lobby, 6 base spells; 11 overall per class).

It really is one of a kind (tera features some similar mechanics, but doesn’t even come close) and one particular thing I really liked about the game was – you could 1v3 the other team if you were better.

Because in blc you could actually dodge and you had to actually hit your spells. It scaled 100% with player skill and I know of no mmo PvP that has been able emulate this.

There are some semi-skillshots like the slow travelling projectile spells or the AoEs) in this game and you have the odd dodges at your disposal, but in the end it mostly comes down to a build/rotation wars unfortunately and the twitch aspect suffers a lot from it. And if there was a build rotation that could actually and consistently win its 1v2s, we had a severe balance problem, I guess.

Not saying there would be no skill in this game, far from it! It’s just that I find the duel/1vx (twitch) aspect in this game as bland as in any other mmo and got reminded of this by the ranger’s post above. But I still have quake and blc for that, so I’ll be ok.

Got carried away a bit, but I think it’s still related (as it’s the only real gripe I have with the game and to point out, that the ranger’s complaint is not really profession related imo).

Dolyak Engineer/Thief – Kodash (EU)

(edited by Nyota.7062)

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Posted by: Hickeroar.9734

Hickeroar.9734

I’m very surprised by the ranger statistics. I have found the rangers in-game to be absolutely thrilled with the ranger experience overall. Myself included.

I’m guessing a lot of the upset people were PvP or WvWvW, where i hear they’re a bit underpowered.

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Posted by: Izziee.8392

Izziee.8392

I’m very surprised by the ranger statistics. I have found the rangers in-game to be absolutely thrilled with the ranger experience overall. Myself included.

I’m guessing a lot of the upset people were PvP or WvWvW, where i hear they’re a bit underpowered.

For PvE we are overpowered IMO – At least for solo play. Dungeons, tried a spirit build? Don’t think they could do with some work?

WvW we’re good, but sPvP underpowered isn’t the word because 1v1 I have zero issues the problem arises when more come into the fray. We can get shut down/gibbed easily compared to other class’s. We have non-working abilities, which might be fine for PvE but every second counts in pvp.

Also, our abilities are just BORING in comparing with other class’s. Go make a thief and play with the shortbow, make a warrior and play dual axes/greatsword and see our knock off abilities.

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Posted by: Seras.5702

Seras.5702

Having read through quite a lot of the forums, I can say your poll has spotlighted the most commonly complained about problems with many of the professions. Warriors are happy (and numerous), necros are not, rangers are great but want more, guardians need range…yea i hear those a lot. Kudos to you for your poll.

Love to have Anet chime in with their thoughts on the poll’s results and if they’ve come to the same conclusions or what.

Flixx Gatebuster, Orwynn Lightgrave, Seras Snapdragon
[TTBH] [HATE], Yak’s Bend(NA)

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Posted by: Sparkie.3465

Sparkie.3465

Sociology studies are always difficult to do well.

I have a suggestion to improve future polls:

You need to give everyone a basis for the scale. Some people look at a question like that and a 1-10 scale and take it in an “absolute” kind of way, while others will take it in what I’d call a pragmatic way (I’m biased, I admit it).

The absolutists will consider a 10 to be the best moment in their life, and 1 to be death’s door. They may give you a 7.5 to classify their general satisfaction with life when playing video games, and consider most leisure activity to fall into a small range.

The pragmatists will guess at the purpose for your survey as a comparison of happiness within the game among different types of players. They will have a variety of approaches to scaling happiness. They may consider 1 to be a completely broken game, or they may consider 1 to be “continuously camped in WvW” or they may consider 1 to be “I’m quitting once we get through with this survey.” They may give a 10 simply when they are having lots of fun, or when they are having the most fun they’ve ever had in a game, or when they’ve just gotten a string of luck with drop rates.

So give people some guidelines to go by. Spell out what 1, 5, and 10 mean at minimum, probably along with some middle values. You’ll get a bigger spread across your scale. This is a problem with any question where you ask people to rate something on a scale, no matter how well you phrase the question.

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Posted by: Karina.9871

Karina.9871

Sociology studies are always difficult to do well.

I have a suggestion to improve future polls:

Give people some guidelines to go by. Spell out what 1, 5, and 10 mean at minimum, probably along with some middle values. You’ll get a bigger spread across your scale. This is a problem with any question where you ask people to rate something on a scale, no matter how well you phrase the question.

I definitely agree! Thanks for the tip though, if I do more studies like this in future I will plan my survey much more carefully :P

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Posted by: Rack.4930

Rack.4930

Can’t seem to quote, but I’m not surprised the top and bottom levels are the unhappiest. It takes barely any time to hit level 11, so if someone is still in that range they can’t be enjoying the game. On the flip side there isn’t really any traditional end-game content so people who rushed through to 80 are likely to be feeling disappointed. That won’t be all 80s but at the moment it will be a significant portion of them.

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Posted by: Mastermind.3169

Mastermind.3169

Cool info, thanks. =)

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Posted by: mulch.2586

mulch.2586

If you meant to get ratings of the game on A-F scale, then you should collect judgments on A-F.

But that’s not what was asked.

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Posted by: Airala.8629

Airala.8629

That’s the most fun I’ve had reading survey results in my entire life. LOL

Sincerely,
A very happy level 75 elementalist

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Posted by: Terrant.2903

Terrant.2903

Some interesting observations, although it’s hard to confirm how accurate they are over the entire playerbase. That said.

The information about Rangers does not surprise me. Mostly due to pet AI. I disagree with the comments about weapons and utilities lacking..if you’re expecting Ranger to be a Marksman/Surv type nuker ala wow, it’s not going to happen. Nor a beastmaster powerhouse. GW2 Rangers are a lot more broad base even with trait specialization. Much like the Mesmer. Speaking of….

I’m amused that Mesmers were so high on the happiness ratings. Look over in the class forums and 3/4ths of us think we’re broken and unplayable. I disagree and have a blast on my Mes, but I expected lower overall numbers.

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Posted by: arcaneclarity.5283

arcaneclarity.5283

It’s interesting how it reflects my general opinion. When I was 61-70, I was having a lot of fun. After I reached Sparkfly and then especially Orr though, my happiness level dropped like a rock.

(edited by arcaneclarity.5283)