Elite: Dangerous Mega Survey Results

[Ozric]

I was told in no uncertain terms that I was not allowed, due to potential data mining about user info.

Yes on the forum. I'm just a little surprised given how much effort you put into it all, and the thought behind it, that you wouldn't have gotten in contact with Frontier prior to releasing to see if it could be supported in any way. Rather than just posting a link to it on the fourm and then inferring what you did. Though I will admit that making a survey to deliberately bait griefers is an interesting move Though like Alec I would have chosen that for all the work I do with Canonn and Buckyball Racing Club, as that is actually emergent gameplay, but I didn't because I knew what you actually mean by putting it there.

 

[Sylow]

The survey is not related to governments or politics. It isn't a yes or no question either. It's also not PG + Solo vs Open. It's Open vs PG vs Solo.

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In this case, by mathematical and scientifical standards there is no majority.
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[Cageman]

The survey is not related to governments or politics. It isn't a yes or no question either. It's also not PG + Solo vs Open. It's Open vs PG vs Solo.

Very true... but, the numbers doesn't validate the claim that the majority of players are playing in Open. If we look at the numbers as a "Open vs other modes", then, the majority are not playing in Open. This poll can not be used to claim such a thing. Period.

 

[TheSynopticVision]

Yes on the forum. I'm just a little surprised given how much effort you put into it all, and the thought behind it, that you wouldn't have gotten in contact with Frontier prior to releasing to see if it could be supported in any way. Rather than just posting a link to it on the fourm and then inferring what you did. Though I will admit that making a survey to deliberately bait griefers is an interesting move Though like Alec I would have chosen that for all the work I do with Canonn and Buckyball Racing Club, as that is actually emergent gameplay, but I didn't because I knew what you actually mean by putting it there.

I never said it was made for baiting griefers. What I said is that in that question, I used that phrase to encourage them to pick it. Many would not have clicked on "Griefer".

 

[Alec Turner]

lol, go ahead and facepalm all you want.
Sit there in ignorance, pretending that 6,168 Open players has the majority over 6,433 players who do not play in Open.

Heavens above, if any of you lot tried to come with your arguments in my government you'd get laughed out of the building.

My facepalm wasn't about who's right in the "what does majority mean" debate, it was about the fact that the pie chart was intended to show, at a glance, the simple distribution of results for the THREE answers to the question that was asked in the survey (without recourse to defining terms to add interpretation to those results) and that you then simply went back to using the chart to continue the "majority" debate. I don't care that the majority aren't Open (or aren't Solo, or aren't Private - all of which are true). Personally, I'm just mildly interested to see that the distribution between the three is about what I would have expected.

 

[babelfisch]

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In this case, by mathematical and scientifical standards there is no majority.
.

Very true... but, the numbers doesn't validate the claim that the majority of players are playing in Open. If we look at the numbers as a "Open vs other modes", then, the majority are not playing in Open. This poll can not be used to claim such a thing. Period.

Correct, not by the definition you use. But it does by the oxford dictionary definition I linked above.

 

[Sylow]

I never said it was made for baiting griefers. What I said is that in that question, I used that phrase to encourage them to pick it. Many would not have clicked on "Griefer".

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And i am still amused. If the term really is a synonym for "Griefer", how can solo have a slightly lower but still similar percentage of them? The only one they can grief in solo is themselves... it just doesn't add up for me.
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[Siobhan]

My facepalm wasn't about who's right in the "what does majority mean" debate, it was about the fact that the pie chart was intended to show, at a glance, the simple distribution of results for the THREE answers to the question that was asked in the survey (without recourse to defining terms to add interpretation to those results) and that you then simply went back to using the chart to continue the "majority" debate. I don't care that the majority aren't Open (or aren't Solo, or aren't Private - all of which are true). Personally, I'm just mildly interested to see that the distribution between the three is about what I would have expected.

But if you are going to separate solo from PG, then surely each PG should be listed individually and not clumped into one blob.

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And i am still amused. If the term really is a synonym for "Griefer", how can solo have a slightly lower but still similar percentage of them? The only one they can grief in solo is themselves... it just doesn't add up for me.
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Grinding to get back the kit they lost when FDev nerfed their 'sploit

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

This is about the people polled in this survey. The majority of people do not play in open. There is no other way round it.

He is merely using politics as example to help you understand.

Once again: The majority of people who took part in this survey do not play in open!

Which for the record is a shame.

I agree that most people do not play in open, but the same can be said about solo and groups. So what exactly are you getting at?

 

[Alec Turner]

But if you are going to separate solo from PG, then surely each PG should be listed individually and not clumped into one blob.

Maybe. The game has three options on the menu. Which one people pick seems like a reasonable question to ask.

 

[Mohrgan]

I agree that most people do not play in open, but the same can be said about solo and groups. So what exactly are you getting at?

Exactly.

 

[Ouberos]

Is it not fairer to say that Open is the most popular?

 

[CMDR Ellegon]

Cudos to the OP for doing the survey, it was an interesting read with some surprises (strength of the Explorer faction, for example). Unfortunately, the bias of doing this on reddit makes it statistically insignificant:

• Only about 10% of players typically frequent forums
• Reddit will be a subset of these 10%, usually people flock to official forums first
• Age distribution clearly shows "Reddit" rather than "ED"

FDev should take a clue, though - and take a similar survey through a mechanism available in game. This might lead to better prioritization of development.

 

[wrmiller]

Is it not fairer to say that Open is the most popular?

Amongst those polled only.

 

[TheSynopticVision]

A general comment and then I'm out.

A sincere thank you to all of you who repped me and congratulated for this. It was indeed a lot of work.

However, I note with quite some bitterness that it's much easier to criticise me, my methods, the survey, and the results than it is to look for what (if any) can be learnt from this. I also see that 90% of the data analysis I've done is considered irrelevant or uninteresting and the only object of interest is whether or not Open is the "majority". And all of this while utterly ignoring the pretty long explanation I wrote in my Reddit post, where I go out of my way to acknowledge all the ways in which the survey is flawed, that I could have done better, and that the results needs to be taken in context.

It is ironic that people criticize Reddit for being a toxic place. So far at least, I got far more mature and constructive feedback there than here. To focus on only spotting flaws in something that has been done with all the best intentions in the world (for the good of us, the community), not giving an inch of constructive feedback is pretty much the definition of toxic behaviour.

Next time I won't bother. I am sure the critics are far more competent statisticians than I am.

 

[Ozric]

A general comment and then I'm out.

I'm surprised, you're surprised.

I already said you've put a lot of work into it, but nothing can be gained from it other than an mildly interesting read.

 

[lokvette]

Amongst those polled only.

I gave up on this thread after page 2, I took part in the poll, which was interesting but out of all the people who play the game on all formats I wonder just how many took the poll.

The most interesting poll result for me was the age one thought there would be more of us in the 41 to 50 range and the amount of people who chose Explorer as their main game style. The sometimes result to the CG, think that goes to show it needs some love, and the fact that what we all knew already that CQC is dead as a doornail, but for some reason FD are still trying to flog that dead horse.

 

[DMaster]

A general comment and then I'm out.

A sincere thank you to all of you who repped me and congratulated for this. It was indeed a lot of work.

However, I note with quite some bitterness that it's much easier to criticise me, my methods, the survey, and the results than it is to look for what (if any) can be learnt from this. I also see that 90% of the data analysis I've done is considered irrelevant or uninteresting and the only object of interest is whether or not Open is the "majority". And all of this while utterly ignoring the pretty long explanation I wrote in my Reddit post, where I go out of my way to acknowledge all the ways in which the survey is flawed, that I could have done better, and that the results needs to be taken in context.

It is ironic that people criticize Reddit for being a toxic place. So far at least, I got far more mature and constructive feedback there than here. To focus on only spotting flaws in something that has been done with all the best intentions in the world (for the good of us, the community), not giving an inch of constructive feedback is pretty much the definition of toxic behaviour.

Next time I won't bother. I am sure the critics are far more competent statisticians than I am.

Thanks for your nice work!!! This thread went in that direction, that i expected: People try to discredit your work, because they disagree with the result and will be blind for a objective discussion. It is also not a surprise, that the result went down to the discussion of the gaming modes and the rest is not interesting. I am scared about the fact that the developer could read contributions of that people and let their opinions influence the further development of the game.

By the way, the survey is NOT reddit only. I don't know exactly how the survey was distributet to the different communities, but the biggest german community, which is NOT reddit-related was also informed and took apart.

At least, i don't understand why FD does not do a survey like that, which will indeed reach every Commander playing Elite, via ingame announcement. This would be the best thing to find out the wishes of the majority of the communities.

 

[Ouberos]

A general comment and then I'm out.

A sincere thank you to all of you who repped me and congratulated for this. It was indeed a lot of work.

However, I note with quite some bitterness that it's much easier to criticise me, my methods, the survey, and the results than it is to look for what (if any) can be learnt from this. I also see that 90% of the data analysis I've done is considered irrelevant or uninteresting and the only object of interest is whether or not Open is the "majority". And all of this while utterly ignoring the pretty long explanation I wrote in my Reddit post, where I go out of my way to acknowledge all the ways in which the survey is flawed, that I could have done better, and that the results needs to be taken in context.

It is ironic that people criticize Reddit for being a toxic place. So far at least, I got far more mature and constructive feedback there than here. To focus on only spotting flaws in something that has been done with all the best intentions in the world (for the good of us, the community), not giving an inch of constructive feedback is pretty much the definition of toxic behaviour.

Next time I won't bother. I am sure the critics are far more competent statisticians than I am.

Don't let them grind you down. This place is a peculiar mix of petty childishness, boundless curiosity, helpful genius and sewage.

It is odd that Reddit professes a younger user base but projects a more mature atmosphere isn't it?

 

[rrobes]

Well, nice to be in an exclusive group, I'm a one-percenter and maybe less than that since the age group I fall into, the oldest, is younger than I am.

The survey shows the dichotomy of "Open versus others", a very small plurality for one but certainly not definitive in such a way that would lead FD to favor one side or the other if they were to consider these results in future development. Probably the reason why any time the "Open v others" discussion comes up, there's no consensus.

Good work on the part of the OP, but the results aren't surprising.