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Author Topic: Dwarf Fortress player base survey.  (Read 3849 times)

FruitBird

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Dwarf Fortress player base survey.
« on: February 25, 2016, 09:50:55 pm »

I'm curious as to who makes up the player base of this game, considering how large it is. Just for fun I've made a series of questions.Feel free to answer them as honestly as you can. I'm keen to find out more about this community.

Where did you first hear about Dwarf Fortress?:
http://goo.gl/803rzP

How old are you?:
http://goo.gl/TNgSaV

What is your gender?
http://goo.gl/5yythw

What is your ethnicity?
http://goo.gl/PmFn8H

How often do you play Dwarf Fortress?
http://goo.gl/4W8NFq

How long have you been playing Dwarf Fortress?
http://goo.gl/MauQ1M

What is your general style of play?
http://goo.gl/AJXg3j


The survey will run for a week, and then I'll post the results. This could be interesting :)
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WillowLuman

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Re: Dwarf Fortress player base survey.
« Reply #1 on: February 25, 2016, 09:55:28 pm »

The ethnicity question could probably use a rework, given the multinationality of the player base. "South African" doesn't differentiate between the different ethnicities in that country, and "African American" doesn't make sense outside of the 'States.
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FruitBird

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Re: Dwarf Fortress player base survey.
« Reply #2 on: February 25, 2016, 09:57:19 pm »

Shoot, that should be south american. What would you recommend for african american instead?
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WillowLuman

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Re: Dwarf Fortress player base survey.
« Reply #3 on: February 25, 2016, 10:06:47 pm »

Perhaps just "African?" The sample size here is probably small enough that you don't want to break things into too many categories, but some other notable omissions include various Middle Eastern ethnicities, Indians/Pakistanis, and Pacific Islanders. I know of at least one DF player on these forums from each of those broad groups.
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FruitBird

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Re: Dwarf Fortress player base survey.
« Reply #4 on: February 25, 2016, 10:11:26 pm »

Updated.
Thank you for your feedback :)
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Diamond

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Re: Dwarf Fortress player base survey.
« Reply #5 on: February 26, 2016, 01:21:47 am »

Player base surely does not seem to consist of people who can use search function. 2014, for example. There was 2015 somewhere as well.
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Amperzand

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Re: Dwarf Fortress player base survey.
« Reply #6 on: February 26, 2016, 01:26:16 am »

PTW
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FruitBird

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Re: Dwarf Fortress player base survey.
« Reply #7 on: February 26, 2016, 01:32:23 am »

Player base surely does not seem to consist of people who can use search function. 2014, for example. There was 2015 somewhere as well.

Sorry, I'm new to the forums.
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George_Chickens

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Re: Dwarf Fortress player base survey.
« Reply #8 on: February 26, 2016, 02:10:54 am »

Why didn't you just go on a polling site that lets you add multiple questions? It seems quite silly to have to open up that many windows for one survey.
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khearn

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Re: Dwarf Fortress player base survey.
« Reply #9 on: February 26, 2016, 01:54:27 pm »

Yeah, this format was a pain. I nearly didn't bother taking the poll.
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Starver

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Re: Dwarf Fortress player base survey.
« Reply #10 on: February 27, 2016, 07:21:32 am »

I found the Ethnicity used the rather peculiarly states-side terminology.  (I put Caucasian, despite the fact that I'd have difficulty linking my ancestry to the Caucasus region and don't share much observable ethnicity with those that currently reside there.)  I think a whole lot of "Continent/subtype" classifications tend to be a popular format, often interpreted as "Current Nationality/ancestry" (and with "Other" featuring as a coverall, indicating that you've gone and forgotten "African/Indonesian", or somesuch rarity)...  But too late to rewrite now.

"How often I play" was tricky.  When I play, it can be constantly on for a long time, give or take save-quit-restarts, so I decided it meant "when do you create/start playing a new worldgen?"

I didn't answer the Style Of Play at all, because I couldn't even work out what thoughts of mine best matched your own (as with Caucasian).  The "Utopia" one was closest, but I'm really not too bothered about perfect contentment (and also can pursue something else that matches another of the options) , so much as "nobody overly unhappy, everybody busy".

You obviously are not intending (except by any IP-tracking that survey gives you?) to link the data together in any meaningful way, but it also might have been better to have used one of the many survey sites that give you the ability to have the sequential questions in a single session.

HTH, HAND.  Good luck with it, anyway.
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MobRules

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Re: Dwarf Fortress player base survey.
« Reply #11 on: February 27, 2016, 07:52:36 am »

Why the link shorteners? That's a good way to get people to not click; outside of Twitter those are mostly used to disguise spam/malware sites.

Are you planning to fix issues other people have mentioned, (such as the US-centric ethnicity and having each question on a separate page, when there are plenty of free webapps for creating decent surveys)? If so, I'll wait for the revamp, rather than taking it twice.

Out of curiosity, is this for a class?
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noirscape

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Re: Dwarf Fortress player base survey.
« Reply #12 on: February 27, 2016, 04:56:30 pm »

Why the link shorteners? That's a good way to get people to not click; outside of Twitter those are mostly used to disguise spam/malware sites.

Are you planning to fix issues other people have mentioned, (such as the US-centric ethnicity and having each question on a separate page, when there are plenty of free webapps for creating decent surveys)? If so, I'll wait for the revamp, rather than taking it twice.

Out of curiosity, is this for a class?

Agreed. I only use link shorterners in signatures and profile posts (on xenforo based fora). Also, OP, unless the site you used is required by a class or something, use Google Forms instead. Polls are more for one of a kind things. Nobody wants to visit 20 pages with twenty serparate pages, with no linking in between them.
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Man In Zero G

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Re: Dwarf Fortress player base survey.
« Reply #13 on: February 29, 2016, 05:37:39 am »

This could be interesting :)

Spoiler alert: It won't be.
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Killgoth

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Re: Dwarf Fortress player base survey.
« Reply #14 on: February 29, 2016, 08:09:50 am »

How are you planning to monetize this?
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