Once a year we ask players which fate-locked stories they liked and which they didn’t like. We did the last survey one year ago and since then 13 new stories have been published. Hopefully, a lot of you will participate so the results of this survey will once more provide a good guide which stories are worth purchasing and which stories you might want to avoid.
[ul][li]At first glance this might look overwhelming but answering all questions should not take all that long. You should be able to finish this in 10 to 15 minutes at most.[/li][li]Please only rate stories that you have actually played. I’ve added an "N/A"-option in case you misclicked and accidentally voted on a story you didn’t play. Voting "N/A" has the same effect as not voting at all.[/li][li]Don’t feel discouraged if you have only played one or two stories. I’m still happy if you participate, voting for only these one or two stories and leave everything else blank.[/li][li]Feel free to skip any stories you don’t really remember and anything else you would prefer not to answer.[/li][li]You’re required to have a Google account to do this to ensure that everyone only votes once. I hope this doesn’t turn out to be a problem.[/li][li]Voting is completely anonymous. I will only get your answers to the questions, nothing else.
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The survey will be open until 28 January, noon GMT. You will be able to see the overall results once you have voted. We will also post an analysis of all the results here on reddit once the survey is closed.
As always, if you have any ideas what to do better next time, please let me know.
Many thanks also to Asartea, idyl, masterzora and PSGarak for beta-testing as well as everyone else who offered suggestions or information for this survey.
I have a hard time recalling the story given only its title alone.
Looking at the picture does rins the bell, but having to navigate between two tabs (the vote itself and “Reset Progress” tab inside my account) is somewhat cumbersome.
It would have been nice if every voting option was accompanied by a picture corresponding to the story.
I know but this is one of the limits of free survey software. Google Forms is by far the best free option I’ve found while testing but it doesn’t give you any options to format the text or link to other pages.
I think I’d forgotten that Feducci’s Lance involved Fate. Otherwise, I think I did better than last year in answering according to my actual experience. (That can be hard, because I usually watch my husband when he plays Fate-locked stories I haven’t bought.)
I had to have the game open, so I could search/look at one-line descriptions in hopes of recalling content . . . I really think this survey could massively benefit from adding a quick line summary to every story, not just some.
I mean, I’ve nearly finished all fate content (think I’ve only a back-log of about five stories left), and while some was so amazing I’ll never forget it, and some so awful I’ll seethe always at the name of the writer, most -? It fades with time, especially with cost issues and the inability to thus replay them, so some may have been played literally years back, just once, and I -? I have no clue what happened even with a summary sometimes, let alone with only a name to go off.
Personally, my favourites are always the Season of Stones extra with Mr Fires, and - honestly - a lot of last years content (I think you’ve got some of your best writers to date, and limited of some of the worst).
Johnny Croak, Homecoming, Caveat Emptor, Paisley, and Unto Dust were amazing.
Edit: I’m still not sure I answered all right, like I think I accidentally rated one I’ve not played yet; so a one-line summary would have massively helped for sure, as I think I recognised the name and didn’t double-check that one against the game . . . sorry about that! ^_^() edited by Robin Alexander on 1/6/2021
At this point it’s mostly a fight with Google Forms and its (nonexisting) formatting options.
After a lot of trial and error I ended up using Forms because it’s free for an unlimited amount of participants (which is really rare), is exceptionally well suited for post-processing the results (I can download a CSV so I can basically use every software or script afterwards for analysis) and it has some awesome and efficient options for asking a whole lot of questions (the survey includes roughly 150 questions this time around).
On the downside, it requires a Google account and adding any form of comment, note or formatting is virtually impossible. I exploited the tools it provides to add the information that is there (like the seasonal summaries or the info on story rewards) but it’s incredibly fiddly and messes with some of its other functionality.
It seem quite a few players have the same problems recalling stories based on the title, so I’ll see what I can do next time around. But I make no promises.
As others have said, I’m afraid I have no idea what most of these titles refer to (though I played 'em all!).
The best ESs were "Lost in Reflections", "Cricket, Anyone?", and "Flint" (which probably isn’t fair, since it’s a double). The best seasonal story by far was "The Gift". The best Sacksmas gift is the Ray-Drenched Correspondence Paperweight. Oh, and I really enjoyed whatever content led to "A Painting titled ‘Ambition’", but I can’t recall how I got it.
The worst pieces of Fate-locked content, by far, are "The Rubbery Murders" and "A Trade in Souls?".
The only piece of Fate-locked content I know of that I haven’t played is "A Long-Lost Daughter?", because it doesn’t make sense for my character to have one. edited by ShinWalks on 1/12/2021
Had to N/A a couple of ES because I simply could not bring them to mind. But I was hugely surprised myself hitting N/A for EVERY SINGLE seasonal framing story because I’m buggered if I can recall even the merest detail of a single one of them. Oops!
I would have liked to participate in the survey, but Google is the opposite of what I want on the Internet and I don’t use any of its products willingly, and I discourage others from using it. I know you didn’t have much choice though. It’s a sad state of affairs we are in where “free” has to trump “evil”.
I’m sad for my baby The Price of Loss. It is probably the ES that has most affected me emotionally and personally and may be my all-time favorite (tough competition, though).