August 21 Survey

Bah those were sorta hard since you could only put on priority per thing

The last one was easy, we need more fluff. No gameplay since we're getting the beta and will get to see most of the features in it

Well, that was certainly interesting...... I wish we could have gotten some people to rate prospective espionage systems by their level of micromanagement, randomness, and general funness.

I considered it. We had a question solely about espionage systems in the last survey, maybe if you can come up with a "camps of espionage" post, like the internal debates made external dev journal - next survey I will poll people on which camp they prefer. Plus if the dev journal is an indicator it will probably spur some lively debate.

There has been a LOT of discussion about espionage lately, but it has been a kind of nebulous discussion of various concepts. Peopoe are picking and choosing things they like and don;t like. So if you can organize that into some discrete choices, I think that would be a fab survey question. Maybe I would even dedicate an entire survey to the topic!

Religion is of no importance since

religion=institutionalized superstition

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iMmvu9eMrg

Stop trolling Hortz.  The fact that in the survey I asked for opinions on if "religion" should be in the game was not an invitation for you to make bigoted remarks in an attempt to start a flame war.

And regardless of your feelings about religion, there is no question that religion or enforced superstition plays a huge role in shaping RL cultures and societies. Which is the only reason it was included in the poll, it is not like I want Rioman Catholicism or Southern Baptists or any other religion of the world represented in a fantasy game. But there could be a fantasy pantheon that could play a role in the game. (Not saying should or shouldn't, only that it is a possibility.

Taken.  Good survey.  But health care reform?  Could be troll-bait.

I'll actually look into the espionage "camps", see if I can get a good list of them.

taken. Number 5 was so hard to choose... interview with Frogboy or gameplay video? How do you choose?

Like I said, we're getting to actually play the game. Why have a video of what you're already doing?

Gameplay video would not be "UCM" - and could likely have a lot more features that the beta build may or may not have...   

Ahem!

Perhaps not but, by asking questions about politics or one's internet behavior in an Elemental poll, you opened the door to off-topic remarks.

Something to do with the sentence about guys throwing the first stone or the one about guys casting stones in a house of glass...

On another subject much more related to the game: I can't understand the need for a video trailer. perhaps I'm too old but, for me, the trailer of a game is...the demo!

When I see on Youtube some of those incredible CGI sequences lasting 5 minutes for some games, I wonder why they don't make complete 2-hour movies instead of trying to sell a videogame with images that won't be inside. They would make more money.

It is weird how often trailers are almost totally unrelated to the game.  It must work though...

Done!

The two off topic questions both had a decline/no opinion option. And neither was phrased in a way to be offensive to anyone regardless of their view. Also I threw in some off topic questions because in my last pathetic survey, I got a lot of positive feedback that people wanted to see more of it.

You conflating me including a question about politics or spoofing another gender online with "throwing the first stone" is ridiculous and pathetic. Hortz's remark was completely out of bounds and certainly offensive to some. His intent was obviously to flame bait, and you appear to be aiding and abetting. At least that is the only conclusion I can come to since you equate asking a couple of innocuous questions for anonymous feedback with someone ridiculing what to many people is a deeply personal and important matter.

Now you may decide to continue to defend the indefensible, you can apologize, or you can STFU.

P.S. Good points on  the CGI.

I'm all for the 20 minute interview with Brad! What better source of information then the man writing the novel for it?

50 people have taken it already. Should be around a hundred by tomorrow night when I close the survey if past patterns hold.

I liked the idea of the two off topic questions.  I think it will be interesting to see what this slice of the gaming community thinks on the Health Care issue.  I'm personally less interested in the question about faking gender but the results could be interesting.  I see no harm in having the survey question. 

Same here. I think we all know that anything Horz says should be taken with a veritable(sp?) Dead Sea's worth of grains of salt.... so why not. It's not like Denny asked "are death panels a good idea, or what?"

Taken... Some interesting questions there...

I can understand the health reform question, I don't live in the US (and skipped the question) but from what I heared / read about it, there seems to be a lot of discussion about this. So I can see it would be nice to know the standpoint of the average person on this forum. I just feel sad I'm excluded from answering all question...

[troll post removed]

Please take religious discussions elsewhere. This is in no way game related. See this posting by Kryo where you can discuss your beliefs.

I answered yes to the gender faking.

I used a webcam and a nudie mag to accomplish it.

Then roundly made fun of the person I was spoofing.

This was more than a decade ago, so the low bandwidth available made it much more feasable than it would be now to convince comeone that a still image was another person.

This isn't something I would do now as an adult, but in junior high I thought it was hillarious.

What I would find most interesting is how people responded to the first question. I found that videos (whether trailers, cinematics, or the intro movies) all rated below the actual in-game graphics. After all, we are seeing the in-game stuff all the time, so obviously those would be the most important...wouldn't they.

That's not to say that a trailer isn't important as a marketing tool to bring people in. It's only in comparison that it fails to be a priority.

Rants about actual religions are not relevant to a discussion about a mechanic as in Civ 4. Take such comments to the appropriate venue or drop them.