Another Player Survey Come and Gone

professorplum9
professorplum9 Posts: 133 Tile Toppler
in MPQ General Discussion
Another player survey has come and gone. I don't know about you but I feel like they've been asking the same question, I've been giving the same answers and nothing has come of it. If I was the only one asking for changes such as: require less time grinding, allow for greater flexibility in event start/end times, incentivize players to use more than a handful of select competitive characters, etc. I could understand being ignored. But based on what I read on the forums and interactions with other players I know I am not alone in desiring these things.

Here is my question to Demiurge. What change(s) have you made to the game recently that you think might have resulted in a paradigm shift among the player base? Since the last player survey I can't think of anything that has been done that would have had any significant impact on player perception/experience. Some new characters have been released, some new supports added, some additional prizes were added to PVP season rewards to reward/incentivize a very small segment of the player base (admittedly a segment that probably includes a large number of the significant financial contributors). Perhaps I'm forgetting something, these surveys do tend to blur together.

I would recommend instead of sending out another survey asking how likely a player is to refer this game to a friend that you simply pop up a quick in game dialog the first time a person runs the game asking what led them to install the game (friend recommendation, online advertising, other advertising, app store recommendation, etc). This would provide a continuous stream of input in this regards.

I guess another reason for sending out a survey might be to address factors outside of the game that might have changed player perceptions. If you're interested in knowing if a number of friends (many who were formerly very active MPQ players) have been actively encouraging me to try another mobile game? The answer is yes! If you're interested in the arguments they are using to
persuade me to spend my time playing this other game instead of MPQ they are things like: "takes way less time", "offers more rewards", "features more varied game play", "offers greater flexibility about when I need to play in order to be competitive". These arguments address many of the very things I (and others) have been bringing up on these player surveys over the past few years.

Comments

  • Borstock
    Borstock Posts: 2,700 Chairperson of the Boards
    They know what they want to get from the surveys. If the surveys never change, it's because they're getting it.
  • veny
    veny Posts: 834 Critical Contributor
    I dont understand why they make survey after survey without actually changing a single thing between surveys.
    Are they testing integrity of our opinions? Or maybe they are just monitoring whether we already got used to all flaws game has :D
  • Punisher5784
    Punisher5784 Posts: 3,845 Chairperson of the Boards
    The survey doesn't even ask how long you've been playing so they can better gauge the player base. These surveys are a waste and I don't expect anything from them. It was likely coded to automatically pop-up every so often when the game was first released.
  • 0_efx_0
    0_efx_0 Posts: 236 Tile Toppler
    Honestly, these surveys are most likely passed down to an intern who doesn’t even play the game and then reports the gist of what we all say...then the Devs say, “Okay we’ll worry about that later.”
  • Jarvind
    Jarvind Posts: 1,684 Chairperson of the Boards
    While I tend to agree that they are probably useless, you can't know that for certain without knowing what the actual results are. As always, the forum represents a very small and disproportionately "hardcore" segment of the player base.
  • Colognoisseur
    Colognoisseur Posts: 806 Critical Contributor
    I think the surveys, because they come via an in-game pop-up, are the best way of gathering information from the 98% of players who are not on the forum.

    They don’t need a survey to know what the 2% here think.
  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 5,735 Chairperson of the Boards
    Punisher5784 said:
    The survey doesn't even ask how long you've been playing so they can better gauge the player base. These surveys are a waste and I don't expect anything from them. It was likely coded to automatically pop-up every so often when the game was first released.
    We don’t know that the survey doesn’t contain your player name when it’s sent. It comes from an in game link, after all.  So length of play could be information they either receive or could look up.

    I agree that they are of dubious value and am not sure what they get out of it.  However, they’re always looking for new players.
  • Tony_Foot
    Tony_Foot Posts: 1,792 Chairperson of the Boards
    These surveys are like when you ask your wife if she had a good day at work, she starts talking and you just switch off. You were only being polite.

    They are just being polite and pretending they read them.
  • Ptahhotep
    Ptahhotep Posts: 428 Mover and Shaker
    If we ask nicely then, perhaps, the results will be posted here. Even if it is just the top recommendations for improving the game it would at least show us the results are being looked at.
  • n25philly
    n25philly Posts: 426 Mover and Shaker
    Do you have a better way to make it look like you care without putting in any real effort?
  • Bowgentle
    Bowgentle Posts: 7,926 Chairperson of the Boards
    n25philly said:
    Do you have a better way to make it look like you care without putting in any real effort?
    You can say "we're listening" in your official forum.
  • professorplum9
    professorplum9 Posts: 133 Tile Toppler
    Colognoisseur said:
    I think the surveys, because they come via an in-game pop-up, are the best way of gathering information from the 98% of players who are not on the forum.
    I agree that in-game pop-ups are the best way to get the opinion of the entire player base and not just the small subset that follows the forum. However, I still maintain that the particular question they ask over and over again is of little value and asking it over and over again is a proposition of diminishing returns. They have had several different survey's in the past (i.e. what character would you like to see, some about features they were considering implementing that they were soliciting feedback on, etc). These seem more focused, more useful, and more likely to result in actual change.

    In it's current form it's hard to interpret it as anything besides a token effort so they can check off a box saying they solicited playerbase feedback.
  • Heartbreaksoup
    Heartbreaksoup Posts: 356 Mover and Shaker
    It does seem like I've told them "I have recommended this game to friends, none were interested in playing" at least twice before...
  • abmoraz
    abmoraz Posts: 712 Critical Contributor
    n25philly said:
    Do you have a better way to make it look like you care without putting in any real effort?
    Thoughts and Prayers
    ...
    Thoughts and Prayers
  • MrKasady
    MrKasady Posts: 74 Match Maker
    I was going to ask this question myself. Every time I pretty much tell them the same thing: I wouldn't recommend the game, ISO rewards too low, get rid of Dark Avengers, etc.

    It'd be really nice if they could present some sort of compiled results from every monthly survey. It should be easy to do with keyword clouds and aggregation.
  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 5,735 Chairperson of the Boards
    Can I change my survey response?  Because my recommend score just dropped to 0 after 4* dilution is back in full force.
  • Wumpushunter
    Wumpushunter Posts: 627 Critical Contributor
    Every survey except during vaulting I only asked them to stop focusing so much on PVP. Look at the news, biggest change way four 4s in PVP. sigh.

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