NetHack Poll 2009 results
Patric Mueller
X'post and followup2: rec.games.roguelike.nethack
This file is also available at:
http://nethack-de.sourceforge.net/nethack_poll_results.txt
NetHack Poll 2009 results
=========================
There were 423 participants answering the poll.
The difference between active and former players of NetHack was
almost non-existent. They have only been treated separately when
explicitly mentioned.
The poll has been announced at several different places:
UseNet: rec.games.roguelike.nethack
rec.games.roguelike.angband
rec.games.roguelike.announce
rec.games.roguelike.misc
IRC: #nethack,
#nethack.de
#unnethack
##crawl
Twitter: http://twitter.com/dingir_bhaak/status/5432011834
DevNull Bragging Board: http://nethack.devnull.net/bragging/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=459
GameFAQs NetHack board: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.php?board=582497&topic=52107332
WikiHack News: http://nethack.wikia.com/wiki/Template:News
Adom Forum: http://www.adom.de/forums/showthread.php?t=9860
Angband forum: http://angband.oook.cz/forum/showthread.php?t=2470
Dwarf Fortress forum: http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=44607.0
Kingdom of Loathing forum: http://forums.kingdomofloathing.com/vb/showthread.php?p=3505975
Temple of Roguelikes: http://www.roguetemple.com/forums/index.php?topic=592.0
dplusplus's blog: http://d.hatena.ne.jp/dplusplus/20091106
BSDForen.de Forum: http://www.bsdforen.de/showthread.php?t=23820
FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=17186027223&topic=34452
It was also mentioned in the MOTD/news section of nethack.alt.org and the
NetHack-De homepage.
1. Age
------
16.78% 71 13-19
22.46% 95 20-24
21.75% 92 25-29
14.89% 63 30-34
9.69% 41 35-39
6.86% 29 40-44
3.07% 13 45-49
2.36% 10 50+
2.13% 9 n/a
92.67% 392 male (94.7%)
5.20% 22 female ( 5.3%)
2.13% 9 n/a
minimum: 13 (3 times)
maximum: 65
median: 27
average: 28.12
2. Where do you live?
---------------------
By continent:
216 51.06% North America
161 38.06% Europe
24 5.67% Australia
16 3.78% Asia
4 0.95% Latin America
2 0.47% Africa
By country:
188 44.44% USA
41 9.69% Germany
29 6.86% UK
28 6.62% Canada
17 4.02% Australia
17 4.02% Finland
15 3.55% France
9 2.13% The Netherlands
8 1.89% Sweden
7 1.65% Japan
7 1.65% Switzerland
7 1.65% New Zealand
6 1.42% Poland
4 0.95% Austria
3 0.71% Spain
3 0.71% Czech Republic
3 0.71% Norway
3 0.71% Italy
2 0.47% Hungary
2 0.47% South Korea
2 0.47% Latvia
2 0.47% South Africa
2 0.47% Portugal
2 0.47% Philippines
16 3.78% others: Argentina, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Denmark, Estonia, India, Ireland, Israel, Malaysia, Malta, Russia, Taiwan, Thailand
Players with English as a primary language: 272 (64.3%)
(this includes all Canadian players).
3. Local vs server
------------------
173 40.90% locally
112 26.48% both
86 20.33% server
29 6.86% mostly server
22 5.20% mostly locally
1 0.24% -
4. Tiles vs ASCII
------------------
286 67.61% ASCII
64 15.13% Tiles
48 11.35% both
14 3.31% mostly ASCII
10 2.36% mostly Tiles
1 0.24% -
5. OS and Devices
------------------
By OS family:
283 44.08% Windows
169 26.32% Linux
63 9.81% Mac OS X
23 3.58% PuTTY
22 3.43% iPhone OS
18 2.80% NAO
12 1.87% Unix
10 1.56% DOS
10 1.56% Nintendo DS
9 1.40% BSD
4 0.62% Android
3 0.47% Psion Series 5mx
3 0.47% AmigaOS
2 0.31% Telnet
2 0.31% Sony PSP
2 0.31% Maemo
2 0.31% OS/2
5 0.78% others: Acorn Archimedes, BeOS, GP2x, Gamecube, Nintendo Wii
Note: PuTTY and NAO (nethack.alt.org) got mentioned by so many
participants that they had to be included
By specific OS/Device:
116 18.07% Linux
111 17.29% Windows
98 15.26% Windows XP
63 9.81% Mac OS X
39 6.07% Windows Vista
23 3.58% PuTTY
21 3.27% Linux (Ubuntu)
18 2.80% NAO
15 2.34% iPhone
14 2.18% Linux (Debian)
14 2.18% Windows 7
10 1.56% Nintendo DS
8 1.25% MS-DOS
7 1.09% iPod OS
6 0.93% Windows 98
6 0.93% Windows CE
6 0.93% Windows 2000
5 0.78% Unix (various)
5 0.78% OpenBSD
4 0.62% Linux (Kubuntu)
4 0.62% Android
3 0.47% Linux (Gentoo)
3 0.47% AmigaOS
3 0.47% NetBSD
3 0.47% Linux (Arch)
3 0.47% Psion Series 5mx
2 0.31% Unix (HP-UX)
2 0.31% Sony PSP
2 0.31% DosBox
2 0.31% Linux (Fedora)
2 0.31% Unix (Solaris)
2 0.31% Unix
2 0.31% Telnet
2 0.31% Linux (SUSE)
2 0.31% Maemo
2 0.31% Linux (Slackware)
2 0.31% OS/2
12 1.87% others: Acorn Archimedes, BeOS, FreeBSD, GP2x, Gamecube, Linux (Mandriva), Linux (Mint), Nintendo Wii, Unix (SVR4), Windows 95, Windows ME, Windows NT
6. Where did you get your copy of NetHack from?
-----------------------------------------------
246 60.15% www.nethack.org
71 17.36% unix repository
21 5.13% the internet
14 3.42% iPhone App Store
11 2.69% variants developer site
9 2.20% self-compiled
6 1.47% official site + patches
6 1.47% nethack.alt.org
3 0.73% MacPorts
3 0.73% port developer site
3 0.73% magazine cd
3 0.73% compiled from source
3 0.73% friend
2 0.49% Fink
2 0.49% android market
2 0.49% http://nethack.wikia.com/wiki/Menucolors
4 0.98% others: boyfriend, brother, nethack.devnull.net, telnet
7. Do you play a patched NetHack or variants of NetHack?
--------------------------------------------------------
247 58.39% no
176 41.61% yes
Specific answers of those saying yes:
65 30.52% Slash'Em
33 15.49% SporkHack
29 13.62% somehow patched version
18 8.45% menucolors
15 7.04% UnNetHack
9 4.23% Vulture's Eye
6 2.82% hp monitor patch
6 2.82% dump patch
5 2.35% statuscolors
5 2.35% variants
3 1.41% interface patches
3 1.41% NetHack-De
3 1.41% Falcon's Eye
2 0.94% color alchemy patch
2 0.94% Vulture's Claw
1 0.47% heck level patch
1 0.47% biodiversity patch
1 0.47% NetHack+
1 0.47% enhanced artifacts patch
1 0.47% old versions
1 0.47% "while helpless"
1 0.47% GruntHack
1 0.47% devnull's nethack
1 0.47% interhack
8. Which other Roguelikes have you ever played?
-----------------------------------------------
137 13.62% Crawl
119 11.83% none
112 11.13% ADOM
109 10.83% Angband
78 7.75% Rogue
50 4.97% DoomRL
37 3.68% Dwarf Fortress
31 3.08% Moria
30 2.98% Hack
25 2.49% TOME
20 1.99% Larn
20 1.99% ZAngband
15 1.49% IVAN
12 1.19% Omega
12 1.19% *bands
11 1.09% POWDER
10 0.99% ZAPM
9 0.89% various
9 0.89% Incursion
9 0.89% Elona
7 0.70% Castle of the Winds
7 0.70% Spelunky
7 0.70% Shiren the Wanderer
7 0.70% Ragnarok
5 0.50% Diablo I
5 0.50% GearHead 1
5 0.50% DiabloRL
4 0.40% Steamband
4 0.40% MAngband
4 0.40% Alphaman
4 0.40% Diablo II
3 0.30% AliensRL
3 0.30% Frozen Depths
3 0.30% Prospector
3 0.30% Dungeon Hack
3 0.30% FAAngband
3 0.30% CastlevaniaRL
3 0.30% UnReal World
2 0.20% Pokemon Mystery Dungeon
2 0.20% NPPAngband
2 0.20% Dweller
2 0.20% DnD
2 0.20% Unreal World
2 0.20% HellBand
2 0.20% Berserk!
2 0.20% Liberal Crime Squad
2 0.20% GearHead 2
2 0.20% Hengband
2 0.20% Privateer: ASCII Sector
49 4.93% others: 10rogue, Advent, Anathema RL, Avanor, BRogue, Bash, CalcRogue, Caves of Thor, Chocobo\'s Dungeon, Crossfire, CthAngband, DaJAngband, Deep Dungeon, Don Kneller's hack, Dungeon of Doom, Dungeonminder, Dwarf, Dwarf Fortress Rogue, Fatal Labyrinth, FuryBand, Fushigi no Dungeon, Gruesome, Izuna, Legedermain, Medina at Nescafib, Mission Thunderbolt, OAngband, PMD, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon 1, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon 2, PyRo, Quickband, SAngband, Sangband, Slash'Em, Super Rogue, TomeNET, Tower of Azari, Transcendence, Triangle Wizard, ULarn, UnAngband, Urban Warfare: The Escape, Valhalla, WarpRogue, Wumpus, XBand, Xenocide, various console games
Number of played Roguelikes per person (excluding NetHack):
119 28.13% 0
103 24.35% 1
74 17.49% 2
40 9.46% 3
35 8.27% 4
18 4.26% 5
9 2.13% 6
7 1.65% 7
7 1.65% 8
3 0.71% 9
2 0.47% 10
3 0.71% 11
1 0.24% 12
1 0.24% 13
1 0.24% 22
9. Where did you learn about NetHack?
-------------------------------------
59 13.95% don't remember
55 13.00% friend
33 7.80% internet
28 6.62% school/high school/college/university
20 4.73% usenet
19 4.49% other website
17 4.02% internet forum
16 3.78% family
15 3.55% computer magazine
11 2.60% linux repository
11 2.60% Kingdom of Loathing
10 2.36% googled
9 2.13% software collection
7 1.65% gaming website
7 1.65% userfriendly.org
7 1.65% -
7 1.65% wikipedia
6 1.42% BBS
6 1.42% Word of mouth
6 1.42% repository
5 1.18% IRC
5 1.18% slashdot
4 0.95% Home of the Underdogs
3 0.71% TV Tropes Wiki
2 0.47% Dwarf Fortress
2 0.47% husband
2 0.47% boyfriend
2 0.47% geeks
2 0.47% work
2 0.47% Order of the Stick
2 0.47% RogueBasin
43 10.17% somehow different
10. When did you learn about NetHack?
-------------------------------------
14 3.31% don't remember
18 4.26% years ago
3 0.71% several years ago
4 0.95% a few years ago
10 2.36% -
16 3.78% 2009
31 7.33% 2008
31 7.33% 2007
28 6.62% 2006
24 5.67% 2005
18 4.26% 2004
19 4.49% 2003
11 2.60% 2002
13 3.07% 2001
14 3.31% 2000
24 5.67% 1999
15 3.55% 1998
14 3.31% 1997
8 1.89% 1996
13 3.07% 1995
5 1.18% 1994
9 2.13% 1993
14 3.31% 1992
10 2.36% 1991
13 3.07% 1990
17 4.02% 1989
8 1.89% 1988
11 2.60% 1987
2 0.47% 1986
1 0.24% 1985
3 0.71% 1984
1 0.24% 1983
1 0.24% 1982
Note: Obviously some people answered when they first learnt about Hack and not NetHack
11. How often did you win NetHack? (If never, you may specify your best game.)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
207 48.94% Never
14 3.31% -
36 8.51% 1
22 5.20% 2
20 4.73% 3
12 2.84% 4
11 2.60% 5
8 1.89% 6
5 1.18% 7
4 0.95% 8
1 0.24% 9
8 1.89% 10
2 0.47% 11
3 0.71% 12
4 0.95% 13
3 0.71% 14
2 0.47% 15
1 0.24% 16
4 0.95% 18
21 4.96% 20+
Some answered in percent of played games:
1 0.24% 100%
1 0.24% 90%
2 0.47% 80%
1 0.24% 66%
3 0.71% 50%
1 0.24% 40%
1 0.24% 35%
2 0.47% 33%
4 0.95% 25%
5 1.18% 20%
2 0.47% 15%
6 1.42% 10%
2 0.47% 5%
1 0.24% 3%
1 0.24% 2%
1 0.24% 1%
12. To what extent do you use spoiler for playing NetHack?
----------------------------------------------------------
117 27.66% using spoilers extensively
62 14.66% fully spoilered
54 12.77% somewhat spoilered
26 6.15% never
25 5.91% yes
24 5.67% have memorized all spoilers they want
19 4.49% all the time
16 3.78% using spoilers frequently
15 3.55% -
12 2.84% only for price/item/monster identification
11 2.60% try to avoid using spoilers
11 2.60% spoilered by source diving
9 2.13% using spoilers occasionally
9 2.13% using spoilers rarely
5 1.18% game is impossible without spoilers
4 0.95% using spoilers too often
3 0.71% using spoilers in specific occasions (sokoban, wishing)
1 0.24% writing his/her own spoilers
13. If you no longer play NetHack regularly, why and when did you quit?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
320 75.65% active players
103 24.35% quit
Detailed answers (multiple answers were given):
244 54.71% still playing
42 9.42% still playing occasionally
27 6.05% other roguelike
21 4.71% have not quit, just on a break
19 4.26% game got boring
18 4.04% lack of time
16 3.59% still playing, but used to play more
14 3.14% have completely mastered the game, it poses no challenge anymore
10 2.24% game is considered won and finished after ascension
8 1.79% no particular reason stated
7 1.57% never played regularly, only tried it
5 1.12% other games
5 1.12% the development of the game has stalled
3 0.67% spoilers are needed to win
3 0.67% game is too hard
3 0.67% game is too complicated
1 0.22% lost a gehennom game due to trickery
Note: Only about 40 people have stated when they quit NetHack and the data
was so uniformly distributed that it didn't show any significant
information
14. If you take part in the NetHack DevNull tournament: where did you hear about it?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
275 65.01% n/a
37 8.75% rec.games.roguelike.nethack
15 3.55% wikihack
13 3.07% #nethack
9 2.13% don't remember
8 1.89% slashdot
7 1.65% usenet
7 1.65% never heard about it
7 1.65% IRC
7 1.65% nethack.alt.org
5 1.18% #nethack.de
4 0.95% dwarf fortress forums
3 0.71% friend
3 0.71% gamefaqs
3 0.71% there's a tournament?
3 0.71% googling for nethack
3 0.71% something awful forum
3 0.71% @Play
2 0.47% internet
9 2.13% others: #unnethack, Clan EIT, Facebook, boyfriend, geeks, mud, twitter, wikipedia, xkcd forums
15. Did you ever recommend NetHack to someone?
----------------------------------------------
312 73.76% yes
60 14.18% no
51 12.06% yes, but unsuccessfully
16. Which computer game other than NetHack did you play most in the
last three months (August, September, October)?
-------------------------------------------------------------------
52 8.37% none
34 5.48% Crawl
22 3.54% Dwarf Fortress
14 2.25% Kingdom of Loathing
14 2.25% various
13 2.09% Team Fortress 2
12 1.93% Civilization IV
12 1.93% World of Warcraft
10 1.61% Diablo II
9 1.45% Starcraft
9 1.45% Dragon Age: Origins
8 1.29% Fallout 3
7 1.13% Torchlight
6 0.97% Solitaire
5 0.81% Spelunky
5 0.81% flash games
5 0.81% Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
5 0.81% ADOM
5 0.81% Angband
5 0.81% Desktop Tower Defense
5 0.81% Battle for Wesnoth
5 0.81% Borderlands
4 0.64% DoomRL
4 0.64% Tetris
4 0.64% Heroes of Might and Magic
4 0.64% Warcraft 3
4 0.64% Mount&Blade
3 0.48% Heroes of Newerth
3 0.48% Left 4 Dead
3 0.48% OpenTTD
3 0.48% X3: Terran Conflict
3 0.48% Mass Effect
3 0.48% Warcraft III - Defense of the Ancients
3 0.48% Guitar Hero
2 0.32% FreeCiv
2 0.32% Magic III
2 0.32% Halo 3
2 0.32% Call of Duty
2 0.32% Sudoku
2 0.32% Half-Life
2 0.32% Slash'Em
2 0.32% Oblivion
2 0.32% League of Legends
2 0.32% Evil Genius
2 0.32% Doom
2 0.32% Fallout 2
2 0.32% EVE Online
2 0.32% Civilization III
2 0.32% Chess
2 0.32% The Ur-Quan Masters
2 0.32% Gothic
2 0.32% Europa Universalis III
2 0.32% Neverwinter Nights
2 0.32% Fallout 1
2 0.32% Freecell
2 0.32% RuneScape
2 0.32% Sword of the Stars
2 0.32% Railroad Tycoon 3
2 0.32% X-COM: Enemy Unknown
2 0.32% Deus Ex
2 0.32% Civilization
2 0.32% Elona
2 0.32% Baldur's Gate
2 0.32% Grand Theft Auto IV
2 0.32% World of Goo
2 0.32% Uncharted 2
2 0.32% Guild Wars
252 40.58% others: A Tale in the Desert (MMO), A few fps games,
Ace Combat 6, Achaea, Age of Wonders, Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic,
Aion, Allegiance, Allied General, Amju, Anarchy Online, And Yet It Moves, Anno
1404, Anno 1701, Anstoß 3, Arcanum, Arma 2, Audiosurf, Avernum 5, Baldur's Gate
1, Baldur's Gate 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Battle Forge, Battlefield: Bad
Company, Ben There, Dan That!, Bioshock, BlazBlue, Brainteasers of the Ubuntu
Repository, Breath of Fire IV, Brutal Legend, Bubblez, Caesar III, Call of Duty
2, Call of Duty World at War (Nazi Zombies), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2,
Cave Story, Champions Online, Championship Manager, Chessmaster, Chrono
Trigger, City of Heroes, Civilization II, Clonk, CoC: Tiberian Sun, Commander
Keen, Continuum, Counter Strike, Crusader Kings, DCS Black Shark, DDO,
DaJAngband, Daimonin, Day of the Tentacle, Dead Rising, Dead Space, DiRT,
Diablo I, Diablo II LoD, Discworld MUD, Disgaea DS, Doom 3 - The Dark Mod,
Dragons Online, Drakensang, Dreams of Divine Lands, Duke Nukem 3D (both in
DosEMU), Dungeons, Dungeons & Dragons: Online, Earthbound (emulated SNES RPG),
East India Company, Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind, Elite III, Empire Deluxe,
Europa Universalis II, Evony, Exile, F-Zero (GBA), FAAngband, FATE, Facebook
Apps, Fall from Heaven II, Far Cry, FarmVille, Final Fantasy VIII, Final
Fantasy saga (from VIIth), Fltron @ fltron.com, Football Manager 2010, Front
Mission, FuryBand, GROW, Gamehouse.com online games, Geheimakte Tunguska,
GemCraft Zero, Goban, Godfather Blackhand Edition (Wii), Gran Turismo, Grand
Theft Auto Vice City , Greatest Battles of Ancient Rome, Grid, Guitly Gear X2
Accent Core Plus, Gundam RTS, Half Life 2 episode 2, Half-Life 2, Halo 2, Halo
3: ODST, Hammerfight, Hearts, Hedgewars, HellMOO, Hengband, Hordes of Orcs,
IVAN, Icewind Dale, Iji, Incursion, Interactive fiction, Islands of Myth,
Jagged Alliance 2 version 1.13, Killing Floor, King of Dragon Pass, Kingdom
Hearts 358/2 Days, Knights of the Old Republic, Kongregate.com, Left 4 Dead 2,
Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time, Little Big Planet (PS3), Madden NFL 09
(PS3), Mafia Wars, Mahjong, Mario Kart, Mario Wii, MechWarrior 4, Mechwarrior
4, Megaman Legends 2, Metal Gear: Portable Ops, Metroid Prime, Minecraft,
Moria, Morrowind, N. http://www.thewayoftheninja.org/, NPPAngband, Neverwinter
Nights 2, Nexus War, OGame, Objective Tarot, October, Okami, OpenArena,
OpenLieroX, Overlord, POWDER, Pac-Man, Paint by numbers, Pax Imperia, Peggle,
Peggle Nights, Perfect World International, Plants vs Zombies, Portal,
Psychonauts, Quake 3 Arena, Quake Live, Rhythm Heaven for Nintendo DS, Risen,
Rock Band 2 (Xbox 360), Rome Total War, STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl, Saints
Row 2, Sauerbraten, Scarface (Wii), Scrabble, Secret of Monkey Island SE,
Settlers 4, Settlers II, Shaiya, Sharkey's 3D Pool, Shintolin, Shot Online
(online Golf simulation), Silent Hill 2 or Marathon, Sim City 4, Sims 2, Sims
3, Sins of a Solar Empire, SketchFighter 4000 Alpha, Skulltag, Skyrates, Slaves
to Armok 2: Dwarf Fortress, Sokoban, Soul Caliber 4, Space Hack, Spider, Spider
Solitaire, Spore, Spore Galactic Adventures, Spring 1944, Spring Balanced
Annihilation, Stalker Call of Pripyat, Stalker SHOC, Star Control II, Star
Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Stars!, Strat-O-Matic Baseball, Street
Fighter 4, Super Mario 64, Super Mario Cube Root, Super Mario Galaxy, Super
Mario Kart, Super Metroid, System Shock 2, Tales of Eternia, Tales of Monkey
Island, Tales of Phantasia, Test Drive Unlimited, Texas Hold'em, The Elder
Scrolls III: Morrowind, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii), The
Oregon Trail, The Sims 3, The Whispered World, The Witcher, Thief 2, Titan
Quest, Tontoko Family, Trackmania, Travian only, Trials HD, Trine, Tropico,
Ultima Online, UnReal World, Unreal Tournament, Unreal Tournament 99, Urban
Dead, UrbanTerror, V for Victory, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, Warcraft
2, Warlords III, Widelands, Windows Solitaire, Wolfenstein, Wolfenstein 3D,
Worms, X3: Reunion, XBox, Xskat, ZAngband, Zuma, Zuma's Revenge, chess,
different chess games, emulated super Nintendo games, inFAMOUS
Patric Mueller
>
> 1. Age
> ------
> 16.78% 71 13-19
> 22.46% 95 20-24
> 21.75% 92 25-29
More young people than I thought. Nice.
> 92.67% 392 male (94.7%)
> 5.20% 22 female ( 5.3%)
> 2.13% 9 n/a
The crawl poll almost had the same percental numbers regarding gender.
> 2. Where do you live?
> ---------------------
> 16 3.78% Asia
Although there is a Japanese translation of vanilla NetHack and of every
variant and there are quite a lot of downloads, those numbers aren't
reflected in the participation of the poll.
As in the Crawl poll, overall there have been not a lot of answers from
Asia. It seems that the Asian and/or Japanese roguelike community is
just separated from the English-speaking community.
> 3. Local vs server
> ------------------
> 173 40.90% locally
> 22 5.20% mostly locally
As a variant developer one shouldn't forget that there are a lot of
local installations out there that you don't see normally.
Unbelievable as it sounds, not everyone plays on a public server. :-)
> 4. Tiles vs ASCII
> ------------------
> 286 67.61% ASCII
> 64 15.13% Tiles
> 48 11.35% both
Compared to Crawl it seems that more people play ASCII, maybe because
the tiles versions aren't as good as Crawl's (which has a higher number
of tiles player in its poll).
> 5. OS and Devices
> ------------------
> 23 3.58% PuTTY
> 18 2.80% NAO
Using a public server is of course quite plattform-independent, so it's
only logical not to say which OS is used to connect to the server.
> 22 3.43% iPhone OS
I already wanted to do an iPhone version of UnNetHack, now I have one
more reason to do it.
> 6. Where did you get your copy of NetHack from?
> -----------------------------------------------
> 246 60.15% www.nethack.org
It's rather sad that the DevTeam doesn't really maintain the 3.4.x
branch of NetHack as a lot of people use the binaries/source from the
official site.
It seems people don't mind interface improving patches (there was no
complaint about NAO's set of patches) but people mostly use them if they
have easy access to such a version. Nevertheless there are a lot of
people who prefer vanilla 3.4.3 or at least don't mind it hard enough to
get an improved version.
But there is of course also no version based on vanilla 3.4.3 available
that would allow a user to just start the game. Jukka Lahtinen's
combined nh343jl.diff comes closest but as a patch it is not just
ready-to-compile and Windows and Mac users usually expect a binary
(NAO's patch would also be a candidate for a only-interface-improving
version but it probably has some Unix-specific code).
Ironically, Linux users are in general better off as many distribution
ship with a patched version (e.g. Debian and Ubuntu, Gentoo has one in
its bugzilla)
Summarized, people would most probably use an interface-improved
non-gameplay-changing 3.4.3 if they had easy access to it (and know
about it!). For server players there already exists such versions but
local players are left alone if their distribution doesn't provide such
a version.
> Specific answers of those saying yes:
> 65 30.52% Slash'Em
Looks like there are more fans of Slash'Em than I thought.
> 15 7.04% UnNetHack
:-)
> 3 1.41% NetHack-De
:-)
> 8. Which other Roguelikes have you ever played?
> -----------------------------------------------
> 137 13.80% Crawl
Unsurprisingly, Crawl leads in this listing.
> 112 11.28% ADOM
I never played ADOM, maybe I should give it a spin sometime.
> 37 3.68% Dwarf Fortress
> 7 0.70% Spelunky
> 5 0.50% Diablo I
> 4 0.40% Diablo II
Several people mentioned those and said "if it counts as roguelike".
The only game mentioned that IMO is way out of roguelike waters was
"robotfindskitten".
> Number of played Roguelikes per person (excluding NetHack):
> 119 28.13% 0
> 103 24.35% 1
> 74 17.49% 2
I don't know what to make of this numbers.
> 10. When did you learn about NetHack?
> -------------------------------------
> 16 3.78% 2009
I don't know if this sharp decrease has any significance. I am inclined
to say 'no' as not all people having just learnt about a new game jump
right into the community and therefore might not have heard about the
poll.
> 31 7.33% 2008
> 31 7.33% 2007
> 28 6.62% 2006
> 24 5.67% 2005
Interestingly, those four years are also those years with the absolute
biggest numbers.
> 11. How often did you win NetHack? (If never, you may specify your best game.)
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 207 48.94% Never
IMO a surprisingly large number of people who have never won.
As a variant developer I conclude from this that NetHack doesn't need to
be harder, overall.
That very few people die in the endgame resp. that the vanilla endgame
is tedious is another problem. That problem can be solved with or
without making the endgame harder. That's up to the variant developer.
:-)
> 12. To what extent do you use spoiler for playing NetHack?
> ----------------------------------------------------------
Most people don't mind that spoilers are almost needed in NetHack. My
interpretation is that most players don't spoil themselves completely
but only so far as to enjoy the game.
Three people said although they are spoiled to the core in NetHack, they
are unspoiled in the variants (SporkHack and UnNetHack) and enjoying it
for that reason.
But more often I've seen on IRC that people get paranoid while playing
variants because they think everything is an evil variant change when
instead it is only vanilla behavior. :-)
Bye
Patric
--
NetHack-De: NetHack auf Deutsch - http://nethack-de.sf.net/
NetHack for AROS: http://sf.net/projects/nethack-aros/
UnNetHack: http://apps.sf.net/trac/unnethack/
John H.
> > 2. Where do you live?
> > ---------------------
> > 16 3.78% Asia
>
> Although there is a Japanese translation of vanilla NetHack and of every
> variant and there are quite a lot of downloads, those numbers aren't
> reflected in the participation of the poll.
>
> As in the Crawl poll, overall there have been not a lot of answers from
> Asia. It seems that the Asian and/or Japanese roguelike community is
> just separated from the English-speaking community.
This seems to be a general trend in computer gaming in fact, for all
the games that are made in Japan, by the amount which Japanese players
participate in the larger game community they might as well be on a
different planet. A lot of this, but not all of it I think, can be
explained by the language barrier.
> The only game mentioned that IMO is way out of roguelike waters was
> "robotfindskitten".
Your character is an @, and it's vaguely similar on the face of it,
but yeah it barely counts as a game even.
> > 11. How often did you win NetHack? (If never, you may specify your best game.)
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > 207 48.94% Never
>
> IMO a surprisingly large number of people who have never won.
>
> As a variant developer I conclude from this that NetHack doesn't need to
> be harder, overall.
It's not that it needs to be harder overall, but that it needs to be
more of a challenge to experienced players. The classic way to do
this, score, is entirely broken. Conducts help a bit but I don't
think are enough. Extra, optional goals, maybe like ADOM's multiple
levels of victory, might work.
- John H.
David Ploog
> X'post and followup2: rec.games.roguelike.nethack
>
> This file is also available at:
> http://nethack-de.sourceforge.net/nethack_poll_results.txt
>
>
> NetHack Poll 2009 results
> =========================
>
> There were 423 participants answering the poll.
Thanks for the poll and the results!
> By country:
> 188 44.44% USA
> 41 9.69% Germany
> 29 6.86% UK
> 28 6.62% Canada
> 17 4.02% Australia
> 17 4.02% Finland
> 15 3.55% France
Compared with Crawl, there are many more German players.
> 6. Where did you get your copy of NetHack from?
> -----------------------------------------------
> 246 60.15% www.nethack.org
This means that many people hear the word of Nethack and then look for the
game on their own. The number should be decreasing over time, due to
online play.
> 10. When did you learn about NetHack?
> -------------------------------------
> 16 3.78% 2009
> 31 7.33% 2008
> 31 7.33% 2007
> 28 6.62% 2006
> 24 5.67% 2005
> 18 4.26% 2004
> 19 4.49% 2003
> 11 2.60% 2002
> 13 3.07% 2001
> 14 3.31% 2000
Indicating growth despite development stagnation.
Thanks again!
David
Pat Rankin
[...]
> The only game mentioned that IMO is way out of roguelike waters was
> "robotfindskitten".
I didn't read the list closely, but "advent" is what
Adventure was called on systems which limited file names to
6 characters. Adventure was not even remotely roguelike in
any way, shape, or form.
"Don Kneller's hack" was also known as PChack and
probably should not be counted separately from hack. It may
have been more that just a port of hack to MSDOS, but I think
it wasn't enough different to be considered a variant.
Patric Mueller
> On Feb 15, 12:44�pm, Patric Mueller <bh...@bigfoot.com> wrote:
> [...]
>> The only game mentioned that IMO is way out of roguelike waters was
>> "robotfindskitten".
>
> I didn't read the list closely, but "advent" is what
> Adventure was called on systems which limited file names to
> 6 characters. Adventure was not even remotely roguelike in
> any way, shape, or form.
There is a roguelike named 'Advent':
http://roguebasin.roguelikedevelopment.org/index.php?title=Advent
It's possible that this was meant.
> "Don Kneller's hack" was also known as PChack and
> probably should not be counted separately from hack. It may
> have been more that just a port of hack to MSDOS, but I think
> it wasn't enough different to be considered a variant.
Yes, I missed that.
Although this is the only case where somebody specified which version
of hack they played.
David Damerell
>The only game mentioned that IMO is way out of roguelike waters was
>"robotfindskitten".
Is so. It's just a very minimal roguelike. :-)
--
David Damerell <dame...@chiark.greenend.org.uk> flcl?
Today is Chedday, February.
Tomorrow will be Stilday, February - a weekend.