[dev1XXX] Player Survey System
Player survey system
What is it?
As the name suggests this system is designed to deploy a survey to the playerbase. This is done to gather feedback for research and provide development with a clearer idea of the community’s reaction to specific content. This system is inspired by the opening of the official forums and the currently existing /vote command that the player can use to start or participate in a poll during gameplay. This is also meant to be somewhat of a response to the interview with Naoki Yoshida that went up this morning on Gamasutra.
link for those interested: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6325/fixing_final_fantasy_xiv_the_.php
I don’t understand. How exactly does this work?
Unlike these forums the survey system will be directed at the players inside the game itself. The focus and content of each survey is compiled by the development side of FFXI and can target specific events and members of the community. For example, suppose development wanted to gather feedback on the upcoming changes to Dynamis after the update is rolled out and players have had the chance to experience it. Devs and community reps design a short survey around the changes that were made or other systems they would like to hear feedback on using multiple choice answers, Likert scales and brief open ended comments. When the survey is deployed it can randomly prompt players who have just finished up their session much like a cutscene and allow them to participate. In other words, once the player leaves the event they can be randomly selected for the survey. The reason being a more accurate response to questions since the experience is fresh in the player’s mind. Once a frame of time has passed and the developers are satisfied with their sample size the survey can be removed and feedback can be analyzed.
Here is a flowchart illustrating the process: http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j459/Catsby22/survey/survey01.png
The survey itself would appear and function like the game’s configuration menus. There you can see numerical scales, boxes for text and input fields so we know a survey form wouldn’t require much in the way of new assets.
Here is a mock up of what I had in mind: http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j459/Catsby22/survey/survey0.jpg
People hate taking surveys and now you’re telling me I should conduct them after every event?
Not necessarily. Like many of the features in the game you can toggle the survey system on or off if you don’t want to participate. The surveys would also be limited to whatever development is concerned with. R&D and QA are very costly and don’t produce meaningful results unless handled carefully. To simply add surveys after every event would benefit no one. Realistically there would only be a handful of surveys conducted in between updates and as mentioned earlier, only for specific events that are being reviewed. If participation is ever a concern, in game incentives could be given to players for their time and consideration at next to no cost.
Well then why would you do this?
R&D, QA and the like are very costly but can deliver significant long term results if given serious consideration. In the context of FFXI or other SE MMOs this could mean events and content that are refined much faster, have slower or no attrition or better yet increase in popularity. FFXI is a game but it is also a service and a dedicated feedback system will help to improve it.
Ok, why is this any better than the forums or the suggestion form in POL viewer? Also, is this more or less valid than what is already in place?
Although the opening of the official forums is a tremendous step in the right direction for development it is not safe to assume the members of the forum are an accurate representation of the playerbase. Not all of the players register and read the forums and as many would tell you a passionate fan of a game(or anybody) given anonymity can be severely disruptive when it comes to feedback( the term “troll” and metacritic.com should come to mind). Using this design the survey system will randomly select players currently engaged in the game and recently participated in whatever the development staff is interested in investigating. Of course the system is not without flaws. Like the systems it aims to serve it is iterative and would take time to improve. In the end it will improve development and player experience if utilized properly. There is a wealth of information on qualitative research and current generation AGILE development with respect to videos game both online and in print. In everything I’ve picked up there is a strong emphasis on identifying and remedying problems as early as possible. This is done in order to reduce cost and risk in the long run and produce a higher quality, more enjoyable experience. The survey system is intended to do exactly that.