GC 2007 Survey Results - Click Responses

[Flitterkill]

Alright,

 

There is a lot here, feel free to comment, put your own interpretation on, etc. Written responses will be addressed in another post.

Warning, this will be a long post.

 

128 responses out of a core community (folks active on the forums over the last two months + all paid members) = 250-ish folks. The last call email brought in the last 30+ responses but they did not affect the percentages in any meaningful fashion - I take that as meaning we have a decent sample (which is to say we may not, but, you know...)

 

Apologies to respondent 129 from Friday late evening. I had already pulled the survey info but had not turned the survey off. I owe you a cookie.

 

We trust that all of you entered in correct info; I know not all of you did (intentionally or otherwise) - that's ok - with the number of responses we have, we're good.

 

 

 

 

1) Which of the following age groups do you belong to:

 

The bulk of our membership (60%) lies in the 19 to 32 year range with much of the remaining percentage older than that. My apologies to the 40 and older crowd - had to pick a cut-off number (I'll be joining you soon enough)

2) Male or Female?

 

Hello ebil!

 

3) Marriage status?

 

2/3 single, 1/3 married of which half of those got kids. Some of you are probably divorced with kids - didn't think to ask. Don't need to know if you are divorced but we'll separate the kids into its own question next go around.

 

4) Whacha doin?

 

Not quite a third in college (with or without a job) , not quite 2/3 workin' stiffs, remainder still under the thumb of parental units or slacking (perhaps kept men?)

 

5) Job types.

 

I'll try to get to this in the other written survey answers thread. Suffice to say, we got all types. No lawyers though (I think - need to check again).

 

6) Server types you play

 

No big surprises there. Reflects the CS:S origins of GC

 

 

 

 

7) UT3?

 

Half of GC will be giving this game a poke. Look forward to killing you all

 

 

 

8) Your CS:S future.

 

A fair question. A few more of you will be playing more than less; most staying at the amount they play now. A couple think they will be dropping out soon.

 

9) Fantasy leagues?

 

I recall seeing an NFL thread on GC recently and thought perhaps we should get a feel for if there might be room to let that grow as part of GC. Just a touch under 1/3 are interested. Good enough. I suspect we may have missed the NFL season on this but if anyone is interested in leading this puppy, hit me up at flitterkill@gamerscoalition.com and we'll get you set up with forum space, etc.

 

10) Free swag?

 

2/3 say yes.

 

11) Ventrilo?

 

2/3 again. If this is sorted on GC paid members vs. non-paid members, the vast majority of paid members have at least poked our vent. Get on vent you guys!

12, 13, 14) PS3, Xbox360, Wii?

 

Not too much love for the PS3, but Xbox and Wii have some.

 

 

 

 

15) Gettin' one?

 

Over 1/4 are adding another or getting a next gen system (I smell Xmas) - we'll adjust the forums to better accomodate the console stuff. Anyone care to lead, feel free to touch base at the above email.

 

16) Classics?

 

1/2 of you never or rarely touch the stuff but the rest of us old folks kick them around a bit. Again, no reason why we can't adapt, get some forum space and the like. I could easily see some high score contests here. That and I think I can lean on someone who may or may not be a GC member with the best basement ever to give a hand with the forum space

 

17, 18) LCD/CRT? Size?

 

CRT on the way outs. A lot of folks still with 19" monitors (CRT or otherwise) 36%-ish of GC are widescreen. Six of you should give me your monitors. You know who you are

 

19) MAC/PC?

 

Why did I bother...

 

20) New comp or parts in the next year?

 

50/50 split - and frankly, this is probably the way most gaming communities will always be. Still - good to know...

 

 

 

 

 

21) Video card.

 

Either I did not get the ATI choices right or Nvidia is the dominant manufacturer these past few years (I suspect mostly door #2). Not quite 2/3 Nvidia. So we'll call them to give us some stuff to throw at you

 

22) Internets?

 

71% Cable; almost all the rest DSL. If the phone modem was not a joke answer you have my sympathies. Satellite for the others?

 

23) How many hours?

 

Half of us notch 2 hours or less a day. The rest of you are nuts

24) Paying?

 

Half of survey respondents are paid members, the other not (natch).

 

25) Help lead on a new server?

 

1/4 said sure; a large chunk said maybe. Of our paying members, a lot more than 1/4 said they would be willing to give it a shot.

 

 

 

 

 

25) Tee-shirt sizes

 

*If* this were to be done, cafepress and zazzle are not the best options - expensive plus quality =

With this info, small bulk orders could be made with real screen printing joints matching the size percentages seen above. Thanks for the info! XLL should have been XXL but most of you got it I think.

 

26) Still paying?

 

This question was really just for our paying members right now but just about everyone threw in their two cents worth. Looking at just our paid members on this question, most of them are planning on still being paid members two years from now. Why two years? Why not ask one year from now? Well, two years gives a good look at those who are committed to the community (or at least planning on still being committed) - anyone can look a year ahead and say "yeah"; two should have given you pause for thought.

27) Can you figure this out?

 

For the most part, yeah. Paid member responses were a bit higher (since they figured it out - duh ). Non paying members think things aren't as clear. We'll work on that.

28) Other game hook-ups within the community?

 

2/3 with no opinion. We'd really like to capture the GC thing in other games besides our CS and UT stuff - this all ties into the console questions and the like. I recall someone looking to set up a Diablo 2 run a number of months ago. With the thread buried in the "other pc games" forum, I think things like this may be hard to play out as much as they could. We'll look into it.

 

29) More member events on the servers?

 

41% said yes. Our paying members were at a higher percentage. If you have an idea, poke some of the admins and leads.

 

 

 

And now some of the meat and potatoes...

 

30) What got ya here?

 

People and standards. If you break out the payers vs. non-payers, the payers *do* value the reserves they get for their dues.

 

31) Forced to pick one?

 

This was supposed to be just paying members but a few others chimed in - that's fine (the survey is far from perfect). People and standards again win out.

 

32) Admins doing their job?

 

For the most part, yes, to the tune of 87% Yes, that could and probably should be higher.

 

33) Bigger or smaller?

 

One of the questions about this community that rears every now and then is where is it going? Are we just gonna be small group of folks based predominantly on CS or can the model of GC grow to allow for a broader array of games, etc. If the community is going to exist years from now, growth would almost have to occur. SJ brought up a point that not everyone was on-board with the west expansion a few years ago. That *successful* expansion gave us a big increase in GC members, but now we've ebbed back down. This rise and fall is what brings this question into play. Think about what we are going to see with UT3 launching. Another rise for sure. To be followed by another fall? Up/down/up/down...

 

This survey is partially in response to just this question. Should the board be content to stay the course and manage the community as an intimate handful of folks, or start pushing on the accelerator and get some action going and see what happens. You are the community, we listen to you for much of our direction. This may have been the first time we have explicitly asked for direction in a broad-based manner (won't be the last - guaranteed). The anonymous part no doubt helps - no problems with that at all.

 

This is what you said.

 

Bigger.

 

Stock questions are simple enough, but your responses to the good, bad, like us to do questions provide a more substantial amount of honesty, praise, and criticism. Many ideas, many problems to be addressed that did not come up in the survey click questions.

 

Look for those in the next stuck post (that will go up Sat. evening). Responses posted will not be verbatim to continue the anonymity as much as possible.

 

My, and the boards, thanks on this.

 

-Fk

[Tek-Almighty]

Wow...

 

Thanks FK.

 

Couple comments.

 

Good to see GC responding to all the hard work.

 

Good to see that more of us will try UT3...it'll be a great game.

 

Good to see there are no macs amongst our ranks

 

I can't believe most of us are XL and L shirt size. Wow, just blew that stereotype.

 

Ebil and who else?...

 

I think the 40+ peeps (married with kids no less...ahem...[bush]) rock. As a 30 something, that gives me hope that I will still be allowed near a computer in a few more years and that my wife may let me actually game a little. heh

 

GJ Flitter and GC for your answers.

[stutters]

thx everyone for taking the time to give us feedback. if you'd like to expand on anything that wasn't included in the survey, or wasn't focused on enough, here's your venue.

[nut]

yar i did it. A lot of my answers where up there on top.

 

good idea

[mookie]

Either I did not get the ATI choices right or Nvidia is the dominant manufacturer these past few years (I suspect mostly door #2). Not quite 2/3 Nvidia. So we'll call them to give us some stuff to throw at you

I suspect a lot of people are sitting pretty with a 9800, X800, or X850.

[ZesteR]

XS shirt here...but I think I'll take a S

[Tristan]

Don't bring me down, Groos.

[JackieChan]

Ebil and who else?...

Dragonfire?

[Kruten]

Nice to see I have my own age group.

[Fatty]

Ladies get half off...and no sisters / gf signing up for you under an alias you thief!

 

Great job, FK.