Friday, August 24, 2018

Survey Results: Watching D&D

One week ago today, I released a survey called "Watching D&D: An Audience Questionnaire."  I'd solicited questions from my close friends in TTRPG streaming, as well as publicly, and gotten some really good guidance from y'all on what sorts of questions you'd like to see answered!

After 2,695 responses, I think we've got what we came for!  Let's take a look.

As promised, the survey results are completely public!  As mentioned in the survey and its tweet, this survey collected no personally identifying information of any kind, not even demographic information.  You can't look through this information and figure out who said what.

I hope you find it interesting!



About the Survey


First things first, some survey methodology critical thinking:
  • This survey was distributed primarily via Twitter.  It also got a little traction over on reddit, but not as much.
    • There are wide swaths of fandom who were probably missed by this survey.
  • The respondents were self-selecting; only people who wanted to respond responded.  It wasn't a random sample or anything like that.
    • I expect this survey represents the opinions of core viewers and highly engaged TTRPG watchers.
  • This is inherently a survey about what people report that they think and feel- which, unfortunately, is not always exactly the same as what they actually do think and feel.  
    • People can say things like, for example, that they don't care if your breaks run long- but viewership numbers can tell a pretty clear contrary story for your stream.

All that said.... let's take a look at the survey!  You'll have your own impressions to take away from it, but here are some things that stood out to me.


Results I Expected!

Yup.  No surprise here.  If you're looking to run a TTRPG show, invest in a good audio setup for all of your members, and try to work out sound problems before your first show.  Audio quality was far and away the most important technical element for respondents.  A Blue Yeti microphone with an arm and a pop filter will probably set you back $150 in total, and is a very fine introductory audio quality solution.


No surprise here- your cast matters hugely to your show.  This one can feel a bit frustrating if you're starting out, but don't worry.  While I think there is an element of fame here ("I like watching my favorite streamer"), I think there's also a strong element of... plain ol' good entertainership.  Skills like smooth improvisation, clear enunciation, eliminating filler words from your speech, developing good supportive friendly table banter, finding the right balance between clearly descriptive and quickly descriptive- these are all things you can practice that will probably pay strong dividends for you at the table.

Secondary to your cast are their characters- which I think of as an extension of your cast.  If your cast are playing characters they're having fun with, then the characters are fun, and the cast is fun.

Coming in third place, and actually as a little bit of a surprise- the world and setting really does motivate audience members pretty strongly!




The importance of your cast, and their having fun in character, was repeated a few times over the course of survey results!  People come to your show for your cast; they stay if they're having fun; they like seeing their fun characters interact.  It echoes again and again!  To me, the answer here is- build an environment where everyone at your table is as comfortable as they can be, encourage them to play the game in the way they like best, that supports the other players playing the ways they like best.

A "session 0" is probably a great way to get everyone on board with that jolly cooperation!

Onwards!

Results that Surprised Me!


People prefer to watch the show, but specifically, people prefer to watch the show on Youtube / VOD- and they prefer to WATCH the show, rather than just listening to it in the background.


Relatively few people find chat a frustrating or neutral part of the experience (8.1% who don't participate at all, 4.2% who participate little, and 0.8% who actively participate)- but 47.2% of respondents either hide chat (28.9%) or watch on a chat-free platform (18.3%).

As a twitch streamer primarily, this was a bit surprising to me!



Wait, what??  People prefer to watch the show visually over listen... but say that it's not important to have visible dice roll results?  For how often we got complaints about lack of visible dice rolls in chat, this one surprised me.  I suspect this might have fallen prey to the self-reporting bias, but it's an interesting result.


TEN PEOPLE.  TEN.  1-0.  Ten people out of 2695- 0.4% of respondents- said that they prefer show content to be Pre-created adventures they could go buy from the publisher.

I don't know how stream numbers have worked out, but unless you're Wizards of the Coast, you might not see as much engagement with your Curse of Strahd stream as you'd hoped.



This one surprised me a lot.  Yeah, there's a slight preference towards the "free form role playing" side of things, but I actually expected respondents to be WAY more in favor of free form RP!  Instead, the majority of respondents prefer a balanced experience, with a bit of a preference on the RP side of the fence.  Neat!


And what about the stuff that I had no preconceptions about, but nevertheless found interesting?

Other Interesting Notes!


Our first entry in the "interesting notes" section, folks generally like to see homebrew classes, rules, systems, character options etc in your show!  If you've got a cool idea... go for it!  I'd always thought it was a bit of a risk on my part to include in my shows, but I'm glad to see folks are curious.


People are generally very happy about guest stars!  Bring 'em on!


Again, not on the surprising or not-surprising categories, since I didn't have any expectations here, but the number 1 reported reasons for viewers to stop viewing your show is player bickering or infighting.  I saw a great tweet recently that said "consider not doing what your character would do if it would take away from the fun of the other players."  This is a mantra I will forever ask my players to keep close to their heart.

Also of note, the second biggest reason viewers declined to return is that the "content became distasteful!"  Obviously, that word will mean different things to different people- but given that it's the second highest reason for drop-out (from this list), it's worth heavily considering what lines your show should avoid crossing, to avoid alienating your audience.



5 comments:

  1. I mean, when it comes to pre-written adventures, I can't speak for everybody, obviously, but I'll watch a stream with a pre-written adventure if the cast is right, but I'd still prefer to see them doing something entirely their own.

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    1. Yeah! There have absolutely been good streams of pre-written adventures that have done well. But that last point of yours is, I think, the interesting takeaway!

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  2. " Relatively few people find chat a frustrating or neutral part of the experience (8.1% who don't participate at all, 4.2% who participate little, and 0.8% who actively participate)- but 47.2% of respondents either hide chat (28.9%) or watch on a chat-free platform (18.3%).

    As a twitch streamer primarily, this was a bit surprising to me!"

    this is because it is VERY hard to interact meaningfully in chat on most Twitch streams, because 99% of the time is just a nonstop stream of spam, emotes, and "lols" . Its just not useful or entertaining or fun, especially if it means I miss something ACTUALLY INTERESTING in the show happening (which is why I usually watch on Youtube VODs)

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    1. Yeah! I can totally understand that. I mentally have related chat at larger sizes to cheering at a sport game. It's not meaningful, but there's a certain enjoyment to contributing to the general sense of excitement.

      But it was valuable to see data on how people perceive and interact with chat!

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    2. " I mentally have related chat at larger sizes to cheering at a sport game. It's not meaningful, but there's a certain enjoyment to contributing to the general sense of excitement." - you know, I never thought of it that way...but it makes perfect sense!

      Delete