Mabinogi Player Survey: Planning

• Rydian wrote on 2014-09-15 08:57
  This is Step 1 of the Mabinogi Player Survey project.
  Step 2 will be gathering volunteers (potentially with compensation).
  Step 3 will be conducting the survey.
  Step 4 will be when the results and interesting info are presented.
  
  
  - Intro / Goal
  I'd like to start a group project to gather data about Mabinogi players. While other sites and services provide varying kinds of statistics, there's nothing like this for Mabinogi. It'd be interesting to see things like the average player strength and which generations people tend to complete or not (and map out trends), and this info can be useful to people answering questions or writing guides.
  
  The main goal is to gather info from Mabinogi players about their general progress and strength in the game, and to have this info quantized for the ability to perform relational !!SCIENCE!! on it.
  
  
  - Guidelines
  To do this in the best way possible, I propose the following guidelines to govern the project, along with the reasoning.
  
  1 - A large sample size.
  Reasoning: Going along with the scientific method, a larger sample size will be a more accurate reflection of the current player base. For this I'll need some volunteers so that we can cover every server (as I only have characters on Ruairi) and potentially various time zones.
  
  2 - Info should be gathered in-game only.
  Reasoning: We want up-to-date info from current players with as little duplication as possible, and we don't want to gather info from only specific subcultures. This means no Tumblr, no forums (official or otherwise) or anything like that.
  
  3 - A set number of questions.
  Reasoning: The list of questions should be concise without sacrificing information because we don't want to bore players or volunteers or have the project drag out. We're doing a brief survey, not a full-on interview... we want to be able to get core info quick and move on.
  
  4 - Round varying info to ranges.
  Reasoning: Information with a lot of variance (such as how long somebody has been playing or how much gold they have) should be rounded. For an example of how long a player has been playing, their answer will be rounded to the year or marked as less than 6 months if they're that new. For some bits of info ranges are fine, and it will be a lot easier to present findings and do comparisons.
  
  5 - Do not ask about, or involve, mods.
  Reasoning: As neat as it would be to see what percentage of players mod, people are unlikely to answer whether they mod or not truthfully in-game. In addition, while you can read another player's CP without involving them, CP can be artificially inflated/deflated with gear so the readings can be inaccurate (and asking them about their own CP is likely to make some players wary and scare them off).
  
  
  - Proposed Questions
  

  1 - How long have you been playing Mabinogi?
  2 - What's your total level?
  3 - What's your main combat style?
  4 - Do you enchant your equipment?
  5 - Do you do any production skills? (Blacksmithing, Magic Craft, etc.)
  6 - (If so) which ones do you do?
  7 - Which generation quests have you beaten?
  8 - About how much gold do you have saved up right now?

  
  Do you think this list meets the goal? Suggest changes if not.
  
  
  - Proposed Method
  Hopefully I will have at least three volunteers, one per server I'm not on. I will make some spreadsheet templates (where the answers will be stored) and present them to volunteers in both .xlsx (Excel 2007+) and Google Docs versions. Each volunteer should have their own file they work on with the server marked somewhere (if they're hardcore and asking on more than one server they can simply keep two files). Once these files are turned on at the end of the project, it'll be easy for me (and others) to do !!SCIENCE!! on all the data.
  
  Do you have any concerns or suggestions for the proposed method?
• Kapra wrote on 2014-09-15 09:07
  What about questions about if a person uses reforges? If they buy cash items in general, maybe how often.
• k1nsoo wrote on 2014-09-15 12:29
  4 - Do you enchant your equipment?
  
  I feel that its rare to find players who do not have any enchantments. Even the beginners (as of today) get beginner enchant bundle scrolls and what not. I think it would be better if you ask "Have you reforged your equipment" for better idea.
  
  Besides that, I think asking "how many times per week do you use dye ampoule" will be also interesting
• ZeroPantz wrote on 2014-09-15 12:41
  I'd be willling to help. I have a character on each server so just let me know which one you'd prefer. Also I agree about the reforge question. Also might be interesting to ask how many outfits they have. Kind of curious to see if Mari really is the fashion server. Sorry if I made typos. I'm on my phone and it lags.
• Hazeri wrote on 2014-09-15 13:16

  Quote from k1nsoo;1247445:

  4 - Do you enchant your equipment?
  
  I feel that its rare to find players who do not have any enchantments. Even the beginners (as of today) get beginner enchant bundle scrolls and what not. I think it would be better if you ask "Have you reforged your equipment" for better idea.
  
  Besides that, I think asking "how many times per week do you use dye ampoule" will be also interesting

  
  The enchant question is legit. the system is such a clusterfuck that not everyone bothers with enchants. It gives good data on players who find enchanting a hassle.
  
  I'd suggest making the gold question optional, or downright remove it. I feel that's kind of a personal question, and not every player would feel comfortable sharing their savings.
• k1nsoo wrote on 2014-09-15 14:11

  Quote from Hazeri;1247451:

  The enchant question is legit. the system is such a clusterfuck that not everyone bothers with enchants. It gives good data on players who find enchanting a hassle.
  
  I'd suggest making the gold question optional, or downright remove it. I feel that's kind of a personal question, and not every player would feel comfortable sharing their savings.

  
  
  I know enchant system is bizarre in this game but with daily enchant beginner scrolls giveaways, my guess is that most sample (population for this survey) should have some sort of enchantment on their gears. Also those scrolls have 100% success rate to enchant so...
  
  I agree with gold question, I feel that people will either make up data or feel uncomfortable, thus will result less accuracy towards the original survey intent?
• Kiru wrote on 2014-09-15 14:20
  this research sounds interesting
  i say add the outfit/reforge questions
  
  maybe ask what their biggest NX spending is IF they do any regular spending at all.
• Kiru wrote on 2014-09-15 14:21
  this research sounds interesting
  i say add the outfit/reforge questions
  
  maybe ask what their biggest NX spending is IF they do any regular spending at all.
• ironwoman wrote on 2014-09-15 15:14
  Question 4 could be a bit ambiguous...
  
  Reason being, people have different standard of enchanting. If someone said they enchant their gears and the only thing they have is a fox enchant on a mongo cap or some shit like that, I wouldn't count that as "enchanting your gear". For me, enchanting would mean that you have every slot filled in your items, and the enchants are actually relevant to your combat style. For example, if you have some stupid enchant like Smart hummingbird on your cap, I'm not gonna count that either, because the stats in the enchants don't provide what most people need.
  
  The better questions to ask would be "Do you enchant your gears at all? If so, which gears are enchanted and which are not? What does your set add in total?"
  
  Also, questions about reforging would be good too.
• Kelvas wrote on 2014-09-15 16:40
  A question on whether a player normally special upgrade to would be interesting. ( if it's a simple yes or no, I wouldn't consider r/s 1 or 2 to be a yes)
  
  I also support data on reforges, but how far someone takes it would be interesting as well.
• Kiru wrote on 2014-09-15 17:16

  Quote from Kelvas;1247489:

  A question on whether a player normally special upgrade to would be interesting. ( if it's a simple yes or no, I wouldn't consider r/s 1 or 2 to be a yes)
  
  I also support data on reforges, but how far someone takes it would be interesting as well.

  
  that ones quite interesting too because i dont really special upgrade myself. :o
• ironwoman wrote on 2014-09-15 17:32
  Another one popped into my mind. A good question to ask would be the highest damage the person's ever dealt, and with what skill. And/or the damage range shown in your character screen.
  
  Because whether people like it or not, these questions really answer how strong a player is, as we're asking for the number that comes out at the end. A person with higher cp doesn't necessarily mean stronger, as if they lack equips (enchants and/or reforges), they won't be dealing too high of a damage. For example, I'm sitting at around 2.8k CP and I see archers that are around 2.4k CP that do higher damage than I do in archery (and just fyi, archery is one of my more used skill set as well) and I literally see people of 3k+ cp that do half the damage or less.
• Qnjo wrote on 2014-09-15 17:36
  I'd add "How much do you play at average and how fast do you level up within that time?"
  

  Quote from ironwoman;1247480:

  Question 4 could be a bit ambiguous...
  Reason being, people have different standard of enchanting.

  
  And I completely agree with that. It might be good to ask "Do you know what enchants are relevant to your combat style?" [SIZE="1"]I don't.[/SIZE]
• Rydian wrote on 2014-09-15 22:15
  Okay, current question list has 9, I think a nice 10 would be best.
  
  1 - How long have you been playing Mabinogi?
  2 - What's your total level?
  3 - What's your main combat style?
  4 - Have you enchanted your equipment, other than using the beginner enchants?
  5 - Do you buy reforges?
  6 - Have you ever used red or blue upgrade stones for special upgrades?
  7 - Do you do any production skills? (Blacksmithing, Magic Craft, etc.) (If so) which ones do you do?
  8 - Which generation quests have you beaten?
  9 - About how much gold do you have saved up right now?
  
  For the gold question, "I don't want to say" could be an acceptable answer. For average time played a day, that could be extrapolated from total time and level... or just straight-up asked if there's not a good question to fill it to 10.
• Osayidan wrote on 2014-09-15 22:48
  I think "how often do you play?" or some quantification of time spent on the game on average should be in there. Some people who have been playing 1/5 or even less of the time I have been playing are 2 or 3 times my total, so when they started and total level doesn't give a good idea.