The mega-thread regarding character race seems to be lacking a poll. Since this is a thread that is worthless without pics, I thought I might remedy that!
Here is a Google Survey for the Core Races.
http://goo.gl/forms/wGuPRsqzgx
Here are the Responses:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QHqHsBQlhpNuW2RUoLl64Wm32BDXeE8BbkZ 8QsmkTjs/edit?usp=sharing
Please only indicate characters that have at least one experience and that you have played in the last month (for the sake of consistency and relevance). DM babies don't count, nor do characters on indefinite vacation from adventuring. Also, please avoiding answering multiple times.
Thanks!
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I'm not great at sheet-fu, but I'll keep this updated and repair glitches as they occur.
Might I suggest adding categories for other options? Perhaps all the other open access races? Others could be grouped into categories (Aasimar/Tiefling, Sylph/Undine/Oread/Ifrit/Suli, Other) to keep it from getting too long.
I hadn't considered _grouping_ them! That's a very elegant solution.
Remember, please only indicate character you have played in the last month!
Oops, user error. Try this one. :)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QHqHsBQlhpNuW2RUoLl64Wm32BDXeE8BbkZ 8QsmkTjs/edit?usp=sharing
Incidentally, I think we'll see the current trend reinforced with additional responses. It looks like Gnomes are relatively scarce for a core race, and Humans are relatively prolific.
Interesting! Would you mind setting up a similar poll for character gender?
Certainly, I can. I'll put together a similar thread at some future point. It's worth noting, however, that self-report is notoriously useless. This isn't an important caveat for this survey, and indeed given the subject matter it may be less true. What's more there is little damage to be done by erroneous data analysis of what fictional race players prefer, but I am less enthusiastic about the possibility of misrepresenting _actual_ demographics (or even just suggesting by way of data collected the bias inherent among what we suspect the primary demographic to be).
Late note: if you don't make a selection for a race on the long, long list of bubbles, it'll register as null and won't be tally'd. I don't believe you need to complete every item for the form to accept the result.
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Interesting! Would you mind setting up a similar poll for character gender?Certainly, I can. I'll put together a similar thread at some future point. It's worth noting, however, that self-report is notoriously useless.
Thanks. :) No worries, I understand that.
This isn't an important caveat for this survey, and indeed given the subject matter it may be less true. What's more there is little damage to be done by erroneous data analysis of what fictional race players prefer, but I am less enthusiastic about the possibility of misrepresenting _actual_ demographics (or even just suggesting by way of data collected the bias inherent among what we suspect the primary demographic to be).
I am unsure what you mean by the bolded part. Would you care to elaborate?
Interesting! Would you mind setting up a similar poll for character gender?Certainly, I can. I'll put together a similar thread at some future point. It's worth noting, however, that self-report is notoriously useless.Thanks. :) No worries, I understand that.
This isn't an important caveat for this survey, and indeed given the subject matter it may be less true. What's more there is little damage to be done by erroneous data analysis of what fictional race players prefer, but I am less enthusiastic about the possibility of misrepresenting _actual_ demographics (or even just suggesting by way of data collected the bias inherent among what we suspect the primary demographic to be).I am unsure what you mean by the bolded part. Would you care to elaborate?
Sure! Statistics have a funny way of getting twisted around, and I'm not eager to be party to that; sort of like I don't talk to newspapers because they get the last edit. Even though what I say to a reporter might be factual and rational in context, and even though I'm not especially interested in what people other than my close friends think of me, I don't really want to see my ideas taken out of context and used to say anything other than exactly what I mean.
So even though I speculate (and not without basis) that the results of such a survey would show we're relatively diverse and open-minded for a gaming culture, I don't want to endure the discussions that would follow.
tl;dr Someone else can set that one up, I'm too stuck up. :p
Added note: do that many of you _really_ play upwards of 8 characters a month, or do a lot of folks just disregard the survey's instructions?
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I haven't done your survey, but I have 14 registered characters. I carry them all with me when I go to a game so I can pick any one of them to play. Some of them I may not have played recently, but I consider them all to be active characters, even the one level 12 that is waiting for an eyes of the ten group. They're all sitting on the bench ready to go as it were. There's probably a lot of players who feel the same. Also there's probably plenty of people who don't read instructions. Also I just got back from Dreamation where I GMd 5 games and played 2. For convention goers playing 8 PCs in one month isn't improbable.
I haven't done your survey, but I have 14 registered characters. I carry them all with me when I go to a game so I can pick any one of them to play. Some of them I may not have played recently, but I consider them all to be active characters, even the one level 12 that is waiting for an eyes of the ten group. They're all sitting on the bench ready to go as it were. There's probably a lot of players who feel the same. Also there's probably plenty of people who don't read instructions. Also I just got back from Dreamation where I GMd 5 games and played 2. For convention goers playing 8 PCs in one month isn't improbable.
I'm glad to see that our results are more alike than different, especially regarding the bits that I thought were a little anomalous.
It might be that sampling bias I was ranting about earlier, but I was surprised at the relatively high number of boon races.
I believe that counting the # of PCs played above 3xp (eliminating Credit Babies from the list) would better represent a statistical analysis than PCs played in the last month.
It depends on what you're trying to find out!
Personally I'm interested to know what characters are more likely to be played at any given event. That a character is registered has little bearing on anyone's play experience unless that character is adventuring.
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I'll admit that I used my own definition of "active character" -- I counted my characters that had actually received credit, and that I had brought to a table ready to play in the last month, whether or not I actually played them. (Cause that decision depends entirely on what scenario happens to be run - I usually choose my character based on faction fit.)
It sounds like an interesting followup question, which might be closer to what you intended, would be "What is the race of the last character you played?"
Also, I was unclear as to what counted as a "boon" race or a "non-boon" race. For instance, I counted my aasimar as a non-boon race, because she did not require a boon when she was created.
This is why self-reporting doesn't result in the most meaningful data.
"I know you asked what day of the week it is, but I told you February because it's my favorite month!"
Gee, thanks?
:p
So after a little poking and prodding (and eliminating any response by a player who claims to play more than fifty hours a week :p), the results seem to suggest a character is about four times as likely to be a human as any other core race, and humans are far-and-away the most popular race. Gnomes are the least popular, followed closely by halflings and half elves.
Further of note, removing the players who obviously reported more characters than they could reasonably be expected to play didn't significantly change the results (there was some slight shift in the magnitude of disparity between play frequency of some races, but the gist of the data is unaltered).
Baseless Speculation: I suspect the high number of boon races exist because if you've got one you play one (unless you're me), and if you're active on the boards you probably have at lest one. I speculate this is not representative of the wider population, and so we should expect to see a larger percentage of characters in the wild to be of core races than is suggested by the graph, especially humans.
Likely Problems: It seems possible that board-goers are more likely to play humans because as a group, when the leather hits the trail we're probably more likely to make the "right" choice when it comes to character creation, and given the low level of PFS play, humans frequently represent the best choice. It might be they are slightly over-represented in this survey (although my experience has indeed been that they are very popular).
Also, there is some disparity in reporting method. Also-also, I suspect that players are more likely to have inactive (or infrequently active) human characters because they are more likely to build them initially and/or to quickly try out a play style or gimmick that may not have the durability of a more... fleshed out character.
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This is why self-reporting doesn't result in the most meaningful data.
"I know you asked what day of the week it is, but I told you February because it's my favorite month!"
Gee, thanks?
:p
Oh, I know. It's an unfortunate habit of thought. As a corporate accountant my job is often to give management the information they want -- not the information they ask for (and to explain the difference in the footnotes).
Oh, I know. It's an unfortunate habit of thought. As a corporate accountant my job is often to give management the information they want -- not the information they ask for (and to explain the difference in the footnotes).This is why self-reporting doesn't result in the most meaningful data.
"I know you asked what day of the week it is, but I told you February because it's my favorite month!"
Gee, thanks?
:p
Your psychic powers let you down this time, I'm afraid.
I wanted to submit information but when I saw you only wanted to know about characters played in the last four weeks I was unable to put down anything. Conventions just don't happen that often over here in the Uk :p. Now if I were to stretch it back to January when I had the joy of a 5 day convention I could give you plenty of information on which characters I played (I ran a lot of games too) but since you only want to know about the last month I should probably abstain.
Isn't four weeks a rather narrow range band? If you're wanting to see the bigger picture you might want to broaden those limits a bit.
If I want to find my house on a map, I don't use a picture of the milky way.