[Suggestion] In-game Survey

[Suggestion] In-game Survey

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ashantara.8731

Ashantara.8731

Since there has been a lot of criticism lately as for the quality, consistency and credibility of the current season’s developments, I would suggest that ArenaNet implemented a quick survey at the end of each story mission (past and future) to get a better picture of what the players liked and what they disliked.

This doesn’t have to be too complicated and it should run only for a limited amount of time (2-3 months?).

I am picturing a pop-up (like the mission reward window) where you can rate the following categories

  • Plot (consistency, story credibility)
  • Dialogue (character credibility, quality of writing)
  • Fun (difficulty/challenge level, innovation)
    … with three possible ratings:
    [ _ ] Liked
    [ _ ] Indifferent
    [ _ ] Disliked

I think this could be helpful for both sides, as players would feel like they can contribute to the future quality of content and devs would get an instant feedback rather than reading through tons of posts.

Note: Participation should be optional, i.e. once the survey goes online, people have to confirm or decline participation (e.g., by checking the option at game launch in their login screen).

Thoughts?

P.S. Perhaps they could also add an option where you can select your age category (<21, 21-35, 36-45, 46+) to see how every age group responds differently or if the tenor is equal across all groups.

(edited by Ashantara.8731)

[Suggestion] In-game Survey

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Posted by: kamedin.4698

kamedin.4698

I think that would be a nice idea, but it doesn’t make them money directly so I doubt they will waste the time to figure out what their customers actually want and just push more gem store remakes out. It would be even nicer to have in game polls when they want to change certain new armor skins because of possible mistakes or something else like that where you can get a larger poll size.

Lyscir – Main Engi
[????] – HoD

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Posted by: Illconceived Was Na.9781

Illconceived Was Na.9781

That wouldn’t achieve the effect you’re hoping for. It’s much more complicated than people think to design a survey that will produce results that a company can use to meaningfully change direction. Done poorly, a survey reinforces assumptions or heads folks down the wrong direction entirely. To do it well requires lots of time spent figuring out what to ask, how to ask, how to collate the data, and how to present it.

And in the end, regardless of what they found out, whatever choices they make are only going to help some of the community, while others (especially those who liked the status quo) will be upset.

And even if they brilliantly respond to concerns, there’s no guarantee that they will be able to brilliantly delivery nor whether it will be well received.

Case in point: the often misunderstood and sometimes maligned, New Player Initiative. ANet did focus groups and interviewed people who quit GW2 to find out why some new players weren’t sticking around, in an effort to improve retention. They seemed to have done as good a job at understanding the issues as any of us could hope.

They completely redesigned how the game would look to new players, by improving level-up rewards, introducing key mechanics more slowly, reordering the story to be more sensible, and so on. And it worked — the game was friendlier to new players; new players stayed longer.

Unfortunately, ANet made two huge mistakes. The first was that they did an atrocious job of presenting the changes to veterans, people who were already “retained” and who wouldn’t receive any direct benefit from the changes that were made for an entirely different target audience. (In some cases, the game actually became less friendly to veterans, even if in minor ways.) The New Player Initiative was good for new players; it was meh or ycch for vets.

The second mistake was that they didn’t remember enough of what they learned when they designed HoT. Whatever our opinion about the expac, I don’t think there’s anyone who has argued that HoT was (or even is) as friendly to new players as the core game became after NPE. Lots of veterans also suffered a rough transition because it was abrupt in many cases.


So surveying the players seems like a great idea. It’s just more work and less useful than it seems, too.

John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”

[Suggestion] In-game Survey

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Posted by: Ashantara.8731

Ashantara.8731

Thank you, IWN, for your response.

I didn’t know there had been a New Player Initiative (was that when they gave the skill system etc. an overhaul?). Also, I did not know quitters had been interviewed at some point — is there a place I can look this up in detail (as I am very curious)?

Don’t you think that, if they kept an eye on people’s perception of their latest releases (not in hindsight but just in time), that everyone would benefit from it in the long run, though?

P.S. Indeed, HoT was not newbie-friendly and I personally know several people who quit when it was released. Unfortunately, they continued down the road of making things as difficult for people as possible — not all of the devs, mind you, but certain design teams (there are several teams, right?).

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Posted by: Inculpatus cedo.9234

Inculpatus cedo.9234

There are several teams, but the members of those teams are fluid. The Devs move around as needed for projects.

The Devs, long ago, addressed in-game polls, and stated that polls (polls were used before launch in Betas) were not something they found useful, and weren’t planning on offering them in-game, again. The Devs do, however, offer them (some more formal, some more informal) outside the game occasionally.

Good luck.

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Posted by: Ashantara.8731

Ashantara.8731

The Devs do, however, offer them (some more formal, some more informal) outside the game occasionally.

Really? Do I need to start reading the Reddit forum if I want to participate or are there other platforms they use?

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Posted by: notebene.3190

notebene.3190

The Devs do, however, offer them (some more formal, some more informal) outside the game occasionally.

Really? Do I need to start reading the Reddit forum if I want to participate or are there other platforms they use?

The last story related one here .

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Posted by: Ashantara.8731

Ashantara.8731

The last story related one here .

LOL!

I do use the feedback threads. Feedback threads aren’t polls, though.

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Posted by: Inculpatus cedo.9234

Inculpatus cedo.9234

No, they’ve all been either on the Forum, or on another guildwars2.com site page linked to from the forums or from a mail in-game.

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Posted by: SlippyCheeze.5483

SlippyCheeze.5483

The last story related one here .

LOL!

I do use the feedback threads. Feedback threads aren’t polls, though.

You are technically correct, which we all know is the best kind of correct. However, I’d suggest that the goal you advocated using polls to achieve is served equally well with free-form feedback in those threads, at the cost of requiring more human processing to elicit results.

OTOH, free-form response gives much higher quality data about why people think something, and avoids the “great except for one thing, do I rate it 5 star, or 1 star for the terrible bit?!?” problem.

[Suggestion] In-game Survey

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Posted by: Ashantara.8731

Ashantara.8731

However, I’d suggest that the goal you advocated using polls to achieve is served equally well with free-form feedback in those threads […]

We have come full circle. Re-read my initial post.

[Suggestion] In-game Survey

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Posted by: Amaimon.7823

Amaimon.7823

While it’s a good idea generally, I doubt it would be useful because anet doesn’t really have the time and resources to remake content. Especially if content is considered bad, they can’t just rewrite a story-chapter or event after the next down-the-line story or event has occured

[Suggestion] In-game Survey

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Posted by: Ashantara.8731

Ashantara.8731

While it’s a good idea generally, I doubt it would be useful because anet doesn’t really have the time and resources to remake content. Especially if content is considered bad, they can’t just rewrite a story-chapter or event after the next down-the-line story or event has occured

The point isn’t to re-write already published content but to learn from the feedback in order to make better future content.