The Daedalus Project
I have a crush on Nick Yee.
Nick Yee runs the Daedalus Project, a center for ongoing research into the psychology of MMO games. In particular, he’s been collecting actual data from actual MMO gamers for years, via a series of carefully-constructed surveys.
The Daedalus Project also collects a lot of free-form data, but I’ve also been more interested in the surveys. I love looking at the percentages and gender/age correlations in particular. And most of all I love the fact that someone is collecting real data on these questions.
My biggest complaint is that often these surveys just scratch the surface. For example, recently the Daedalus Project published data they had collected on player attitudes towards pets. The results are interesting, if predictable. But I’d love to see more breakdown: Is there a preference for creature types with the ‘animal’ category? Is size an important aspect of growth, or is it more about learning new skills? Most players prefer combat pets, but how does that correlate with the percentage of power represented by the pet? (In other words, is it more about how powerful the pet is, or about how involved the pet is perceived to be with the player’s actions?) And most of all: how many of these particulars are an artifact of WoW’s particular pet system, and how many are actual universals?
If you have a few moments, you should definitely swing by and add your data to the pile.
7 Comments
The survey is intersteting to read, there is just not enough details :9 Growth could mean both in how strong the bet is, and the accuall size of the pets. I do prefer big pets :) In everquest 1 the beastlords pets was very very big, they had a spell there could shrink it, when they was in grps, so it did not distrub targeting. I wish something simular would be implemented for wow. When im in the wild with my pets, i cannot see why they cant be the same size tamed, as they were pretamed. Offc. if u had tamed a low lvl pet, its hight would scale, so it fitted the wildlife at the same level.
Naming a pet is alfa and omega to me :) Could you imaging running around with a hunter pet there was named in advance, Hgardar or something like that.. like the demonvoidwalkers
and animal pets are the best. In everquest the mage had elemental pets, like earth, water, fire and air. The animals the beastlord had and those us hunters have in wow now are much lovelier and have a greater personality imo
Thats just my 2 scent :D
Mania – Thanks so much for linking to the surveys. I really appreciate it!
And I totally agree that the pets survey only scratched the surface. If you or any of your readers have suggestions for questions for future surveys, I’d be more than happy to include them! Just let me know here or email me at contact at nickyee dot com
Egad! It’s Nick Yee! *hyperventilate*
Heh. Seriously, thanks for dropping by. Despite my complaint, I think that the Daedalus Project provides an incredibly valuable service for MMO games. And the depth will come in time … I remember back when I ran into this the first time most of the data was from EQ1 players and seemed completely pointless to me as an AC1 player. But look where we are now. :> I just wish more game companies would give you access to backend data as well.
And yes, we will definitely send you suggestions! At least I will, and I’ll prod the slackers who read here to get involved also.
Thanks again!
Ok I was gonna come in here and Gush about Yee also – as a former grad student who had to run tons of surveys I love that kind of data. But er, now it’ll seem so fangrl after he’s come in and posted…oh wait, Mania’s already hyperventilated, I’m ok then! Heh.
Seriously – I really appreciate the work it took to put all those stats together, and am always interested in the findings. Not to mention happy that I can access it on the web rather than having to wait for it in print!
And I wouldn’t be surprised if Mania has some good ideas to pass on, not to mention generate some brainstorming on this blog!
:)
As a WoW player since Beta I remember both when pets didnt shrink when tamed and when Tauren used to be HUGE (no seriously… huge). Part of the reasoning behind the shrinking is yes, to not be annoying while in a group, but also because of pathing issues. Tauren and full size pets used to not fit through the doors in UC among other outposts and citys. Blizzard could of course code it where pets shrank when you entered towns, but thats alot of coding on their part and laze wins over time spent on a class they seem to want to forget about.
If I remember correctly, my guild has more hunters than any other class. I’ve got 14 characters on 4 servers – 10 horde, 4 alliance. 5 of those 14 are hunters LOL I like playing the other classes, but I like my hunters, especially my main hunter who’s just about ready to head into Outlands. Thanks to Petopia website, I learned that my cat could learn skills (other than the ones from trainers) She now has claw, bite & dash, as well as growl. I’ve had furball since lvl 10 in Evensong Woods. :o) Wouldn’t mind taming one of them pretty cats in Hinterlands (Frostsaber’s I believe). Happy hunting everyone. :oD
Mania’s Arcania » Community Round-Up: - October 6th, 2008 @ 9:40 pm UTC
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