Some NPC's can do surveys on Avatars

I'm trained in doing market research in real life, and one of the tools of market research is doing surveys on the public. Surveys allow the game developers know how the players feel about the various aspects of the game, and the survey results can provide invaluable insights into how to improve the game. I just thought of an unique way to do surveys on the players of SotA.

In major towns and cities in Novia, there could be NPC Royal Surveyors doing surveys. This can be done almost without breaking immersion.

Example:

Royal Surveyor approaches Avatar.

Royal Surveyor: "Hello, I am a conducting a survey for Lord British to see how you are doing in Novia. Do you have a minute?"

Avatar: "Yes"

Royal Surveyor: "Great! Here is the first question: On a scale from 1 to 5, how much do you enjoy adventuring in the Soltown sewage? You can say, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or I don't know."

Avatar: "4"

Royal Surveyor: "4 is not bad. Thank you very much! Next question: On a scale for 1 to 5, how much do you enjoy Novia's cotton gathering process? You can say, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or I don't know."

Avatar: "2"

Royal Surveyor: "I see you don't like it too much! Can you please tell me what you would like to see improved about it?"

Avatar: "(blah blah blah)"

Royal Surveyor: "Thank you. I've taken notes, and your suggestion will be heard. Next question: Do you prefer ___ or ___?"

I'm sure Port can think of better survey questions than I can. This is my suggestion to help the developers get more unbiased samplings of the players' thoughts, so strengths and weaknesses in the game can be detected, and more players can put forth their opinions about the various parts of the game and how to improve them. I think NPC's doing surveys in this manner are actually more effective than real people can do surveys in real life in real cities! (Real people get shy, get scared of talking to certain people, may unconsciously influence the survey's outcome, etc. Also, each player should be able to do only one particular survey once. The game can easily keep track of this while real people can't.)

The value of this system is that it truly captures the players' opinions, and not just individuals who are "louder".

Players probably don't want to spend too much time doing surveys, so maybe 5 questions per survey is enough. If Port have more questions, just change the survey questions after you get 300 (?) responses on the first set of 5 questions, then survey the next set of 5 questions.


ANOTHER USE OF SURVEYS

Another use for the surveys is that it could tell the game when the player is not enjoying the game, and fix the problem automatically.

For example, a survey question could be: "Are you feeling bored?"

Avatar: "Yes"

Royal Surveyor: "Oh, what's the problem? Do you need help with how to proceed? Is nothing happening? Are you lost? Do you want more people to talk to? Or something else?"

If the Avatar says, "Need help with how to proceed", a Hospitaller can be automatically found who is willing to whisper with this Avatar and help out.

If the Avatar says, "Nothing happening," the game can generate some random quests for this Avatar. Example: In the next few minutes, a pretty, crying woman "happens" to walk up to the Avatar asking for help with her missing cat. And 20 minutes later, the Avatar receives a note from another source that an NPC friend of his had just been abducted by the bandits in the Swampland.

If the Avatar says, "Lost", "Want more people to talk to", etc, appropriate things can be done automatically to help him.

Of course, if the Avatar says, "Something else," the Royal Surveyor can ask,"What is it?", and record the Avatar's input for the purpose of future game improvement.

 

Hmmm... NPCs in SotA should always have a real purpose, a background and a personality. If this surveyor is just there to make this survey then he is nothing more than a robot. This would go totally against the Ultima feeling.
But if he would be an NPC that has a real life in the city and other things to do than doing those surveys, why not.

 

Hi Lord Darkmoon,

I dunno, I've been in malls, airports, amusement parks, where someone approaches me and wants to ask some survey questions. I'm fairly certain (not entirely because of the damned Matrix movies) that they are human. And for all I know, that's their primary job.

Cheers,
Cornfellow

 

Sure but after doing the survey they go home, cheat on their wife, go to a bar or maybe have a night-shift somewhere and argue with their neighbors.
This is what I wanted to express. Even a surveyor should have more to do in the game than stand around do surveys.

 

Understood. Are we talking about imbuing the NPCs with artificial intelligence, or just more complex interaction code? I agree completely with you, I would love more complex, interesting interactions between NPCs--but keep in mind, no matter how complex, they are still only digital robots--some would argue that the same is true for us (damn you Matrix!).

 

I would be content with complex daily schedules and well written personalities and backgrounds for each NPC. The AI in Skyrim was ok, but I still think a schedule like in Ultima 7 would be better.
As for living in the Matrix, this is very interesting:
www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-we-living-in-a-computer-simulation/

 

Love it thanks! The last sentence was a little scary: “What happens,” Tyson said, “if there’s a bug that crashes the entire program?” I know this is off-topic so I'll stop here, but it certainly makes one think....

 

I loved the Matrix movie, and I think we live in the Matrix.

This universe is like a sandbox MMO game, played by us, and we are like the Players in this MMO Game. Our bodies are our avatars in this game, which we use to manipulate this universe. The computers we use to play this MMO Game are our minds. The mind is like a computer, and our minds are linked with each other somehow similar to how computers are linked to each other via the Internet. That's why we feel we all share a "connection" with each other. The material universe is basically a "main memory storage" that we all share, like a hard disk which we can all read or write to. The atoms in this universe are like the little cubes in Minecraft. They are the basic building blocks of this universe, and they behave according to the "natural laws" of this universe, which are basically the programmings of this MMO Game.

Who made the Matrix? I don't know. Maybe a single Programmer. Maybe a team of Programmers. Maybe we are all Programmers. What happens when we die? I don't know. Maybe we start with another avatar, from level 0. Maybe we go to Episode 2 of the game if we've scored enough points. (Which begs the question: How are the points calculated?) One thing is for sure though: We are all community members of this MMO Game, and we all have to quest together. The etiquette of a good community member (or gamer) ARE the Virtues. Virtues are basically what make the game of life fun for all players.

The moral of the story is

Have fun! Life is a GAME!! And we are all GAMERS!