Forum-goers have been requesting polls for a while now, with posts such as, "It's time to start POLLING your playerbase," which actually argued that Blizzard should set up in-game polling stations to ask about whether or not players really want various new features in the game. Nethaera responded to this particular post right away; her basic point was to say that "Polls can be incredibly inaccurate" -- they're fun, but there are actually a wide variety of methods that need to be used in order to get proper feedback. Furthermore, just because the popular voice thinks that the game should move in one direction, that doesn't actually mean that would be the best direction for the game to move in. The developers need to make decisions with feedback in mind, but also balanced against the hard, cold core of the reality they're facing, not the dreamland that players may have in mind. That said, apparently there are lots of player suggestions that have been put into the game, including even flight path changes and new graveyards.

But Blizzard wants to give us polls anyway! As Drysc tells the American forum-goers:

Welcome to our first test of the World of Warcraft polling system! With this new poll system we'll be able to pick the collective brains of the forum goers, and encourage discussion based on the questions they pose. While we're pretty sure that they won't always be accurate, it will hopefully still be a lot of fun. With our first poll we're asking you, the poster, the controversial and highly debated, discussed, and argued question:

Does .999~ = 1?

While we already have some great poll questions all lined up, we need more! Offer us your best questions for future polls. These can be yes/no or multiple choice, and if we like it, you may just find your poll up here in the weeks and months ahead.

I like this particular use of polls. Having grown up with tons and tons presidential election polls every four years, trying to accurately predict who would win and never really knowing at all, it's refreshing to see a company implement them not to get an actual result, but to have a good time and encourage discussion about interesting topics. People just love pressing little "VOTE" buttons, even about arbitrary and useless questions, and when you're drawing all those eyeballs, people might actually stop to discuss the questions involved as well.

One telling note from the first poll, however, is that while most of the people who voted chose "yes," most of the people who actually wrote a response chose "no." What does this tell us? Perhaps that most people just go with what their guts tell them without really stopping to think?

Edit: What this tells us is that I'm not really sure what this tells us. Reading the "proofs" in the comments below leaves me all confused about the right answer to the question, and either way I don't see how it makes a difference in real life. I still love the question though! Personally I voted "Huh?" on the poll before writing this post. What does that tell ya? Maybe all polls are just another way of going, "huh... I wonder," without ever getting a conclusive answer -- and some people like that sort of thing.

Tags: drysc, forum, forums, nethaera, poll, polls

Filed under: Forums