Elite: Dangerous Mega Survey Results
- Thread starter TheSynopticVision
- Start date
So lets have the true data. Let Frontier release some stats on time spent in each mode.
I realize it will be controversial no matter what but at least we can work out whats going on.. If it turns out I'm the least wanted customer then I can live with t hat.
They wont of course because it would likely upset the chosen ones... Still, I'd like to know
I don't know where your obsession with data about Open comes from. Everyone knows that it's the most popular mode. Every thread and this survey shows that most people play in Open. Frontier told us that most people play in Open. What exactly is going to change in your opinion if you have accurate data? Why should the "chosen ones" (who is that BTW?) care? Why would it be controversial?
Was this survey posted exclusively on Reddit or was it posted across a wider spectrum such as social media (Facebook/Twitter, etc), 3rd party ED websites such as Inara, in ED Discord groups and on here in the official forum?
If it was just Reddit then the results can only really tell us about the ED Reddit users and nothing more.
If it was just Reddit then the results can only really tell us about the ED Reddit users and nothing more.
Sure its somewhere way back in the thread it says it was more than just reddit.
From what the OP explained on their Reddit post it seems to have mostly been a Reddit based survey with it being shared on the related Discord servers of the ED, PS4 and Xbox One Reddit users. The OP also saw it on a Facebook group called "Elite Dangerous Community".
In my opinion this makes the data gathered a good example of the average ED Reddit user as it gives us stats on the ED players who use Reddit. But it cannot be used with any degree of accuracy to assume nor acertain the ED playerbase outside of Reddit. In essence the survey is just a focus group study because it only focused on one group, i.e. the Reddit users group.
Kudos to the OP for going to all the trouble of doing it but it can only really be considered as a first step, if one is looking to create an accurate statistical analysis of the Elite Dangerous playerbase as a whole. You'd need to compile data from multiple areas, sources and groups such as from the official forum, the Steam discussion board, dedicated social media groups (not just one but many), all the significant 3rd party websites that host ED players such as Inara.cz (where the majority of every significant ED player group has a presence) and their related Discord servers, etc.
![[Diplomacy] Carnegie](https://d2aefvhu2f0gi9.cloudfront.net/data/avatars/m/123/123809.jpg?1553527149){kind=avatar}
Could I have tried getting the word out in more places? Yes. But there was a reason why I wanted it to be advertised on the 3 subreddits and on the Forum: I wanted to make sure as best as possible that people would come from all 3 platforms. Asking on Steam would've meant getting (even) more PC players. A guy asked me if I wanted to have it posted on an Xbox group (or community? whatever they are called), but I told him i'd rather not to again because it would bias the result of question 1.
Now, the main problem is that they then told me I could not post it here on the Forum. As I said above, the official reason was concerns about IP harvesting. But more honestly I think that they just don't like the idea (see the guy a few posts above who wonders why there are no FDev comments on this thread. I wasn't expecting any TBH).
So all that was left was the 3 subreddits. And hence my long explanatory paragraphs at the beginning of the post (you quote part of it), trying to explain what the limits of the survey (but also what we can learn because of these limits). Having said this, of course I could not control the proliferation of links, and it did end up in many more places than just Reddit. Two examples: the latest episode of Lave Radio had a link to the survey in their show notes page (I did get in touch with them), and this: https://uploadvr.com/let-devs-know-want-elite-dangerous-psvr-survey/. But there's also several more I am not aware of, I'm sure.
Once again, the survey is not perfect, statistically speaking the methodology is wonky, and the results are not scientifically binding. Nonetheless (IMO), it does offer an instructive snapshot.
A very interesting survey, and thanks for all the work you put in. I didn't contribute - I missed any reference to it - but I would like to have done. I did notice that FD did appear to respond in your Reddit thread, so hopefully they'll take some notice.
Edit - ah - that was a Reddit mod, sorry. But at least they copied FDev in!
Edit - ah - that was a Reddit mod, sorry. But at least they copied FDev in!
Last edited:
Doubt it. People don't seem to know the difference between Majority, overall and absolute majority.
Good point about Steam, that would only really work if Xbox and PS4 had equivalent points of focus where you could post the survey and then compile the data from all 3 sources.
It's a shame they didn't let you post the survey on here as well as that would have broadened it sufficiently but I'm sure it was for good reasons. Your survey is indeed interesting but in my opinion it only offers a look into the Reddit based community. The age range for example is quite skewed because of that as gamers above a certain age bracket don't tend to frequent Reddit as often as the 21-30 age bracket. The low number of Xbox players from Reddit is certainly interesting but also potentially misleading if we were to assume that it reflects on the whole of the ED Xbox playerbase.
Here on the official forum for example the Xbox section is quite active (and a much more chill place to be in comparison to Dangerous Discussions). It would be interesting to hypothesize that perhaps if the same survey were posted here on the official forum you might find that Xbox players are higher in number than PS4 players, with PC players most probably still the highest in number. In which case we might possibly discover that for some reason the majority of Xbox players tend to frequent the official forum while a majority of PS4 players gravitate towards Reddit for example.
In any case your survey makes for an interesting topic for debate and discussion
I totally agree, but that's interesting nonetheless. I too, as I say in the post, assume that Reddit is (on average, and compared to the wider player-base), populated by younger people and more PvP than PvE oriented (just two examples). And yet, look at the numbers: the 31-40 groups is not that far behind in second place, the 41-50 is above the 15-20, and other answers seem to suggest a slight preference for traditional PvE activities. This is what I mean that even out of a skewed sample some insights can be gained.
If these are the results, my personal opinion (i.e. speculation) is that the real total player-base is indeed older than the survey shows and that PvE-oriented people are a -- mostly -- silent majority. Let me be clear: although I do not do PvP (yet. I live in the crazy hope that the "core improvements" in Season 3 will bring a complete overhaul of engineering, or at least the introduction of sliders. When that happens, I will start PvPing) I have nothing against it. But it's pretty undeniable that the game mechanics around combat are far, far more complex (and therefore fun) than those around, say, exploration or trading. I wish the same level of strategical planning and gameplay complexity (within reason) could be part of the explorer or trader job.
I don't know if you (the OP) saw it but Obsidian Ant featured your survey quite heavily in his latest video!
[video=youtube_share;Zse-UfO4lnA]https://youtu.be/Zse-UfO4lnA[/video]
[video=youtube_share;Zse-UfO4lnA]https://youtu.be/Zse-UfO4lnA[/video]
