In-Game Polls#457

With respect to discourse about floorhug, and all the other topics people bring up (ledge intangibility, parry startup, shield buffer, shield safety, etc.), I think it’s easy for opinions to be louder than they actually are, or for sentiment to get lost if people aren’t as vocal in public.

Polls on Google Forms are helpful for this, but they have a similar flaw where only those who are actively following the game’s development on socials will see and respond to them. Plus they function on a “trust me bro” system for statistics about things like elo, rank, experience, main, etc.

I think there’s a good way to gather actual feedback about controversial–and even not controversial–mechanics. Keep the surveys outside of the game, yes, those can still catch feedback that would fall through the gaps. However, using the game itself as a means of gathering opinions would be a great insight into active playerbase sentiment.

The way it could work is similar to Fortnite’s surveys. Either at the start of a session or after a few games, at random, the game would prompt the player with a 1 - 5 (negative - positive) sentiment question. The player could either skip it or provide an answer, and, if answered, that information could be collected and tied to profiles for analysis. It’s quick, it’s straightforward, and it gathers insight into what the people playing the game think.

As an example, the game could prompt with the question: “what do you think of floorhugging in the matches you play?” Then the prospective answers would be:
1: I hate it and want it gone
2: I don’t like it, but I think it could be okay with some adjustments
3: I don’t have a strong opinion about it
4: I like it, but I think it needs some tweaking to be perfect
5: I love it and I don’t want it to change

Another example: “what do you think of the power level of floorhugging?”
1: It’s way too weak, it needs to be stronger
2: I don’t think it’s as effective as it should be, but only by a little
3: I think it’s fine as is
4: It’s too strong, but it only needs to be tuned down a little bit
5: It’s way too strong, it needs to be nerfed by a lot

The results of these surveys would give a good idea of what the active playerbase, the people who are actually playing the game, think about various topics. Armed with this knowledge, it would enable the team to make more informed decisions about how these things are tweaked in the future. For example, if the majority of player sentiment about something is negative, then that thing merits tweaking. On the other hand, if the majority of player sentiment about something is positive, then that thing should stay the same, and other mechanics should be informed by that positive reception.

i think this is a great idea but it would have to be paired with the info of how much someone plays the game / their rank cus opinions on mechanics like this vary heavily from people who are actually here for the long haul and people who just want to try a different coat of smash.