Player Surveys?

tinythinker · July 2015

There are many threads that claims "most players (don't) want" this or that, either based on nothing at all or the fact that there are other threads on the topic. But many players don't come to the forums, or if they do not everyone always jumps into a thread even if they agree or disagree. Is it possible to have surveys or invitations to forum discussions sent out via email, particularly for for significant and disputed issues?

As an alternative to email invites/reminders, there was a voluntary in-game survey system during beta that would periodically ask you to rate your experience on one of a few different scales, and a modified version of something like that that could work too. It was a basic add-on made by the devs.

Might be worth trying for a more complete picture rather than just the opinions of the people who are always on the forums or who share their views through the /help system with commands like /feedback (some don't even know they can send feedback like that in-game). Even sending out an email to all players letting them know about such things ("Come share your thoughts on the forums, or send us your ideas in game using..." could increase the participation and get a better idea of how the player base at large sees a topic.

Aett_Thorn · July 2015

The problem you'd have then is that people who want things changed would be more likely to respond, while people who are happy with how things are generally won't. So you get a system where your responses aren't telling you the story that you need to hear. It's sampling bias, basically.

Unless you make it mandatory, which introduces a whole new flavor of problems, you'd have a number of issues where you might be pissing off a lot of people with changes that were asked for in the surveys, but that the vast majority of people didn't want. Sure, you could just say that then people should have taken the surveys even if they were happy, but that is not a likely scenario.

Turelus · July 2015

Aett_Thorn wrote: »

The problem you'd have then is that people who want things changed would be more likely to respond, while people who are happy with how things are generally won't. So you get a system where your responses aren't telling you the story that you need to hear. It's sampling bias, basically.

That's where the teams which study actual player activities and gameplay come in though. They can go to a meeting and if the Developers say "We see a lot of angry threads about x" that team might come back and say "Well 90% of the population has been actively playing it and seem to enjoy it."

I think ZOS know that the forums and those complaining are a minority of their player base, they're smart enough to look at the whole picture and see if it's truly an issue or just the latest whine of the month.

ahampelb14_ESO · July 2015

They could occasionally have a pop up when you login:

Please give us your opinion:

I feel the X skill from the Y class is:

1) Weak
2) About Right
3) Overpowered
4) Doesn't affect me/no comment/not informed enough to comment etc...

The following is more important to me or needs more attention

1) PVE questing
2) Graphics/playability
3) Loot, gear, mounts etc..
4) PVP

etc...

Sausage · July 2015

They have said they take feedback from social media, in-game and forums, if players dont want to participate not much they can do.