Evaluations and Surveys

[Lizardguard.2860]

Dear Arenanet, dear @Rubi Bayer.8493,

Lately, the content added to the game has not always been as satisfying as it used to be, and judging by the comments and reactions in some topics, I'm not the only one that feels this way. But that is not to say there are not amazing tidbits in each update.
However... What kept me wondering for a while now is:
Why are there no surveys or evaluations of your content?

It is so easy these days to reach out to players for informations.
And while I'm sure you guys have your systems and stats to gather data, it baffles me to no end why you never actually go and ask your players about your content.

Just send an in game mail with a link to a survey.
Doing so would increase your understanding of your playerbase (especially those not on twitter or the forums), the issues you're facing, as well as give you new ideas on how to fix them.
Additionally, it is really easy for you to reach out to the right players about certian topics.
With the achievement system in place, you can easily filter players to your hearts content. Need the opinion of PvE Masters? Well, send a survey request to the accounts who killed ht cm.
Need the opinion of diehard wvw veterans? Send the survey to wvw gods.
Of course, you can use other stats you already have as well. Need the state of your pvp balancing? Why not send a survey to 250 randomly selected accounts across the leaderboard (those accounts that have the minimum number of games to be listed, not the top 250) and ask them their opinion?
Need the opinion on the latest story? Send it to a randomly selected portion of those who completed it.

On another front, it would also help with your long lasting issues with communication with your players. The issue is not only you telling us information, many players also do not feel heard, and having a way to give their opinion on something that is known to reach the devs, if only in stats, alleviates a lot of these feelings. Heck, even meowing gacha games do that.

 

So why are there none?
- Do you think it would not be worth the effort?
I personally think you'd be surprised how much some people would like to give their opinion. Even more so if you give rewards for a completed survey, say 20 gems and one of your precious bag in a bag in a bag. That could also work in promoting your gem store. Its literally a win win.
- Do you think too many surveys would push people away?
Just limit the amount of survey requests per account to once every 2 or 3 months and noone will bat an eye. After all, you send a mail per character on new story steps for some reason and ignoring one mail is the same effort as ignoring another.
- Are you afraid of the data?
I hope not, but if you are, it is a lot better to know where exactly you messed up, instead of just hoping to weather the storm.

Would love to hear back on this, even though I don't expect an answer.
Lizard

Edited July 28, 2023 by Lizardguard.2860

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

There are surveys at times.  I've received 3 emails with surveys over the years.  It seems, unfortunately, you have yet to be chosen to participate. 🤷‍♂️

Edited July 28, 2023 by Inculpatus cedo.9234

[Danikat.8537]

There are surveys. Some are targeted to specific groups - when I stopped logging into my free account I got one for people who quit early on (not sure if that was based on character level or time), trying to find out what could make the new player experience better. My husband once got one for players who had quit a long time ago asking what might tempt them back.

I think there are others sent to a cross-section of all players but if I got one of them it was years ago. I suspect the reason they don't send a survey to everyone is that while it doesn't take much more time to design and build it or to send the link it does take more time to analyse the data (even allowing for the fact that the response rate will probably be less than half) and at a certain point it's either going to be repeating things you've already got in large amounts or it's going to be too rare to be significant because there's no point developing things only a tiny minority of people want. Either way it's redundant and you're actually better off spending less time analysing a smaller pool of data so you can implement the results more quickly.

Also they probably want to ask different questions to different groups of players and while it is possible to build branching surveys which give you different questions based on your previous answers and even based on pre-determined criteria it's actually easier to make seperate surveys, even if you want to combine the data later on. (At least I think it is, having done both for my job.)

Unfortunately people with level 80 characters who own all the expansions, log in regularly and visit the forum are the last group who are likely to be included in a survey. It's safe to assume they like the game as it is or they wouldn't keep buying and playing it and if they have any ideas that haven't been brought up previously they'll post them on the forum. A survey would be redundant.

[Tic Tac Toe.1482]

They also have internal metrics.  What people say in surveys vs what their internal metrics show may be very different.

[Gerebos.1065]

To be honest I don't remember getting any Gw2 survey related thing in 11 years xD
Not sure if it will happen anytime soon

[vares.8457]

I want to play a video game and not waste my time filling out surveys

[Vayne.8563]

It's a well-known fact that people complain far more than they compliment.  A survey will be filled out and returned predominantly by dissatisfied people. My own experience with survyes in business bears this out. Happy people don't take the time to let you know how they feel, they play the game. Unhappy people want you to know exactly where you went wrong.

If you were to come to these forums before HoT launched, you'd think most of the playerbased wanted harder content and they were dissatisfied with how easy the game had become. Only after HoT launched did we see a bevy of complaints about how hard hot was and how it ruined the game. A lot of people stopped playing when HoT launched, even though today, many people on these forums think it's the best expansion.

Why do you need a survey if you're reading the forums and reddit anyway?

[Anvar.5673]

4 hours ago, Danikat.8537 said:

Unfortunately people with level 80 characters who own all the expansions, log in regularly and visit the forum are the last group who are likely to be included in a survey. It's safe to assume they like the game as it is or they wouldn't keep buying and playing it and if they have any ideas that haven't been brought up previously they'll post them on the forum. A survey would be redundant.

I got a lot more physical Wintersday Cards with a lot of devs signatures in my letter box than surveys in my email box, for sure.

Edited July 28, 2023 by Anvar.5673

[Khisanth.2948]

3 hours ago, Tic Tac Toe.1482 said:

They also have internal metrics.  What people say in surveys vs what their internal metrics show may be very different.

Those metrics are terrible! They keep telling them to design repeatable content like it was only going to be played once ...

[Danikat.8537]

1 hour ago, Anvar.5673 said:

I got a lot more physical Wintersday Cards with a lot of devs signatures in my letter box than surveys in my email box, for sure.

I was going to ask how they have players addresses to send them cards, but the Wiki answered that. I wonder how they choose who to send the cards to, or if it's a random selection.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

I got a physical card from ArenaNet (not a Wintersday card).  An admin from the Wiki messaged me and asked if I wanted to participate and give my address.

Not sure why that is funny or confusing; it was a very nice "Thank you for 10 years of Guild Wars 2"  card and I treasure it. 

Edited July 28, 2023 by Inculpatus cedo.9234