Warning: Wall of text incoming :P
We received 136 survey entries, out of a possible 234 Halloween 2014 participants :D! Of whom four preferred remaining anonymous, and one forgot to fill in their ID so we don’t know where to send their Wee Spider Plush D=
- Puzzles/Clues
Generally, clue 3, 8 and 11 were considered the hardest, but at the same time these clues were also considered a lot of fun! Most other clues were mentioned as being either hard or fun, too, though, and there were no particular sore spots that stood out (but we did some good remarks we’re definitely keeping in mind!) :) It was noted by multiple people that having to go off-site (and open a computer program) to figure out a clue was enjoyed less, however.
- Time/Effort required
>80% of you thought the amount of effort required was just right, and the rest was pretty divided about it costing too much or too little time/effort.
- Side events
A lot of neutral votes here! But aside from all the neutral votes, by far most of you thought there were enough and varied enough side events :) I’m glad by far most of you thought the side events were easy to understand, as we were a little worried about some of the confusion early on.
- Repeating an event like this
Well, this was a pretty resounding yes! 66% said “Yes”, and 28% said “Yes, but not too soon”, so that leaves about 6% that didn’t enjoy this event.
Other comments:
- Some of you thought it was neat that you could exchange the answers. An equal amount of you made the comment that they thought it was bad you could exchange the answers.
- Some of you made comments about computer versus mobile access. Please be aware Mycena is a browser site, and not a mobile app. We try to support mobile the best way we can, and glitch is working on a more responsive website design, but interaction is very limited on mobile (and the interaction overlap between mobile and internet browsers is even more limited) and that severely restricts what we can offer in an event like this. This event was designed for a browser, and future events will likely also be designed for a browser and not for mobile. We don’t have numbers on how many of you are currently limited to -only- mobile access, but looking at overall mobile visits, it’s still a very low percentage compared to browser visits and this will therefore not be a priority currently.
- Multiple of you said that you would have preferred easier/more straightforward clues, but then have multiple steps within one case file (e.g. make the process more fast paced, but longer, have to visit more pages but spend less time on each page; more ‘visible’ progress, but still equal effort) and still reward only one prize per day — You’ve been heard, we’ll work on this next time!
- Some of you disliked that you got one of everything & nothing felt very ‘rare’, and some of you disliked that you couldn’t get more than one of each item from the main event. You were very divided on this point, and it’s something we work really hard to find a balance for. More on this at the bottom of the summary!
- On user votes in the side events: The issue with creative events, and particularly ones that involve a lot of writing, is that staff doesn’t always have the time to judge the sheer quantity of creativity players submit during creative events, and that keeps pushing them ahead in our schedule. To alleviate this issue, we wanted to put part of the ‘judging’ process in your hands, but some of you have had previous bad experiences where this method of judging results in a popularity contest. We’d like to emphasise that during both of our creativity events this year, there were three staff judged prizes and only one public vote. We saw no signs of any entries receiving unusual amounts of votes, and there weren’t any clear unfair winners. We feel the fact that you could only vote if you’d participated yourself made it a lot more fair. While we do intend to utilize public voting in the future, we also heard your request for votes to be paired with constructive feedback, and we’ll take that into account.
- Knowing items/coats the moment the event starts. This event was designed for participation prizes to be a secret. A lot of you enjoyed it, but there were a vocal few that highly disliked this. We’ve heard both sides and are still thinking about this.
- Amount of coats per event
Half of you felt that having only one coat (or in this case, ‘kind of two’ because of the dimorphic element) and/or everyone receiving it was better than having to spend days collecting four, but another 32% felt that two to three coats may be better, and having some that are a little more ‘rare’ is desirable as well.
- Most like to see [Big Event]
It is very clear people most want to see either a click event or an event similar to this past Halloween event. People are on the fence about creative free-for-all events like Halloween 2013 (17 vs. 16 votes), and most people do not want a lore-related roleplay event (38 ‘least want to see’ votes versus 23 ‘most want to see’ for lore related RP, versus 43/55 ‘most want to see’ for click/puzzle and only 3/9 ‘least want to see’ click/puzzle respectively). This gives us a lot of perspective on what kind of events people want to see, but it is also clear that there is a very dedicated group that wants a roleplay event — the group is just quite small. The large majority of players isn’t partial to roleplay events, and we’re going to have to find a way to still offer these without a) turning off the majority of the player base and b) overloading staff members with grading.
- Most like to see [Small Event]
Cave challenges are disliked almost as much as they are liked, and when they are liked it’s often for the challenge medallions. There is a dedicated core group that enjoys these, but the majority finds them too hard or too frustrating. A solo writing event or writing games are things you’re on the fence about, with 23/25 votes against and 25/21 votes for respectively. Dungeon Diving is an event people enjoyed a lot on the whole, but should offer more interaction and be manned by more staff members. Simple forum games (trivia/picture guessing/etc.) seem to have little opposition, and will be featured more in the future.
Assorted comments
- Item/Coat/Lore/Feature Suggestions: A number of suggestions were made in our survey. You all have a lot of good and unique ideas and we appreciate you sharing your ideas with us, but keep in mind our time is limited and we already have a big (never-ending) to-do list. We do keep our ears open and try to implement things that are in high demand, but we can’t get to all of these ideas, especially the more ambitious and time-consuming ones. <3
- Why do you play Mycena?
This question was asked because we want to know who we’re catering to: What does the player base enjoy most, and what player goals do we have to keep in mind when we are designing events? Only one in five indicated they play to collect everything, and by far most of you indicated no such urge, but rather that you play to collect the coats and items you like. This gives us a lot of perspective on what to offer, because it is incredibly hard to balance events for people that enjoy playing for 30 minutes a day, and players that dedicate 20 hours a day (not exaggerating), and still have everyone feel they got what they wanted from an event — Many of you suggest caps, but that introduces the issue that some players do not have time to play on week days and want to catch up during the weekends. These are things we think about constantly when designing an event, and hope for the best with the choices we make.
On a happy end note, more copies of items were released in the Halloween 2014 event than in the Spring or Summer event despite a fewer number of players in the Halloween event. The trading forum and bazaar are full of item-trading activity as well! Overall, we think that although the main event awarded one of everything, the quantity of items that were awarded seems suffcient. :)
