Results for the 2009 Crawl poll [long]
crawl poll
font.
Posting to r.g.r.misc and r.g.r.development.
Some of us Crawl developers were curious about our player base:
* What does the typical Crawl player look like?
* Which do players prefer: Tiles or ASCII? Local play or servers?
* From which games do players migrate to Crawl?
In order to get some answers, we set up an impromptu poll. Over the
period of Aug 17 to Sep 9, 2009 we got 250 replies to the following
12
questions:
1. What is your age?
2. What is your country?
3. Do you play locally, on a server, or both?
4. Do you play Tiles, ASCII, or both?
5. OS(es) at home?
6. Roguelikes played before? (NetHack, ADOM, etc.?)
7. Where did you learn about Crawl?
8. And when?
9. How many Crawl wins? (If none, you may specify your best game.)
10. If you take part in the tournament, where did you hear about it?
11. Ever recommend Crawl?
12. Which computer game have you played most in the last month (July)?
Note: The questions are terse due to limitations of messages on the
irc
channel. They have been (at least) posted on
- freenode (irc) channel ##crawl
- Crawl website http://crawl-ref.sourceforge.net/
- usenet group rec.games.roguelike.misc
- akrasiac (Crawl server) homepage http://crawl.akrasiac.org
- SomethingAwful (Crawl 0.5 thread) http://forums.somethingawful.com
- Dwarf Fortress forum (Crawl thread) http://www.bay12games.com/forum
- Temple of the Roguelike webpage http://www.roguetemple.com
Of these, players on ##crawl were encouraged to take part in the poll
all the time. On SomethingAwful and Bay12, a single reminder was
posted.
In the other cases, only a single announcement was made. In
particular,
this should imply that the feedback ratio of players using the
servers
is higher than for the rest.
RESULTS
=======
Here, the immediate results are shown together with a few derived
figures. Full data and graphs are planned to be released at the IRDC
2009 in Geneva:
http://roguebasin.roguelikedevelopment.org/index.php?title=IRDC_2009
1. Age
------
12.0% 30 14-19
23.6% 59 20-24
31.2% 78 25-29
18.4% 46 30-34
8.4% 21 35-39
3.2% 8 40-44
0.8% 2 45-49
1.2% 3 50+
1.2% 3 n/a
minimum: 14 (thrice)
maximum: 55 (once)
median: 26
average: 27.2
most common: 25 (with 22 counts)
We forgot to ask about gender, but a lot of the time it was possible
to
discern the contributor's gender from their name. For a few others, we
already happened to know the person's gender.
Because of the large number of nicknames, the question would still
have
been interesting, particularly considering the astonishingly low
number
of known women participating in the survey.
25.6% 64 n/a
69.6% 174 male (93.5%)
4.8% 12 female ( 6.5%)
2. Where do you live?
---------------------
By continent:
62.8% 157 North America
26.8% 67 Europe (including Russia)
6.0% 15 Australia (including New Zealand)
3.6% 9 Asia
0.8% 2 South America
By country:
55.2% 138 USA
7.6% 19 Canada
5.6% 14 UK
4.4% 11 Australia
4.0% 10 Germany
3.2% 8 Finland
3.2% 8 Russia
1.6% 4 France
1.6% 4 New Zealand
1.6% 4 Poland
1.2% 3 Italy
0.8% 2 Norway
0.8% 2 Sweden
0.8% 2 Thailand
8.4% 21 others: Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, China, Croatia,
Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Iceland, India,
Ireland, Israel, Japan, Lithuania, Moldova, Mongolia,
Netherlands, Singapore, Switzerland, Ukraine,
United Arab Emirates
Players with English as a primary language: 189 (75.6%)
(this includes all Canadian players).
3. Local vs server
------------------
52.8% 132 locally
20.8% 52 server
11.6% 29 both
10.0% 25 mostly server
4.8% 12 mostly locally
4. Tiles vs ASCII
-----------------
52.0% 130 ascii
34.0% 85 tiles
9.2% 23 both
3.2% 8 mostly tiles
1.6% 4 mostly ascii
5. Operating systems
--------------------
52.0% 130 windows
18.0% 45 linux, windows
13.2% 33 linux
5.6% 14 osx
4.8% 12 osx, windows
2.8% 7 linux, osx
2.0% 5 linux, osx, windows
1.6% 4 other
6. Roguelike experience
-----------------------
8.0% 20 0
14.0% 35 1
15.6% 39 2
10.0% 25 3
11.2% 28 4
14.0% 35 5
6.8% 17 6
6.0% 15 7
4.8% 12 8
1.2% 3 9
8.4% 21 10+ (maximum 31)
Roguelikes mentioned: Nethack (72.4%), ADOM (41.2%), Angband (29.2%),
Rogue (17.6%), DoomRL (16.4%), Dwarf Fortress (15.2%), POWDER (12.4%),
Zangband (9.2%), Slash'EM (8.8%), TOME (8.8%), IVAN (8.0%), Incursion
(6.0%), Hack (5.2%), Omega (5.2%), Diablo (4.4%), Shiren (4.4%),
Gearhead (4.0%), Larn (3.6%), Castle of the Winds (3.2%), Elona
(2.8%),
Fushigi No Dungeon (2.4%), Spelunky (2.0%), Sporkhack (2.0%), Frozen
Depths (1.6%), Izuna (1.6%), Triangle Wizard (1.6%), Alphaman (1.2%),
Azure Dreams (1.2%), Unreal World (1.2%);
for the full list see the forthcoming IRCD paper.
7. Learned about Crawl where
----------------------------
11.6% 29 something awful forums
11.6% 29 websearch for roguelikes or free games
10.0% 25 friend/family
8.8% 22 usenet rec.games.roguelike.misc/dev
5.6% 14 don't remember
4.4% 11 some roguelike website
4.4% 11 temple of the roguelike
4.0% 10 other forums
4.0% 10 usenet (unspecified)
3.6% 9 roguebasin
3.2% 8 bay12games forums
2.8% 7 @play column
2.8% 7 online somewhere
2.8% 7 some games website
2.4% 6 #nethack or similar channel
2.4% 6 4chan traditional games board
2.4% 6 browsing package manager for games
2.4% 6 wikipedia page about roguelikes
2.0% 5 home of the underdogs
1.6% 4 penny arcade forums
1.6% 4 usenet rec.games.roguelike.nethack
1.2% 3 article about roguelikes
1.2% 3 usenet rec.games.roguelike.adom
0.8% 2 arstechnica forums
0.8% 2 game informer magazine
0.8% 2 n/a
0.8% 2 others (other channel, tvtropes)
Players without previous roguelike experience found Crawl through...
35.0% 7 friend/family
10.0% 2 browsing package manager for games
10.0% 2 game informer magazine
10.0% 2 other forums
10.0% 2 some games website
10.0% 2 something awful forums
5.0% 1 4chan traditional games board
5.0% 1 article about roguelikes
5.0% 1 websearch for free games
8. Learned about Crawl when
---------------------------
6.4% 16 1997-1998, linley's dungeon crawl
6.4% 16 1999-2002, original dungeon crawl
20.4% 51 2003-2005, before stonesoup (4.0.0 beta 26)
6.8% 17 2006
12.4% 31 2007
20.0% 50 2008
23.2% 58 2009
4.4% 11 n/a
9. Number of wins and best games
--------------------------------
58.8% 147 0
9.6% 24 1
4.8% 12 2
4.4% 11 3
2.8% 7 4
3.2% 8 5
2.4% 6 6
1.2% 3 8
0.8% 2 9
2.4% 6 10
0.4% 1 11
0.8% 2 12
0.8% 2 14
0.8% 2 15
0.4% 1 16
0.8% 2 20
0.4% 1 23
1.2% 3 25
1.2% 3 30
0.4% 1 37
0.4% 1 40
0.4% 1 50
0.4% 1 60
0.4% 1 300
0.8% 2 n/a
Best games among non-winners:
32.0% 47 n/a
23.1% 34 beginner
23.1% 34 medium (mid-dungeon or high score
mentioned)
10.9% 16 good (1-2 runes, high level)
10.9% 16 expert (3+ runes, zot, orb)
All (best or winning) combos mentioned (question 9, several possible):
17.2% MDFi; 7.8% MiBe; 6.2% MDBe; 4.7% HOPr MiFi SpAs TrBe;
3.1% HOFi MfTm SpEn TrMo; 37.5% others
Percentage of spellcasting jobs mentioned: 21.3%
10. Tournament
--------------
Do you take part in the Crawl tournament?
55.2% 138 no
40.8% 102 yes
3.2% 8 maybe (neither 'yes' nor 'no', answered
'locally' earlier)
0.8% 2 n/a
Where did you hear about the tournament? [multiple answers]
44.8% 112 n/a
15.2% 38 ##crawl
14.4% 36 cao
9.6% 24 something awful forums
4.8% 12 crawl website
3.2% 8 rgrm
2.8% 7 usenet
2.4% 6 rogue temple
1.6% 4 bay12games forums
1.6% 4 crawl wiki
1.2% 3 friend
1.2% 3 online somewhere
1.2% 3 sourceforge
0.8% 2 some other forum
1.6% 4 others: 4chan traditional games board,
mailing list, other games site, roguebasin
If you don't take part, why not? [Add-on: This was not actually part
of
the poll. Multiple answers.]
71.1% 106 n/a
9.4% 14 didn't know about it
6.0% 9 would rather play tiles
5.4% 8 no time
5.4% 8 not good enough
4.0% 6 technical issues
11. Did you ever recommend Crawl to someone?
--------------------------------------------
16.4% 41 no
82.4% 206 yes
Among those who did recommend:
54.8% 137 yes (without further specification)
8.4% 21 yes, a couple of times
14.0% 35 yes, a lot
5.2% 13 yes, online
12. Which computer game(s) did you play most in the last month (July)?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
43.6% 109 others
17.6% 44 Crawl
16.8% 42 Crawl (tournament)
10.0% 25 Crawl (tournament), others
9.2% 23 Crawl, others
2.4% 6 none
0.4% 1 n/a
Since the specification of "last month == July" was only tacked on at
a
later point, there was no way for us to tell who of the tournament
participants only listed Crawl as most played because of the
tournament,
and who would have played it just as much in other months. We decided
not to remove those mentions from the answers, but to add the
"tournament" tag to all of them. Mentions of Crawl that lack this tag
were made by players who don't take part in the tournament.
Games mentioned at least thrice (excluding Crawl, and sorted by
number):
Civilization 4 (10), console games (9), Team Fortress 2 (8),
Warcraft 3 DOTA (8), Fallout (7), Nethack (6), World of Warcraft (6),
Dwarf Fortress (5), Street Fighter (5), ADOM (4), Left 4 Dead (4),
Spelunky (4), Dominions 3, EVE Online, Final Fantasy, Homeworld,
Quake
live, Solitaire, Starcraft, Swords of the Stars, Wolfenstein (3).
Some additional statistics
==========================
Comparing ASCII vs. Tiles with other factors (question 4 and others)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ASCII vs. Tiles in games played only locally: (132 total, 52.8%)
56.8% 75 tiles
32.6% 43 ascii
6.1% 8 both
3.8% 5 mostly tiles
0.8% 1 mostly ascii
Distribution of ASCII vs. Tiles by OS, again only locally
(both includes mostly ASCII/Tiles, ignoring answers with only one
count,
other includes combinations of OSes):
OS ASCII both Tiles total
------------
-----------------------------------------------------
linux 9 ( 75.0%) 0 ( 0.0%) 3 ( 25.0%) 12
windows 20 ( 23.3%) 11 ( 12.8%) 55 ( 64.0%) 86
osx 6 ( 66.7%) 0 ( 0.0%) 3 ( 33.3%) 9
other 6 ( 28.6%) 2 ( 9.5%) 13 ( 61.9%) 21
------------
-----------------------------------------------------
total 41 ( 32.0%) 13 ( 10.2%) 74 ( 57.8%)
Distribution of (mostly) local/online play by OS:
OS local online total
------------ --------------------------------------
linux 16 ( 53.3%) 14 ( 46.7%) 30
osx 9 ( 75.0%) 3 ( 25.0%) 12
windows 91 ( 77.1%) 27 ( 22.9%) 118
other 24 ( 45.3%) 33 ( 54.7%) 57
------------ --------------------------------------
total 140 ( 64.5%) 77 ( 35.5%)
Distribution of ASCII vs. Tiles by playing experience:
category ASCII Tiles
-------------------- ----------------------------
1997-1998 Linley Henzell 9 ( 75.0%) 3 ( 25.0%)
1999-2002 Original DC 9 ( 60.0%) 6 ( 40.0%)
2003-2005 DC 4.00 beta 26 35 ( 76.1%) 11 ( 23.9%)
2006-2008 DCSS 0.1 - 0.4 48 ( 59.3%) 33 ( 40.7%)
2009 recent DCSS (0.4, 0.5) 24 ( 45.3%) 29 ( 54.7%)
n/a 7 ( 63.6%) 4 ( 36.4%)
-------------------- ----------------------------
age 14-19 15 ( 57.7%) 11 ( 42.3%)
20-24 38 ( 73.1%) 14 ( 26.9%)
25-29 42 ( 59.2%) 29 ( 40.8%)
30-34 18 ( 48.6%) 19 ( 51.4%)
35-39 11 ( 68.8%) 5 ( 31.2%)
40+ 4 ( 40.0%) 6 ( 60.0%)
n/a 7 ( 63.6%) 4 ( 36.4%)
-------------------- ----------------------------
no roguelikes 10 ( 52.6%) 9 ( 47.4%)
few roguelikes (1-2) 42 ( 64.6%) 23 ( 35.4%)
some roguelikes (3-9) 67 ( 58.3%) 48 ( 41.7%)
many roguelikes (10+) 11 ( 68.8%) 5 ( 31.2%)
Tournament participation for primarily ASCII/Tiles players:
[These don't add up to 100% due to the "maybe" category.]
total yes no
ascii 130 ( 52.0%) 65 ( 50.0%) 62 ( 47.7%)
tiles 85 ( 34.0%) 20 ( 23.5%) 59 ( 69.4%)
total 85 ( 41.3%) 121 ( 58.7%)
Comparing various factors for winning the game (question 9 and others)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
category Winners Non-winners
-------------------- ----------------------------
ascii 69 ( 53.1%) 61 ( 46.9%)
tiles 20 ( 23.8%) 64 ( 76.2%)
locally 34 ( 26.0%) 97 ( 74.0%)
server 36 ( 69.2%) 16 ( 30.8%)
tournament participant 59 ( 58.4%) 42 ( 41.6%)
non-tournament participant 37 ( 27.0%) 100 ( 73.0%)
-------------------- ----------------------------
1997-1998 Linley Henzell 10 ( 62.5%) 6 ( 37.5%)
1999-2002 Original DC 12 ( 75.0%) 4 ( 25.0%)
2003-2005 DC 4.00 beta 26 24 ( 47.1%) 27 ( 52.9%)
2006-2008 DCSS 0.1 - 0.4 37 ( 38.1%) 60 ( 61.9%)
2009 recent DCSS (0.4, 0.5) 16 ( 27.6%) 42 ( 72.4%)
n/a 5 ( 33.3%) 10 ( 66.7%)
-------------------- ----------------------------
age 14-19 6 ( 20.0%) 24 ( 80.0%)
20-24 30 ( 50.8%) 29 ( 49.2%)
25-29 33 ( 42.9%) 44 ( 57.1%)
30-34 20 ( 43.5%) 26 ( 56.5%)
35-39 5 ( 23.8%) 16 ( 76.2%)
40+ 5 ( 41.7%) 7 ( 58.3%)
n/a 5 ( 33.3%) 10 ( 66.7%)
-------------------- ----------------------------
no roguelikes 6 ( 31.6%) 13 ( 68.4%)
few roguelikes (1-2) 38 ( 51.4%) 36 ( 48.6%)
some roguelikes (3-9) 49 ( 36.6%) 85 ( 63.4%)
many roguelikes (10+) 8 ( 38.1%) 13 ( 61.9%)
Downloads of the last DCSS version in each major revision
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These are downloads from http://crawl-ref.sourceforge.net/
0.1.7 --- 2006/12/31 --- total 2291
dos 266
osx 171
source 472
win 1382
0.2.7 --- 2007/06/11 --- total 4147
dos 572
source 1130
win 2545
0.3.4 --- 2008/01/29 --- total 20511
dos 2504
osx 1023
source 1846
tiles src 1189
win tiles 10221
win ascii 3728
0.4.5 --- 2009/01/15 --- total 28821
dos 4225
osx ascii 1497
osx tiles 1074
source 4130
win tiles 12319
win ascii 5576
0.5.0 --- 2009/06/12 --- total 15134, no figures yet for 0.5.1
dos 1219
osx ascii 667
osx tiles 1354
source 1907
win tiles 7124
win ascii 2863
Tournament statistics (including Nethack, devnull and nao)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DCSS, cao + cdo:
2008: 169 wins by 50 players, 15161 games by 384 (301) players
2009: 284 wins by 88 players, 33165 games by 718 (531) players
(Numbers in brackets are players who got tournament points.)
Nethack, devnull (annual Nethack tournament starting Halloween)
1999: 35 wins, 599 games (34 quits)
2000: 33 wins
2001: 77 wins
2002: 138 wins, 15218 games, 1071 players
2003: 112 wins, 11718 games, 576 players
2004: 164 wins
2005: 202 wins, 38521 games, 556 players
2006: 327 wins, 16880 games, 840 players
2007: 222 wins, 16722 games, 406 players
2008: 300 wins, 22812 games, 1305 players
Nethack, nao (nethack.alt.org is the permanent Nethack server):
2006: 188 wins, 18748 games
2007: 349 wins, 14524 games
(no nao tournaments since then)
A few remarks on interpretation of replies
==========================================
In the way the poll was set up, it was probably easier to get feedback
by server players than by local players. On the other hand, the
tournament will have made more players than usual go to the relevant
webpages, the ##crawl channel and the server itself. We provided the
download numbers as well as the tournament statistics to get some
comparison. Many comments indicate that person-to-person distribution
still exists.
This systematic error could be reduced by mentioning the survey in
the
game itself, for a given period and preferably following a new
release.
On question 5: A sizeable number of players mention more than one OS.
Even more list different Windows or Linux versions. A few players
specifically mentioned that they only play Crawl on one of these. In
hindsight, it might have been worthwhile to ask "If you play locally
and use several operating systems, on which do you run Crawl?"
On question 6: Many players answered a slightly different question
instead: "Which other roguelikes have you ever played?", which is
also
how we chose to interpret the answers because we figured it's more
interesting that way.
Because of the two ways to read the question (before Crawl vs. before
now), numbers, especially of more recent roguelikes, might be skewed.
In hindsight, we should have posed two or even three questions:
"Which roguelikes did you play before encountering Crawl?"
"Which roguelikes did you ever play?"
"Which roguelikes did you play in this year? (2009)"
Several players raised the question about "What is a roguelike?",
usually when referring to Dwarf Fortress or Diablo. No matter the
answer, we decided to count them. :)
On question 8: Although a large part of players claimed to be unable
to
remember, most of them gave a surprisingly precise date within one or
two years. There were a few players who'd only just started playing
within a few days of taking the poll. Welcome! :D
As with question 6, we didn't distinguish between original Crawl and
Stonesoup, and neither between "first heard about" and "mention that
got
you playing". Consequently, we got answers to all four of these.
Either
way, if both a vague and a comparatively specific answer was given,
the
more specific one would take precedence, e.g. "heard about it ages
ago,
but only started playing last year" would be interpreted as 2008.
Otherwise, between several estimates given, the oldest one was used,
e.g. "four or five years ago" is interpreted as 2004, and "somewhere
between 2000 and 2003" as 2000.
Answers were grouped according to versions: Linley's Dungeon Crawl
(1997/8), ongoing development (1999-2002), fairly stable version
(most
well-known: 4.0.0 beta 26, 2003-2005), Stonesoup (2006 and later).
The
years 2006-2009 were divided into smaller batches because of the
large
numbers of players that joined in that time.
On question 9: As with earlier questions, wins might refer to any
version of Crawl that ever existed, including buggily easy ones.
Scummed wins (as indicated in the reply) were not counted, all others
were.
While the distinction between zero and "once or more" was easy, the
exact number of wins was much more difficult. Some players only gave
percentage values, or mentioned large ranges, or even simply "quite a
lot" and similar vague statements. Putting these into order was
guesswork, which is why we decided not to calculate an average value
and only use the number of winners vs. non-winners in the further
analysis.
Non-winners were grouped into categories by certain keywords used in
their description of their best game(s), with the following groupings:
expert: 3+ runes, zot, orb, endgame
good: 1-2 runes, late branches, high level
medium: mid-dungeon, high score
beginner: other (e.g. low level, early branches)
All combos mentioned (question 9): The list is strongly dominated by
melee characters. This may be because this play style is
significantly
easier. (Note that in DC 4.00b26, magic was considered much stronger
than melee; this lead to many magic-related nerfs over the course of
DCSS. In contrast with this, high AC in heavy mail was overpowered
back
then and still is, yet has not been nerfed. However, an AC overhaul
is
slated for 0.6.)
At the same time, pure melee characters may also be easier to get
into
the game, as they consciously do away with some of the complexities
of
the game: skill choices, spells and god choices. Also, the interface
of
hack'n'slash is much more straightforward than the one required for
spellcasting.
On question 10: From the way the question was phrased, we interpreted
any "n/a" to mean "no", and any answer that gave an information source
and did not say the opposite, as "yes", unless the player had said
earlier that they played "only locally", in which case their answer
was
interpreted as "maybe". The "n/a" category stems from answers that
didn't bear any direct connection to the question.
On question 12: This question was intended to gauge what other genres
Crawl players are interested in. However, for this purpose the
question
should have been posed in a different manner. The results are still
interesting to read.
Distribution of ASCII vs Tiles by playing experience:
Following expectations, the tiles version is (relatively) most
popular
among players new to the game (54.7%), older players and players
without
previous roguelike experience. It is often said that ASCII drives away
many otherwise interested gamers, and some players confirmed this view
by mentioning that they usually use the Tiles version to show the game
to curious friends and family members.
It is interesting to note that there is a second peak among tiles
usage:
in age (30-34 years old) and in starting version (Original DC). One
reason might be Mitsuhiro Itakura's TilesCrawl which built on that
version and was very popular.
Comparing various factors for winning the game:
This table might lead to the conclusion that "ASCII players are
better".
There are various reasons why such a conclusion would be overly hasty:
First, as evidenced by the previous point, tiles are particularly
popular among new, inexperienced players. Second, there is a strong
correlation between ASCII and using servers (and taking part in the
tournament). While a local player will often use Tiles and may rarely
get any playing help apart from the few dedicated web pages and
forums,
server players (exclusively ASCII!) can be (and are) watched by other
players and are more likely to use the ##crawl channel, where they can
receive guidance and playing tips. In other words, it seems to be
significantly easier to win online rather than locallay (as opposed to
ASCII vs Tiles).
Also, many replies mentioned that online play would follow their
first
win, which may mean that ASCII win percentages are high because the
good
players tend to play on the servers rather than the other way around.
Taking these differences into account and seeing how the feedback is
probably skewed towards online play, the real overall percentage of
non-winners is likely to be higher than is indicated by the poll
results.
It is curious to note that experience with roguelikes does not
translate to a better win rate, possibly because these players
experiment with a large number of games but do not actually spend a
lot
of time on any single one of them -- in particular, do not bother at
all
with spoilers. For many roguelikers, the beginning seems to be the
most
interesting part and for those, "game hopping" might be very natural.
As you'd expect, win percentages increase with the time the player
has
known and played Crawl. The rate is a bit lower for the original
version of 1997 than for the period following it, which could be
explained by players witnessing the birth of Crawl not actually
starting
to play until much later.
SF downloads:
Downloads increased tremendously after Tiles were added. Note that
there
should be an effect of the servers: many players who use CAO or CDO
do
not bother anymore with downloading a local version except maybe the
current trunk version from CDO (for which we don't know the relevant
download rates).
A few conclusions
=================
The impact of language is much stronger than we expected. It would be
interesting to compare this effect with other games which rely a lot
on
text (e.g. MMORPGs which have not been translated or text adventures,
i.e. interactive fiction).
A good many players have known the game for years, yet have never
won.
This is important for design purposes: adding features for the early
game (e.g. new gods, shallow vaults, etc.) will be appreciated by
those
players.
The Crawl tournament would benefit immensely from tiles play over the
internet. While some players oppose Tiles on principle, we also got a
lot of praise for the quality of Crawl's tiles and interface; for
example by players who said that they play other roguelikes in ASCII,
yet Crawl with Tiles. As developers, we plan to keep supporting both
modes. Each of them has advantages of its own and we will continue to
improve their interfaces.
Elig
This data is not only absolutely wonderful and surprisingly
comprehensive, but has a large number of real roguelike playing
participants. This is absolutely fantastic, I read the whole thing,
you've done an outstanding job. I just can't say enough good things
about this. I'm downloading and saving this on my harddrive. You sir
are a genius. I'd love to see a new one of these some day..
Björn Ritzl
I agree. An excellent poll! Would it be possible to put it up on RogueBasin?
/Bj�rn
David Ploog
> Elig skrev:
>> This is by far the most awesome poll I've seen done in a long time!
>> This data is not only absolutely wonderful and surprisingly
>> comprehensive, but has a large number of real roguelike playing
>> participants. This is absolutely fantastic, I read the whole thing,
>> you've done an outstanding job. I just can't say enough good things
>> about this. I'm downloading and saving this on my harddrive. You sir
>> are a genius. I'd love to see a new one of these some day..
Sir? Most work was done by a lady!
Yes, will be interesting to have a follow up in a few years. Would also be
cool if Angband and Nethack folks would do something like this. We
thought about announcing the poll in r.g.r.nethack/angband but decided not
to as players would probably say it's just advertisement for Crawl. Also,
usenet is only a small contributor to roguelike communication these days
anyway.
> I agree. An excellent poll! Would it be possible to put it up on RogueBasin?
Of course, we'd be honoured.
There will be some nicer looking version (tex + pdf) somewhen in the
future although a plain ASCII file may be useful. Unfortunately, the
formatting was slightly garbled. That's either my oversight or Google
Groups' fault (which I only used for this posting).
David