Ok so we have our first 100 votes on this poll now:
First I just want to briefly explain why in this poll it was important to give people only 2 votes max. Giving everyone the opportunity to just check off all that apply usually will reseult in some false positives because it tends to just find the least objectionable statements as opposed to the ones that really matter the most. For example in this poll, we could have just easily ended up with a really high level of agreement on something like "Social Aspects" when the reality is that in itself, it isn't a major part of the reason why people play. Individual votes lose all their weight and become a lot less meaningful in that kind of survey where 'check all that apply' model is used.
When people can only pick 1 or 2 possible answers, out of 8 in this case, they will pick the ones that matter
most, and that's really valuable feedback overall, much more valuable.
Ok so "
Why are you here?" or, "
Why do you play Entropia?"
1. I fell in love with an early version of Entropia or PE
Wow, 42% of those who voted here so far say this is a major part of it. That is significantly more then I had anticipated. I spend a lot of time in this forum and I have seen this come up a lot over the years, but I expected maybe 20% to pick that one, not 42%!
Okay well, what does it mean? Well, first I would say that it means that first impressions really matter. The first contact with and experience in a new world or game can have long lasting impact on a participant. Entropia has a loyal following, 42% of which say fell in love with it right from the start and that's an important part of the reason they are still playing it today, wow. And yet today, what is the first impression, the first contact? A glitchy Thule? I went there once out of curiosity to see what new players were experiencing. I found myself unable to get the very first NPC to talk to me. I don't know if it was just me or what but I was really disappointed. Anyway, the first experience is really important, they have to look at what that experience should look like.
Let's think back though, there are some other things to consider. PE launched officially on Jan 30, 2003, a full 6 months before Second-Life and almost 2 full years before World of Warcraft. There really wasn't much in terms of online Sci-fi themed persistent virtual universes, though EVE Online did come out in May of that year, but it was spaceships-in-space, so a different concept. I think at the time the most popular MMORPG was Everquest, which was fantasy themed. So PE was really unique back then, even more so when you consider the RCE aspect of it. So I can imagine the fact that it was so "out-of-this-world" unique made the first experience even more memorable.
But I do want to mention one more thing though, back then it seems that the positioning and advertising for Project-Entropia was very simple and direct. In fact, they promoted this was a dangerous place and warned people NOT to come. It's a trick of course but it aludes somewhat subliminally to the reality that survival would be tough, which is true when you think about it. So how could people be disappointed if their initial deposit didn't last more then a couple days, after all, hadn't they been warned beforehand? See for yourself:
Truth in advertising is very important, if you aren't truthful, people will not buy or stick around. Here MA just mostly introduced people to the idea it's the first habitable planet found after Earth, there's lots of opportunity, and then a warning from people already there that it's a dangerous place, it's "survival of the fittest" and "don't believe the hype".
Okay anyway, enough about that one. I am already working on a follow up survey to try and identify what made people's first experience fall in love with the game, what made it so memorable, maybe we can learn something from that.
2. For the Real-Cash Economy
Alright, that one was very predictable, we have 52% saying this is an important part of the reason they play Entropia. We should do some more surveys to find out what that means to people, and why it's important to them.
3. Social Aspects (community, society, friends, etc.)
Alright well, not very significant, only 8%. It's not that surprising, Social Interaction systems in EU are buggy and behind in terms of functions and utility. In any case, the current players don't think this is an important part of the reason they play. Could it be? That's beyond the scope of this poll.
4. For the Markup! (to make money)
I thought for sure this would poll way higher. I thought #2 RCE and this one would poll very similarly. So out of 100 votes, there's only 13 who say they play EU to make money, wow, and making money was one of the buttons that MA pushed for a very long time in their advertising of Entropia, and we find out that's not why people are playing.
It makes sense though I guess because the way the game is designed right now, you have to be willing to lose a lot of money first before you even have a chance to start making some. So if money is important to you and you are very attached to it, there's no way you'll be able to persevere to the point where you'll start making some, so that can't be your goal, at least not for a while.
There is a big disconnect here and at first glance I'd say that "making money", "make money playing video games", "claim your fortune", anything like that is not going to work in your favor in your advertising. You'll have retention issues, people will say this game is a scam, that you are doing false advertising, that this game is just gambling, etc... It's going to be problematic to say the least. But more polling needs to be done to understand this better and to understand what people mean exactly when they say they are playing for the Real-Cash Economy, it's possible my poll choices were faulty or redundant.
5. Key-mapping: one of few games I can play (disability)
I included this one because I've heard this many times in this forum and I wasn't sure exactly how important of a factor it really is. Only 1 person mentionned this is an important part of the reason they play EU, so not as much as I thought. I expected this to poll between 5 and 10%. Seems it's way less than that right now.
6. To have fun! (role play, explore alien worlds, have swirlies, etc.)
22% is not a lot. This is the third most important reason why people play, it should be higher than that. I thought this would poll above 30% for sure. It's strange. Probably the game needs to be more fun but that would have to be polled seperately.
7. I want an ATH! (or other notoriety, i.e. high skill level, soc leader, etc.)
I had to check if this was part of the reason why people played, it's not really. Only 4 people out of 100 said it was. To be fair, getting on the ATH is next to impossible at this point, those that may have had this as a goal at some point probably gave up. MA should figure out a way to make it possible for players to work towards some sort of notoriety in EU, for both PVE and PVP players.
8. Other (please share)
So the fact only 2 people out of 100 chose this one is a good sign, it tells me that the 98 others found their reasons for playing within the choices that were provided, so this is good. It gives us an even higher level of confidence in the poll results.
And then we have the 2nd question:
The only thing I want to say about this is that a lot of people come to PCF to advertise their shops or their Lands so that's probably why only 75% of voters were actually Hunters. The Demographics in EU are probably a little different than that, and although I don't have access to this data, I wouldn't be surprised if the actual ratio of hunters to other professions/activity was somewhere between 80-90%. We just have to keep that in mind when looking at the results on the first question: Why you play EU? Trading, managing/advertising your Land or your Shop, are not really fun activities, so that can be a factor there (why #6 didn't poll as well as expected).
for sure.
!
