The WotC Polls

[mkill]

And I invite you to consider that the feedback mechanism for "Finding out what works and what doesn't" is that 5e succeeds or fails. This not not a speedy, precise or low-risk feedback mechanism.

Ok, I get it, polls are serious business (tm).

Now calm down.

 

[delericho]

As a feedback mechanism, the polls are useless. But I don't think that's their purpose - I'm reasonable sure that they're just another form of marketing.

Incidentally, I find it ironic that the OP is complaining about the polls being slanted... and yet the poll on this thread is also pretty slanted.

 

[Yora]

I always feel a disturbance in the statistics community. As if millions of statisticans cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.

 

[Scribble]

The law of internet based gaming polls states that however you word your poll, someone will inevitably tell you how you could have done it better.

 

[Yora]

Because most people who make polls or charts don't know anything about statistics!

 

[Scribble]

Because most people who make polls or charts don't know anything about statistics!

I'd be willing to bet neither do most people commenting about charts and polls.

 

[mudbunny]

The polls have little or nothing to do with the accurate collection of data. They are there to give the developers a general idea of where the opinion of a specific portion of a specific community feels, as well as, and this is the primary purpose of the polls, to generate discussion.

 

[Ahnehnois]

I think that the problem with the polls is not so much that the writers favor certain answers (which they do sometimes), but that the questions themselves are framed by their biases.

Let's take this recent one:

Let's say you're playing in a strictly by-the-book D&D campaign. You play for two hours each week. How long should it take to reach level 10?

The existence of this question presumes that it is possible or desirable to play "by the book" and, even stranger, that a particular pace of gaming should be assumed by that book. So the question is in itself rather narrow-minded. There are many others like it.

Assuming you start at level 1, at what level do you feel that you're ready to leave behind your character and start a new one?

Again, a really strange question to ask, and one to which a consensus answer could not be expected.

D&D is a far more intellectually diverse game that its designers seem to give it credit for.

So on one hand, it's good that this time around, they are at least displaying some interest in what their audience thinks, and making some efforts to solicit opinions, but I think they really need to go back to basics with some of these things.

 

[Ratskinner]

Admittedly there was a bit of hyperbole there, but there really isn't any other direct feedback mechanism for them to evaluate the effectiveness/accuracy of their polls.

Plus the fact that they are clearly not employing good market research tools at this stage makes me worried that they won't have the proper mechanisms in place to judge the feedback they do get from the play testers, and that could well be disastrous. There is, after all, no point in doing a proper iterative design process if your test-analyze-revise cycle is bollixed by lousy analysis.

See, I don't think these polls are market research tools. (Assuming they are conducting significant market research beyond playtesting at all.) These "polls" are really just off-the-cuff questions from the various writers/designers at WOTC. They're not trying to get at some definitive answer for anything. Its not "What is the optimum Turning mechanic for satisfying the D&D player base?" or "What percentage of players will reject this new spell system?" but more like "Should we waste any time playing with this new save mechanic I came up with?" In part, I think, this is due to the (hoped for) modular nature of the final product. This looks to be a very sloppy, open process, which I think is good.

 

[hanez]

Flabbergasted how many people even pay attention to the polls.

The polls exist as an advertising excercise, to get you talking and interested in the game. No one with any experience in stats would think a public poll of this type (no matter how its worded) could reflect the fan bases views on the game.

A lot of the fan base DOESNT go onto forums, read articles about D&D or have any clue what would make the game more fun (because they barely know what the rules are anyways, they play houseruled games, and let their DM tell them how the game works).

My 8 players meet twice a month in a basement and roleplay a character they think is cool. Occasionally they buy a players option book that gives them different powers. They switch systems if someone who is DMing tells them to or invites them to a D&D 5e session.

WOTCs game research will not be done on a public web site.