[Lazy Guys Bundle] 'BUNDLE 14: ANOTHER GALAXY'

Thank you, my dear! This made my day! I've been having such a yucky week without sleep and studying for tests and turning in essays. Thank goodness it's friday :D Have a great weekend, and keep an eye on your emails !

I live in the forums :D

Haha i'll be around :) It actually makes me very happy being able to interact with people on here.

Bundle Stars fortnight actually. Most of them were not too interesting but I pretty much expected that. Too much of a 'good' thing.

Monitor lizard?

To get the kind of feedback you're talking about would probably require too much of Rachel's time.

I apologize for the "fun" nature of the polls and if you don't find them useful ...

But ...

I do not think all the polls I have made so far are all "fun". Sure, some are silly, but I do take the polls seriously, and I'm sure the community does too. If you are basing your opinion on this sole poll above, then yes, perhaps it does come off as fun. But this is not a pattern I see in my other threads ... unless I am mistaken. I try to serve the large community of different players, whether they be serious gamers, game collectors, or just game-players who will play games irregardless of quality. But of course, this list is not an exhaustive list of players who use SG, nor are the polls exhaustive of the opinions people may have.

Actually, most of the times I do take the polls seriously. But when you have 5 bundles going live and trying to make posts from your mobile phone/in the middle of class and keeping up with everything else going on in life, putting out the threads and information is what matters to me the most. I do value the polls and want to make sure that everyone benefits, so this is by no means me trying to complain about having no time to do my best in conveying information and pleasing the community. I value everyone's opinions, and if they have constructive feedback or outright want to bash me or are giving me thanks, I accept it all and take it into consideration. An informed community is a productive and lively community, and that is what I want to see in the SG forums and beyond.

While I agree with you on the more serious tone of the polls, I do make the polls with the following options:

1) Yes, buying,
2) No, not buying,
3) maybe buying, and
4) one BS option if people don't feel like putting anything in stone.

This is a conventional polling scenario that I've modeled after others' before me whom have posted threads on bundles.

However, I think the polls are not able to give full context of the bundle quality. If you want to evaluate the bundle quality, it takes some voice and wording, and that is where the forum and comments come in handy.

The poll and comments go hand-in-hand. I like the ambiguity of polls because it invites users to question the meaning of a high yes rating, or a low maybe rating. This curiosity can then lead the user to read the comments for further clarification on the statistical results. Questions such as I wonder why the poll is skewed this way or Why is this bundle so unpopular according to the poll? are things that I encourage people to explore with the polls. Polls are great! But one must critically analyze the situation further if they are to get the most out of things. Maybe some people do not find the polls helpful at all. But they have other resources available here including the:

a) chart
b) comments
c) dialogue amongst others
d) links
e) external sources
f) voices other than my own, because I know I have my personal beliefs and opinions, so I invite anybody and everybody to weigh in
g) information included in the OP

...in order to make a more informed decision.

FYI - I did do a "Rate the quality of this bundle using numerical values 0 - 5" poll once to see what the community thought of this kind of polling style, but that was HUGELY unpopular. Many people voiced that they did not like this type of poll and preferred the "will you buy this bundle" Y/N binary questions. Thus, I have chosen to stick with the conventional poll options of Y, N, Maybe, and one outlier (for participation points).

Statistics say one thing, but to put something in context, you have to actually explain yourself. I like that people feel comfortable writing and expressing their opinions through the forum because we need more community input on things like these. If the developers and bundle sites really cared, they would read these comments and try to improve themselves and the quality of the bundles. For example, Thursday's HB bundle upset quite a number of people, and while the poll did indicate a sweeping majority of people voting "no," what really brought the "poor" quality of the bundle into perspective were the opinions of those commenting below. When you see statistics, I think you would also need proof that the bundle is good, neutral, or bad to actually be able to put words to the numbers and decide for yourself whether the bundle is worth it. But commentary and polls alone are not enough for a serious buyer to consider. Which is why I also include a chart with links and ratings and some information in the OP regarding the bundle and games.

When I think about the complexity of a poll option, there could be so many deviances to the word “yes” or “no”. The meaning is quite nuanced because “yes” could indicate that yes, you are buying the bundle because it is great. Or yes, the bundle is great but you do not want it. Or yes, even though the bundle is great, you do not like the developers, so therefore, no, you will not be getting the bundle. But then, how do you choose between yes and no? Yes, you think the bundle is great, or No, you think the bundle is great, but you will not be getting the bundle because:

a) you have all the games already
b) the games are actually “crappy”
c) you can’t decide

...which would mean you move to option 3) and you choose maybe because you are in limbo between yes and no and can’t make up your mind at the moment but will come back to the poll later on or purchase the bundle/not purchase the bundle at a later date. But then option 4) is there if you just can’t think at the moment and need something to put down because you are in a rush, or perhaps, you really have no opinion on the bundle but want to contribute to the poll.

OR, perhaps yes and no in a different country/culture do not mean the equivalent to what I think yes and no mean in the American culture ... so in making the polls a bit neutral, a user can use his or her best judgement and interpret the options to however they want. If I included all these options into the poll, it would be quite overwhelming and an eye-sore. Polls are certainly not the most representative ways to express how one feels, nor does it give a complete picture of the community consensus of the bundle, but is one of the options, and many times, it can be accurate. For the serious bundle buyer, I would think they look at more than polls and numbers and investigate the bundle itself.

Another reason I don't include more options is because I also don't want to convolute the polls with too many options. Again, that is where the comments shine and become useful. A simple yes/no/maybe option allows people in hurry to see if most people want the bundle, thereby indicating that perhaps the bundle IS good quality. If they want to do further exploration, they are invited to read the comments and comment themselves. This keeps the community active, engaged, and it makes way for a lot of serious commentary and sometimes hilarious ones. Putting in too many options into a poll makes the poll itself daunting, in my opinion, and defeats the purpose of reading into the text offered below via commentary. The suggestions you offered in your comment sound practical and could certainly be useful in improving the quality of the polls, but on the other hand, to do this would require the polls to be extensively detailed and include more options than the simple 4-5. This, again, seems like you are asking for a bit more than what is necessary since the majority of the opinions are found in people's voices. That is why statistics are not always representative of reality until you can put a story or message behind it - the context and lots of critical analysis and experiences from individuals.

I also assume that perhaps people do not want to read through a long list of poll options because they may be busy or perhaps polls are daunting or annoying. Thus, I try to keep it short and concise. If you as a user have more time or need something to read, there's plenty of other text to make up for the lack of text in a poll. But like I said previously, it's difficult to cater to a large population of different users with different preferences and needs. Therefore, neutral or sometimes humorous language is what I use to break the tension or mundanity of a poll. It would be extremely boring if I asked the same question every time. With at least 10+ bundles coming out every week, this can become very uninteresting to someone who looks at the polls as a way to get away from all the text.

I like to have a little fun sometimes. These posts and threads might reflect some of my personality and added flair. I know one does not always have to be serious, but I also understand if you do take bundle-buying very seriously and need a more formal tone/perspective. My language may not come off as very professional, but I do try to keep things intellectually stimulating while using a language that is understandable and doesn't offend anybody.

Bundle buying IS a serious business and investment, yes, but again, bundle developers really need to step up the plate and read their customer's comments in order to improve. If people have other opinions not included or voiced in the poll options, they can type it in the comments. If you aren't very serious, well then you can just look at the polls and decide then if you want the bundle or not ... (if polls are the only thing you rely on to determine the quality of the bundle)

But in the future, I think I will include the option indicating "I already have most/all of the games" as this is more representative of people who may already have the games due to other bundles.

That being said, I appreciate your input. I do hope I have not offended you in any way.

edited for grammar and clarification.

How about you make your own vastly superior polls and posts, buddy? :) Every day, the minute the bundle is live too. Oh boy, I cannot wait.

View attached image.

a hug would be nice :D

SO THATS WHY YOU WERE BUMPING THEM? haha I was looking at my messages and it was bump bump bump bump bump and I thought you were being nice XD

nope rachel <3 forget the bundles, I am here to see the posts ^^

hehe I just updated the OP before seeing this post :) Thanks, and sorry for the confusion.

I of course accept your opinion :) However, as you can see, 96,6% of Greenlight games from our previous Bundles got Greenlit and that speaks for itself all alone.

When you look at the Rachel's table you can see there are not so much of repeats. If a game is bundled 4, 5, 6 times before it's a repeat but 1, 2 is I personally think alright :) And rest of the games on Greenlight wasn't bundled before. You can not Bundle each Steam game just once :)