Last month, we did our second analysis post regarding a set of four polls asked during September. We’re continuing this tradition with another article this month analysing the community opinion during October!
Week 1: What do you prefer - a fresh game, or a great mod for an old one?
Analysis
There's a pretty significant difference in the voting schema here, which combined with the differences seen in previous polls, builds a pretty solid picture of the demographics of both sites. Older games are generally more moddable, in part due to different attitudes regarding game modifications in previous decades but also because community tools and projects that make a game moddable have more time to flourish and grow. Thus, ModDB is generally a host for the mods of classic games. However, in this scenario, indie developers again appear to be more about staying on the cutting-edge of the industry. We've discussed before how where modders would bring out their creativity through modifications, indie developers take it a step further in building their own games from scratch. Thus, the latter group stands to benefit more from observing their peers and the commercial goal of most indie games means being aware of the newest trends is important for long-term success. Generally without money and with little to no stakes involved, modders instead look to gems of the past to keep them entertained and see what they can change for themselves.
Week 2: What do you like most about indie games/high-concept mods? In regards to option 4, we mean how indie games are generally more affordable than the latest AAA release, and how mods are (naturally) generally free.
Analysis
On this front we don't see anywhere near as stark a difference as in the prior poll. Mods and indie games both are generally on the cutting-edge of gaming content creation. Whilst some elements in mods may be unchangeable from the base game and certain trends may be necessary for commercial success for indies, researching the innovations possible within these respective limitations (or being willing to go all-out in breaking those limitations) is something these two communities are uniquely talented at. Mods bring new concepts to games and new ways to experience a classic title all the time, and indies push ahead in popularising some trends before they even hit the AAA scene. Retro shooters as a whole now being a major genre, for example, can largely be attributed to the work of mod developers keeping these older games relevant and indie developers taking the lessons of the past and modernising them for the current day.
Week 3: What do you think is most important for a successful game/mod page?
Analysis
There's a little more difference here regarding the selections - generally, as we've seen in prior polls, mod developers don't have as much time to work on their projects as indie developers. As a result, the time between substantial releases of a mod project can be much greater, and incremental demo versions aren't commonly pursued for mod projects. In this situation, whilst regular releases can still be a big factor in determining success, mod pages often have to resort to other means of engagement to keep their audience involved in the space between releases. Indie developers, having more time to work on their game and being more used to a demo release format, can make regular releases for their fans to try out incrementally, and so it may seem more viable to simply make a demo release every two weeks than make an update article every week or so. Both place a reasonable amount of stock in PR and social engagement, but indie developers, who naturally are not only looking for exposure but also seeking commercial dividends, would consider social outreach more vital in the long-run.
Week 4: What would you like to see from the DBolical YouTube? If you have another idea not listed, comment down below!
Analysis
For this question, I wanted to engage the community on the YouTube specifically. Its revival has been a slow but relative success thus far, with engagement at a good point and uploads at a decent regularity. The countdowns were the obvious jumping-off point and trailers, too, were an easy way to add more content to the page. However, in the past, the editorial team also ran playthroughs and interviews, which are more high-effort, lower-reward content. Before engaging with this I wanted to build the baseline, which I now think is there, and it's not surprising both communities would like to hear more from their peers (or potentially be asked to talk about their work!) Interviews in the past didn't garner huge engagement but did get active discussion from those who did. Ultimately, I have wanted to pursue a long-term solution that allowed for interviews without taking too much time away from other content, and seeing the community wants this type of content, I will continue to explore those plans for the future.
Conclusion
Another month means another set of actively engaged polls, and useful thoughts on what their entail! Before we wrap up, we are now gearing up to Mod of the Year and Indie of the Year, and this being my first time running this event, I'm taking special effort to make it an awesome one with videos on the YouTube in particular. However, to give me the time needed to make this happen, we will be pausing the polls and lists until after the awards, likely starting up again in 2022. We appreciate everyone who has taken part so far and keep an eye out for when they return!
If you have any suggestions for future polls, or thoughts on the analysis here, feel free to leave them in the comments down below!
Good to know, thanks for sharing.
polls are a great feature on this site!