Help with an NWN Survey

[tdubstatman]

Hello!

I'm Tdubstatman and I have a favor to ask of the playerbase here.  I've put together a survey to help builders and server administrators better focus their efforts on players.  The survey focuses on NWN and NWN 2 persistent world servers.

I don't want offend players or the owners of Layonara, so please tear down this post if I'm breaking any rules.

However, if you don't mind, and if you have the time, please check out the survey at Survey provided by FreeOnlineSurveys.com

Anyone who wants a copy of the completed results of the survey is encouraged to leave their email at the bottom of the survey.  With respect to your privacy, leaving your email address is optional and your email will only be used to send you the results of the survey once it is complete.

Thank you for your time, and keep gaming.

Tdubstatman

[Chongo]

Hi bud.  Can you elaborate on the goals of this survey?  As of now I can only imagine three possible goals:

1) Write an article for a gaming publication with this data
2) A goodwill gesture to all PW's whereby you distribute the collected data to all servers that participate.
3) An effort to either begin a new PW, or to improve upon an existing one that you are a part of.

Reading through the survey, it seems like the latter option is probably the case.  And while I personally don't mind sharing information on what I've learned over the years in this game and others, I prefer to know what my time in this survey is going to be used for.  I'm guessing you'll get more input if you clarify this in future posts here or on other servers.  The lack of information, while very politely presented, leads me to believe that you don't want to present it as you may ultimately use these results to market your own server - which is generally frowned upon as trolling for players on other servers.

If you can fill us in on that, I'd be happy to complete the survey.

[tdubstatman]

Ah, I see your concern.  I hadn't thought of that.

Of the three goals you listed, mine are the latter two.

A buddy and I are working on a new server.  At the rate we're going, I don't when or if ever it will be up.  I'm a business student, so this project begins for me with market research.  That is my primary intent.  To see what attracts players to servers and to see if these preferences can be broken down along certain lines (such as: do players who play less than 10 hours a week have a preference for certain rules compared with those who play more than 25 hours a week).

With that said, my intention is not to troll for players.  Neither in the survey or in any posts will I mention any other servers or use players email addresses (if they choose to provide it) to solicit their time on another server.  As I said before, the game I'm working on doesn't even have a name or the hardware to host it.  In the interest of full disclosure, my primary goal of this survey is to make my game as targeted and appealing as I can.

Additionally, I do want to provide the results to players and server admins.  As of this morning 88 people have completed the survey and 48 have requested copies of the results.  At least one of those I have confirmed is a server owner.

I understand your concern about other people coming to your board and trying to poach players.  Let me be clear:  I do not want to steal  players.  I do want to pick their brains so as to create the best server I can.  If and when our server comes out, no one here, or on any other board, will know what server it is.  It will have to stand on its own just like any other beginning game.

If this acceptable, then your input would be hugely appreciated, especially since the playerbase of Layonara appears to been unusually experienced and involved.  If not, I'll understand and won't bother you all again.

Thanks for your time,

Tdubstatman