I love information and believe that all MMOs should be regularly publishing information that is only available to them. This would get rid of the “what ifs” and curiosities of the general population. It would also get rid of the mis-information. Is 50% of the “tanks” a paladin in the end game? Why *not* share that information? It seems most companies are overprotective of their population, class, race and spec mix – for fear that it would somehow influence the population base. The truth is, in the absence of true information players will just guess, hypothesize, and collect as accurate as they can – and still make their own conclusions regardless.
Just give it to them. Give it to us.
One of my favorite sites (now WRIP) was a WoW datamining site. This site wrote scripts to pull information from Blizzard’s armory site. Why make someone sort that out? Provide it! Worst case scenario is that players will jump to the same conclusions they would without the right information (anyway) – best case scenario, we have the opportunity to have a conversation based on facts. That site provided so much perspective that Blizzard refused to – why give the kudos to the individual? Let the company provide the 100% accurate information, AND get the respect and accuracy out there.
This site is interesting, thanks to it! And based off of this conversation, I definitely wanted to share!
http://watchwildstar.com/census
Obviously the information isn’t accurate as the game isn’t even launched, but interesting to see people’s intentions. ALSO it will be very interesting to see 6months in if that is a nice cross section of accuracy. I am thankful that Wildstar devs have previously shared beta weekend population stats and hopefully this is a trend that continues. I will respect Carbine that much more for it.
…imagine maybe the same mentality that leads a ‘dev’ to accuse a group of players/community of trying to ‘hijack’ a server and ‘stop production’. 🙂
The reason why giving out data doesn’t help is because the same people that make obnoxious claims based on wild speculation will just become people making obnoxious claims based on the righteous fury of misinterpreted data. Remember the three types of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.
@Mehlan: I swear, someday I am going to pay for your therapy!
@Brian: I would argue that not giving it out has a worse effect because as you say, the claims are still there regardless. With the correct data the devs have an opportunity to have a more open and honest conversation about this issues. Ghostcrawler did this pretty well when he was with Blizzard (I found, anyway). The discussion parts, not the open and honest metrics part.
I know devs don’t want to be arguing data with customers, but engaging your customers in this world of massive engagement is key to being successful. In any endeavor. The conversations are happening anyway – why not make them more accurate AND be a part of them?
*puts on rose colored glasses, solves world hunger, and ends wars across the globe. Still can’t get gaming companies to share their data though!* /wink
Rofl,
Waste of money my friend. I know my ‘issues’, and work on em best I can, but I’m only human. 🙂