It is very strange. Did any native English speaker or gamer ever proof read this. The grammar and word choices sometimes feel like a google translate output. Some of the categorizations make no sense. It also contains several spelling errors. Most of this is apparent in the 5 to 10 minutes it takes to complete the survey.
You currently have an overwhelming amount of feedback to process in these forums, steam and reddit. I understand wanting to collect stats to get a better general understanding of user opinion but if you are sending a survey out to thousands of people and you care about that data then I think it warrants a proofread. Two people spending 10 minutes reading through this could significantly improve the survey by ensuring that the questions are relevant and that respondents understand the questions.
Categories
Why are Devil May Cry and World of Warcraft explicitly grouped together (ARPG/MMORPG)?
Racing/Sports/Music and Rhythm? What?
Party/Casual/Chess/Card Battle?
Why are traditional RPGâs not an option at all?
âIt takes too long to upgrade, which is tiringâ - There are many points of friction with character progression. This option must group together leveling, weapon acquisition, cosmetic penances and crafting as these things are not mentioned separately. Also it only allows the respondent to say that it takes too long, not that it is poorly designed.
Grammar/Word Choice
âExperience different stage questsâ
âWillingness to understand plot/worldviewâ
âIt takes a long time for per game, feels tiredâ
âI like the dark, bloody imagesâ
Ambiguity
âThe accomplished feeling of fighting a large range of enemiesâ - Is this talking about enemy variety, a sense of accomplishments in defeating each boss or a sense of accomplishment in fighting a large number of enemies?
I donât think there is any mention of RNG, Level Selection or Premium Monetization in the survey which are obvious pain points.
I think the statistics of the survey will be less useful in understanding the userbase because of the issues above.
Iâll play the Devilâs Advocate and say that their spelling, grammar and choice of words is entirely irrelevant. I could make out what they intended easy enough. As long as they get the answers that will help them assess what to work on first and foremost, Iâm happy.
Function over form.
I doubt they have a professional survey maker involved. Realistically it was just a meeting together. Where they brainstormed through ideas, then started to break it down into workable bites. Then sent the notes of the meeting someone in their staff and they were tasked with setting up the survey.
Iâm quite sure theyâre pretty all-hands-on-deck over at Fatshark. No need to worry about the semantics of the survey. If they get what they think they need, thatâs all that matters.
I understand what youâre saying, but it does show a lack of professionalism that doesnât help their image. Itâs not 100% necessary, but wouldâve been nice, and some would consider it the bare minimum.
No. Gods no. Hells no. NO. Now sure, Iâm a writer so Iâm going to be biased here, but it is particularly important to use clear and correct language in something like this. Spelling errors, typos, sure they can happen. Itâs bad but it occurs in a rushed document. But every word and every sentence in the survey has the potential to carry crucial meaning. Leaving language to be âmade outâ, interpreted by the end-user is begging for a firestorm of âbut you saidâŚâ followed up with âno, what we meant wasâŚâ back and forth, getting nobody anywhere except tired and frustrated.
Their choice of words is THE ONLY THING that matters in the presentation of the survey, it is literally asking you of your opinions based solely on those words presented. What they do with the information depends on how theyâve written the questions and what tone or nuance they believe is in the questions, not what you think you mean.
You donât need to be a professional survey maker unless youâre trying to draw conclusions through directed questioning. You DO need to be absolutely, incontrovertibly accurate with language.
It seems to me that their issue is mainly a language barrier. English isnât a first language in Sweden, and it reads like someone who knows English, but doesnât commonly speak/use it, so they miss a lot of the grammar and the little things like spelling.
Normally, having a little bit of a statistical background, Iâd advocate that language is absolutely paramount in importance with surveysâŚ
âŚBut I donât think that this survey is anything more than the vaguest nod towards customer feedback, and customer agency. I donât think the results will be thoroughly checked nor reviewed. I donât even think that the survey itself works very well when it comes to dictating potential priorities.
If it was important, they would have made some sort of post or communication reinforcing its importance to direct people to it, so they would receive more responses.
The survey is fun for a laugh.
I donât know how to answer question 2 because darktide has almost none of that.
I complained about the insane grind and the insane RNG horseshit of course.
Look at what the different examples have in common if you want to know what theyâre looking for. In this case, ARPGs and MMORPGs use RPG systems.
Surveys often ask indirect questions to avoid the biases that can be present in the answers to direct ones.
That question was asking what youâve played. By grouping games together that share specific features and designs, they can find out how you feel about those things without directly asking you about them.
Like, if they asked âhow do you feel about DTâs progression systems?â theyâd get inundated with a shower of mostly useless feedback. By asking about your playtime in other games that use specific types of progression systems, they can find out how you feel about those progression designs without triggering any biases.
You raise a fair point. I hadnât looked at it from that perspective.
I merely know that they are a Swedish company and not everyone, even in Sweden, is privileged at understanding their non-native language at a high level.
But , after considering your post. I think they should have gotten help. Youâre right.
If thereâs room for interpretation of the intent, then itâs not clear. If it was clear to you, then congratulations on being so sure of yourself. The evidence so far suggests that it is being interpreted, however. Language can be a precision tool, as has been stated in numerous threads here. It can also be deliberately obfuscated in precise ways to avoid promises to seed later excuses. I think, in this case, itâs just not been proofed or edited for clarity and left very rough.
Typos are whatever and Iâll concede that there were a few cases of grammar or wording in there that made me go âwat?â, but overall the survey isnât worded so poorly that it isnât useful.
I think a lot of the interpretation issues OP describes come from the desire to answer questions that arenât directly being asked, while not necessarily understanding that theyâre not being asked on purpose.
Itâs a super common problem with surveys (believe me, Iâve sent out a few in my time). Youâre asking for feedback and opinions and the people who respond are usually the ones with very specific things they want to talk about. If you donât directly address those things, it can easily come across as though youâre trying to shove those things under the rug, while in reality what youâre trying to do is get to the root of their thoughts without triggering the emotional responses that questions about specifics can raise.
Yeah the survey is a bit underwhelming, most questions where focused about other games you play and why.
I gathered this from another thread I started, from what most players where saying, while everyone has specific suggestions for each point, these seem to be the areas that are most mentioned.
I know there are plenty of other problems, but from reading other posts(here and steam), most suggestions/issues are for the following areas.
The game is incomplete in the following categories, Free Cosmetics/Crafting/Missions, either the content is missing, or was not what was expected).
The current skins on the store and pricing, seem unfair, and a slap in the face to a lot of players.
The RNG system is not really there, crafting might fix some of this, but the merchant inventory is still not enough.
More rewards at end of mission, or sources of equipment.
Classes seem a little lackluster in terms of builds/uses, players expected more variety of perks/skills or a upgraded/expanded version of VT system.
The gameplay is enjoyable enough despite these issues. But it is obvious that without them making changes/fixing, the game will not be where it supposed to be, or meet expectations, in regards as to what the playerbase expected.
There is also a lot of mentions about promises, and references to interviews and conversations, but its one of those 50/50 situation where it is a combination of fatsharks choice of words, and players reading into things.
I have not read thru or watched every review that talks specifically about this, there might be obvious stuff I did not read or know about, but most reference the same things/sources. There is a significant percentage of the player base that feel the same way, and that the issue should be addresed as well.
$17 for a skin bundle in Aus prices. Iâm pretty sure the cash store in this game is a clever parody of microtransactions in other games.
Iâm not sure how bad your brain damage has to be to think thatâs a good deal, but you should definitely be wearing a helmet while walking around if you do.
A survey is a tool. Iâm pretty sure Iâve seen this companyâs software or template used in other surveys Iâve taken, and it appeared odd there, too. But the end user isnât you or I, but FS. I donât think it possible that theyâve been deaf to the feedback from everywhere else. I donât mind phrasing my feedback differently, where they want it, or how. Iâm just eager to hear from them. If I had a gaggle of angry customers in front of my house, furiously screaming at me for a month while I sipped on eggnog, I would certainly be crafting a noble laureate-worthy response. I would also have ninja smoke bombs. And a motorcycle.
I just liked how there was no way to comment on the terrible server quality, the only networking option was about disconnects.
How about you address the fact that servers canât handle heresy+, thanks Fatshark.
In terms of the typos, as I said to a friend, the only possible logic I could think of is that it was made by a dev who doesnât frequently use English colloquially and had their PC set to Swedish for autocorrect and whatnot. Not that that excuses it but⌠yeah. Kinda weird to not have Aqshy or somebody at least make it/go over it since even her (his?) casual forum/Reddit replies are more legible than that survey.
It also had no âfinal thoughtsâ portion which kinda irritated me since I wanted to comment on the servers in that.
there is no beat them up category suddenly by some magical process the guy who did the survey said to himself that finally the best game of the genre in terms of mechanics of the last ten years (DMC 5) had to paste it somewhere in MMORPG because⌠we donât know in fact.
No roguelite category because itâs true that the genre is absolutely not popular and that one of the best modes of VT2 was precisely derived from them!
Moreover, the list of games that can be chosen is incomplete and there are no obvious games in it, in addition to having no box or marking other games.
Iâm very skeptical.
Iâm afraid this is a form of damage control, in the sense that asking for opinions can make the gamers feel listened and so reduce their complaining.