Survey Results!

Ictinus · December 2021

Hi folks!

As promised, I've now combed through all 70 of the survey responses and I have some insights for you. I'm going to go through most of the questions below, with screenshots and a few comments as appropriate. I've left one or two out that are entirely freeform answers without a unifying theme that don't translate too well to this breakdown.

Question: How long have you been playing Aetolia?

Out of the 70 responses, a full half have been playing for over 10 years. We have a lot of veterans, but we're also seeing actual growth through the game with genuine new faces, which is really great. I'll be interested to see how or if this changes when we do another survey like this next year.

Question: How many hours a week do you play Aetolia?

Overwhelming responses in the 20+ hours here, but a good chunk in the 6-10 bracket and 1-5 bracket as well.

Question: Which of the following classes do you play the most?

Syssin and Revenant take the crown here, with Wayfarer coming in 3rd which isn't terribly surprising. Ascendril is the lowest represented, which is definitely something we'd like to see change in the future.

Question: What do you feel is Aetolia's biggest strength?

This was a freeform answer so I don't have a screenshot. Overwhelmingly the most common responses here centred around the roleplay experience, the storyline, the community, the combat system, and Aetolia's living world.

Question: What do you enjoy the most about Aetolia?

Roleplaying takes the crown again here, followed by friends, and combat. This is consistent with the majority of answers from the previous question.

Question: What do you think could contribute to an upturn in activity for Aetolia?

This one was a doozy with dozens of different answers. "More events" is the most recurring comment here, but we've also taken a number of ideas from the individual comments that we'll be looking into.

Question: What do you find least appealing about Aetolia?

It's politics. Overwhelmingly.

Question: Which of these new content sources are most appealing to you?

Major events takes the #1 spot, with mirrors and airships in 2nd and 3rd.

Question: If you could make one change to Aetolia, what would it be?

This question provoked by far the most diverse answers with no common thread to be found at all. We heard everything from more dungeons, to more Dawnbreaker action, to better group combat, to war system, to very specific pvp changes and more. Lots to ruminate on here!

Question: Do you consider your experience as a customer / user to be satisfactory?

85% of the responses on this one were positive. To those who answered otherwise, please don't hesitate to reach out if you'd like to discuss your concerns with me directly.

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Some thoughts from me:

Obviously I'm very glad that satisfaction rated high; we've worked real hard for the last few months to put things right and while we have a long way still to go, it's very good to get this feedback.

In some of the freeform questions, a number of answers centred around a perception that the admin dismiss or don't care about harassment or toxicity. I'd like to go on record and say that this is absolutely not the case. I and by extension the admin team have a zero tolerance policy for OOC harassment, ignore bypassing, and intentional OOC toxicity that takes place /in the game/. But it needs to be reported. Please report it. We'll always investigate it and handle it as appropriate.

I can't comment yet on our 2022 plans, except to say that our plan is coming together and my end of year post will be coming within the next week, with some teasers for the year ahead.

I'd also like to say thanks to everyone who took the time to respond; we've gathered a ton of useful feedback and will be keeping it in mind as we move forward.