The Final Elemental Beta Survey (Survey is closed)

Done. Good survey. (Names kids frogboy and hortz part lol).

Taken. I was wondering if you were going to bring the suveys back. I was tempted to say that I was Hortz I wonder how many people will say that. Considering he had like 20 aliases...

The choices in #7 are lacking. Just because I may not be "excited" about the vast changes doesn't mean I'm disappointed. "They are vastly different, but I like the old a little better" (along with a 'like the new a little better') would be nice options to have.

ATM, I have to answer that I'm not sure what to expect because it's the least incorrect choice for me Even though I know what to expect..

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that. There are some changes that I'm rather disappointed about (the switch to turn-based combat) but their are other changes that I'm glad they made (resource/city building mechanics).

What are the additional columns in questions 1 and 3 for?

Done, could have been set out abit better and offer some more choices in some questions but overall it was cool.

done too

Done

Question 1 should have been omitted, as the content was incorporated into the second question.

Question 3 I chose the wrong format for the question, and thus got extra columns.

Question 7 - you are right, I should have had some "changes but cautiously optimist" and "changes, somewhat concerned" options. I can;t change it now as it would invalidate any votes already cast.

Thanks for the participation and comments!

done

Done. I did not rate day 0 that highly only because beta 4 still had a bad mem leak or two. There are other bugs but none appear to be gamebreakers. I also heard the podcast and understand there will be a major UI change which I hope beta testers get thier hands on before the game goes live. My hopes for the game over all are excellent though and I think the game already rocks!

done..

Done. Good poll!

I am going to have to hand-type most of the results as I did a terrible job on formatting this time around.

1. On a scale of 1 to 10, what are your expectations for the Day 0 release of Elemental?

1 - Abysmal           1 vote

2 - Very Bad          2 votes

3 - Poor                 4 votes

4 - Uninspired         8 votes

5 - OK                    9 votes

6 - fun                   25 votes

7 - very good          24 votes

8 - excellent            28 votes

9 - children named "Frogboy"    9 votes

10 - Best game release ever    3 votes

2. Rate your expectations for the various upcoming releases of Elemental

Note the almost 20% jump in people who thought it would be the best game ever between the 6 month and 2 year version. People expect a rough launch but also expect big improvements in 30 days.

3. How different from the last public beta do you expect the game to be?

Unrecognizable       9 votes

Vastly different       32 votes

Quite a bit different 38 votes

A little different       26 votes

Tweaks only            5 votes

4. How long were you involved in the beta?

From the beginning  44 votes

6 months or more   15 votes

3 months or more   13 votes

Less than 3 months 21 votes

I did not beta test   6 votes

5. How would you rate the beta experience overall?

It sucked             10 votes

Best & Worst of times      56 votes

It rocked!              29 votes

6. How would you rate Stardock's responsiveness to beta tester/fan concerns? Choose all that apply

Perfect!		15.2%	15
Example to the industry!		56.6%	56
Very good!		29.3%	29
Good		15.2%	15
Not so good		5.1%	5
Poor		1.0%	1
My forum username is/was Hortz		1.0%	1

7. Think back to when you first heard about Elemental. Compare that early impression with your current impression and the direction that development has taken.
	answered question		98
	skipped question		-27
		Response Percent	Response Count
My current impression is similar to my inital impression		33.7%	33
They are vastly different but I am excited by the changes		27.6%	27
They are vastly different and I am disappointed		19.4%	19
I am not sure what to expect.		19.4%	19

8. What are your purchasing plans regarding Elemental?
	answered question		99
	skipped question		-28
		Response Percent	Response Count
I preordered standard version.		55.6%	55
I preordered the Limited Edition.		37.4%	37
I will purchase standard version from Impulse after release.		3.0%	3
I will purchase standard edition from retail outlet.		1.0%	1
I will purchase Limited Edition from retail outlet.		1.0%	1
I am waiting for reviews before deciding if I will buy.		1.0%	1
I will buy in February, when it is REALLY done.		1.0%	1
I will not buy.		0.0%	0

Thanks for participating!!!

Haha, someone said they were Hortz

I can't say the results are too suprising, they're pretty much what I expected.

Yep, pretty close to what I expected as well.

Yup no real surprises here, but nice to see it in text ..

Yep.

Very interesting, Denryu, and a reminder that we should have taken up a collection to get you a basic Survey Monkey account so you could have gotten a larger sample.

Might have been more interesting as a pair of surveys for beta participants and forum-only folks. Question 8, if I'm reading it right, indicates that 8 of the 100 folks have not actually had access to the betas. (Also, the Skipped Question numbers just look wrong, if there are indeed only 100 in the sample?)

I hope you'll do a followup the week after retail release and a week after the first major updates.

Hmmm question 8 does indeed indicate that. I do not know why it generated the weird negative numbers on the skipped questions.

As far as the Survey Monkey account, I am a cheapskate, but the truth is, out of 11 surveys, only 4 of them hit the maximum 100 - ever. Obviously, this one maxxed out quick I am guessing because we have a lot more forum members/lurkers now.

Yes I will probably do at least a small survey post release and post 30 day release to test the waters how everyone is liking EWOM.

It's interesting how tempered expectations are for the release version of the game, considering that the survey is being taken by fans. That could mean a few things, really.

I think that means that most of us are more realistic. There's some wiggle room between mediocre and better than average more or less based on personal interpretations of that that means in context of features (for some, tactical combat is more important, others want crafted items, others want more stuff with seas). But it basically says that people don't expect a completely new game from beta 4 since the features are set, and are just going to get polished and refined - but at the same time expect the game to grow after the goals for release are met and SD can actually expand the game.

That was my take on it, but probably because it mirrors my own feelings to a degree.

Yeah, something like that. But I take it to mean that people expect a mediocre game at release and a good game six months later. That seems to be related to the polish phase that comes in game development after all the systems are built and put together not happening until after release in the case of Elemental. I mean, they were still redoing parts of the UI and hooking up core stuff to tactical combat just recently. Out of curiousity I asked a buddy at Bethesda if they'd ever be working on stuff like that this close to release, and his response was "only if we found an earth shattering bug."

I didn't get to take the survey, but I tend to agree with that part of the results. The game will be so much better a few months after release because the last part of making a good game (polish, balance, and refinement) simply hasn't been done yet.

I pre-ordered this game as soon as it was possible to do so, but I haven't seen anything in beta that would make me want to spend more time on it. I suppose I will give it a go when I get the day 0 version, but I do not share Brad's opinion that the beta was a success. In my opinion, the day 0 version, which iI presume is the actual game that Stardock wanted to make, should have been the start of the beta process.

I was a bit shocked to learn at the beginning of beta that there was actually no game at all beyond the idea that there should be a tech tree and maybe spells. I didn't worry about it that much because Brad said that we could take all the time we needed to make it something special, and then somehow the roof caved in on us. I wanted to discuss game mechanics, and the interplay between the different elements of the game. I wanted to discuss pacing. I wanted to discuss the discovery process. I guess I thought that the community could have been far more useful in regard to the game's design. All we did was maybe take the place of the usual QA testing in terms of crashes and compatability testing, which is a mundane task that we are vastly overqualified for. An opportunity was lost to harness our knowledge and experience.

I wanted this game to be better than MoM. I wanted it to be better than AoW. I wanted it to be fresh. If at six months from now we have any of those things, I'll have to eat my hat as they say.