Results of fate-locked story survey (February 2017 edition)
I posted a survey on fate-locked stories a week ago. I think almost everyone who wanted to has voted by now so here are the results. For those only interested in the numbers the result table is below.
We've got more than 150 votes and while the survey is still open the number of new responses has been small enough that I don't believe there will be any large changes. Unfortunately we lost about 20 votes before I realised that SurveyMonkey starts to cut votes on free accounts when the total number becomes too large. Sorry about that. I'll start with a little summary, but you can find the actual data below if that is what you are interested in.
Most Popular Stories
- Lost in Reflection (81% voted "Great story!")
- 12:15 from Moloch Street (77% voted "Great story!")
- Flint (76% voted "Great story!")
- The Gift (74% voted "Great story!")
- The Empress Shadow (70% voted "Great story!")
While "Lost in Reflection" is once more the highest ranked story, it is not the runaway winner it was last time. Especially "12:15" and "Flint" are pretty close.
There's a whole bunch of stories that did really good, just not quite as exceptional as those five. "Calender Code", "Theological Husbandry", "Where You and I Must Go", "The Final Curtain" and others were definitely well liked by the majority of players. If you take a look at the table below I would argue that it'd probably make sense to recommend stories down to about "The Frequently Deceased".
"Secrets Framed in Gold" is interesting because while the majority of players loved it, there is an uncharacteristically high percentage of players who didn't like it. There is a similar effect for "The Waltz that Moved the World" but it's not quite as large.
Least Popular Stories
Basically just "The Rubbery Murders".
A few other stories also didn't get all that many "Great!"-votes, namely "Last Dog Society", "Spinning of the Wheels" and "Inconvenienced by your Aunt". But there's a huge difference between "Rubbery Murders" which more than half of the player didn't like and the other three which were mostly judged "average". You could probably also sort "Our Lady of Pyres" into that group but I suspect that the votes are largely influenced by the ending of the story which upset a lot of players. Also, "The Seven Day Reign" is worth mentioning: while the story didn't do that bad overall, there is again a large number of players who didn't like the story.
It's worth noting that "Rubbery Murders" only got about a third of the total votes of, say, "12:15" or "Soul Trade", so results might not be as reliable as they are for the more often voted stories.
General Trends
The total number of votes is larger on recent stories. I don't know if the number of subscribers is higher or if there are just more players still around that have played those stories. The quality of stories apparently has also increased. There was a bit of a low in Spring/Summer with the stories published back then were mostly rated average. But since August's story "The Calendar Code" all stories have been really solid. (Well, with the exception of "Our Lady of Pyres".)
Details
Here are the actual numbers. A more detailed analysis is sadly not possible because SurveyMonkey will only offer the data and functionality to do so to paying customers. But for the purpose of deciding what to play next, the following table is probably good enough:
| – | Total votes | Great story! | Average story | Didn't like it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lost in Reflection | 78 | 63 (80.77%) | 13 (16.67%) | 2 (2.56%) |
| 12:15 from Moloch Street | 105 | 81 (77.14%) | 15 (14.29%) | 9 (8.57%) |
| Flint | 91 | 69 (75.82%) | 19 (20.88%) | 3 (3.30%) |
| The Gift | 92 | 68 (73.91%) | 22 (23.91%) | 2 (2.17%) |
| The Empress' Shadow | 83 | 58 (69.88%) | 20 (24.10%) | 5 (6.02%) |
| Theological Husbandry | 102 | 65 (63.73%) | 35 (34.31%) | 2 (1.96%) |
| The Calendar Code | 72 | 44 (61.11%) | 25 (34.72%) | 3 (4.17%) |
| Where You and I Must Go | 86 | 51 (59.30%) | 26 (30.23%) | 9 (10.47%) |
| The Final Curtain | 86 | 51 (59.30%) | 28 (32.56%) | 7 (8.14%) |
| The Waltz that Moved the World | 82 | 47 (57.32%) | 24 (29.27%) | 11 (13.41%) |
| Cut With Moonlight | 56 | 31 (55.36%) | 21 (37.50%) | 4 (7.14%) |
| The Persona Engine | 103 | 57 (55.34%) | 39 (37.86%) | 7 (6.80%) |
| Secrets Framed in Gold | 104 | 57 (54.81%) | 30 (28.85%) | 17 (16.35%) |
| Flute Street | 97 | 53 (54.64%) | 35 (36.08%) | 9 (9.28%) |
| The Frequently Deceased | 66 | 30 (45.45%) | 33 (50.00%) | 3 (4.55%) |
| Five Minutes to Midday | 75 | 33 (44.00%) | 31 (41.33%) | 11 (14.67%) |
| The Chimney Pot Wars | 69 | 28 (40.58%) | 36 (52.17%) | 5 (7.25%) |
| A Trade in Faces | 68 | 26 (38.24%) | 36 (52.94%) | 6 (8.82%) |
| The Blemmigan Affair | 54 | 19 (35.19%) | 29 (53.70%) | 6 (11.11%) |
| The Century Exhibition | 99 | 34 (34.34%) | 47 (47.47%) | 18 (18.18%) |
| Art of Murder | 75 | 25 (33.33%) | 36 (48.00%) | 14 (18.67%) |
| A Trade in Souls | 113 | 37 (32.74%) | 60 (53.10%) | 16 (14.16%) |
| The Pentecost Predicament | 67 | 21 (31.34%) | 34 (50.75%) | 12 (17.91%) |
| The Seven Day Reign | 67 | 19 (28.36%) | 32 (47.76%) | 16 (23.88%) |
| Discernment | 55 | 14 (25.45%) | 31 (56.36%) | 10 (18.18%) |
| A Long Lost Daughter | 63 | 16 (25.40%) | 34 (53.97%) | 13 (20.63%) |
| The Haunting at the Marsh-House | 59 | 13 (22.03%) | 37 (62.71%) | 9 (15.25%) |
| The Court of Cats | 44 | 9 (20.45%) | 28 (63.64%) | 7 (15.91%) |
| Our Lady of Pyres | 88 | 18 (20.45%) | 51 (57.95%) | 19 (21.59%) |
| Last Dog Society | 52 | 9 (17.31%) | 29 (55.77%) | 14 (26.92%) |
| Inconvenienced by Your Aunt | 88 | 15 (17.05%) | 55 (62.50%) | 18 (20.45%) |
| The Spinning of the Wheels | 67 | 10 (14.93%) | 43 (64.18%) | 14 (20.90%) |
| The Rubbery Murders | 43 | 0 (0.00%) | 18 (41.86%) | 25 (58.14%) |
Next time
I forgot to add "Mysteries of the Foreign Office" and "A Functionary's Confidant" to the survey. Based on their length those two should definitely have been included. Other stories have also been missed, including the extension of the "Jack-of-Smiles case" and the seasonal bonus stories. A more nuanced chance of voting was also requested multiple times. I have to come up with an idea how to actually evaluate the results because SurveyMonkey's options are rather limited on free accounts. Also requested: additional options such as deciding if a story is worth buying just for the rewards ("Soul Trade" or "Theological Husbandry" will probably fit in here). Technically that's not a problem. We just have to think about how to do it so the survey doesn't become too complex or time consuming.
Posted Feb 7, 2017, 11:05 AM UTC · edited