The Great Age of Empires III Survey

Just realised nobody had ever done such a thing before, and thought I'd be the first. Admittely, it's not so much a balanced AoE3 survey as well as an AoE3 survey deeply focused on mods and modding, but then again, the users of this forum are probably the perfect demographic for such a survey...

Should you find yourself so kind; you can fill the thing out here.

Stay tuned for the results. That is, if enough people actually bother with it.

Feel free to redistribute this if you like.


peugeot407

It's a very well thought out survey, though admittedly I would need to play AoE III more often in order to answer all the questions. I can still give it a go if you would like me to.

Go ahead, by all means. The more the merrier, and not even all questions need to be answered. In fact, in the hypothetical scenario where you choose not to answer the non-critical questions, and answer "Not Relevant" to all critical ones, you could technically get through the survey without properly answering a single question.   


peugeot407

The survey was pretty nice although I didn't really remember much about TWC or TAD campaigns - maybe I should play them again. I'll be very much surprised though if another Finnish/Estonian person has done the survey...  

No, you're the only person thus far whose first language is Finnish or Estonian.


peugeot407

(some laughter ensued), you put Peppic Epic there!

I'll upload a file containing the full results in a short while, but for today; the highlights.

• Over 55% of respondents are 20 years old or younger.
  
• Almost exactly half of all respondents lives in the Americas. About a quarter lives in Western Europe.
  
• Spanish, English, Portuguese and German (in that order) are the most spoken first languages among respondents.
  
• Only 6% of respondents does not own AoE3 and both expansions.
  
• Age of Empires III sales among respondents are remarkably evenly spread; 2005 was the best represented, 2011 the worst.
  
• Remarkably, the History feature of Age of Empires III is very popular. Almost 45% of respondents regularly uses it.
  
• Basic Gameplay is rated as Age of Empires III's best characteristic, AI as its worst (though Historical Accuracy is not far ahead)
  
• By far the best rated civilisations are the Japanese and, surprisingly, the Russians. The Warchiefs' civs are not generally rated very high, nor are the Spanish.
  
• The vast majority of respondents considers Age of Empires III the best game of the series. Age of Mythology and Age of Empires II are closely tied for second place, with Age of Empires II being just ahead, and Age of Empires Online is seen by most as the worst game of the series.
  
• The number-three reason for people to install mods is nothing other than simple curiosity.
  
• War of the Triple Alliance is the highest-rated mod by a slight margin, North American Theatre is least favourably rated.
  
• Wars of Middle Earth is decidely popular a mod among respondents, it is the only upcoming mod that can light a candle to the "Big Three" in number of followers.
  
• War of the Triple Alliance is the most closely followed mod, Age of Steppes the least closely followed.
  
• Own forums remain the most popular method of following mods. War of the Triple Alliance is the only mod with a significant (more than 25%) following on Facebook, and Age of Steppes is mainly followed through ModDB.
  
• K&B's Friday Updates are rated as the best regular means of communication between mods and the community, NE's Modding Reports are really very close behind.
  
• More than 70% of respondents would like mods to give a planned release date, though the majority of them doesn't mind it only being a rough estimate.
  
• Only 10% of respondents would not feel inclined to help a mod with things such as voice acting; only a tenth of the other 90% have already done so.
  
• Basic data files are the most popular file to be modded, followed at some distance by textures. Triggers and 3D Models make up the other end of the scale.
  
• More than 75% of people prefer old-fashion text-based tutorials over those of the video type.
  
• Despite relatively little in terms of advertising, Over 60% of respondents is familiar with the Modding Council to some extent.

peugeot407

Wow, some are really surprising me.

By far the best rated civilisations are the Japanese and, surprisingly, the Russians. The Warchiefs' civs are not generally rated very high, nor are the Spanish.

Those two are my favourite indeed. On one side, you have Samurais and Daymos. On the other, you have a massive army and Oprichnikis. I mean come on!   

That makes me shocked Maestrosanti. I always thought people liked Spain and not caring too much about Russians. Though, it is not new for me to know that Warchiefs' civs are less favored.

Surprisingly though, the Iroquois were the least favoured civ, followed by the Sioux and then the Aztecs. I'd have thought it would be the other way round...


peugeot407

Well, Spain is a little *boring, ejhm!* to me. They are too "standard". I know very little about Warchiefs' civs to give an oppinion, I have played with them once or twice each and never against them (for "moral" reasons).

Whoa, surprising. I thought the Spanish would be better rated, and also Iroquois. Also surprised about the people that follows AoE3 WoME.

Spain was taken as the baseline civ for AoE3 balance purposes. It shows how boring and simple they are. It's not surprising that people don't like that civ much.

And the reason Aztec fell down the chart is it is way too hard to be played. If you play against European or anyone who has a cannon, once they accessed it, there is no way to win the game.

My favourite civ is Spain, I love their HC bonus and their Lancers.