Hi everyone,
I threw together this proposal as a response to my experiences in this forum so far. In short, it aims to help the further development of ED by introducing (semi-)official surveys for the community in order to determine what people actually like, dislike, or are indifferent about. This is mainly meant as a tool for Frontier Development, although it might be equally helpful for the forum community itself.
Situation
I may be still quite new here but one thing I noticed right away was the great amount of friendly suggestions, concerned issue reports and cool content requests floating around - but also all the moans and groans about how either this or that feature is the bane of all our existence or how certain people at Frontier should go die in a fire because they did [insert thing] in the latest update.
That said, many people - especially the unhappy ones - tend to claim having "the majority" on their side for whatever they are suggesting or criticizing. Likewise, the ones defending either the status quo or any (planned) changes may state that "most people" wanted it this way and the naysayers should buzz off to play [insert game]. And neither has a solid way of 1) knowing what that magic majority wants, and 2) proving that this is actually the case. That is no ground to have a discussion on. At the some time, I would imagine it to be difficult (and correct me if I'm wrong) for anyone from Frontier browsing the forum to get an accurate bearing on people's (dis)approval and the prevalence of certain ideas/wishes/suggestions only judging from looking at the various discussions. In addition, the individual behavior strongly affects own participation and that of others - leading some to aggressively jump on any statements concerning their topics of interest, and others to possibly refrain from even participating in some areas at all due to unpleasant past experience or feeling they are wasting their time. The latter also goes for the moderators or Frontier employees having to read through it.
In short, the problems I see:
Goals
That is why I propose to set up surveys to counter most if these limitations and allow Frontier to get a better picture on the general state of the community and opinions on select issues / changes where needed. It will allow everyone to select and write into their anonymous forms what they think without either having to fear being bashed, trying to impress others, creating a bandwagon etc. Also, there will be quantifiable results (i.e. numbers) coming out of it regarding majorities, minorities, priorities... Granted, facts don't need majority approval and the majority may not always be right, but how people think about the game and its development is very relevant IMO. You cannot please everyone, but making most people happy has to count for something. Plus within the forums it may well help shut up some false "majority" claims on either side.
I am aware that surveys are also subject to bias, not each user is equally likely to participate which somewhat skews results. In my eyes however that is the lesser evil, especially if done right (see Execution).
In short, the surveys will:
Execution
And now the fun part... how is this going to work?
The survey form could include some basic statistics to use for filtering, correlations and additional information. For example, Frontier might be interested to learn the average age of their customers and see if there is a connection between a players age and his opinions on the game. Next some general "state of the game" questions should be in each iteration. General satisfaction with visuals, audio, controls... etc. with possible text fields for critique and suggestions. Also satisfaction with the last update and possibly opinions on select changes in it. (And I'm willing to bet there will be a lot of well-deserved positive feedback in there.)
But most importantly it should be about future developments and suggestions. How important is the further development of xyz for you? Which activities do you currently enjoy most? What are the things that currently kill your fun? Which of these changes are you most excited about and why? Which ones are you most skeptical about? .. etc.
But that's my idea of it, it should first and foremost reflect what the developers want to find out.
As for the actual creation, hosting etc. there are different ways I imagine it could happen, for example:
Obviously, the full-on official version would have the furthest reach, and therefore the best representation, but would also requires the most work on Frontier's side. It really depends on how useful the developers consider my idea to be and whether or not they want to invest into it.
Once everything is done I'd very much like for the results to be published, in the newsletter for example, at least as an overview or "spotlights". Keeping it secret may leave a bad taste, but at the same time there is probably no one who would want to read through the whole of it. So that would be a nice middle ground IMO.
That I may or may not want to also use it to be able to tell people where to stick their perception of majority is totally besides the point...
That's it. I'm looking forward to everyone's thoughts, especially the people at Frontier since this is meant to assist you. Let's find out what the community actually thinks.
I threw together this proposal as a response to my experiences in this forum so far. In short, it aims to help the further development of ED by introducing (semi-)official surveys for the community in order to determine what people actually like, dislike, or are indifferent about. This is mainly meant as a tool for Frontier Development, although it might be equally helpful for the forum community itself.
Situation
I may be still quite new here but one thing I noticed right away was the great amount of friendly suggestions, concerned issue reports and cool content requests floating around - but also all the moans and groans about how either this or that feature is the bane of all our existence or how certain people at Frontier should go die in a fire because they did [insert thing] in the latest update.
That said, many people - especially the unhappy ones - tend to claim having "the majority" on their side for whatever they are suggesting or criticizing. Likewise, the ones defending either the status quo or any (planned) changes may state that "most people" wanted it this way and the naysayers should buzz off to play [insert game]. And neither has a solid way of 1) knowing what that magic majority wants, and 2) proving that this is actually the case. That is no ground to have a discussion on. At the some time, I would imagine it to be difficult (and correct me if I'm wrong) for anyone from Frontier browsing the forum to get an accurate bearing on people's (dis)approval and the prevalence of certain ideas/wishes/suggestions only judging from looking at the various discussions. In addition, the individual behavior strongly affects own participation and that of others - leading some to aggressively jump on any statements concerning their topics of interest, and others to possibly refrain from even participating in some areas at all due to unpleasant past experience or feeling they are wasting their time. The latter also goes for the moderators or Frontier employees having to read through it.
In short, the problems I see:
- Claims to majority (dis)approval are being made with no way to back it up
- Extracting a picture of the situation from countless threads and posts is tedious and inaccurate
- The number of threads and people involved are no reliable measure and hardly quantifiable
- Determined (and especially unhappy) minorities tend to be disproportionally loud, distorting the view
- Emotions and undesirable behavior get in the way of both participation and reading
Goals
That is why I propose to set up surveys to counter most if these limitations and allow Frontier to get a better picture on the general state of the community and opinions on select issues / changes where needed. It will allow everyone to select and write into their anonymous forms what they think without either having to fear being bashed, trying to impress others, creating a bandwagon etc. Also, there will be quantifiable results (i.e. numbers) coming out of it regarding majorities, minorities, priorities... Granted, facts don't need majority approval and the majority may not always be right, but how people think about the game and its development is very relevant IMO. You cannot please everyone, but making most people happy has to count for something. Plus within the forums it may well help shut up some false "majority" claims on either side.
I am aware that surveys are also subject to bias, not each user is equally likely to participate which somewhat skews results. In my eyes however that is the lesser evil, especially if done right (see Execution).
In short, the surveys will:
- Be able to be tailored to cover specific issues topics based on developer needs (e.g. before or after large updates)
- Produce better quantifiable results regarding approval/disapproval/perceived importance...
- Allow everyone an equal chance to submit their votes and opinions in private, and keep the kindergarten out
Execution
And now the fun part... how is this going to work?
The survey form could include some basic statistics to use for filtering, correlations and additional information. For example, Frontier might be interested to learn the average age of their customers and see if there is a connection between a players age and his opinions on the game. Next some general "state of the game" questions should be in each iteration. General satisfaction with visuals, audio, controls... etc. with possible text fields for critique and suggestions. Also satisfaction with the last update and possibly opinions on select changes in it. (And I'm willing to bet there will be a lot of well-deserved positive feedback in there.)
But most importantly it should be about future developments and suggestions. How important is the further development of xyz for you? Which activities do you currently enjoy most? What are the things that currently kill your fun? Which of these changes are you most excited about and why? Which ones are you most skeptical about? .. etc.
But that's my idea of it, it should first and foremost reflect what the developers want to find out.
As for the actual creation, hosting etc. there are different ways I imagine it could happen, for example:
- Fully official, being announced via newsletter, news posts, ED launcher newsfeed, created by Frontier itself with possible community input and hosted on the official website. Possibly even made to be tied to player IDs to prevent abuse. (My personal favorite)
- Semi-official, created by forum staff or select users with approval of and input from Frontier who also receive the results in the end, somehow attached to the forums or hosted on an external site/service (Still works)
- Unofficial, created by a user externally and results forwarded to Frontier, provided it does not drown with 20-something participants in the forums (Better not)
Obviously, the full-on official version would have the furthest reach, and therefore the best representation, but would also requires the most work on Frontier's side. It really depends on how useful the developers consider my idea to be and whether or not they want to invest into it.
Once everything is done I'd very much like for the results to be published, in the newsletter for example, at least as an overview or "spotlights". Keeping it secret may leave a bad taste, but at the same time there is probably no one who would want to read through the whole of it. So that would be a nice middle ground IMO.
That I may or may not want to also use it to be able to tell people where to stick their perception of majority is totally besides the point...
That's it. I'm looking forward to everyone's thoughts, especially the people at Frontier since this is meant to assist you. Let's find out what the community actually thinks.
